Other Powers by Barbara Goldsmith

Editorial Review: In Other Powers Barbara Goldsmith takes a wide-ranging approach to the life of controversial feminist Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927). Goldsmith places her buccaneering subject within the context of 19th-century America's fascination with spiritualism, which enabled an accomplished medium like Woodhull to escape her impoverished origins and amass considerable wealth. Goldsmith also ably delineates the freewheeling Woodhull's uneasy relations with more respectable ladies in the women's suffrage movement and portrays the hatred of sexual hypocrisy that ultimately brought Woodhull's relentless enemies who wrecked her public career. History illuminates biography--and vice versa--in this boundary-defying work

Personal Review: This book caught my eye at the library while I was researching webdesign! Now I know why "someone" wanted me to read it. I was not only in awe of Victoria Woodhull, who was a strong and intelligent woman, but the book is written like a true thriller. I was amazed at the historical accounts, and the many famous names that were entwined in Victoria's life. She was the first woman to run for the Presidency. You will find detailed accounts of the Women's Rights Movement and the Negro Enfranchisement Movement, and B. Goldsmith's writing style makes you feel as if you were right there. Truely a must read, and a history lesson of the United States in the Victorian Era. Fascinating! Click on the book link above for more books on Victoria and her fascinating life!

Wild Child by Lynne Plourde  

Editorial Review: The change of seasons from fall to winter makes a captivating bedtime story as Mother Nature tries to tuck in her wild child, Autumn. This child will do anything to stay up; when she complains that she needs a song, her mother provides one that includes acorns splattering, leaves crinkling, and birds twittering. Next the child needs a treat, and after she has munched on a bounty of cranberries, nuts, and pumpkins, she has to change into her pajamas. These nightclothes are the flame colors of autumn leaves with orange slippers to match. Before she can really fall asleep, the child demands a goodnight kiss. ...

Personal Review : " A kiss. A smooch and a smack before hitting the sack." This book is one of our favorites. The pages are beautiful, a splash of Autumn, with words rhyming up the tastes, sounds and sensations that come with this magical time of year. The book is recommended for 7+, but my daughter has been enjoying it since she was 2.5.  The singsong of the words foster rhyming, and she knows the book by heart.

Alice and Greta : A Tale of Two Witches by Steven J. Simmons  

Editorial Review: Alice and Greta are two witches who see things differently. Whereas Alice is as rosy as the clothes she wears, Greta can't help but make trouble. Although they learn the same spells at school, these spells are used for differing purposes. While Alice may send a wave to shore to help a family's beached boat float, Greta will use a similar chant to flood a child's masterpiece sand castle. Yet, there is one important lesson Greta does not learn - the Brewmerang Principle: "Whatever you chant,...

Personal Review: Good vs Bad...two little witches that start out with the same outlook, the same spells, the same chants, and turn them into what THEY want. It looks as if Greta gets away with her nasty tricks, but in the end, the Brewmerang Principle wins, the lesson where Greta was not paying attention! My daughter loves this book, and grasps the principle herself. You can make something Good or Bad, whichever YOU choose. Wonderfully fun to read for parents, too!

Something Big Has Been Here by Jack Prelutsky

Editorial Review: In this delightful companion to Jack Prelutsky's The New Kid on the Block, an early worm frightens the early bird, four vain and ancient tortoises race to see who can get to the finish line last, and outrageous imaginary characters such as the "Know-Nothing Neebies" ("We're perfectly pompous, / indelibly dense, / we haven't a trace / of a semblance of sense") pop up as magically as any creature from The Phantom Tollbooth or The Wizard of Oz ever did.

In "Captain Conniption," young readers will giggle to meet the self-professed "scourge of the sea." "I'm Captain Conniption, / and up to no good, / you'll soon walk the plank / if I think that you should, / I'd show you right now / how I vanquish a foe, / but I hear my mother, / so I have to go." Other subjects near and dear to children's hearts make fabulous fodder for fun, including sibling rivalry, bad table manners, meatloaf, and bats. Illustrator James Stevenson's lively line drawings capture Prelutsky's goofy poetic antics perfectly, making this collection another essential addition to any child's library

Personal Review: Absolutely hilarious! This book fell into my hands in a twist of fate at the book store, and my friend and I laughed so hard we each bought one for our children 4& 5! My daughter can relate to the rhymes, and I truly enjoy reading them. You will find everyday occurrences with a twist...hold on to your sides!

