First off, welcome to all the new names who are stopping by to play! It’s always nice to see. 
Welcome to this week’s By Any Other Name book game!
We didn’t quite get to the challenge number of titles last week so the number stays the same.
The numbers stay the same this week, so here we go!
If you’re new to the challenge, this is a game from my dear friend Calliope that gets us to play with book titles.
The game works like this:
1. Each week I will choose and a book title that features that word.
2. Then it’s your turn to come up with book titles containing the same word, without duplication (yes, that includes my titles). The author would be nice, too, in case I want to check it out.
It’s really not complicated. I pick a word and you list titles with that word. Easy peasy.
The current challenge:
Titles to Reach: Seventeen
Titles Per Person: Three
What can you win? The winner receives any one of the books on this page along with a bookmark (or two!).
I’ve decided this is a much better way of doing things rather than offering the SAME book over and over. Plus, I will be adding to the giveaway shelf as much as I can, so keep checking in to see what’s on offer.
So if you’d like a chance to win, join in!
If you don’t reach the goal, we’ll try again next week. If you reach the goal, I’ll have a brand new challenge for you next Wednesday where you’ll get another chance to win a book – regardless if you have won a book previously!
The word this week is:
Life
I Say: Life and How to Survive It by John Cleese and Robyn Skynner
You Say…
A lovely little bit of mailbox loot that I’m looking forward to reading.
About the Book
Leading dietician Arlene Normand shares her no-nonsense, tough-love approach to dieting. Her 10 Commandments will give you the tools and the motivation to achieve your weight-loss goals.
This is not a fad diet. In fact it’s not a diet – it’s a practical lifestyle plan. With Arlene’s guidance and sensible advice, you can lose weight – and keep it off forever.
The Long Story
While I didn’t see this so much as a ‘tough love’ approach to weight loss, The 10 Commandments starts from a more practical standpoint when it comes to becoming healthy. Rather than setting you up with a plan you have to follow to the letter, she helps guide you to creating a healthier lifestyle.
Using her ten commandments – ‘eat slowly’ and ‘get organized’ among them – you get a solid base and start to sorting out your health life. While she mentioned a lot of things I already knew, it provided a good refresher for getting me refocused on my health.
One annoyance for me is Normand’s approach to sugar. First, it appears that she is fine with sugar and more concerned about fat. Then she later says that ‘lite’ products often have the fat content replaced with sugar, which isn’t good. This sort of back and forth irked me – especially in a book people who are looking for solid guidance might read.
That being said, this book also provided me with a beautiful light bulb moment when I read: “Your worst time for eating is your best time for exercise.” That small section gave me a completely different way at structuring my exercise time to cut off the urge to munch. (For me, this is late afternoon before my husband is home from work.)
Above all, though, I loved how Normand took Australia’s food culture into account and listed tips on what are healthy choices for Chinese, Indian, Thai, Japanese, etc. I found that quick guide very useful.
The Short Story
I highly recommend this book if you are just getting started on getting your healthy life going. And even if you’re not, this book can be a great refresher to get you motivated again.
***
Rating: 4 stars
[What do the ratings mean?]
***
The 10 Commandments of Losing Weight
By Arlene Normand
http://www.dietpty.com.au/
ISBN: 0143003216
Length: 305 pages
First off, welcome to all the new names who are stopping by to play! It’s always nice to see.
Welcome to this week’s By Any Other Name book game!
We didn’t quite get to the challenge number of titles last week so the number stays the same.
The numbers stay the same this week, so here we go!
If you’re new to the challenge, this is a game from my dear friend Calliope that gets us to play with book titles.
The game works like this:
1. Each week I will choose and a book title that features that word.
2. Then it’s your turn to come up with book titles containing the same word, without duplication (yes, that includes my titles). The author would be nice, too, in case I want to check it out.
It’s really not complicated. I pick a word and you list titles with that word. Easy peasy.
The current challenge:
Titles to Reach: Seventeen
Titles Per Person: Three
What can you win? The winner receives any one of the books on this page along with a bookmark (or two!).
I’ve decided this is a much better way of doing things rather than offering the SAME book over and over. Plus, I will be adding to the giveaway shelf as much as I can, so keep checking in to see what’s on offer.
