Book Reviews by YOU!

Instead of me doing a book review this time, I want YOU to. That’s right, it’s your turn readers! Below are the books that I currently own but have yet to read. I fully intend to read all of these (or, at the very least, portions of all

of these) at some point in time but haven’t quite gotten around to it yet. Most of them were recommended to me but some I picked out all on my own. See, this is the problem when you have a Paperbackswap.com account and go crazy with your “wish list”. You end up with a lot of books you really want to read but just haven’t gotten to yet. Currently I am reading two books, one of which I will review on here upon finishing (The Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson) and the other I am actually listening to on my iPhone from iTunes U (Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray).

So, without further ado, here they all are. Let me know if you have read them, heard about them, want to read them, etc. and your thoughts! Thanks!

The Baby Book by William Sears, M.D. & Martha Sears, R.N.

Healing Children Naturally by Michael Savage Ph.D.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

How to Teach Your Baby to Read by Glenn Doman, Janet Doman

God Guides by Mary Geegh

Baby Signing 1 2 3 by Nancy Cadjan

One-Minute Cleaner by Donna Smallin

25 Things Every New Mother Should Know by Martha Sears, R.N. with William Sears, M.D.

The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas

Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley

The Discipline Book by William Sears, M.D. & Martha Sears, R.N.

The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace

Relational Parenting by Ross Campbell, M.D.

Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell

Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for Toddlers by Tracy Hogg with Melinda Blau

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas

The Happiest Toddler on the Block by Harvey Karp, M.D.

He Who Lifts the Skies by Kacy Barnett-Gramckow

The Labor Progress Handbook by Penny Simkin and Ruth Ancheta

The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood by William Sears, M.D., Martha Sears, R.N., James Sears, M.D., and Robert Sears, M.D.

Diaper Free! The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene by Ingrid Bauer

I have another long list of books I don’t own yet that I want to read as well but I won’t burden this post with all of those! If you have a book you would like to recommend though, please do!

No Responses to "Book Reviews by YOU!"

Rachael says:

June 3, 2010 at 4:48 pm

Have skimmed some of them…here are my thoughts.

The Baby Book by William Sears, M.D. & Martha Sears, R.N.: A ton of AP parents like this book and I had a copy for a few years. I got some helpful things from it but honestly it didn’t get used all that much. I found it a bit touchy-feely for my taste (but keep in mind I’m not very touchy-feely when it comes to parenting stuff). I passed my copy along to a friend having a baby and her husband told me that he loves it and it’s been super helpful.

How to Teach Your Baby to Read by Glenn Doman, Janet Doman – The title turns me off because I believe it’s developmentally inappropriate to encourage reading in a preverbal child. Akin to saying ‘Teach your newborn to run’ – there are important milestones that have to happen before a child can run, same goes for reading. I’m not into teaching a bunch of sight words as reading is much more foundational than that IMO.

Baby Signing 1 2 3 by Nancy Cadjan – I wish I had done this! I always had aspirations to sign with my babies but never was consistent about it. I found both of them so easy to understand that it never became necessary but I know parents who love baby signs and I think it’s great if you can do it!

The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace – Urgh, I have issues with this book. My IL church promotes it and I paged through it online at amazon. My husband and I are not a fan of the description of the ‘roles ‘ of a wife as described by her. I believe in a mutual submission marriage though a la Aquila/Priscilla in the NT vs.a hierarchical view.

So there you have my .02 about those titles ; ).

Reply
1. julamber says:
  
  June 3, 2010 at 6:53 pm
  
  Thanks for your thoughts Rachael! I have similar thoughts about the baby reading book but it was a gift and it intrigues me. I’m very curious about it although I don’t know how much of it I will be able to put to use.
  
  Reply
myjourneytolean says:

June 16, 2010 at 9:30 pm

I thought The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace was really good. I have the study guide too. We did it as a Bible study group a few years back. Of course, you won’t agree 100% with any book you read, most likely, but it was worth reading, as far as I can remember.

Reply
1. julamber says:
  
  March 7, 2011 at 11:49 am
  
  I plan on reading it eventually! Still haven’t gotten to it!
  
  Reply
rachmackie says:

June 20, 2010 at 10:02 pm

Thanks for stopping by my blog. Your comments are always appreciated. 🙂
Here are some thoughts about your list…

The Baby Book by William Sears, M.D. & Martha Sears, R.N.–This book is great for new parents. The breastfeeding section is basically a min-version of the Breast Book by Dr. Sears (which I relied on a lot in the beginning). Actually, it is almost like a collection of abbreviated versions of his works (like the Fussy Baby Book, The Sleep Book etc.) Since I’m a big fan of attachment parenting, I’m all for this book.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards–I have read this book and it is really troubling, but a good story. I believe it was made into a movie (which of course, is nowhere near as good as the book).

How to Teach Your Baby to Read by Glenn Doman, Janet Doman–As a Early Childhood Educator with a reading specialization, I’m highly skeptical. There are many excellent literacy activities for babies but learnign to read is a complex skill that should not be explicitly taught until much later. Learning to “read” at an extremely early age often means that children are able to decode text but do not comprehend what is read.

Baby Signing 1 2 3 by Nancy Cadjan–We have used baby signs and found them helpful. However, both our children seem to be verbal fairly early which means that they transition from signs into speech after only learning to use a few signs. It’s always nice to offer avenues for communication though! 🙂

One-Minute Cleaner by Donna Smallin–Not sure but was this one of the cleaning books reviewed in June’s Parent magazine?

25 Things Every New Mother Should Know by Martha Sears, R.N. with William Sears, M.D.–A Sears book I haven’t read. Hmm….

Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for Toddlers by Tracy Hogg with Melinda Blau–I did read the Baby Whisperer in midst of our sleep (or more accurately lack-of-sleep) crisis. We incorporated some of her ideas but disagreed with others. I like Elizabeth Pantley better but she’s too “touchy feely” for most parents I guess!

The Happiest Toddler on the Block by Harvey Karp, M.D.–I heard a lot of buzz about this. Would be interested in a reading a review if you read it.

Diaper Free! The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene by Ingrid Bauer–I find the Elimination Cueing idea ridiculous. It just doesn’t fit with what we know about child development–physical or emotional.

Reply
1. julamber says:
  
  March 7, 2011 at 11:49 am
  
  Thanks for you insights!
  
  Reply

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