Review: Bossypants

I read Bossypants by Tina Fey in less than a day mostly because I'm only home for the weekend and it's due back at the library before I get back from my trip to Portland next week. But also because it's a funny, light read.

If you think Tina Fey is funny, you'll think this book is funny. But if you don't, you won't. And if you don't like Tina Fey, why would you pick up this book anyway? There were a lot of little funny moments throughout, and I even laughed out loud a couple of times, which I don't do often.

She comes across as very down-to-earth and a little self-deprecating--but in a humorous way, not a pity-me way. I liked that she's honest rather than stating opinions because they're popular. I also appreciated that she gave equal weight to celebrating her daughter's third birthday as she did to having Oprah appear on 30 Rock or impersonating Sarah Palin on SNL.

One point of interest for me in this book was her take on motherhood. She often struggles with the fact that she can't spend more time with her daughter, but knows that stay-at-home moms sometimes have break downs because they're home with young children all the time. Which I can attest to.

A small nugget from her advice on motherhood:

"'Sleep when the baby sleeps.' Everyone knows this classic tip, but I say why stop there? Scream when your baby screams. Take Benadryl when your baby takes Benadryl. And walk around pantsless when your baby walks around pantsless."

Review: Your Best Birth

I haven't posted many book reviews lately because I've been reading pregnancy and birthing books. I read Better Birth by Denise Spatafora. It was good, but a little too touchy-feely for me. And I didn't feel there was a lot of information (particularly the breathing and meditating exercises for birthing) that I hadn't read elsewhere.

One book I really did enjoy was Your Best Birth by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein. They wrote it after the debut of their documentary The Business of Being Born.

This book was very accessible, easy to read, and written in simple language for the average woman (not the medical community). There is no doubt that Ricki and Abby have their opinions about birth, but they do not shove their opinions down your throat. They give straightforward information about various birth options and interventions, including their history, their side effects, and the times when they are medically necessary.

What I liked best about the book is that they are trying to inform women about the various options out there without trying to tell you what you should do. They also realize that you have to be flexible--birth and your baby are not going to follow your plan. But they encourage women to be informed and make active choices instead of laying back and simply letting things happen to them.

To the Children of Troy

For the 1971 opening of a children's library, a librarian wrote to various authors and asked them to write a letter to the children of the town about what libraries mean to them.

Here's a link to the letters, if you want to check it out:
Letters to the Children of Troy, 1971

I'd like to frame a copy of Dr. Seuss's letter to put in my future home library.

Review: Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half

This book was actually a quick read, despite its thickness. And you don't even have to read the entire book, you can pick and choose categories that interest you.

Most of the principles in this book won't actually work for my family right now because we live so far from any grocery store and there is very little competition between the stores we can go to because they are so few and far between. We also don't have access to a Sunday paper (thus coupons and store ads). Some money saving methods they use would also take a long time to implement.

The appeal of this book though is that you can use one or all methods, and use them to varying degrees. They menu plan for an entire month, but you can start by trying to menu plan for a week and move your way up.

They also cook and freeze about fifteen meals to be used over a month's time. But it is easy to start this on a smaller scale by cooking a double portion and freezing the extra for another meal. I've been doing this with soups for a while now, but will look into expanding that to other meals (once I start cooking again after the nausea of the first trimester settles).

A few things that I never anticipate implementing is freezing milk and bread. I just don't like them once they've been frozen and thawed, so it would not save money if you never end up eating it. I would like to try freezing more fresh fruits and veggies (when they're in season and thus cheaper) and maybe cooking large portions of meats and freezing them as thawing and cooking meat is often what takes the most time in daily meal preparation.

Especially if you can pick it up from the library, I recommend taking a look at this book. You can disregard any principles that don't appeal to you and your lifestyle, and all the methods are broken into little (or big) steps you can take and can be adjusted for a single person or a large family.