The Western Guide to Feng Shui : Room by Room...  by Terah Kathryn Collins 

Editors Review: After reading Terah Kathryn Collins's The Western Guide to Feng Shui: Room by Room, you'll never look at your home the same way again. Under Collins's caring and perceptive tutelage, the home becomes more than just a box to move around in; it grows into an entire ecology of meaning and encouragement. To begin, Collins explains in clear language the principles of Feng Shui and how it can be good or bad. After detailing a number of items used as traditional Feng Shui enhancements, Collins proceeds to walk us through all the rooms of a house, from foyer to attic, to family room, bedroom, and kitchen. She explains the significance of each room, common problems, and, most importantly, effective solutions. In westernizing her Feng Shui, Collins dispenses with some of the more bizarre and ungainly traditional practices, always keying in on the straightforward and pragmatic. By including inner practices as well as outer, Collins offers one of the most profound and enriching Feng Shui books yet.

Personal Review: Secretly hoping to get my Feng Shui license one day, I am an avid reader and believer of Feng Shui. Owning both T. Collin's first book, the Western Guide to Feng Shui, and many others, I find this is a practucal guide for beginners or those just looking for some "perks" in their home or office. What I especially like is the the before and after pictures. Here you can actually see what small enhancements can do for the overall atmosphere of a space. A great gift for Feng Shui lovers :)!

I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was..How to discover what you really want adn how to get it... by Barbara Sher 

Editors Review: This is a perfect book for new college graduates or anyone sick and tired of languishing in a dead-end job or relationship--yet reluctant to make drastic life changes due to uncertainty about what would actually inspire them. I Could Do Anything combines the I'm-not-buying your-excuses inspiration of Dr. Laura Schlessinger with the soothing, analytic encouragement of Dr. Martin Seligman in his classic Learned Optimism. In other words, Sher will pick you up off your butt and get you moving. She's included enough self-analytical exercises in here to save you hundreds of dollars in therapy.

Whether you're looking to make improvements in your job or personal life, Sher will teach you how to determine what your goals are, and how to successfully reach them--even if right now the only thing you know is that you're vaguely to very unhappy and haven't the foggiest idea what to do with yourself.

Personal Review: I found this book as a new mom, working a job I was bored with, with a boss who was making my an my 3 collegues jobs miserable while we were all cooped up in a small room! I swear I kept seeing myself in this book, as if Barbara Sher had talked to ME while she was writing. I felt pretty pitiful, and started taking the analytical tests during my lunch breaks. Then I began using her exercises, and fought back. I eventually quit, went on to a better job. Then I quit and did what I REALLY wanted, to take care of my daughter, work from home, and write. Great book, very practical, and a nice exemption from the usually dry and rigorous "self help" books. A great gift for a friend in need of a change!

The Sweeter the Juice : A Family Memoir... by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip

Quote:"The   daughter of a prominent black minister whose family was the center of his Connecticut congregation and community, Shirlee did not look beyond her immediate family for answers about her heritage. As Shirlee grew and her world expanded, she became more and more curious about her ancestry. In an effort to reconcile the dissonance between her black persona and her undeniably multiracial heritage, she stared on a journey that took her back six generations, ending where America's history begins. Along the way, the search for her family becomes a metaphor for her search for her own self and, by extension, for answers to some of the powerful racial problems that unravel and shred the heterogeneous fabric of American society."

Short Review: A compelling story, written like a thriller, as you want to read on to find out what Shirlee learns next about her family. Shirlee deals with her history, and the story she tells of relatives that shun the family, afraid to be "discovered", since they have passed as white in their community, and of her mixed race ancestry make you want to cry. You can follow along in the family album, and by the end of the book I felt as if I "knew" this family personally. Having a bi-racial daughter, I felt even stronger about the importance of teaching her about her roots and exposing her to the ethnicity of both sides of her heritage after reading this book. A true story about the majority of families in America today.

