Kell's 2009 Reading...

[DanC_84]

When I read the series, I didn't really know what the rest of the world really thought about them. So, I was surprised at first when I heard people actually hated Breaking Dawn. But now I can see why it wouldn't appeal.

 

Yeah, I think that maybe the perceptions of others impacted on me a little. My girlfriend had already read them and did not like Breaking Dawn at all, particularly the ending, so I was prepared for a little bit of a let down. It was pretty much exactly the type of ending I would have expected though.

[Ben]

One thing I didn't mind about Breaking Dawn, and that was the ending. I know I'm in the minority here, but I enjoyed it..

[Kell]

The No Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night

Synopsis:

A breakthrough approach for a good night's sleep - with no tears.There are two schools of thought for encouraging babies to sleep through the night: the hotly debated Ferber technique of letting the baby "cry it out," or the grin-and-bear-it solution of getting up from dusk to dawn as often as necessary. If you don't believe in letting your baby cry it out, but desperately want to sleep, there is now a third option, presented in Elizabeth Pantley's sanity-saving book The No-Cry Sleep Solution.

 

Pantley's successful solution has been tested and proven effective by scores of mothers and their babies from across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Based on her research, Pantley's guide provides you with effective strategies to overcoming naptime and nighttime problems. The No-Cry Sleep Solution offers clearly explained, step-by-step ideas that steer your little ones toward a good night's sleep - all with no crying.

 

Tips from The No-Cry Sleep Solution:

- Uncover the stumbling blocks that prevent baby from sleeping through the night

- Determine - and work with - baby's biological sleep rhythms

- Create a customized, step-by-step plan to get baby to sleep through the night

- Use the Persistent Gentle Removal System to teach baby to fall asleep without breastfeeding, bottlefeeding, or using a pacifier

My thoughts:

There are some really nice ideas in this book, but I can't help wishing that my own baby could read the book himself, understand it, and act upon it, because I have to say, it didn't work for me.

 

As it turned out, we had already tried / were already trying many of the ideas in this book and to no avail. The only thing we hadn't already done was keeping a sleep log, which, in the end, served only one purpose - to frustrate and stress me out, which I did not need!

 

I've now been following the book since the beginning of the year and two and a half months in there is little to no improvement. Some nights our baby sleeps in three-and-a-half-hour stints, which is all good and well, but more often than not, he still wakes every one-and-a-half to two hours on average. We've come to the conclusion that he's a very light sleeper (not unlike his Mum!).

 

I'm sure these techniques will work for some families, unfortunately it didn't work for us and I'm now left feeling that I've wasted time and energy stressing over completing sleep logs and trying various techniques when I should just be enjoying my baby and letting him get on with sleeping how he wants - he'll eventually sleep through the night in his own time - all babies are different.

 

The book is well enough written, with a friendly tone, but the chatty little anecdotes from Mums extolling the virtues of the Pantley method that are supposed to encourage and reassure Mums have the opposite effect when the system isn't working for you and your little one.

 

Rating: 5/10

 

Other titles by this author:

The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers

The No-Cry Nap Solution

Hidden Messages: What Our Words and Actions Are Really Telling Our Children

Edited March 15, 2009 by Kell

[bethany725]

One thing I didn't mind about Breaking Dawn, and that was the ending. I know I'm in the minority here, but I enjoyed it..

 

I'm w/you on this, Ben.. I had no trouble with it at all.

 

Kell, my heart goes out to you as you deal with this erratic sleeping pattern thing.. must be so tough! I just read Jennifer Weiner's "Little Earthquakes" and it discussed tons of problems like these... it's fresh on my mind as I read your last review.

[Michelle]

 

I'm sure these techniques will work for some families, unfortunately it didn't work for us and I'm now left feeling that I've wasted time and energy stressing over completing sleep logs and trying various techniques when I should just be enjoying my baby and letting him get on with sleeping how he wants - he'll eventually sleep through the night in his own time - all babies are different.

 

Kell, this is so true of most of the books about sleep - Bethany was terrible, but the books (and advice from others) made me even more stressed, and feeling a failure, instead of trying to work with her, and her routines etc.

[Kell]

Yes, I've decided just to go with whatever rhythms Xander dictates - he knows when he needs to sleep. I figure he'll eventually work out that he doesn't need to wake up quite so often in his own good time. There's no point in fighting it!

[Kell]

The Accidental Time Traveller by Sharon Griffiths

Synopsis:

Life on Mars meets It's a Wonderful Life in this inventive romantic comedy that looks at what we can learn from the past!

 

Journalist Rosie Hartford is having an odd day. Or one hell of a hangover...Having had a blazing row with her boyfriend - fellow journalist Will - she reluctantly sets off for her latest assignment: an interview with one of the residents of The Meadows, a grotty local estate about to become the set for a major reality TV show, The 1950s House. But stepping through the front door, Rosie finds herself in a different house - and transported back in time. Everything is grey and drab - the food, the clothes, the TV. It's like the world is in permanent black and white. It's not long before Rosie realises what's going on. She's obviously a contestant on the 1950s show! She's pretty miffed she's not been given warning, but she might as well give it a go - after all, the cameras are always watching and the first rule of reality TV is always keep smiling! But what really sends Rosie into a spin is the fact that Will is there too - but here he is known as Billy and has been married since he was 16 to Rosie's best friend.In the 1950s, Will/Billy is a family man and devoted father, a side to him that Rosie finds hard to imagine.

 

He grows vegetables, repairs shoes and even has a shed. He is, in fact, a grown up. The truth slowly dawns on Rosie that this is reality, not reality TV. After she gets over the shock, she begins to embrace daily life 1950s-style. Gone are the excessive consumerism, drifting relationships and cheap thrills of the Noughties. In its place is make do and mend, commitment, duty and honour. Together Rosie and Billy make a great team, covering dramatic local stories, and inevitably growing closer until Rosie falls in love with Will/Billy all over again. But now he has a wife and kids and is out of bounds... Unless she can get back to 2008!

