Review of Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe (and Parents Sane) (Paperback)

I hate reading anything that makes me feel anxious and initially this book sat on the shelf for weeks before I actually picked it up.I was so glad I did because there is such valuable information in here and I actually feel better about my child's safety than I did before.

Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe and Parents Sane is about how to teach your child to trust her instincts when it comes to safety.Since 90% of child abuse and abductions occur by people well-known to your child, teaching her to talk to strangers just doesn't work.Instead, the author gives you detailed and logical steps to take, starting as early as toddlerhood, so you'll know how to help your child learn to follow her instincive feelings about whether someone is safe or not.

Crucial information about how to be prepared for (God forbid but we should all be prepared just in case) the event that your child may be seperated from you in public.Examples include making a daily detailed mental note of the clothing your child is wearing, keeping large photocopies of your child's picture and name in your purse/wallet so you can hand them out to security personel within seconds of your child's disappearance and an action plan for immediate implementation.

There is SO much in this book - every bit of it worth reading so you can protect your child - and I can't recommend it strongly enough.Read it NOW and be prepared.



Click Here to see more reviews about: Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe (and Parents Sane) (Paperback)

Review of John Rosemond's New Parent Power! (Hardcover)

I'm intrigued by other reviews here that gripe about the lack of new material in John Rosemond's latest update on "Parent Power!"Remember, folks, the key word here is "update."It makes no claims to be an entirely new book.The other thing to bear in mind is that good, sound, commonsensical advice on parenting is essentially the same today as it was a hundred--or a thousand--years ago.It all boils down to one simple concept: you are in charge; the child is not.

Some people find Rosemond harsh.Those tend to be parents who are willing to fill their time by wheedling, cajoling and bargaining with their children.Others find Rosemond to make perfect sense.Those tend to be parents who understand (and apply!) the fundamental concept that the parents have more experience and more expertise than the children do, and that it is a parental responsibility to take charge and tell the children what the rules are, how the family works, and what the consequences are for disobedience.

Rosemond knows whereof he speaks.Not only is he a parent himself (two grown children--he's now a grandfather), but he has a doctorate in his chosen field.The thing he writes in "Parent Power!" that struck me like a bolt of lightning was that parents who let their kids take the lead and rule the roost are doing the children a disservice.Kids need and crave structure and order.They like knowing what the boundaries are (even if at first it appears that they don't!).When parents set boundaries and then don't keep within them--or lay down rules and then capitulate at the first request from the child--it actually disturbs the child, because it comes across as though the PARENT doesn't really know what the rules are.And to the kid, that translates to the frightening thought, "Well, gosh, if Mom and Dad don't know what the rules are, who DOES know?"

There's so much good stuff here.I urge every parent--frustrated or not--to be open-minded and read this terrific book.It's a treasure trove of useful, usable, sound information.

Product Description
John Rosemond is the dean of traditional, non-psychological parenting.Now, the author of nine best-selling books on raising children has combined his two most successful volumes into a single revised and updated edition for new parents - and those who need new ideas.John Rosemond's New Parent Power!, presents the renowned family psychologist's complete philosophy and methodology from the original Parent Power! supported by the details of his Six-Point Plan For Raising Happy, Healthy Children.As always, Rosemond delivers with a highly readable and refreshing tone, urging parents to listen to their hearts and their gut.

About the Author
John Rosemond is a family psychologist who has both directed mental health programs and been in full-time private practice working with families and children. Since 1990, he has devoted his time to speaking and writing. John's weekly syndicated parenting column now appears in some 250 newspapers. Along the way, he's also managed to write eleven bestselling books on parenting and the family. As if that wasn't enough, he is one of the busiest and most popular speakers in his field, giving over 200 talks a year to parent and professional groups nationwide. He and his wife of 39 years, Willie, have two grown children and six well-behaved grandchildren.

For more information, see www.rosemond.com and www.parentingbythebook.com.

