Book Review: Rennefarre

Katie January 12, 2013 0 Comments

Rennefarre is quite an interesting book.  It is about a 12 year old girl named Dott.  Her parents put her and her sibling to bed and  head out to the midsummer festival.  Dott wants to see it all too and figures her siblings will be ok sleeping and sneaks out of the house to head to the festival.  As she is sneaking around to get to the festival unseen – the Rennefarre flower falls into her shoe.  This flower has amazing powers and makes Dott invisible! She also is able to see and hear things that no one else can see or hear – and talk to the animals she encounters.

The rest of the book chronicles Dotts travels and trying to get out of her predicament and travelling around.  The book also includes illustrations which helps bring all the characters to life a little bit more.  Every place that Dott visits in the book is based on real places and you can find them on the map.  There is a guide in the back of the book if you are interested in finding out more about her travels as well as some other facts about items referenced in the book.  There is a timeline in the book as well to give you some more supplemental information.

The book is a little bit long and it is also not the easiest to read- but if you stick with it, I think that you will really enjoy it, just as I did.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compenated.

About the Book

Imagine riding on the back of a blue heron across time and space. Imagine befriending crows, being kidnapped by magpies, and being given a lift on the back of a kindly stag. Imagine experiencing life as an outcast from human society, encountering spirits and mythical creatures from the world of legends, experiencing the plague in Dresden, and being chased through Berlin by Frederick the Great.

Dott is a twelve-year old girl. She lives in the countryside east of Berlin in an unspecified time between the two world wars. When Dott sneaks out to see the bonfire at the edge of her village on the evening of the midsummer night festival, she has no idea what will happen next. In the dark of night, the magical Rennefarre flower falls into her shoe. It not only makes her invisible, but also allows her to see things no one else could see. No longer able to stay with her parents and her young brother and sister, she begins her search to find a way out of her predicament.

Her quest to return home to her family winds its way through the cities and countryside of 20th century Germany—and beyond. As she befriends the local animals, they help her on her way with gifts of food, shelter, and—through the help of a kind spirit—a magical cup which allows her to become small and ride on the backs of the birds.

Flying across the country on the backs of crows and herons, Dott finds herself seeing the country not only as it is, but also as it used to be. She lives through moments in history others can only read about—meeting historical kings and fanciful spirits along the way. But, even with all of the excitement of her travels, she always has one goal in mind: returning home to her family.

Part coming-of-age story, part fantasy, and part social-cultural portrait of Eastern Germany in the early part of the 20th century, the book covers real ground. That is, one could follow Dott’s travels on a map of the area. Seamlessly blending elements of fantasy and history, the book contains a fascinating array of details of day-to-day life in rural and urban areas in eastern Germany. Dott’s adventures are interwoven with folklore and myths as well as vivid accounts of different eras and the diverse cultural and ethnic strains that have formed the basis for a rich and complex history of Germany and Eastern Europe. Written on the eve of World War II, the book offers a sobering perspective on the human potential for causing devastation. At the same time it is filled with hope. In one scene, Dott gets a glimpse of the future — an utterly destroyed cityscape; it inspires her to look to her own responsibilities and actions in life.

Book Review: Words Can Change Your Brain

Katie January 10, 2013 0 Comments

Words Can Change Your Brain contains 12 conversation strategies to build trust, resolve conflict and increase intimacy.  It talks a bit about how to improve how you communicate with others and how you say things and how fast you say things can change the meaning of things.  It also talks about how negative words can ruin your mood – you can be calm and happy and then you hear the word “NO!” and it will give you a completely different attitude and outlook towards things because it is a negative word.

Having graduated with a minor in Communication – this type of stuff is always so fascinating to me.  How words can make such a big impact on what we are trying to convey to people and how much of it they will retain based on how quickly we talk or how much we talk.

Also mentioned in the book is how your lips can affect what you say as well as eye contact.  Body language is a huge part of our interaction with people and sometimes we are completely unaware of what kind of vibes we are giving off with our body language and how it is being read by the person that we are talking to.

I received a free ecopy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

“The practice of compassionate communication can be an important step towards creating greater empathy and dialogue among all types of people in all sorts of circumstances.  By fostering such a dialogue, we have an opportunity to create a new and deeper understanding so that we can improve ourselves and the social world in which we live.  Together, we can create winning conversations where everyone benefits from the encounter.”

Book Review: The 13th Sign

Katie January 9, 2013 0 Comments

I don’t know if you remember, but a year or so ago there was talk about there being a 13th Zodiac sign – Ophiuchus.   It caused a bit of a stir because it completely changed the signs most people were used to.  With the addition of the new sign, I went from being a Cancer to I believe a Gemini.  I remember twitter going absolutely NUTS over this.

