Saturday, February 11, 2012

Book Reviews

Thoughts on some of the books I have read in the last little while:

Brain Rules for Baby was my favorite.  Written by a developmental molecular biologist who knows a lot about brain development, this book could have been a snooze, but it was actually the perfect combination of heartwarming, informative and funny.  And somehow the book is still just a synopsis of current and methodologically sound research about brain development and how it should apply to parenting. I couldn't recommend this one more.










Lost in Shangri-La was also a good one.  Thanks Adam, for giving this book to Brad. I promptly stole it from him and gobbled it up.  A synopsis of the book would be that it is the true story of the self-proclaimed greatest rescue mission during World War II. And if you think that you wouldn't be interested in a book about war or wouldn't be able to keep up because your history lessons went in one ear and out the other, I think that they mentioned things about WWII a total of three times during the entire book.  But basically some people survive a plane wreck only to be stranded in Papua New Guinea and have no way of getting out.  And they are surrounded by a primitive, warring/sometimes canabalistic people who have been completely undisturbed by other civilizations/people since pretty much the beginning of time.  If that sounds like a discouraging book, know that I laughed out loud quite frequently during my reading.  The author finds a lot of humor in the people he was writing about.





The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was gripping.  Oh my did it have a hold on me!  I had to read the plot summary on Wikipedia to keep myself from staying up all night reading. Also I am glad that I did that because then I knew what I was getting myself into. I recommend doing so.  It is an uber gritty book, and I had to skip parts to get through it, but the main reason that I liked it was that it made me think.  It also made me feel empowered.  The main character is not a victim in any sense of the word, although she would have legitimate cause to be if she wanted to act like one. It was liberating to look at life through the eyes of someone so unconventional and strong. Pretty much horrendous things happen but they don't traumatize her, so they didn't traumatize me.  It was interesting because normally I am a very sensitive person. Disclaimer: I am not recommending this book to everyone, and it would definitely be rated R if books had ratings just fyi.  I won't go into my philosophies on morality and entertainment here to justify why I read a rated R book, but I think I have good reasons. I will discuss them with you if you want more details - just ask.  Also, I will say that I don't plan on finishing the series.  Still glad I read this one though.







The 90 Minute Baby Sleep Program was a quick read - approximately 1.5 hrs. But it works for my sister, so I am definitely hoping that it will do the same for me and my baby! And it makes a whole lot of sense.  And what parent doesn't want to their baby to get as much sleep as their little growing brains and bodies need?







This one is way more opinionated than it looks.  I was expecting an encyclopedia-type reference book, and it sort of is, but the couple who wrote it put their opinions in WAY too often for my taste.  And their opinions aren't based on scientific fact at all.  Which bothers me.  But I will say that it is still helpful and has tons of good information.  And the fact that they fight so hard for attachment parenting is good, because even though it sounds completely impossible to do 100%, attachment parenting seems to ask parents to be as unselfish as they can possibly be.