Does My Head Look Big in This? - Randa Abdel-Fattah

A coming of age book that explores one teenagers choice to start wearing a head scarf.

On the five star scale

Sap Factor (*) - You have to deal with some of the normal teenage drama.

Naughty Bits (**) - Some potty talk and underage drinking although I might be wrong about that. Does anyone know the legal age of drinking in Australia.

Readability (****) - 368 pages, teenage fiction. Easy read.

Final notes (***) - Funny coming of age story. Amal is a normal Australian teen until she decides to wear a head scarf. Then she stands out at a time when most of us want to blend in.

Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife - Irene Spencer

This was a book I had to read. My father has a much older sister. As a child the only things I knew about her were that she had stayed in Mexico when the rest of the family had immigrated to the states and that her children had blue eyes. That never made any sense to me because everyone else in my family has brown eyes. When I was a teenager my mother told me that previously to be married to my grandfather my Grandmother had married a white man originally from the states, a Lebarron. When her father found out that members of his family had started to live as polygamist he came in with her brothers and took his daughter and her little baby back home. He then helped to have the marriage annulled. Irene Spencer also married a LeBarron only she lived with him 28 years as his second wife, one of seven. I couldn't help thinking while I was reading this story that if it wasn't for a foreseeing great grandfather this could have been my grandmothers story. It could have been my story. It was just to much of a draw.

On the five star scale

Sap Factor (*) - Irene Spencer became a second wife at sixteen. She spent much of her life begging for love and affection. She lived in extreme poverty and spent much of her life trying to come to terms with what she had been raised to believe God wanted her to do and a healthy future.

Naughty Bits (**) - Irene isn't shy about the details of a polygamist life, of the scheduling dilemmas and of her own desires that were never met.

Readability (****) - 400 page, interesting biography.

Final notes (****) - There has been a lot of news out lately about polygamist. This gives you a in depth look at what goes on in a society like this and what the woman in these groups may be thinking.

Family Fun

I'm one of those people who loves cook books. Every year I get a few more but a few years ago Dr. J gave me the "Kitchen Bible" also known as the Betty's Cookbook. I love it and thought I was done with cookbooks forever. Then I got my hands on this little baby. I read it cover to cover last night while I was watching Zathura. Do either of those things make me a weirdo. I mean the movie was OK but it definitely didn't take all my concentration. As for the cookbook well it was just awesome. I read all the recipes, looking over the ingredients, and the hints, decided which ones I wanted to try, which ones seemed fun, which ones I had the stuff for, and which ones I thought the kids would really love. We tried out a few and so far they have been hits. I tried two of the soups in the book and they were both well received by the kids. Tonight though I dared the unthinkable and had the kids help me make homemade beagles. They were so delicious. Dr. J my DH came home and said, you should make these every morning and sell them...so I guess that means he liked them :)

Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Moden Midwife - Peggy Vincent

I had two friends recommend this book in the space of a month and while I'm not expecting and they both are I still felt like I could use another looking at natural child birth should I ever try to attempt such a thing again. From where I'm comfortably sitting right now I'd say the answer to that is no, but I also swore I'd never enjoy running either so I guess you never know with things that are grueling and torturous. If you aren't a coffee/caffeine junkie, you don't smoke, or do drugs, and you've never drunk that adrenaline high can be pretty enjoyable. On a totally unrelated tangent I once took an lab class in which we isolate the caffeine out of a compound on a glass bulb and then used a razor blade to scratch it off...and yes I did feel like a member of a drug cartel. Anyway back to the story Baby Catcher chronicles the career of Peggy Vincent as she becomes a OB nurse, then a private practice midwife, and finally a midwife attached to a hospital. She explains her motivation for joining the field as well as some of the historical moments in women's reproductive rights and alternative medicine using personally birthing stories from her over forty years of practice.

On the Five Star Scale *****

Naughty Bits (**) - There is swearing and lots and lots of talk about birthing. I realize some people can't handle that kind of information and that is ok but if you are one of those people, this book is not for you. Oh also there is some front cover nudity :) My son love that part. I was reading at the breakfast table and he said in his excited high pitched voice, "Mom, that naked baby is flying."

