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What to Expect the First Year - Arlene Eisenberg
by kat1234
I bought this book on Amazon when I was in my late pregnancy. Throughout my pregnancy, I had read the What to Expect When You are Expecting book and found the information provided both reassuring and interesting (and very, very helpful). I therefore thought that, as the birth of my baby approached, this book would offer me guidance and ... reassurance for the first year of my baby's life. This book is currently retailing at £8.50 from Amazon.
The book is clearly sectioned, as for the expecting version, into month by month guidance. It offers helpful information on all things baby for each month of their first year. These sections cover things like growth and development each month (including those growth spurts that many first time mums are unaware of but seem to spend their life talking about at the time!). It also covers sleeping strategies and health issues - immunisations, common ailments etc. There is a detailed index provided so you are able to look up any topic that you wish to get information on and find it quite quickly (handy when you have a newborn and time is at a premium!).
I have to confess, I never read this book from cover to cover like I did what to expect when you are expecting. This is partially due to the fact that I had significantly less time on my hands to read anything and partially because I did not feel all sections were relevant to me. Also, as I found my feet as a mum, I became more confident in my own instincts and did not feel the need to check everything in a book.
There were some useful sections though and I could dip in and out of the book at will due to the detailed index system. This meant that I could read parts that were relevant to me and skip those that were less so. I used it as a reference book rather than the 'baby bible' that I had anticipated it might be. Having said that, the book is well written and clear without being patronising. At the same time, it makes no assumptions with regards to your knowledge on any subject and explains things well.
Overall, I would say this is definitely worth purchasing if you are a first time mum. I would recommend reading a few chapters before baby arrives as I had zero reading opportunity in those first few weeks and that is probably when some of the information contained is quite helpful! Also, this may be good for first time dads too so that they can provide the support they need to and gain increased knowledge about their newborn. It is definitely worth having in the house for a reference source in the first year as often something will concern you and you can look it up in this and, usually, find some comfort and reassurance.
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7lbs in 7 Days Super Juice Diet - Jason Vale
by daisylee3
The title of my review is a quote that Jason must repeat at least a billion times in his book!
I bought a juicer a while ago and this book came with it. I'd never heard of Jason Vale, aka the juice master prior to recieving this book and wasn't too impressed after reading the first couple of pages but decided to read the whole ... thing to see if it would give me any tips or tell me something that I didn't already know about juicing and juice fasting.
Untortunately, it didn't - the book mainly talks about how amazing Jason is, how amazing the supplements that Jason sells on his website are, and so on. Jason tells us in the first few pages that we need to read the book from start to finish without skipping any pages, so I did. After about twenty pages I was really bored. The guy just seems to ramble on and on and on about completely irrelevant stuff which I have no interest in at all and his attempts at humour fail miserably.
After reading through about a hundred pages of rambling and boasting I eventually came across the 'can't be a*sed syndrome' chapter, which I actually found quite motivating and mildly humerous. However, Jason makes the mistake of talking to the reader like they're overweight and unmotivated whereas this really isn't the case for me and I found it quite patronising. I work hard to keep in shape and eat right so to keep reading the same things over and over in regards to motiviation and weight loss was quite annoying.
He states in his first chapter that he didn't want to put 'diet' in the books title but was forced to by the publishers, yet everything about the book just screams generic diet book! He does mention the health benefits of juicing very briefly and says that one glass of juice contains more nutrients in it than a weeks worth of the average persons meals put together, but he never really goes into detail about the nutritional and scientific side of it which I found dissapointing. As for the diet plan, I found it really vague. He lists the ingredients like 'five carrots, one tomatoe, apples.'
He never, ever tells us how many apples we need which I found soooo annoying and had to look online - turns out it's 2 apples per juice. Almost all of the juices need to be blended with an avocado and ocassionaly yoghurt, but as I'm a Vegan I didn't put yoghurt in mine. You also need to buy various supplements including wheatgrass and spiriluna. I followed the plan for three days but found the plan too repetitive and kept getting annoyed and confused about the portion sizes because he's so vague in his description. What I do like is that each recipe has a page next to it which gives information about what vitamins the particular juice contains eg calcium and so on although again, he's very vague with how much of the vitamin the juice actually contains.
Overall I'd recommend watching fat, sick and nearly dead then buying a juice recipe book and finding a juice fast plan on join the reboot (a website). The book is vague, boring and should be titled 'I'm so great, look at me, buy my stuff!' by Jason Vale.
Two out of five stars.
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How to do More of Just About Everything - eHow
by mattconnect
I noticed this book at a bookstore and was immediately enticed. A book claiming to teach you how to do everything? Sounds perfect right? Who wouldn't want to know how to be a trophy wife, respond to homophobic comments and make a rakhi (what's a rakhi)? This book by eHow is a delightful read and after flipping through several pages, ... found myself entranced by the hilarious content.
Whilst it is assumed that this book is an instruction guide to completing many tasks, the way it is written does not reflect the aims and I found it rather comedic overall opposed to serious. Even the disclaimers about following the book and taking own precautions was rather funny.
Having read the review below, I felt that the reviewer had the wrong expectations of this book and was hence disappointed. For me, I found it a source of hilarity and humour. If I had a few spare minutes, I'd just open to a random page and read about how I could build a raised bed garden or tell if a space alien means harm.
This book is the perfect time killer and I can imagine spending a few hours engrossed and laughing. I love it! It is the perfect coffee table book that will entertain guests, children and adults alike!
At 640 pages long, contains a difficulty rating, warnings and numbered instructions, this book will keep you entertained for a long time. I would however, not take it's instructions seriously and I advise readers not to as well.
The £15 RRP of this book can simply be avoided by shopping on Amazon- and I managed to obtain this book in good condition for a discounted £3.
Overall, 'How to do more of just about everything' is an entertaining and laugh out loud coffee table book which will get you hooked with finding out quirky facts and things you would never expect to find. Be prepared to be shocked and surprised at every turn of the page!
5 of my favourite 'things to do':
- rescue a hostage
- dress for summer stolstice at Stonehenge,
- help your child cope with a bully
- Deal with road ragers
- get custody of your pet in a divorce
AND MANY MORE!
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