Book Review: Psy-Q

Katie January 16, 2015 0 Comments

Psy-Q is a book full of quizzes, puzzles and experiments to see what your psychology IQ is.  I found this book to be a lot of fun to read, it starts with a Rorschach test which was pretty interesting. I’m not exactly sure what my picks mean but some of them were way off compared to what they said most others saw in the images!  I also learned that I rate medium to high in openness to experience (which means I’m curious and creative – I’d say that is true), medium high in conscientiousness (so I am organized and detailed. Not totally sure about that – I pay attention to detail but I am really not all that organized!), medium low in extroversion (I’m not the life of the party), medium in agreeableness and medium high in neuroticism (I’m an anxious worrier. Definitely true!)

It was fun to see how my answers with other situations compared to others who did the same tests and see how often I picked the wrong answer vs the right answer. This was a fun interactive book and if you have any interest in Psychology you should check it out.

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

About the Book

PSY-Q: Test Yourself with More Than 80 Quizzes, Puzzles, and Experiments for Everyday Life (A Penguin Original / on-sale: December 30, 2014 / 978-0-14-312620-1 / $15.00) by Ben Ambridge is Psychology 101 as you wish it were taught: a collection of entertaining experiments, quizzes, jokes, and interactive exercises.

Psychology is the study of mind and behavior: how and why people do absolutely everything that people do, from the most life-changing event such as choosing a partner, to the most humdrum, such as having an extra donut. Ben Ambridge takes these findings and invites the reader to test their knowledge of themselves, their friends, and their families through quizzes, jokes, and games. You’ll measure your personality, intelligence, moral values, skill at drawing, capacity for logical reasoning, and more—all of it adding up to a greater knowledge of yourself, a higher “Psy-Q.”

Take Dr. Ben’s quizzes to learn:

If listening to Mozart makes you smarter Whether or not your boss is a psychopath How good you are at waiting for a reward (and why it matters) Why we find symmetrical faces more attractive What your taste in art says about you

Lighthearted, fun, and accessible, this is the perfect introduction to psychology that can be fully enjoyed and appreciated by readers of all ages.

Book Review: Kid Presidents

Katie January 16, 2015 0 Comments

Kid Presidents tells all about the president’s lives when they were kids. Well, there aren’t specifically stories about all of the President’s in the book, but there is at least one mention of each of them with some sort of factoid.  There are stories about how Grant was told by his father to trade for a horse – that he could spend up to $25 but try to get it for $20 but he ended up telling the guy he was getting the horse from he was allowed to spend up to $25 – guess how much the horse cost? Yup. $25.  George Washington never said “I cannot tell a lie.” Teddy Roosevelt made his own museum. Sometimes bad kids turn out to be good presidents. JFK once changed a “No Dogs Allowed” sign to a “No Hot Dogs Allowed” sign.

A great book geared towards Children to teach them more about our President’s and maybe help them realize that they are not all that different from themselves and that maybe they too can one day be President of the United States.

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

About the Book

The kids who grew up to be president were like a lot of other children. Some struggled with schoolwork and got into fights; others pranked their teachers and infuriated their parents. William Howard Taft was forced to take dance lessons. Gerald Ford struggled with dyslexia. Teddy Roosevelt had a bedroom “museum” full of dead animals. Kid Presidents features 20 captivating true stories from the childhoods of American presidents, complete with lively text and more than 200 cartoon illustrations. Laugh-out-loud funny and packed with cool facts, it’s the perfect read for all young future leaders of the free world.

Book Review: Undeniable

Katie January 16, 2015 0 Comments

Undeniable is Bill Nye’s book on Evolution and the Science of Creation.  Part of the reason he wrote the book was due to the debate he recently did with the Creation Museum.  I found the book to be very interesting and I like how Bill explain’s things that may be complicated in such a way that it can easily be understood by everyone – whether they have a background in Science or not.  He explained a bit about the Darwin awards and how not having a fear of death will kill you.

I found it interesting his talk about cloning and how he was against cloning a human. I don’t know all the details around cloning but I’ve always wanted to clone myself to compare and see if my CP is in my DNA or in how my brain developed and to see if we could figure out any differences to maybe get rid of my CP.  May just be a big dream now but you never know with how science is advancing.  He also talks about how it is much easier to clone plants and a lot of strawberries and grapes out there are actually from cloned plants.

This is a very interesting read, thought provoking and as I said – easy to be understood by anyone with some of the reasons why science backs that there is such a thing as evolution and teaching how nature works.

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

About the Book

“Evolution is one of the most powerful and important ideas ever developed in the history of science. Every question it raises leads to new answers, new discoveries, and new smarter questions. The science of evolution is as expansive as nature itself. It is also the most meaningful creation story that humans have ever found.”—Bill Nye

Sparked by a controversial debate in February 2014, Bill Nye has set off on an energetic campaign to spread awareness of evolution and the powerful way it shapes our lives. In Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation, he explains why race does not really exist; evaluates the true promise and peril of genetically modified food; reveals how new species are born, in a dog kennel and in a London subway; takes a stroll through 4.5 billion years of time; and explores the new search for alien life, including aliens right here on Earth.

With infectious enthusiasm, Bill Nye shows that evolution is much more than a rebuttal to creationism; it is an essential way to understand how nature works—and to change the world. It might also help you get a date on a Saturday night.

Book Review: Easy Origami Animals

Katie January 16, 2015 0 Comments

Easy Origami Animals is an easy to use guide to create 23 different animals using origami.  The book starts with the basics, introducing you to the symbols for folding and the basic folds.  Then, each of the 23 animals are shown in detail with instructions on how to properly make them.  There are a lot of fun animals in the book, a couple of fish I’m going to try to make too.

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

About the Book

Created by an origami master, these 23 models offer a menagerie of easy-to-fold animals. Figures include birds—a cardinal, parrot, bald eagle, and cranes—and a fox, pig, hippo, elephant, lion, and others. Diagrams illustrate every step of the folding process, and full-color pictures depict the completed models. Internationally renowned author John Montroll has significantly increased the origami repertoire with his original designs. Best known as the inspiration behind the single-square, no-cuts, no-glue approach, the American origami expert offers readers meticulously developed folding sequences that allow them to create better models with fewer steps.