Click Here to see more reviews about: John Rosemond's New Parent Power! (Hardcover)

Review of The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child's Heart for Eternity (Paperback)

I feel this book is a must read for any mom!I've read several parenting books, many of which focused on the area of discipline. This book was an awesome balance, because it focuses more on demonstrating love to your children, giving practical ways in order to do this.For example, in one chapter she talks about getting up early every so often and running to the store to pick up her family's favorite fancy danishes for breakfast, or taking the time to give your child a backrub or foot massage.They sound like obvious ideas, but I have to admit I've never done them.The days get busy, and I don't think about doing something like that.
She also gave me ideas to make my home more inviting and cozy for my children. Examples include using candles, nice music, etc. These are all things that I have and think about when company comes over, but don't necessarily think about doing for my own family.
Overall, this book just reminded me of the importance of showing your children how much you just love being with them, and ways to keep them close to you and your husband.



Click Here to see more reviews about: The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child's Heart for Eternity (Paperback)

Review of The Relationship Cure: A 5 Step Guide to Strengthening Your Marriage, Family, and Friendships (Paperback)

Read this book and share it with your partner if you can. It is so spot-on about communication, I really wish everyone would read it!The basic premise is explaining how we relate to each other and what happens when we don't respond in a way that potentiates that relationship.It's easy to understand, a great read.I especially recommend it if you are in a relationship that is not going well and BOTH of you are looking for help in fixing it.Read it together.It will help you understand each other.(I only wish it wasn't called The Relationship Cure because it's really about Communication!)



Click Here to see more reviews about: The Relationship Cure: A 5 Step Guide to Strengthening Your Marriage, Family, and Friendships (Paperback)

Review of When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads, Revised Edition: Proven Guidelines for a Healthy Multiple Pregnancy (Paperback)

When I found out I was pregnant with twins, I looked to pregnancy books to help, but they approached twins as "a little extra pregnant". It wasn't until this book that I started REALLY knowing how to care for myselfand my 2 babies.It saved my pregnancy and my sanity.A MUST! Forexample, the worshipped "What to expect when you're expecting"books gave me absolute INCORRECT information regarding exercise, diet,weight gain, working... and I spent the first part of my pregnancymiserable that I was losing weight and feeling awful. Something in my guttold me that 10 pounds in the first half of the pregnancy wasn't enough fortwins.Also, the diet they wanted me to follow was making me throw upevery day.My body, again, told me to just eat whatever I could keep down,but "THE BOOK" made me feel guilty about even LOOKING at acheeseburger.Well, again, THANK GOD I found Dr. Luke and Tamara's book. It confirmed everything I'd already felt was right.Plus, it is writtenwith a great positive attitude with so much encouragement.I would not behaving such a healthy pregnancy without it.I will never stop beinggrateful for this book! I've told so many people about it and am happy tospread the word. READ IT READ IT READ IT!

Product Description

A Clinically Proven Program for Women Pregnant with Multiples

Completely Updated, with 50 Recipes for Optimal Birth Weight

You're expecting more than one baby? Congratulations! In When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads, Dr. Barbara Luke's practical, nutrition-based program has been proven to lower complications, resulting in much healthier babies. This revision offers more nutritional information, 50 recipes to maximize birth weight, and new guidelines on nutritional needs and vegetarian options. It also includes updated information that reflects the most current obstetric and pediatric practices, such as expanded safety information on exercise and reducing your risk for complications.

Click Here to see more reviews about: When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads, Revised Edition: Proven Guidelines for a Healthy Multiple Pregnancy (Paperback)

Review of Ideal Homes?: Social Change and the Experience of the Home (Hardcover)

This book consists of a collection of papers about people's images of home.The volume is divided into 4 parts: Changing images of the ideal home; Betwixt and between: homes in transition; Anxieties and risks: homes in danger; and Changing perceptions of home.The first part, changing images of the ideal home, focuses mainly on British homes and British attitudes towards home.Much of the remaining material, however, could easily be generalized to cover Western attitudes towards housing and home.Tony Chapman's paper "You've got him well trained': the negotiation of roles in the domestic sphere is a particularly well-done exploration into sources of social attitudes towards sharing housework.Overall, this book provides some extremely interesting vantage points of many different aspects of domestic life, especially in 21st century England.Anthropologists, sociologists, and feminists will all find something of interest in this book.