Readability (****) - 336 pages. And a fast read. Vincent is humorous and her tales are heartwarming and exciting. I read through three meals to finish.

Sap Factor (***) - So we are talking about new humans entering this world, little tiny, helpless human beings. There was a moment I was reading about this young medical student barging through the operating doors to be with his wife and I actually got a little teary. What can I say, ever since the kids this stuff makes me mushy inside.

Final notes (****) - I really enjoyed this book. There were points when I wanted to cry and others where I was laughing so hard my checks hurt. There is one story where a young father delivers his son in the parking lot and his description of the birth takes something that was probably truly horrific and turns it into laugh out loud humor. Vincent is a real proponent of natural birthing and does her best to persuade the reader of it's virtues but she does mention some of the mishaps that can happen there and does not gloss over the craziness and sometimes tragedy that can occur. Her career spans many of the changes in reproductive care and much of the history there I was not aware of. As a child born in the eighties who has always had freedom of choice I was blind to the fights of reproductive rights. Since an abortion is something I wouldn't have ever considered I felt like woman's liberation meant nothing to me. As I read Vincent's book though I realized that I was lucky to be born into many more rights that I had previously realized, some of which I've already taken advantage of. I was not aware that hospitals used to force patients to be compliant to drugs. I was unaware that even if a father had wanted to attend a birth he would have been unable. I didn't realize how much control the medical profession had over choice. There are so many choices and opportunities I have access to because of pioneers like Vincent and her patients. I'm not saying I'm ready to jump into a home birth but I appreciate that birthing choices are mine, that Dr J can be in the room with, and because he's in med school he can even deliver my babies because laid back midwives are cool with that kind of thing. I appreciate that if at some point I decide I can't or don't want to have any more kids I can have my tubal ligation and on the same hand no doctor is going to try to force me to do it because they don't think I should have more than two children. Thank heavens for rights that allow us to have choice.

Book of the Dead - Patricia Cornwell

Do you remember when I said I was going to hate this book. Well I was right. It was vile. Everything I said in the previous post came to perdition. She wrote something completely implausible with way to many unrealistic coincidences and I still think that she is writing her cooler, sexier alter ego and it is really annoying.

Current Read - Book of the Dead - Patricia Cornwell

So I'm reading the new Patricia Cornwell book. Why, why, why. Patricia was one of the first authors that really got me interested in mystery but she is always over the top sensational and I swear she thinks she is actual Kay Scarpetta or wants to be. Anyway for lack of another mystery book I picked it up. I'll bet I'm not happy when I'm done but we'll see.

The Time Thief - Linda Buckley Archer

I'm a big fan of children's books. I can't help it. As a child I had to read all of the Rural Dahl books. In college I read all the Harry Potter books. One week during my marriage we read allowed all of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe books. I just really enjoy children's books. They are creative and exciting and you can finish them in a night. Also they are fun to read out loud. Currently my family is obsessed with the Linda Archer books. We listened to the first one, Gideon the Cutpurse, last summer on our way to Utah. It was exciting, well written, and very factual. Shortly after we were reading this book on the history of capital punishment. Multiple times we looked over and laughed..."Hey that was in Gideon." After finishing Harry Potter we were so excited to find a new series. Imagine our dismay when we discovered Gideon was the first book in the series and the next one wouldn't be out until December. Then December came and still no book. Then in March the book finally came around and we were the first ones to get a copy from our library. The Time Thief picks up where Gideon left off. Peter is still in the past. The Tar Man is still in the future. Kateis in the future but with a "faded" look. Kateand Peter's father go back to find Peter but are thirty years to late. Meanwhile the Tar Man is wreaking havoc all over the 21st century.

On the Five Star Scale

Naughty Bits () - There is a little violence here but this is a good book.

Readability (*****) - 512 pages. Fast read. Full of lots of great historical tidbits.

Final notes (*****) - This book was great. There was one tiny place where Dr. J and I turned to each other and said, "OK that was not true to the story," but otherwise it was a great read. We are anxiously awaiting the third and final book, the end of the Kate and Peter saga.