So if you’d like a chance to win, join in!
If you don’t reach the goal, we’ll try again next week. If you reach the goal, I’ll have a brand new challenge for you next Wednesday where you’ll get another chance to win a book – regardless if you have won a book previously!
The word this week is:
Winter
I Say: Winter’s Gift by Jane Monroe Donovan
You Say…
I don’t get to do this very often, but I’ve had a lot of mailbox loot come in over the past week.
1. Favorite childhood book?
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
2. What are you reading right now?
A couple of books… The one getting the most focus right now is The Ten Commandments of Losing Weight by Arlene Normand (I know what you’re thinking, but it’s a decent read.)
3. What books do you have on request at the library?
Nothing at the moment
4. Bad book habit?
Hanging onto books I don’t like. Why keep them? I’m trying to ‘polish’ down my collection to only books I adore.
5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
Four books: The one I mentioned I’m reading now, The Beck Diet for Life (hoping to pick up a few good tips), The Art of Raw Living Food by Doreen Virtue and Body Intelligence by Dr. Edward Abramson. (Can you tell I have a theme?)
6. Do you have an e-reader?
No. I wouldn’t mind one, but someone would have to buy it for me.
7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
I would normally answer one at a time, but experience teaches me that I usually have more than one on the go.
8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
I’m a bit more organized with reading and actually take the time to do it rather than letting the time find me (which it rarely does).
9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?)
Hm. Probably Italian for Beginners by Kristin Harmel. You can read the review for my nitpicks.
10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?
If I can go by the past year rather than ‘in 2010′ I’ll go with The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy By Andrew Keen. I found it just plain fascinating.
11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Regularly. It comes with the territory when you review for people.
12. What is your reading comfort zone?
When I was younger – epic fantasy and historical romance. Now… anything with the romance element.
13. Can you read on the bus?
Yes, but I prefer not to. Public transport is my time for cooking up my own stories.
14. Favorite place to read?
In my recliner.
15. What is your policy on book lending?
I don’t have a policy, but I’ll only do it with people I really trust – in general and trust to take care of my books.
16. Do you ever dog-ear books?
No. Do it enough and the corner will come off.
17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
No. I tried once as an experiment, but I prefer taking notes on a note card that doubles as a bookmark.
18. Not even with text books?
Nope.
19. What is your favorite language to read in?
English. I’m not proficient enough in any other language to read books in those languages.
20. What makes you love a book?
Characters and romance, mostly. A place can really take me, too, but that has only happened on a couple occasions (Red Dust by Fleur McDonald…)
21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
I love plenty of books, but I don’t often do a lot of recommending. When I do, it’s because a book make me think and/or changed my views on something. For example, the Ender series by Orson Scott Card.
22. Favorite genre?
These days, I really don’t know. I read so much of this and that.
23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)
Steampunk and urban fantasy. I’ve heard a heap about both but read little to nothing in those genres.
Favorite biography?
Another tough one. Stephen King’s On Writing pops into mind, though that was only part biography.
25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
Certainly. I don’t think there is anything wrong with it.
26. Favorite cookbook?
Margaret Fulton’s Encyclopedia of Cookery.
27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?
Inspirational… I haven’t finished it, but The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance really got me thinking not far into the book.
28. Favorite reading snack?
Strawberries.
29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
I don’t really have one. I tend to avoid over-hyped books.
30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
A lot, but only because there are now so many critics out there. You’ll always end up agreeing with someone if everyone is giving an opinion.
31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
It’s a necessity of life. You can’t like every book you read. So long as you can fairly and even-handedly express why you don’t like a book, you’ll be fine. Or, you should be, in an ideal world where authors realized that bad reviews are an opportunity to make their future work better rather than taking a bad review of their book as a personal insult.
32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
Assuming that if I can read it, I can speak it as well, Japanese. I love anime and graphic novels, but I’m at a complete loss with the symbols. On the other hand, Egyptian would be brilliant.
33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
Probably The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson simply because it is one of the few hyped books I’ve read (because it came so highly recommended from a friend) and because the book is bloody massive.
34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
I can’t think of anything I’m too nervous to read at the moment.
35. Favorite Poet?
My husband.
36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
Usually two to four.
37. How often have you returned book to the library unread?
Never unread. On a few occasions, unfinished.
