Book Review: House Rules by Jodi Piccoult

After I saw this reviewed on a couple of other blogs, I had to grab it when I saw it in the library. I have to admit I've only read one other Piccoult (My Sister's Keeper) and really struggled with it - the story was really well written, just very confronting.

House Rules is the story of an 18 year old boy, Jacob Hunt. Jacob has Aspergers Syndrome and is obsessed with forensic science. He turns up at crime scenes and solves the crime for the police, and is obsessed with a crime show. When his tutor is found dead, his Asperger's traits like not looking people in the eye, and showing little emotion, lead to him being arrested and charged with her murder.

The story is told from the points of view of Jacob, his mum Emma, brother Theo, the policeman Rich and his lawyer Oliver. I don't know how accurate the portrayal is of someone with Aspergers - I suspect some of the characteristics were emphasised for the sake of the novel. I found it quite a compelling read, though I had to put it aside for a few days half way through as it got a bit intense.

Recommend.

Book Review: Kitchen Garden Cooking with kids by Stephanie Alexander

I've been eyeing this book off for a while, so when I spotted it in the library the other day, I grabbed it.

The website explains it better than I could:

"Stephanie Alexander's philosophy is that there is no such thing as special food for children: if food is good, then everyone will enjoy it regardless of age. In Kitchen Garden Cooking with Kids, Stephanie gathers together 120 recipes, all specially written for children, with simple instructions, a colourful layout and lots of fast, fun facts for curious minds. But while all of these recipes can be negotiated by a couple of eight-year-olds in aprons - with a bit of adult supervision - the dishes are anything but standard kids' fare: alongside the muffins and slices are homemade pastas, Indian curries, Asian tea eggs and vegetable rich winter soups.

Kitchen Garden Cooking with Kids also tells the story behind the recipes - the inspiring tale of the Kitchen Garden at Collingwood College. In 2001, Stephanie initiated a garden and cooking program in a large inner-city Melbourne school. Since then the program has given hundreds of primary school children the opportunity to plant, grow, harvest, cook and eat the very best kind of food - freshly grown, organic, unprocessed and delicious.

In the same way that The Cook's Companion changed the culinary habits of a generation, Kitchen Garden Cooking with kids will challenge the way we think about the eating habits of our children."

It really is a wonderfully inspiring book. The first section talks about the way they set it up, and walks through the first few years of the gardening and cooking program. Then comes the gorgeous looking and sounding recipes! The recipes have got lots of instructions and even little tidbits of information that I found intriguing! I especially liked the way the recipes are set out by season.

It's now been added to my "purchase" list for sometime in the future, and it's given me the push to allow Billy more of a role in the kitchen. If you have kids, and like gardening & cooking - I definitely recommend it!

Interesting post on the disappearing family-owned businesses

I found this a really interesting blog post - http://zenhabits.net/2008/08/is-our-addiction-to-saving-money-destroying-the-real-america/

The author is talking about a Brit who travels across America trying to utilise the services of "mom and pop" businesses, not corporate chains. It's what I was trying to do in a much smaller way in my "no supermarket" challenge. I'd love to see the documentary or read the book.

Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

I read a lot of books, both fiction and non-fiction. I like to think I learn something from every book I read - yes, even the "trashy" romance ones!!

Every now and then though, a book comes along that totally inspires and changes the way you think about your life. "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver did that for me.

Subtitled "One Year of Seasonal Eating", it's about the author and her family's year of attempting to eat only food from the local area. Some of it they grow themselves, some of it they buy from local markets. Some foods they have to give up altogether! They live seasonally - eating what is in season locally rather than something that has been shipped half way across the world.

It combines factual investigations as well as anecdotes about their life and recipes but is a really easy read. The descriptions of their gardens, cooking and pantry were making me drool!! I'm now on my 2nd read before it has to go back to the library, and will be putting it on my present wish list!

I particularly liked the fact that I could relate to their family - they still ate meat, and they worked other jobs as well. "Real life" continued while they changed their lifestyle to eat locally. It's certainly given me a lot to think about and I've already started making changes to the way I shop.

Book review: Intimate Secrets of a Flamboyant Gardener

I recently finished reading this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's written by an Australian author, Babs Corbett, and talks about all of the gardens she has lived in through out her life (all 90-odd years of it!). It intersperses amusing anecdotes about each garden and the people she met there, with practical gardening tips. Each garden includes a sketch / map of how it was laid out.

She mainly talks about trees, and flowers, not much on the vege side, but it's encouraged me to add a touch of whimsy to the garden amidst the practical side.

***

Speaking of the garden, I took a trip to the nursery today to buy some potting mix - ended up bringing home 6 herby ground covers (2 types of thyme, feverfew, chamomile, pennyroyal and spearmint) and a couple of flowering plants that Billy took a fancy to! Also some more seeds arrived from Diggers this week, so this afternoon we planted radish, carrots, wild arugula and spring onions.