Product Description
Ideal Homes? provides a fascinating analysis which reveals how both popular images and experiences of home life can produce vital clues as to how society's members produce and respond to social change.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Ideal Homes?: Social Change and the Experience of the Home (Hardcover)

Review of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child (Hardcover)

This was an excellent book - I cannot tell you how much this book helped our sleepless, colicky infant.But, several friends with non-colicky babies actually recommended this for any infant.This book is a wonderful middle ground for those parents who do not want a severe schedule (BABYWISE) or the opposite end of the spectrum, attachment parenting (Dr. Sears).It was the only book that I found that spoke knowledgeably about colic, and gave the only helpful advice available on the subject (believe me, we tried it all).It is not a cry-it-out book, although some may look at it in that light.What it teaches you is this: 1.watch your child. 2.put him/her down to sleep when you first see the signs of tiredness 3.most children under 6 months do not stay awake for longer than 2-3 hours at a time without needing a nap. 4.DO NOT just put your child down to nap when you feel like it - that's just letting him/her cry, not TEACHING them to sleep. 5.Most children need to go to sleep at night earlier than you'd think. 6.Going to bed earlier promotes later sleeping (weird, but true.As the author says, it's not logical.It's biological - sleep promotes sleep) There's a lot more too.I really like that the author's data is based on studies that he has done involving the patterns of children who naturally sleep and nap well.No, it didn't give us a perfect baby. We happen to have a very sensitive high strung girlie, who also power-naps.But we went from a cranky post-colicky baby who took no naps or 15-20min naps and got up many times per night to a sweet smiling girl who now takes 3 45min-1 hour naps per day and sleeps from 6pm-7am (waking 2 times to nurse).Oh yes.The nursing.She used to think that nursing was the only way to get to sleep.After diligently following the advice in this book, she now can get to sleep on her own, no nursing.Not that it's perfect - she still cries 5-15 minutes at times before naps.But she is sooooooo much happier now.Gotta think something's working.



Click Here to see more reviews about: Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child (Hardcover)

Review of The Mother Load: How to Meet Your Own Needs While Caring for Your Family (Hearts at Home) (Paperback)

Looking for something to browse thru one wintry day and found my wife's copy of "The Mother Load."
Guys...check it out....don't be embarrassed.Should give you some much needed insight on what your kids' mom face.
Well-written; an easy read.Mary has a great touch and her sense of humor and love for her primary job of motherhood shine through in her book.
Two thumbs way up!

Product Description

Motherhood is an intense, 'round-the-clock job. To stay healthyand happy, moms need friends, laughter, solitude, balance, and an intimaterelationship with the Lord. But exactly how do moms meet these needs whilejuggling family responsibilities? Mary Byers, the mother of two lively youngkids, shares how moms can find small pockets of time to—

• rest and refuel
• create personal space
• make time for friendship, exercise, and intimacy
• identify and prevent “balance busters” that create chaos
• creatively stay sane in the midst of mothering

The Mother Loadoffers down-to-earth suggestions, spiritual truths, and real-life advice frommoms to help women survive and thrive in today's active families. Includes questions for groupdiscussion and personal reflection.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Mother Load: How to Meet Your Own Needs While Caring for Your Family (Hearts at Home) (Paperback)

Review of Laundry: The Spirit of Keeping Home (Hardcover)

I really liked this book. It's short and simple, and inspires me to try and enjoy doing the laundry, rather than making it such a tedious chore. There is nothing really innovative in this book, but it's a nice and easy read for those looking for a little motivation and something to inspire. I like the idea of the "Spirit of Homekeeping", especially since I am a 20 something year old woman who grew up "hanging out" and watching too much television! Now that I have a family of my own, I love the old fashioned ideas of keeping home, and making the daily grind a little more enjoyable.

Product Description
In grandmother's day, the fibers were natural, the suds were simple, and the clothes dryer wasa line stretched across the backyard. Today the parade of products and fabrics seems endless. But author Monica Nassif knows the secrets behind this satisfying ritual. Laundry lays them out-from sorting and soaking to fluffing and folding, here are tips and techniques that make doing the wash a true pleasure.