38. Favorite fictional character?
Polgara the Sorceress from a book by the same name by David and Leigh Eddings.
39. Favorite fictional villain?
No my favourite so much as the one that always sticks in my head when villians are mentioned: Starlaughter Sunsoar from Sara Douglass’ The Wayfarer Redemption. Nutty as they come and literally tears people apart.
40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?
Usually none, as hotel rooms are my muse, but if any… Something light and fluffy or non-fiction (being in a good, relaxed mood makes learning much easier).
41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.
Probably a year, if we’re not counting the newspaper. I think I was a little burned out after uni, moving to Australia, starting up a new life, etc.
42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
Memoirs about child abuse or books that involve detailed child abuse. I usually manage to avoid them all, but sometimes it pops up here and there. I can’t name a specific book right at the moment, though.
43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
Everything else on my to-do list.
44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
Howl’s Moving Castle, which is strange because they changed so much of it.
45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
I know there are plenty to choose from, but nothing comes to mind at the moment.
46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
$100. I bought my husband the collector’s edition of Footrot Flatts.
47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
Never. My habit is synopsis, first few pages.
48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
A topic I couldn’t handle reading or just plain didn’t want to read, a story going nowhere, something totally unfitting of the book and/or completely stupid happening…
49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
I would like to…
50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
I’ll keep them if I like them and can’t bear to part with them. Otherwise, they go on Bookcrossing.com or on my giveaway shelf.
51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
Anything overly hyped. Still avoiding all the Twilight books.
52. Name a book that made you angry.
I don’t want to name it because of the reason behind my anger, but there was a book published by the head of a small publishing company that was so badly formatted that is pissed me off to no end. Different fonts, paragraphs running together… And this wasn’t some goof trying to self-publish – it was from a company. Ack. It made me so angry to see such utter disregard for book form and for the readers.
53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
The Millennium Trilogy by Steig Larsson.
54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
I expected to like Queen Victoria: Demon Slayer more than I did.
55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
Any book that I learn from.
**SPECIAL NOTE: I know that global warming/climate change is a hot button issue. However, I would never seek to judge someone on one component of what they do or don’t believe, and I hope you will do the same for me. A person’s actions show their character, not which group of scientists they follow when it comes to an environmental issue.**
About the Book
You’ve heard the claims that the earth is warming up just because of cars, light bulbs, factories and the many other wonders that human ingenuity has created. But is it really true?
Well, here’s news for the global warming Chicken Littles – the sky’s not falling!
Sure, our planet is changing, but it has before and well again. There’s lots more the the climate change story than you may have heard! Can we really adapt to a changing world in ways that help animals and the environment while keeping people working and countries growing strong? Of course we can!
Yes, it’s OK to chill about global warming. Look inside and find out why.
The Long Story
I was, admittedly, someone who didn’t know much about global warming. So when I heard this book is about global warming but also geared for children ages eight and up, I felt quite excited. I’m not ashamed to say I wanted to start at this level of reading to start learning about things.
The first thing that struck me about this book is that right in the beginning, Fretwell points out that her list of sources is in the back and you should check them out for yourself. That is probably the best beginning of a ‘might not agree with popular opinions’ book I have ever read.
She doesn’t want to challenge your beliefs without being able to back up what she’s written with facts.
I would love to send this book to everyone, child and adult alike, because there are so many people who have no idea about the facts that are in this book.
For example, if humans are the sole cause of global warming, then why is Mars getting warmer too?
There are a lot of amazing facts like that in there that you probably didn’t know.
The one thing I would have liked to have seen more of is more of what we can do. What I mean is that whether we’re going to melt or freeze, we need to do something about the way we treat the earth. The repercussions aside, humanity is treating the earth like crap, and we will pay for it in one way or another.
The Short Story
I firmly believe that it is the informed country that can truly take steps towards making the world a better place for everyone. If you want to be more informed about global warming (with a list of sources to back up your knowledge) then you need to read this book.
***
Rating: 3.5 stars
[What do the ratings mean?]
***
The Sky’s Not Falling!: Why It’s Ok to Chill About Global Warming
By Holly Fretwell
Holly Fretwell Books
ISBN: 978-0976726944
Length: 128 Pages