The strawberry plants that we planted last week are going great - they all have new leaves on them and look very happy :)

I've added a list in my sidebar of what is growing in my garden atm and what we are eating from it.

Three Remarkable Women

Some time ago I read a wonderful book called The Woman on the Mountain - the author, Sharyn Munro, lives alone on a remote property in the Upper Hunter Valley, NSW. She's completely self-sufficient in her mudbrick cottage, has turned her property into a wildlife refuge and is regenerating native species in the bush. It really is a fantastic read - I'm actually quite surprised that I didn't blog about it when I read it. Once I read the book, I wanted more lol, so I searched for her blog and found it. I leave the odd comment on there, as you do :)

Our library regularly presents a "Look who's talking" series of talks by authors, so when I found out that Sharyn was going to be one of them, I booked in! I've never been to one of the talks before - I always look at them and think "wow, that looks interesting", but arranging babysitting etc is just always too much hassle to bother. Not this time, I didn't want to miss it!

So off I went today for "High Tea" at our library, to listen to Sharyn and 2 other authors talk. The talks were all wonderful.

It was called "Three Remarkable Women" and I think it was put on to tie-in with Mother's Day. As well as Sharyn, the other 2 authors were Jane Mundy, author of Cholas in Bowlers and Cheryl Keonig, author of Paper Cranes.

Jane Mundy's book is about her journey to the other side of the world - in her late fifties, she met a man who asked her to go to Bolivia with him, so off they went for an adventure! It was a really interesting and amusing talk - I can't wait to read her book now.

Cheryl's talk was quite heart-wrenching - I'm positive I wasn't the only one wiping away tears as she spoke. At the age of 12, her son was hit by a car and was severely brain damaged - she was told he would never walk, talk or eat again. They took him home and cared for him, gave him intensive therapy, and now at the age of 22, he can walk, snow ski, is learning to drive, and is doing a course at TAFE (tech college). It's a remarkable story and I've added it to my library list too!

I purchased Sharyn's book, chatted to her afterwards and asked her to sign it. She recognised my name from the comments I've left on her blog which I thought was very cool!

It was such a great morning!

Book Review: The Taste of Memory

"Tastes and smells transport us, they carry our minds back, we do not so much remember their moments as relive them"..

This is a memoir by Australian author Marion Halligan (who I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard of before I read this book). It's a series of reminiscences about food, particularly food eaten with friends, most often fresh food from the garden. Reading it is a bit like eavesdropping on someone's conversation at times, as she'll suddenly start talking about someone she hasn't mentioned before, and it wanders from subject to subject, but in a quite delightful way. It's a real "stream of consciousness" type story, and she intersperses recipes with the stories throughout the book.

I loved the book - I didn't want it to end, and actually put it aside for a while before I finished to reflect on it, and put off the moment of completion. It had added interest for me as she grew up in Newcastle, a place I know well, so with a lot of her memories I could picture where she was talking about.

(If you search for it on Amazon, you can read a few pages as an excerpt - I have no affiliation with them!!)

Book Review: Nurture by Nature

Over the last few weeks I've been reading a book called "Nurture by Nature" by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger. It's about finding out your child's Myer-Briggs personality type. Most of the tests you find are aimed at adults, but this book looks at how your child plays with others, thinks, talks etc to determine their type. The reason is not to "label" your child but to help understand them and parent them better (and in my case teach him better).

What an eye-opener! No wonder I tend to regard my child as from a different planet!! From reading the book and doing a couple of on-line tests, I come out as an ISTJ (Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging) but also very close to an ISFJ (Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, Judging) - I was 55% T and 45% F on one test I did. (This is one site that shows an overview of the types that I've copied below - http://www.capt.org/mbti-assessment/type-descriptions.htm). I am recharged by being by myself, like to get things finished, likes to be organised & follow a schedule.

ISTJ
For ISTJs the dominant quality in their lives is an abiding sense of responsibility for doing what needs to be done in the here-and-now. Their realism, organizing abilities, and command of the facts lead to their completing tasks thoroughly and with great attention to detail. Logical pragmatists at heart, ISTJs make decisions based on their experience and with an eye to efficiency in all things. ISTJs are intensely committed to people and to the organizations of which they are a part; they take their work seriously and believe others should do so as well.

ISFJ
For ISFJs the dominant quality in their lives is an abiding respect and sense of personal responsibility for doing what needs to be done in the here-and-now. Actions that are of practical help to others are of particular importance to ISFJs. Their realism, organizing abilities, and command of the facts lead to their thorough attention in completing tasks. ISFJs bring an aura of quiet warmth, caring, and dependability to all that they do; they take their work seriously and believe others should do so as well.

The diametrically opposite type to an ISFJ is an ENTP (Extroverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perceiving). Guess what type Billy seems to suit?!!! Yep :) Recharged by being around people, likes to start things but not finish them, likes to make a mess lol.