About the Author
Monica Nassif is founder and CEO of The Caldrea Company, which specializes in natural cleaning products. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two daughters.Patrick Fox is a Minneapolis-based photographer who spends time away from the camera flying a bush plane and tending 160 forested acres around his cabin in Northern Wisconsin.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Laundry: The Spirit of Keeping Home (Hardcover)

Review of The Nursing Home Guide: A Doctor Reveals What You Need to Know about Long-Term Care (Paperback)

Dr. Schor is the kind of doctor who sets a Gold Standard for medical care through unflagging dedication to his patients' well-being.This level of care comes through in this concise and useful book on Long-Term Care -- a subject on which everyone should become knowledgeable.Whether planning for a family member or yourself, this guide covers useful background & context, memorable examples, constructive suggestions, warnings about potential pitfalls and helpful references on: navigating our Healthcare "system" (who, what, how), choosing Long-Term Care facilities, communicating successfully with caregivers, and more. Highly recommended.

Product Description
The lowdown on long-term care-from a geriatric specialist with over twenty years in the field.

Placing loved ones in nursing homes or other long-term care facilities is a stressful decision-and for good reason. In previous decades, some homes were plagued by scandal, and everyone wants to know that their family members will be safe and sound even when they can't be nearby all the time. Here, prominent geriatrician Joshua Schor, M.D., guides the reader through this emotionally challenging process step by step, covering such topics as:

- The small-and revealing-details to watch for when touring a home
- Determining whether a family member needs long-term or sub-acute care
- Deciding whether assisted living may be a viable alternative
- Questions to ask about medications, meals, and activities
- Knowing your rights and getting the information you need
- Special concerns for younger patients
- And more...

About the Author
Joshua Schor, M.D., graduated from the Yale University School of Medicine and completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in geriatric medicine at the Harvard University Division on Aging. Currently, he is medical director at Daughters of Israel in West Orange, New Jersey.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Nursing Home Guide: A Doctor Reveals What You Need to Know about Long-Term Care (Paperback)

Review of The Home Birth Advantage (Paperback)

I can wholeheartedly appreciate Dr. Eisenstein's account of how hospitals and most obstetricians in our country have caused more harm than good to mothers and babies during birth - however...

I did not see one account of homebirth midwives in his book. It is very rare to have physicians attending homebirths - I believe that Dr. Eisenstein's practice the only one of its kind - and most homebirths in the US today are attended by midwives - both Certified Nurse Midwives and direct-entry midwives. Why does he not mention them in this book? Did I miss this reference?

By reading this book, one would assume that homebirth is only safe with a physician in attendance. This is absolutely not true. I would have loved to see more references to midwives, specifically journal articles and statistics that show that homebirth with midwives (and quite possibly physicians) are as safe, if not safer, than hospital births.

Illinois is a very hostile state to homebirth midwives. I would hope that Dr. Eisenstein and his partners are helping homebirth midwives (edited to confirm that NO they are NOT). If not, I would strongly encourage them to remember that midwives are the main reason why homebirth is so nationally recognized and available for most American women. Support of their practices, efforts, and legalization is needed! We cannot continue to criminalize women who are skilled at helping women and providing a safe, reasonable alternative to insitutional childbirth!

Above all, the message that homebirth is safe is great, but it's erroneous to assume that homebirth is only safe with a physician in attendance. I would trust the loving, educated, and skillful care of a midwife for any homebirth.

Product Description
This book challanges America's traditional hospital basedbirth system, the system which has placed the United States at thebottom of the list of industrialized nations with regard to healthybabies and healthy mothers.Dr. Eisenstein explains that birth, forthe majority of women, may even be safer without the routine hospitalprocedures: electronic fetal monitoring, episitomy, iv's, epidurals,etc.

From the Author
As I see it there is one major reason to choose homebirth for your family.It will change so many other aspects for yourlife for the positive and affect so many decisions that you make.Childbirth at home is an event which strengthens all those who areprivileged to experience it.It empowers the participants withknowledge that they can give birth and enjoy it!!



