Book Review
The Kissing Hand
Chester Raccoon doesn’t want to go to school–he wants to stay home with his mother. She assures him that he’ll love school–with its promise of new friends, new toys, and new books. Even better, she has a special secret that’s been in the family for years–the Kissing Hand. This secret, she tells him, will make school seem as cozy as home. She takes her son’s hand, spreads his tiny fingers into a fan and kisses his palm–smack dab in the middle: “Chester felt his mother’s kiss rush from his hand, up his arm, and into his heart.” Whenever he feels lonely at school, all he has to do is press his hand to his cheek to feel the warmth of his mother’s kiss. Chester is so pleased with his Kissing Hand that he–in a genuinely touching moment–gives his mom a Kissing Hand, too, to comfort her when he is away. Audrey Penn’s The Kissing Hand, published by the Child Welfare League of America, is just the right book for any child taking that fledgling plunge into preschool–or for any youngster who is temporarily separated from home or loved ones. The rough but endearing raccoon illustrations are as satisfying and soothing for anxious children as the simple story. (Ages 5 and older) –Karin Snelson
Author: Audrey Penn
Hardcover: 32 pages
Company: Tanglewood Press (2006-06-25)
ISBN: 1933718005
List Price: $16.95
Amazon Price: $8.80
Used Price: $7.53
Hands Are Not for Hitting
Author: Martine Agassi Ph.D.
Paperback: 35 pages
Company: Free Spirit Publishing (2000-05)
ISBN: 1575420775
List Price: $11.95
Amazon Price: $6.68
Used Price: $6.60
Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness
In this age of do-it-yourself health care (heck, if the doctor only sees you for 10 minutes each visit, what other options are there?), Change Your Brain, Change Your Life fits in perfectly. Filled with “brain prescriptions” (among them cognitive exercises and nutritional advice) that are geared toward readers who’ve experienced anxiety, depression, impulsiveness, excessive anger or worry, and obsessive behavior, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life milks the mind-body connection for all it’s worth.
Written by a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who has also authored a book on attention deficit disorder, Change Your Brain contains dozens of brain scans of patients with various neurological problems, from caffeine, nicotine, and heroin addiction to manic-depression to epilepsy. These scans, often showing large gaps in neurological activity or areas of extreme overactivity, are downright frightening to look at, and Dr. Amen should know better than to resort to such scare tactics. But he should also be commended for advocating natural remedies, including deep breathing, guided imagery, meditation, self-hypnosis, and biofeedback for treating disorders that are so frequently dealt with by prescription only.
Author: Daniel G. Amen
Paperback: 352 pages
Company: Three Rivers Press (1999-12-31) (1999-12-31)
ISBN: 0812929985
List Price: $15.00
Amazon Price: $8.39
Used Price: $5.48
Other People’s Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See
Fevered notes scribbled on napkins after first dates. Titillating text messages. It’s-not-you-it’s-me relationship-enders. In Other People’s Love Letters, Bill Shapiro has searched America’s attics, closets, and cigar boxes and found actual letters–unflinchingly honest missives full of lust, provocation, guilt, and vulnerability–written only for a lover’s eyes. Modern love, of course, is not all bliss, and in these pages you’ll find the full range of a relationship, with its whispered promises as well as its heartache. But what at first appears to be a deliciously voyeuristic peek into other people’s most passionate moments, will ultimately reawaken your own desires and tenderness…because when you read these letters, you’ll find the heart you’re looking into is actually your own.
• “i think UR great. wanna have wine & Tequila again sometime?”
• “I can’t believe you’re real, and I think about you constantly in some way or the other all day. I haven’t given the finger to anyone driving since I met you.”
• “With you I learned how to fight cleaner, how to talk things out better, and how to make a strong loving family out of nothing. These are priceless gifts that I will carry with me the rest of my life. One more thing you did for me: you left, and I had to get through it.”
• “P.S. I look forward to your letters too much to call. Also, where do you stand on chains?”
Author: Bill Shapiro
Hardcover: 192 pages
Company: Clarkson Potter (2007-10-30) (2007-10-30)
ISBN: 0307382648
List Price: $22.50
Amazon Price: $14.30
Used Price: $14.06
The author of How to Be Idle, Tom Hodgkinson, now shares his delightfully irreverent musings on what true independence means and what it takes to be free. The Freedom Manifesto draws on French existentialists, British punks, beat poets, hippies and yippies, medieval thinkers, and anarchists to provide a new, simple, joyful blueprint for modern living. From growing your own vegetables to canceling your credit cards to reading Jean-Paul Sartre, here are excellent suggestions for nourishing mind, body, and spirit—witty, provocative, sometimes outrageous, yet eminently sage advice for breaking with convention and living an uncluttered, unfettered, and therefore happier, life.
Author: Tom Hodgkinson
Paperback: 352 pages
Company: Harper Perennial (2007-12-01) (2007-12-18)
ISBN: 0060823224
List Price: $13.95
Amazon Price: $8.26
Used Price: $8.25
Posted: December 28th, 2007 under Books.
Comments: none
Write a comment