Hannukah Baby!

 Shirley J.        Juvenile E Book         This book is part of the indestructibles series for babies & newborns

Hannukkah, Baby! by Ektarine Trukhan  12 pages        

This book/series is totally made for babies who like to chew on their books, they sort of absorb their reading material.   The books are waterproof, drool all you want babies!  They can be washed off - no germs for next time!  They are rip proof hence the name indestuctibles.    Big bright pictures and few words allow parents/baby sitters to add their own words/descriptions for baby or just go with the pictures and one word pages.  The babies will get it.  Cute book to share Hannukah with baby.

Fun and Games for Cats

 Shirley J.                   Adult Non-Fiction        Teaching and recreational games to play with your cat(s)

Fun and Games for Cats by Denise Seidl   128 pages

A fun book to read and look at as there are illustrations on every page showing and explaining different cat personalities and how best to engage them in play.  Play involves a cat's predator response and they love that.  Some cats are shy and need a little one on one and patience to becoe interested in play time, the author shares various tacks for appealing to even the most finicky of felines.   There are personality tests and tests  that will measure your cat's intelligence.  The play time is especially necessary for house cats but outdoor or indoor/outdoor cats will love the attention, too and it becomes a beautiful way to bond with your cat.   Cats tend to have a 10 minute attention span akin to a 2 year old child so keep loads of different toys, crinkly paper, and boxes to keep kitty interested.    A good way to work off some energy before bed so kitty isn't climbing the curtains while you sleep.    A fun read with good ideas for cat lovers.  I recommend it to people who want to spend time with their cats. 

One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way

 Shirley J.              Adult Non-Fiction              How to make great changes by taking miniscule actions

One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way by Dr. Robert Mauer    228 pages

Excellent book explaining change and accomplishments do not have to be hard by following the Japanese method of Kaizen which is essentially climbing a mountain by taking that first step up.    The book cites examples of how to apply kaizen to your own life - what is it you want to accomplish in your personal life?  Your work life?  Instead of taking on the whole overwhelming project at once start by taking a ridiculously small first action toward it.  Something so small and easily completed it seems sort of absurd but the good news is once you do that first small act, you are on your way.   No matter what it is you want to do it can be done with surprising results.   A great way to look at how to make huge problems into bite size tolerable actions that accomplish anything you never believed you could.   Very good book.

Contenders: Two Native Baseball players, one world series

 Shirley J.            juvenile literature      The story of two native americans who rose to fame in sports        

Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series by Traci Sorell   48 pages

Two native baseball players who were taken from their families by government programs set up to indoctrinate native children from their cultures into living the life of white people.  Native children were torn from their families and  forced into boarding schools that strove to take their true identities from them, to strip them of their culture, their language, cut their hair force them to wear the white man's clothes and follow the white man's ways treating them like second class citizens while praising the white lifestyle.  This is the story of two of the captives at the orphanage who grew up playing baseball and who were discovered for their excellent skills at the game and who went on to play for different teams who eventually face each other in the world series.   A good story showing the cruel reality of early native life after the white man took over to the prejudices they grew up facing and even in adulthood continued to deal with even as professional baseball players.  

 

Barbie Developer: Ruth Handler

 Shirley J.            Juvenile literature                                 The story of the woman who invented Barbie

Barbie Developer: Ruth Handler by Lee Slater   32 pages    

The biography of the woman who invented the Barbie doll and became co-owner of the Mattel Corporation and president of Mattel from 1945 to 1975.    Excellent story of achieving success and introducing the world to a toy phenomenon that outlived its maker and is ever more popular as time goes on.  Enjoyable read.

Barbie in a Christmas Carol

 Shirley J.              Juvenile literature                               Barbie does a version of Dicken's carol

Barbie in a Christmas Carol by Mary Man-Kong    32 pages

A cute story, but, different from the dickens version.   In this version Barbie is Eden Starling, owner of a theater with a small company of actors and a costumer.   Barbie is scrooge like, hates Christmas, hates giving her actors and seamstress time off for Christmas.    She is visited by her evil aunt who taught her to hate Christmas and set the example to be mean to people even though the ghost of Christmas past shows Eden had been a loving child with a best friend Catherine who was still her friend trying to bring back her loving side.  Her Aunt's ghost comes back in the Jacob Morley role warning her to change her ways or end up bearing the awfulness that became her afterlife.   The ghost of Christmas present finds Eden's employees grousing and mutinying to go home for Christmas and of course the ghost of christmas future showing Eden broke because she alienated her actors and seamstress and her hatefulness finally turns her friend Catherine hateful and hating Christmas, too.   Barbie/Eden wakes up and doesn't want this to be her fate nor Catherine's either so like Scrooge she mends her ways gives her staff time off for the holidays gets in the giving spirit and does her best to make the world a better place.   A good story for young and old.

The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill

 The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill  286 pp

After dropping out of law school, Theo heads to her brother's house in Lawrence, KS to write a novel. Theo and her brother Gus are originally from Australia. While looking through the town for a good place to write, she finds a combination bar/coffee house called Benders.  While writing there, she meets Dan Murdoch, a fellow author who has already been published, and they become friends. When she finishes her novel, she begs Dan to introduce her to his agent and to submit her novel.  He originally says "no."  Not finding Dan at Benders one day, she heads to his house to look for him.  When she enters, she finds Dan dead.  Of course she touches him and gets blood on her so when the police come and she's washing her hands she looks suspicious.  Enter Gus who is a lawyer and his friend Mac, an investigator (who has a bunch of end-of-the-world preppers as family).  What happens next is a combination spy/assassin/conspiracy theory story including a cult like following of Dan Murdoch who blames Theo for his death.  Each chapter begins with a conversation between conspiracy theorists that is very 1/6.

This is a totally different type of story than The Woman in the Library but still about books.  I really had to take time to think about this before I gave it any type of rating on either Goodreads or in Net Galley.  There were many clever ideas in this story (which I can't talk about or you would be spoiled).  Some might say these were too cute.  In the US where January 6 will be talked about for years, the conspiracy theories will ring true.  While I know "preppers" exist, it is interesting to think of people who are so crazy about an author that they would become violent upon hearing of their death (even in the case of murder).  While I enjoyed this story, I would say there may have been too many weird things piled up on each other for me to love it as much as The Woman in the Library.  3.5 stars rounding up to 4 for creativity.