ENTP
For ENTPs the driving quality in their lives is their attention to the outer world of possibilities; they are excited by continuous involvement in anything new, whether it be new ideas, new people, or new activities. They look for patterns and meaning in the world, and they often have a deep need to analyze, to understand, and to know the nature of things. ENTPs are typically energetic, enthusiastic people who lead spontaneous and adaptable lives.

It helps in some ways to know that he's not deliberately trying to drive me mad by talking to me all the time and needing to be in the same room. It lets me compensate a bit more and work to his strengths. It also emphasises to me that I really do need time to myself regularly.

It's really given me something to think about as we spend more time together.

"In Praise of Slow"

I reviewed this book earlier in the year - http://kezs-blog.blogspot.com/2007/01/in-praise-of-slow-book-review.html - and part of this came back into my mind tonight as I was trying to hurry Billy's bedtime story because I had "stuff to do". It's well worth a read - discussing things like the Slow Food Movement, alternative medicines, not loading our kids up with activities etc. I'll have to borrow it from the library again and see what I get out of it on a 2nd read.

I finished all of the shopping today for the party - just some stuff I'd left until I went down to Newcastle with time to get it. I had to go down to the chiro - he was very pleased to hear I am cutting down work - he blames my working for my back & neck problems (not surprisingly!!)

Tomorrow we're going up to Mum & Dads to see them - they got home yesterday - it'll be fantastic to see them.

Book Review: The White Masai

Yesterday I finished reading "The White Masai" by Corinne Hofmann. It's an amazing book - the story of the first part of her life. While a young woman, she went to Kenya for a holiday with her boyfriend, and fell in love with a Masai warrior. She ditched the boyfriend, moved to Kenya and moved in with the Masai - in his little hut. The story follows their life through illness, red tape, family problems, starting a couple of businesses, the birth of their young daughter and more, and ends when the daughter is a young toddler (not wanting to spoil the ending lol).

While I wasn't totally impressed with the writing style (being translated from the German may have contributed to that), the story itself really makes you appreciate how easy we have life here and is quite hard to put down. It's one that will stick in my mind for a long time I think - I'm already keeping an eye out for the 2nd & 3rd books in the series.

Sick boy..

Yep I was right - he was coming down with something. I think it's *just* a cold, but he's running a temp as well, so pretty miserable with it. And he's male, so it's FAR worse than it would normally be lol. It was a shocking night last night - I was up to him every couple of hours, so I'm tired!

We ended up going to watch the juggler at the library ($5 school holiday activity) as he was so devastated that he might miss it. Billy's really into magic and juggling etc atm - the guy was great, fantastic juggler, magician, unicyclist, balloon animal maker etc etc, really good with the kids, and a few adult asides as well. I even enjoyed it. (Yes Libby - I actually had FUN watching it!). We ended up cancelling lunch & the play date though so JH didn't catch his germs as well. They can catch up another time. (The good news is I cleaned the house in anticipation of them coming anyway lol).

So the afternoon was pretty much spent with him watching a DVD and sleeping on my arm. I didn't get much done - I managed to finish the book I was reading though and bawled my way through the last chapters.

It was "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult. The basic premise is a "normal" family - daughter Kate is diagnosed with leukaemia as a toddler, so the parents decide to have a child "engineered" to be a match for her. Anna is born and the cord blood is used for Kate. Fast forward 13 years and many relapses for Kate with Anna being the donor each time - first blood, then bone marrow. Kate is now suffering kidney failure and her only possible chance is Anna donating a kidney. But Anna decides to seek "medical emancipation" from her parents so that she's not forced to do it. I didn't know how I'd go reading it, knowing the basic story line, but it's "un-put-down-able". The ending is just so unexpected that I'm still reeling from it. A definite thumbs-up, and you can't help but give your own kid(s) an extra cuddle...

I've got my sourdough starter out of the fridge making the "sponge" ready to do my first test loaf tomorrow.. If it turns out, I'll take some photos!

In Praise of Slow: Book Review

I've recently read a fantastic book that is worth checking out, particularly if you're looking to simplify your life. It's called "In Praise of Slow: How a worldwide movement is challenging the cult of speed" by Carl Honore.

It's a non-fiction book - the author has a bit of an epiphany when he finds himself contemplating buying "The One Minute Bedtime Story" to save time reading to his son at night. He realises that he's obsessed with doing everything faster and starts to investigate how we got to this point in time and what can be done about it. He "uncovers" a world-wide movement of people trying to slow various aspects of life down and appreciate it more. He investigates things such as the Slow Food movement, alternative medicines, "slow sex", part-time work, leisure, raising unhurried kids etc. The main point I took from it though was that it's "not about doing things at a snail's pace - it's about living better ... by striking a balance between fast and slow". I really enjoyed it, and found it quite thought provoking.