Click Here to see more reviews about: The Home Birth Advantage (Paperback)

Review of Tales From Rhapsody Home : Or, What They Don't Tell You About Senior Living (Hardcover)

Odds are this is the best book by a nonagenarian you are likely to read this year. Gould, a Down East Yankee and columnist for the Christian Science Monitor since 1942, offers a collection of short commentaries from an assisted living center. The book isn't simply a humorous indictment of the foibles and peculiarities of life in a retirement home (though there is plenty of that, from comments about food to the saga of the unopenable window and the familiar refrain "There is nothing to be done about it"). The author ranges across all his 92 years to draw on memories of doctors, raising bees with his Grandfather, and the perfect tomato.

This is a great book for reading out loud, my wife and I found -- the sentences tend to be short and simple, belying the emotional nuances and complexity of the thoughts underneath. The author is not a simple, genteel sort, despite the appearance of his prose. There are passages on the joys of farting humor, reproductions of the light verse with which he lampooned the failures of the management (these never survived more than three minutes on the bulletin board because they "offended the staff"), and a truly fierce (but nevertheless funny) indictment of the insurance industry.

Think of this book as Robert Fulghum in a retirement home and you'll be close to it.

Product Description
Down East Yankee John Gould, age ninety-two, has spent most of the last century observing and writing about the human condition. Now he presents a whole new perspective on life as he leads us into the brave new world of the assisted-living facility. Charming, sarcastic, despairing, flip, taciturn, erudite, and altogether wonderful--with a razor sharp wit and a knack for turning a phrase--Mr. Gould is an American original and a perfect tour guide. Whether he's complaining to management about his apartment windows that don't open or socializing with the other "inmates" at happy hour;whether wondering why they put a napkin over the stone-cold bread at dinner or taking comfort in the memories ("making do with the reruns") of his loving and eccentric collection of old friends and colleagues from Maine, Mr. Gould proves that you can write a funny book about a serious subject, namely, how we treat our elderly.



Click Here to see more reviews about: Tales From Rhapsody Home : Or, What They Don't Tell You About Senior Living (Hardcover)

Review of The Lazy Woman's Guide to Just About Everything (Paperback)

I have found so many helpful tips laid out in a basic format so I don't have to spend time hunting for the tips like I have in other "helpful" books.This book gives the best suggestions on how to cut corners without cutting the quality, as well as just taking the time to relish who I am.I have purchased several copies for the women in my family as well as my closest woman friends.I urge everyone to do the same!

Product Description
JUDIE O'NEILL, M.A.Judie has an M.A. in Human Development, has been married for 36 years, is a mother (three daughters ages 31-35; one son age 12), grandmother, interior designer, teacher, gardener extraordinaire, and an advocate for public education and adoption. Judie worked as a facilitator for "The Course in Mastery" for over five years, where she honed what has evolved into a truly lazy philosophy. BRIDGET FONGERBridget has been a producer, marketing & publicity consultant, fund-raiser for the non-profit sector and party giver par excellence. She has produced off-Broadway plays, events, fund-raisers, weddings and amazing dinner parties. She has owned several businesses, including a film & television production company, theatre company and The Angel Store (as featured on HGTV and CNN). Bridget is working on adopting the lazy attitude of her co-author.

Judie and Bridget have collaborated many times before, producing fundraisers, events, and parties. They had a business called EarthAngels, where they hauled away people's junk, recycled trash and refurbished the treasures. It was in their EarthAngels workshop that they came up with the philosophy "If it isn't within reach, you don't need it!" which became part of the Lazy Woman's Way.



Click Here to see more reviews about: The Lazy Woman's Guide to Just About Everything (Paperback)

Review of The Lazy Woman's Guide to Just About Everything (Paperback)

I have found so many helpful tips laid out in a basic format so I don't have to spend time hunting for the tips like I have in other "helpful" books.This book gives the best suggestions on how to cut corners without cutting the quality, as well as just taking the time to relish who I am.I have purchased several copies for the women in my family as well as my closest woman friends.I urge everyone to do the same!