 

My thoughts:

I don't often read chick-lit, but this one kind of sparkles in the same way that a good rom-com film does. Yes, it's light and a little fluffy, but it's funny and sweet and sometimes serious too. I was surprised at how believable the whole thing was, despite the "time slip" element of the plot - it all slotted together very nicely. The characters were likeable and familiar, the situations were realistic and the developing relationships were wonderful to read.

 

It's a lighthearted look at how a modern woman copes when plunged into a time when all mod cons are missing and she has to make do with what's available, learning new skills and discovering that she's capable of far more than she ever imagined.

 

As a bonus, there's a "which decade should you live in?" quiz at the back (incidentally, it turns out I'd be right at home in the fifties!).

 

Rating: 7/10

 

Other titles by this author:

None yet - this is her debut novel

[Kell]

The Folklore of Discworld by Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson

Synopsis:

Most of us grow up having always known to touch wood or cross our fingers, and what happens when a princess kisses a frog or a boy pulls a sword from a stone, yet sadly, some of these things are now beginning to be forgotten. Legends, myths, fairytales: our world is made up of the stories we told ourselves about where we came from and how we got there. It is the same on Discworld, except that beings that on Earth are creatures of the imagination, like vampires, trolls, witches and, possibly, gods, are real, alive and in some cases kicking on the Disc. In "The Folklore of Discworld", Terry Pratchett teams up with leading British folklorist Jacqueline Simpson to give an irreverent yet illuminating look at the living myths and folklore that are reflected, celebrated and affectionately libelled in the uniquely imaginative universe of Discworld.

 

My thoughts:

This book is such fun to read! The way it's set out makes it easy to dip into every now and then; as there's no plot to follow, you don't lose the plot. However, it would also be just as easy to read straight through - and every bit as enjoyable as any of Pratchett's novels.

 

The folklore of Discworld takes all the myths, legends and rituals of Pratchett's now famous discoid world and links them all back to their "round world" counterparts and holds the reader's interest from start to finish - personally, I could hardly wait to find out what little gem would come next as I perused the pages.

 

A must for all Pratchett fans and also a lovely addition to the collection of anyone who loves folklore in general.

 

Rating: 9/10

 

Other titles by this author:

Pratchett - The Discworld series; Good Omens (with Neil Gaiman)

Simpson - British Dragons; The Lore of the Land; Folklore of Sussex; Everyday Life in the Viking Age

[Kell]

The Cave by Kate Mosse

Synopsis:

March 1928. Frederick Smith is on a motoring holiday in the mountains of south west France. He is caught in a violent storm and his car crashes. He is forced to seek shelter in a boarding house in the nearby village of Axat. There is only one other guest in the tiny hotel, a pale and beautiful young woman called Marie. As the storm rages outside, she explains how the region was ripped apart by wars of religion in the 14th century. She tells how, one terrible night in March 1328, all the inhabitants of Axat were forced to flee from the soldiers into the mountains. The villagers took refuge in a cave, but when the fighting was over, no one came back. Their bodies were never found. Axat itself became a ghost town. When Fred wakes the following morning, Marie has gone. Worse still, his car will take several days to repair and he has to stay at the boarding house for a few days more. To pass the time, he explores the mountains. Then he realises it is almost 600 years to the day since the villagers disappeared. He decides to go and look for the cave himself. Perhaps, he thinks, he might even find Marie? It is a decision he will live to regret.

 

My thoughts:

At just under 100 pages, this little gem of a novella lives up to its Quick Read origins very well - you can easily read it in your lunch hour and it would certainly entertain you admirably well through that time, so it's probably just as well it's short or you might forget to go back to work!

 

It's very predictable, especially to those who have already read Labyrinth, and as the reader you are constantly several steps ahead of the protagonist, but it doesn't matter - events unfold exactly as one hopes they will. The Cave reads like a classic ghost story, but that isn't a bad thing, as setting even the "modern" part of the story a little in the past gives it a slightly more mysterious air and actually adds to its appeal.

 

Definitely one for fans of Kate Mosse, historical fiction, traditional ghost stories and France - The Cave has it all covered within 97 pages of delightful prose that quickly gets into the action and carries the reader along smoothly and swiftly to the perfect conclusion.

 

Rating: 7

 

Other titles by this author:

Eskimo Kissing (1996)

Crucifix Lane (1998)

Labyrinth (2005)

Sepulchre (2007)

The Bone Tree (2009)

The Winter Ghosts (2009)

Edited March 29, 2009 by Kell

[Lucybird]

This sounds quite good, I may add it to my wishlist

[Kell]

After reading three Danny Wallaces in a row, I'm now moving onto something I would usually not read - light, fluffy chick-lit! However, as the lead character is a 32-y-o woman with a 2-y-o daughter surrounded by NY Yummy Mummies, (something that sems to be appearing on the shelves a lot lately), I'm wondering if this is the next step in chick-lit - Mum-Lit! Anyway, the book is called Momzillas and it's by Jill Kargman. We'l see how we go with it.

[Kell]

I did it! One book finished for each week of the year - hurrah!

[lexiepiper]

Congrats Kell

[Angel]

I did it! One book finished for each week of the year - hurrah!

 

That is an achievement as with young children around it can become impossible to read. It does improve - but even with my 2 kids at 11 and 14 yrs old I still get plenty of interruptions

[Peacefield]

Congrats, Kell, wow! That is great .

[Charm]

Congratulations Kell!

[Kate]

That's great! Well done!

[Janet]

Well done!