The Witch in Every Woman :Reawakening the Magical Nature of the Feminine to Heal, Protect, Create, and Empower   by Laurie Cabot

All women possess the primal courage and strength of the Witch. In this breakthrough, life-altering new book, Laurie Cabot brings more than forty years of experience as a spiritual counselor and practicing Witch to cultivate and celebrate the secret, magical side of every woman's nature. Unfolding the wit and wisdom of ancient Celtic tales, as well as many stories of her own making, Laurie shows you how ancient truths can empower you during many of life's dark moments and lead you on a path of success and personal fulfillment. Through story, ritual activity, and spiritual communion, you will learn how to use your instinctual nature to achieve your goals and feel energized, strong, and capable in your daily life.

Short Review: Great book, a must read for every women, EVEN IF YOU HAVE NO INTEREST IN WITCHES :)!! Cabot shows how women have been made to believe their powers and instincts are bad, and how every woman can regain them. She makes very interesting comparisons between centuries past and women in society today. Very empowering, a good esteem builder that I am reading to my little witch to be a couple steps ahead of puberty!

  The Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou

Oprah Book Club® Selection, May 1997: Maya Angelou has had more lives than the proverbial cat, and in The Heart of a Woman she continues the account of her remarkable life begun in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In the first book of her best-selling autobiographical series, she describes her traumatic childhood in the small, segregated town of Stamps, Arkansas, during the 1930s. Gather Together in My Name picks up the story in the postwar years, when Maya, a single teenager with an infant son becomes, in short order, a cook, a madam, a dancer, and a prostitute. Next comes Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas, an account of her twenties and her unsuccessful first marriage to a white man. The Heart of a Woman, the fourth in the series, takes us through one of the most exciting and formative periods of Angelou's amazing life: her beginnings as a writer and an activist in New York.

Angelou has a happy knack of attracting the best and the brightest into her orbit, and The Heart of a Woman offers a veritable cornucopia of black luminaries in its pages. Singer Billie Holiday, writers John Ellins and Paule Marshall, jazz musicians Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, and actors Godfrey Cambridge and James Earl Jones--Maya meets and learns from them all. Political activism soon follows as Ms. Angelou first organizes a theatrical benefit for the Reverend Martin Luther King and then becomes the director of the New York Southern Christian Leadership Conference office. Her involvement in the civil rights movement eventually brings her into contact with African freedom fighters Oliver Tambo and the charming Vusumzi Make, whom she marries and follows to Africa.

The Heart of a Woman is as honest, painful, funny, outraged, and outrageous as Angelou herself. From her debut at the Apollo Theatre to her meeting with Malcolm X, Maya Angelou gives us something to cheer about and plenty to ponder as well.

Short Review: I have read Maya's other "short" stories, and this is just the icing on the cake. To see the different roles this woman has played in her life, inspires me to fulfill my own dreams. Maya's self confidence and courage have given her opportunities that only a strong woman could grab.

  Clean House, Clean Planet : Clean Your... by Karen Logan

Oooh, I just love this book. This is the perfect book for a simple woman like me, who hates to have to go out and buy alot of "extra" stuff to make recipes with. Most of the time the "extras" end up in a drawer or on a shelf and rot. I had most of the ingredients needed here in the house already, except for one.

Karen Logan offers you non-toxic recipes for the whole house and every "problem" you can think of, from windows to toilets. She compares her earth-friendly, non-toxic concoction to the mainstream "Brand X", stating   the contained chemicals, why they are dangerous, and what actually does the cleaning, so that you as the user are informed. She also gives price comparisons. I have mixed and used Earth Scrub™ for rings around the toilet and mold (ugh!), Sleep it Off™ to clean my oven, Club Clean™ window spray, ...the bug spray, antiseptic spray that you can wash your hands with, scented vinegar, etc, etc, etc..Guess what? They ALL work! So now I blast my calypso and "scent" my house...