Great Books » Bookworm Broadcast

Oh my! Two teenagers? What am I going to do with teenagers? Teenagers are trouble, right? There are so many things I need to talk to them about now, and so many things that my husband and I have to look out for in an effort to keep them safe and healthy. And they are often so hard to talk to – they get embarassed, or bored, or just plain shut down when we want to discuss something important. I found a book, though, that might help with some of this. Actually, it is a series of books. The first one I want to get, though, is called Ten Talks Parents Must Have With Their Children About Drugs and Choices by Xenia Becher and Dominic Cappello. So many kids these days wind up in drug rehab, so I think keeping the conversation flowing is a really good idea – before your kids get into any trouble! The reviews on this book at Amazon are very promising to me, because, the people mention that their teen just would not talk to them, but, using some of the conversation starters in the book, their children actually opened up to them! That book is definitely going in my wish list!

Sammie and I have been looking at this really neat book called Junk Drawer Jewelry by Rachel Di Salle and Ellen Warwick. We both love making stuff, and she has been into making jewelry a lot lately. This book not only caters to our craftiness, and our love of jewelry – but, also to my ‘hippie-ness’! You make jewelry from things you find around your house, instead of going out and buying a bunch of fancy-schmancy beads and gems and stuff. I just think that is super-cool! (I think that is my new catch phrase – ‘super-cool’ – I’ve been saying it a lot lately. Of course, nothing could replace ‘groovy’! Ha!)

I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie and I just loved it! Every week when it would come on, it was like I was there with Laura, and it was so amazing – it was such a different time. A couple of years ago, my son started reading the books and became totally hooked on them! And now, my daughter is doing the same thing!

And Sammie is always begging me to take her to see Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri. That is the house that Laura and Almonzo and Rose lived in and where Laura wrote all of the books. There is a museum there now, and almost all of Laura and Almonzo’s possessions are there and you can go through and really get a feel for what it was like to live in their time. It would be so cool to show my kids the 19th Century furniture! There is a cypress stump table made by Almonzo. There is a lapdesk that Almonzo made for Laura, in which she had hidden the $100 for the down payment for the Rocky Ridge farm. There also is a clock that Almonzo had given to the family for Christmas, 1886 – that he wound every night before he went to bed.

The more I tell you about it, the more excited I am getting about it! I would so love to take the kids one day, and I sure hope we get to!

GO READ A BOOK!

Today I want to tell you about a different kind of book than I usually talk about here. This book was written by a good friend of mine. She is an esthetician, and she has given me a lot of good advice about skin care products. She even sent me some – all the way from New Jersey!

She wrote a book to help out people who are in training to become estheticians. She says that when she was in school, she was always looking for a book to help with her studies that wasn’t too technical, so that she could understand what was being taught. Some of the questions that she had seemed too simple and some of them veered off topic too much. So she wrote the book to help skin care students out with their studies – the book she wished that she had access to during her own studies. The book is called, Skin Care Student Q and A, and her name is Deborah Schwabe. I’m sure it will be a great help to those training in her field.

GO READ A BOOK!

I know this book is not new and it was really over a year ago that everyone was talking about it, maybe even two years. I have finally read it, though! And I am so glad that I did! And really, this book is timeless – it should continue to be talked about. It was so good. I can easily see myself reading this one again and again! If you haven’t read it, you should really check it out! I was kind of sad when I got to the end because it was over. I just love it when a book touches me like that!

GO READ A BOOK!