The 13th sign is about this new Zodiac sign and all the trouble it causes.  The book starts with Jalen and her friend Ellie going to a fortune teller for her 13th birthday.  Jalen is annoyed that the horoscope she is read is simply from the pages of Seventeen magazine.  While browsing the shop at the fortune tellers, she spots a book she wants.  The fortune teller says it is not for sale, despite the fact that it has a $30 price tag on it.  Ellie grabs it, and leaves $40 on the counter for it.

The book is locked, but the girls manage to get the book opened and everything changes.  The 13th sign is released so the characters change based on their new zodiac signs.  Gemini ends up showing up at the house telling the kids that they must fight all 12 signs who are now angry about the 13th sign being unlocked.

The kids (Jalen, Ellie and her brother Brennan) are now on a mission to find these signs and defeat them.  Each one has its own special way to appear, based a bit on their sign and symbol.

This was a fun book and it made me laugh a bit as well since I remembered all the uproar that I mentioned in the beginning of this post!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

On her 13th birthday, Jalen and her friend Ellie visit a fortune teller. There, they find a book with an ornate lock. The book is not for sale, but when the teller’s not looking, Ellie takes it, leaving a wad of cash on the counter.

When the book opens, life begins to shift. Jalen, Ellie, and Ellie’s brother are doing and saying things that are out of character. The three are visited by Gemini, who demands that they fix what they’ve unleashed. Soon, they realize that all twelve zodiac signs will take shape on Earth and try to destroy Jalen for unlocking the 13th sign. Jalen will have to use her strength to outwit the signs and to protect her ailing grandmother. But how can she fix everything with friends who have changed in ways great and small?

Book Review: Clive

Katie January 8, 2013 0 Comments

Clive is a book about Clive Davis and how Don Silver interacted with him during his time trying to get a job at Arista as well as when he was working A&R for Clive at Arista.  It is fun to read about Don’s struggle with trying to get in to the business, ultimately getting in and then realizing that it really wasn’t for him and leaving the label.  He talks about how he wrote letters and made tons of phone calls to try and get an in, and finally got his big break when Clive decided he’d see him.  He told him to find songs for his artists and eventually was hired.  Then he sat in his office and had to listen to demos to try and find which artists to sign and which artists to send a letter to that they weren’t interested.

The book is short, only 75 or so pages, but it is a nice inside look at the recording industry and how it worked in the early 80s. I can only imagine how these things work in the present day.  Definitely a fascinating look at Clive Davis as well.

I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in order to write this review

About the Book

At twenty-one, after years playing in a band, Don Silver filled his briefcase with overblown resumes and headed to New York City, where he landed a job every musician dreamed of: working as an A&R man for Clive Davis.  The problem was, the year was 1981 and the charts were topped by disco records. And to Don’s horror, Clive seemed more interested in making hit singles that would make the cash register jingle than in finding great artists making important music.

In two years, Don went from wanting nothing more than to please his temperamental boss to wanting nothing to do with the world this talented narcissist ruled.  But is it that easy to give up the perks and power?  Filled with the same love of language and lyricism that made his first novel, Backward-Facing Man, a critical success, this short literary memoir is not just a portrait of a great record man, but a riff on life, ambition and music that will touch readers hearts and souls, just like great rock ‘n roll.

Book Review: A Spoonful of Sugar

Katie January 6, 2013 0 Comments

A Spoonful of Sugar is the memiors of Brenda Ashford.  Brenda is a graduate of Norland College where she was trained to be a nurse/nanny in the time around World War 2.   Brenda has cared for over 100 children through the years and worked as a Nanny until she retired in her 70s.   The book contains 13 chapters, each telling the story of a different aspect of her life – her schooling  and all of the different homes she worked in through the years.  She shares her reports from school as well as the notes from her employers about her time in their homes and each chapter ends with a few tips from Brenda.  She tells how she teaches children to potty train and how she doesn’t believe in spanking and what other methods she has tried.

It is interesting to see how the job changes throughout the years – how when World War Two was on a lot of the mothers were called to do jobs so day cares taking care of many, many children were very popular.  And how over time the men came back and the day cares became less and less needed.  This was around the time when she started working for just one family at a time, helping mothers get back on their feet after they had their new baby and sometimes staying on with the family for several years.

You can tell that she is very much so in love with all of the children she has cared for and speaks of all of them fondly. This was quite an interesting book to read – a different perspective on the war!

I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

BRENDA ASHFORD is a graduate of Norland College, a world-famous institute for British nannies. For sixty-two years, she cared for more than one hundred children, making her Britain’s longest-serving nanny. She lives outside of London and still occasionally cares for neighboring children. KATE THOMPSON is a freelance journalist with more than fifteen years experience. Previously, she was Deputy Editor of the award-winning Pick Me Upmagazine, helping to launch it in 2005. She writes for Marie Claire, theSunday Mirror, and Pregnancy, among others.