Product Description
JUDIE O'NEILL, M.A.Judie has an M.A. in Human Development, has been married for 36 years, is a mother (three daughters ages 31-35; one son age 12), grandmother, interior designer, teacher, gardener extraordinaire, and an advocate for public education and adoption. Judie worked as a facilitator for "The Course in Mastery" for over five years, where she honed what has evolved into a truly lazy philosophy. BRIDGET FONGERBridget has been a producer, marketing & publicity consultant, fund-raiser for the non-profit sector and party giver par excellence. She has produced off-Broadway plays, events, fund-raisers, weddings and amazing dinner parties. She has owned several businesses, including a film & television production company, theatre company and The Angel Store (as featured on HGTV and CNN). Bridget is working on adopting the lazy attitude of her co-author.

Judie and Bridget have collaborated many times before, producing fundraisers, events, and parties. They had a business called EarthAngels, where they hauled away people's junk, recycled trash and refurbished the treasures. It was in their EarthAngels workshop that they came up with the philosophy "If it isn't within reach, you don't need it!" which became part of the Lazy Woman's Way.



Click Here to see more reviews about: The Lazy Woman's Guide to Just About Everything (Paperback)

Review of More Work For Mother: The Ironies Of Household Technology From The Open Hearth To The Microwave (Paperback)

This book is history of housework and household technology in America.Cowan's thesis is that American women have paradoxically been required to take on more and more work as "labor-saving" technologies have been adopted. At the outset of the book, Cowan seems to state that she will show that developments in technology have not really made women's lives easier, but have served to bind women ever more tightly to the home.But by the end of the book, the message seems to be slightly different: that household technology has raised society's expectations of what women should be able to accomplish in the home, and that women must now work harder because of double duty- -doing the housework in addition to holding down fulltime jobs.

The book is organized along chronological lines, starting with pre-industrial conditions, moving on to industrialization, and finishing with the years following the Second World War.Food and laundry are two topics that receive heavy focus throughout the book.Cowan points out that in the pre-industrial times, food preparation required considerable help from men, for such things as butchering animals.But once meat was available in tins, men were released from such food preparation chores, while women's work increased, since new stove technologies made it possible for women to undertake more complicated methods of food preparation.Cowan argues that laundry duties also increased following industrialization, since when fabric was homespun, people only owned a few items of clothing that were hardly ever washed, but once cheap factory-made fabric became available, people got in the habit of changing clothes quite often, resulting in mounds of items to be laundered.

But I'm not sure I fully agree with these arguments.Cowan seems to suggest that the change from cooking over an open-hearth to cooking on a stove complicated women's lives by increasing possibilities, hence expectations and time spent on the task.Had Cowan been able to observe first-hand lunch preparations over an open-hearth during a hot summer day, she might have been more appreciative of the benefits of a stove.Anyone who has visited such reenactment museums as Plimouth Plantation in July, or even tried cooking a full meal over a campfire, comes away amazed at how women managed to deal with the heat and frustrations of cooking over an open hearth, especially when wearing long skirts that were constantly prone to catching fire from drifting into the coals or getting hit with sparks.And the health benefits of having enough clothing to allow frequent laundering are also tremendous- -memoirs of even the well-to-do of the pre-industrial age are full of descriptions of the usual louse and flea colonies that were an active part of every household.Industrialization in the areas of food preparation and laundry may have not have resulted in time savings for mother, but it certainly made it possible for her to greatly increase the health and safety of herself and her family.

Cowan notes that running a household in pre-industrial conditions involved so much work that no single person could manage it alone.That's why men got married, and why anyone who could afford to hired maids.But following industrialization, Cowan argues that maids could get better-paying factory jobs, so mother got stuck doing the work of the maids.But is this really more work for mother?If the work load was so heavy that a housewife couldn't get by without a maid, and the maid disappeared consequent with the adoption of household technology, it's not that mother was stuck spending more time than ever getting her housework done, but that the new technologies enabled her to accomplish more in the time she had available.Indeed, Cowan even cites time studies that confirm that women were spending more or less the same amount of time doing housework, but they were able to accomplish far more in that time thanks to new technologies, such as automatic washers.And the problems of the double-duty mother never even arose until technology had improved enough so that a woman could hold down an outside job as well as keep the home running.

