The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in KidsÆ Favorite Meals
Parents will do almost anything to get their kids to eat healthier, but unfortunately, they’ve found that begging, pleading, threatening, and bribing don’t work. With their patience wearing thin, parents will “give in” for the sake of family peace, and reach for “kiddie” favorites–often nutritionally inferior choices such as fried fish sticks, mac n’ cheese, Pop-sicles, and cookies.

Missy Chase Lapine, former publisher of Eating Well magazine, faced the same challenges with her two young daughters, and she sought a solution. Now in The Sneaky Chef, Lapine presents over 75 recipes that ingeniously disguise the most important superfoods inside kids’ favorite meals. With the addition of a few simple make-ahead purees or clever replacements, (some may surprise you!) parents can pack more fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants in their kids’ foods. Examples of “Sneaky” recipes include:

-No Harm Chicken Parm
-Power Pizza
-Incognito Burritos
-Guerilla Grilled Cheese
-Brainy Brownies
-Health-by-Chocolate Cookies
-Quick fixes for Jell-O(R)

It’s a book chock-full of strategies that will help any parent incorporate better health for the whole family.

Author: Missy Chase Lapine
Paperback:  271 pages
Company: Running Press Book Publishers  (2007-04-04)
ISBN: 0762430753
List Price: $17.95
Amazon Price: $10.08
Used Price: $11.00

The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate
Unhappiness in marriage often has a simple root cause: we speak different love languages, believes Dr. Gary Chapman. While working as a marriage counselor for more than 30 years, he identified five love languages: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. In a friendly, often humorous style, he unpacks each one. Some husbands or wives may crave focused attention; another needs regular praise. Gifts are highly important to one spouse, while another sees fixing a leaky faucet, ironing a shirt, or cooking a meal as filling their “love tank.” Some partners might find physical touch makes them feel valued: holding hands, giving back rubs, and sexual contact. Chapman illustrates each love language with real-life examples from his counseling practice.

How do you discover your spouse’s - and your own - love language? Chapman’s short questionnaires are one of several ways to find out. Throughout the book, he also includes application questions that can be answered more extensively in the beautifully detailed companion leather journal (an exclusive Amazon.com set). Each section of the journal corresponds with a chapter from the book, offering opportunities for deeper reflection on your marriage.

Although some readers may find choosing to love a spouse that they no longer even like -hoping the feelings of affection will follow later- a difficult concept to swallow, Chapman promises that the results will be worth the effort. “Love is a choice,” says Chapman. “And either partner can start the process today.” –Cindy Crosby. This text refers to the Amazon.com Exclusive Journal & Paperback Book Set.

Author: Gary Chapman
Paperback:  204 pages
Company: Northfield Publishing  (1995-06-01)
ISBN: 1881273156
List Price: $14.99
Amazon Price: $5.09
Used Price: $1.94

The Dance of Anger: A Woman’s Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships

“Anger is a signal and one worth listening to,” writes Dr. Harriet Lerner, in her renowned classic that has transformed the lives of millions of readers.While anger deserves our attention and respect, women still learn to silence our anger, to deny it entirely, or to vent it in a way that leaves us feeling helpless and powerless. In this engaging and eminently wise book, Dr. Lerner teaches women to identify the true sources of our anger and to use anger as a powerful vehicle for creating lasting change.

Author: Harriet Lerner
Paperback:  256 pages
Company: Harper Paperbacks  (2005-05-01) (2005-05-03)
ISBN: 006074104X
List Price: $13.95
Amazon Price: $7.85
Used Price: $5.09

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s
Ever since he was small, John Robison had longed to connect with other people, but by the time he was a teenager, his odd habits—an inclination to blurt out non sequiturs, avoid eye contact, dismantle radios, and dig five-foot holes (and stick his younger brother in them)—had earned him the label “social deviant.” No guidance came from his mother, who conversed with light fixtures, or his father, who spent evenings pickling himself in sherry. It was no wonder he gravitated to machines, which could, at least, be counted on.

After fleeing his parents and dropping out of high school, his savant-like ability to visualize electronic circuits landed him a gig with KISS, for whom he created their legendary fire-breathing guitars. Later, he drifted into a “real” job, as an engineer for a major toy company. But the higher Robison rose in the company, the more he had to pretend to be “normal” and do what he simply couldn’t: communicate. It wasn’t worth the paycheck.
It was not until he was forty that an insightful therapist told him he had the form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome. That understanding transformed the way Robison saw himself—and the world.

Look Me in the Eye is the moving, darkly funny story of growing up with Asperger’s at a time when the diagnosis simply didn’t exist. A born storyteller, Robison takes you inside the head of a boy whom teachers and other adults regarded as “defective,” who could not avail himself of KISS’s endless supply of groupies, and who still has a peculiar aversion to using people’s given names (he calls his wife “Unit Two”). He also provides a fascinating reverse angle on the younger brother he left at the mercy of their nutty parents—the boy who would later change his name to Augusten Burroughs and write the bestselling memoir Running with Scissors.

Ultimately, this is the story of Robison’s journey from his world into ours, and his new life as a husband, father, and successful small business owner—repairing his beloved high-end automobiles. It’s a strange, sly, indelible account—sometimes alien, yet always deeply human.

Author: John Elder Robison
Hardcover:  304 pages
Company: Crown  (2007-09-25) (2007-09-25)
ISBN: 0307395987
List Price: $25.95
Amazon Price: $16.00
Used Price: $15.00

Thoughts & Feelings: Taking Control of Your Moods and Your Life (Workbook Workbook)

Thoughts and Feelings adapts the powerful and widely adaptable techniques of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) into a set of tools readers can use, not to solve a particular problem, but to overcome any of the emotional and behavioral changes that life throws their way. CBT recognizes that most negative feelings arise from confused, irrational thoughts. By learning to identify and change these thoughts and by replacing destructive and limiting behaviors with new, more constructive ones, readers can start steering their lives in the direction they want to go.

Changes to this new edition include revisions and updates to the core CBT chapters as well as a new chapter on how to use mindfulness to bring focus and intention to the process of change.

Author: Matthew McKay, Martha Davis, Patrick Fanning
Paperback:  304 pages
Company: New Harbinger Publications  (2007-08)
ISBN: 1572245107
List Price: $21.95
Amazon Price: $12.30
Used Price: $13.05