Book Review: Nurture Shock

It has been called "Freakonomics for Parenting," and that seems pretty accurate to me. This book was very interesting, offering new and different views on everything from praising your kid to how much sleep they need and when.

I would recommend this book for parents, teachers, and care takers, but just like any other parenting books you can't take it as scripture.

I think they did a good job of sharing studies, questions, conclusions, correlations, etc in a way that hands you the results but doesn't preach an absolute way to manage issues. It is less of a 'parenting' book and more of a 'maybe we're approaching these issues the wrong way, or maybe not' book.

Worth a read if you have the time and are around kids of any age!

Charlie!

As if it weren't great enough that PW has turned Black Heels into a book, now she has gone and written a childrens' book about Charlie!

It is due out at the end of April, right about the time I should be coming out of my "I just had a baby haze" long enough to blink, and maybe even read through the book once!

I could not be more excited about this book - and I hope it becomes a series.

Thanks, Ree! You made my day!

Wordless Wednesday

Summer Reading

Last week I finished the newest Pat Conroy book, South of Broad, and as usual I loved it! It felt different than many of his other books in some ways, but very much like them in other ways. As with his other books I highly recommend this new one, though watch out for the end - it gets kinda scary/suspenseful at times, enough that I had to tear myself away so that I could finish it in the safety and security of a Metro Bus rather than right before bed.

Disclaimer: Mom, I don't recommend this book to you - it is not a happy book and you would hate it.

Speaking of Mom, she gave me a hard back copy of The Lords of Discipline (my favorite book of Conroy's as well as my favorite book overall) that was signed by Conroy himself, personalized to me! I love seeing that book on my shelf so much that I purchased an older paperback version to be used as a loaner to friends. I won't part with that book for anything!

Conroy's work is very Charleston-heavy, and it makes for interesting summer reading. It is leagues above the other stuff I read at the beach, this actually qualifies as literature! He is pretty verbose, but if you have a love or an interest in Charleston or any other similar sea-side town I think you will appreciate his work.

If you aren't sure, I'd start with My Losing Season. I loved this autobiographical account of his time at the Citadel, and I seem to remember it being a little less verbose than his fictional pieces. Although I don't have a paperback copy of that one so you'll have to check it out of a real library.

Book Tours

On Monday night I went to sewing as usual, then when I got home I was super tired and ready to crash for the night.

Instead of crashing, Frank and I headed into DC to the ESPN Zone to stand in line for 2ish hours. At the end of the line was this

That is Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy! His book release was Tuesday, hence the midnight book signing and his first stop was DC. I was so excited to meet him, and we were even able to make him laugh while we were standing there!

You can see the big dumb grin on my face, I think that is what I look like when I meet famous people...I should work on that.

Sports Guys' buddies tend to attend his public appearances, this time it was House. We got him to sign the book, too!

I had so much fun staying up past my bedtime and meeting my favorite sports writer. Reading his book will take some work as it is 700 pages about the NBA....but I'm willing to give it the college try because his last book was so good.

I'm also now feeling motivated to go see The Pioneer Woman when she is on the east coast for her book tour in December - she is only going to be in the Philly area and then in NYC so it would be a bit of a road trip either way. Her book is a cook book, and I promised Frank that I would learn to cook if he bought it for me...he pre-ordered it the day I said that, looks like I'll be learning to cook starting later this week :)

Hooray for book tours and meeting your favorite authors/podcasters/bloggers!