From the outset, Cowan states that this book is about the history of American housewives and their work, so she doesn't look beyond our borders for evidence that would support or negate her thesis.Her cultural blinders seem overly tight, however, when she discusses the difficulty of finding and keeping hired help as being a peculiarly American problem.Anyone who has tried to work with hired help anywhere in the world has had similar experiences- -nobody grows up wanting to be a maid.Traditionally and worldwide, maids come from an immigrant class, migrating from rural to developed areas, if not across borders, and leaving at the first opportunity of higher pay or prestige elsewhere.Living with household help has an additional disadvantage that Cowan does not consider- -the loss of privacy for the family.Perhaps letting the family cook or laundress go meant more work for mother, but the benefits of finally getting food cooked the way you like it, and not having the maid sort through the family's dirty laundry made it all worthwhile, especially if household technology made it possible to get the chores done by yourself anyway- -and get them done right for a change!

I know that it's impossible to write history free from subjective judgments.However, I have rarely encountered a history where the political leanings of the author come through so blatantly.Although Cowan never states explicitly that she is a "Marxist-feminist", the term arises in several places in the text, suggesting a clear political affinity.Cowan came of age and wrote this book in an earlier time.Today, perhaps, conditions have changed, taking the edge off the urgency of the issues she was implicitly battling by writing this book.The factual information and the window that she provides into household material culture is fascinating, if you can free it from her political agenda and wavering argumentation.



Click Here to see more reviews about: More Work For Mother: The Ironies Of Household Technology From The Open Hearth To The Microwave (Paperback)

Review of The Teenage Body Book (Paperback)

This book is incredible!I am 40 years old and know this book quite well. As a pre-teen, this book was a gift from my best friend's mom. I learned many things through this book that my mom had a hard time explaining.This book made it easy for me to explain topics to my own daughter (who is now 21) and who felt freely to talk to me about any subject, and still does.This book I passed to my daughter who remembers reading it as a pre-teen.We reference things in the book today since i have a step-daughter who is a pre-teen.I will now purchase a book for her very own.To the moms out there, do yourself and your child a favor and purchase this book.It is a great reference for the both of you.

Product Description
The award-winning guide, now fully updated--everything every teenager (and parent of a teenager) needs to know about nutrition, health, fitness, emotions, and sexuality.

This is the essential handbook for honest, forthright, up-to-date advice in dealing with every dilemma, doubt, and possibility facing teenagers at the threshold of the new century--including: *Overcoming "body image" anxiety *Drugs, drinking, smoking, and peer pressure *Sexual orientation and teenagers *Coping with depression, anxiety, and stress *Teen pregnancy, birth control, and parenthood *Sexually transmitted diseases *The latest information on fad diets, sports medicine, and medical advances *How to findconfidential and effective crisis counseling *The best websites for teens, and more

*Completely revised and updated
*Cyber-appendix provides e-mail addresses and websites of valuable sources
*Includes new sections on alternative medicines and therapies, and important new discoveries about ethnic differences in physical development
*Offers new "QuickScan" feature to highlight important informative facts, plus easy-to-access reference charts, treatments, action plans, and more
*The authors are experts in the field of health issues and young adults
*Illustrated throughout

About the Author
Kathy McCoy, Ph.D., is an award-winning author of eleven books, apsychotherapist, and Coordinator of the Clinical Ph.D. Program at the California School of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles. A former editor for 'Teen, Dr. McCoy has written hundreds of articles for such publications as Redbook, Readers' Digest, The New York Times, Family Circle, Glamour, and Ladies Home Journal. An online expert specializing in adolescent psychology, she has made numerous appearances on "The Today Show," "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Hour Magazine," "Sally Jessy Raphael," and "Home and Family."

Charles Wibbelsman, M.D., is an award-winning author and former "Dear Doctor" columnist for Teen magazine. Chair of Adolescent Medicine for the Permanente Medical Group, Northern California, he is chief of the Teen-Age Clinic at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Francisco, and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco Medical School. Dr. Wibbelsman is the news anchor for a Bay Area television series, "Medicine in the Nineties," and is an online expert specializing in adolescent health.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Teenage Body Book (Paperback)