Book Review: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

‘m not saying mentally disturbed people should go without therapy and medication when necessary, but it’s interesting to look at artists (Van Gogh for instance), writers, and public figures in the past who would today be forced to assimilate from their uniqueness into bland submission to the ordinary. Maybe we should search for a way to keep the extraordinary while seeking to heal.

Blast from the Past by Ben Elton

It puts a lot of things in perspective, and makes you look at them a different way. You don’t necessarily agree with the viewpoints, but you can see where they’re coming from. Combined with a twisty plot line, well-developed and believable characters, and shocker ending that isn’t sappy sweet, it all makes for a great novel.

Homeschooling Tips – How to Get Your Child to Enjoy Learning

Due to constant traveling, I have been homeschooling my son for the last few months. We have gone through different stages where he enjoyed it or didn’t, and I’ve had a few struggles getting him to listen and to actually like doing work, especially math.
My son is seven years old and officially in [...]

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

I found this book at the free store and almost didn’t take it. It looked kind of cool, a hand with candy sprinkles all over it. But the description, about a man with an addiction who goes through rehab didn’t sound that exciting. I’ve read a few of those, and they’re mostly over-Christiany, “feel sorry [...]

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

I’m always interested when I see an “Oprah’s Book Club” seal on a novel, and I’ve never yet been disappointed. They are always haunting, thought-provoking, realistic stories. Once again, I was not disappointed.
The story is from the point of view of the 14 year old daughter (Connie) of a Vermont midwife (Sibyl). The [...]

Cash 4 Books - turn your old books into folding money.

I just found a great program to earn some quick money. Most of us know that we can make money on E-bay or Amazon, but that takes creating an account, fees, dealing with customers,and so on. Cash4books will pay you for your books, and pay the shipping. You just type in the [...]

The River Why by David James Duncan

This is one of those rare perfect books that I will want to keep forever to loan out to friends in need of enlightenment or encouragement. It has everything: a good storyline; characters that are real, complex and that you would want to meet in real life; it’s funny; it talks about the Northwest US [...]

Whale Rider Movie Review

Whale Rider is a lovely little movie about a rural Maori town in New Zealand and their search for a leader. It’s about the struggle for a little girl to be accepted, about the struggle between tradition and modern ideas, fulfilling your dreams, and about love within a family and within a community. It introduces [...]

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

This is a neat little book that I read almost in one day. I found a lot of myself in it. Some of you may think that this statement is odd. After all, it’s about a British girl growing up in a small town under a severely religious, perhaps deranged family, to find out that [...]

A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

I was already interested in the book based on a friend’s recommendation, but then I opened it up and found it was written by the same author as The Kite Runner and I was hooked. I loved both of these books.
Both novels are about Afghanistan, but tell a different type of story. The Kite [...]