Scrapbook Saturday – December 2021 (pt 2)
Katie 
Kris Allen in Arkansas
Book Review: Baseball Field Guide
The Baseball Field Guide, 4th Edition, helps you learn about “every inch of the baseball (from the core to the stitches!)”. As the introduction says, the basic rules are second nature to those who watch the sport regularly (me) but the official rules can be surprisingly complex. Which is true. Every now and then some weird situation comes up and you kind of wish you had a rule guide in your back pocket – and now you can! I liked how this book has the rules broken down and there’s also graphics and images to help you understand what’s going on. With several new rules coming to MLB this season, now that I have this field guide available to me I’ll hopefully be a bit less confused while I root on my Mets!
I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
A great overview for novices and a precise reference guide for hard-core fans!
Admit it: Even if you’re a die-hard fan of our national pastime, sometimes an umpire’s call can be baffling. And for newer fans, Major League Baseball’s nuanced rules—developed and revised over many decades—can be downright perplexing.
Now updated throughout with the latest changes, including specifications about the universal designated hitter and limits on defensive shifts, the Baseball Field Guide lays out every rule in plain English. You’ll learn to answer all these questions and more:
- Do you know the twenty-two ways a pitcher can be charged with a balk?
- Can you list all seven ways a batter can safely get to first base?
- Obstruction or interference—who’s at fault when things get rough?
- What are the rules that apply before and after a game?
- What happens when spectators are the ones who misbehave?
- How well do you understand the infamous Infield Fly Rule (and why does it exist)?
This is the clearest explanation anywhere of the rules of baseball. Designed for quick and intuitive searches, this entertaining reference will help you understand every aspect of the game and add to your enjoyment of the sport.
Book Review: The Only and Only Ruby
The One and Only Ruby is the sequel to the One and Only Ivan – which was recently made into a fun movie! As well as a sequel to The One and Only Bob. I used to read Katherine Applegate’s teen books when I was a teen, I guess I am regressing as this one is more geared towards the younger crowd, but since I enjoyed Ivan I had to see what ended up happening with Ruby…
Ruby is a young elephant with a secret. She has started being called “Tusky” by her family because her tusks are coming in – but she hates her tusks. Ruby is no longer living at the mall, but she is still with her Uncle Ivan at the Zoo. She ends up telling the story of when she was born and growing up in Africa.
This was a really sweet story about how you can’t stop yourself from growing up, but it’s ok to think about the past and the loved ones you’ve lost along the way as well, as they helped you to get there.
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
From beloved powerhouse author Katherine Applegate comes The One and Only Ruby, starring the adorable baby elephant from the Newbery Medal-winning modern classic The One and Only Ivan and its bestselling sequel, The One and Only Bob.
Ruby’s story picks up a few months after the events of The One and Only Bob. Now living in a wildlife sanctuary, Ruby’s caretaker from the elephant orphanage in Africa where she grew up is visiting. Seeing him again brings back a flood of memories both happy and sad of her life before the circus, and she recounts the time she spent in the African savannah to Ivan and Bob.
In the timeless way that only Katherine Applegate could craft, this highly anticipated novel in verse is the perfect mix of heartfelt and humorous, poignant and sweet. Artist Patricia Castelao returns to the world of Ivan and his friends with gorgeous black-and-white interior illustrations to complete the story.
The One and Only Ruby features first-person narrative; author’s use of literary devices (personification, imagery); and story elements (plot, character development, perspective).
This highly anticipated middle grade novel is an excellent choice for tween readers in grades 5 to 8, for independent reading, homeschooling, and sharing in the classroom.
Don’t miss the film adaptation of The One and Only Ivan, now streaming on Disney+!
Book Review: The Future of Rock and Roll
The Future of Rock & Roll talks about the evolution of radio station 97X WOXY – which at its inception was the sixth modern rock station in the United States, based in Ohio. The station tried to buck the trends and be independent – which at first meant avoiding repetition and playing new and more things unlike other stations (it seems like not much has changed since late 80s!). It was very interesting to read how the media changed and how this station changed with it – even having a streaming option for their broadcasts in the early ’00s when that was relatively unheard of. Unfortunately, the changes ended up being too much for WOXY to keep up with and they are no longer.
But definitely made me think what independence is and what it means to me.
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
In 1983, an Ohio radio station called WOXY launched a sonic disruption to both corporate rock and to its conservative home region, programming an omnivorous range of genres and artists while being staunchly committed to local independent art and media. In the 1990s, as alternative rock went mainstream and radio grew increasingly homogeneous, WOXY gained international renown as one of Rolling Stone‘s “Last Great Independent Radio” stations. The station projected a philosophy that prioritized such independence—the idea that truly progressive, transgressive, futuristic disruptions of the status quo were possible only when practiced with and for other people.
In The Future of Rock and Roll, philosopher Robin James uses WOXY’s story to argue against a corporate vision of independence—in which everyone fends for themselves—and in favor of an alternative way of thinking and relating to one another that disrupts norms but is nevertheless supported by communities. Against the standard retelling of the history of “modern rock,” James looks to the local scenes that made true independence possible by freeing individual artists from the whims of the boardroom. This philosophy of community-rooted independence offers both a counternarrative to the orthodox history of indie rock and an alternative worldview to that of the current corporate mainstream.
Robin James is a writer, editor, and philosopher. She is author of four books including Resilience & Melancholy and The Sonic Episteme.
Scrapbook Saturday – December 2021 (pt 1)
Trip to Arkansas
Scrapbook Saturday – November 2021
Kris Allen & Jon McLaughlin
Book Review: We Love to Entertain
If you enjoy HGTV renovations and mysteries – then this book is for you. I didn’t want to stop reading and almost gave up my entire weekends plans to try and finish this book. Robert Barron – known also by “The Robber Barron” thinks he’s scored big when he gets a Vermont cabin for a steal at a tax sale because they previous owner hadn’t paid owed taxes. He ends up teaming up with social media influencer Holly to renovate the cabin and submit it for an HGTV show “To the Manor Build”. They become one of the finalists, fall in love and end up getting married – only to have Robert ask to borrow his assistant’s car to take Holly on an impromptu honeymoon at the last second – just DAYS before they’d need to have all the final clips filmed for the show! When they don’t return… the crew ends up filing missing persons reports for both of them.
I’m not sure I actually liked ANY of the characters in this book, especially as more and more secrets were revealed, but I just had to know what was going to happen and who was behind it! But I liked how it was based on a TV show and how they even incorporated online social media – specifically a subreddit with fans of the show and amateur sleuths who thought they knew what was going on. I never really did quite figure out “whodunit” but there were so many twist and turns on every page it was hard to really pin anything down. Maybe you’ll have better luck than I did.
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
From the bestselling author of Do I Know You? comes a fast-paced, riveting psychological thriller that skewers our modern obsession with home renovation and fixer-uppers.
Holly and Robert Barron are attractive young real-estate investors and contestants in a competition run by To the Manor Build, the nation’s most popular home renovation app. With millions in product endorsements and online followers at stake, they’re rehabbing a Vermont home they scored at a bargain price into a chic hilltop estate ideal for entertaining.
It’s all camera-ready laughs and debates over herringbone tile until Holly and Robert go missing hours after their picture-perfect wedding—leaving behind a bloody trail.
Suspicion falls quickly on Erika Turnbull, the Barrons’ twenty-something assistant—eager, efficient, and secretly in love with Robert. Did Erika let her misguided passion turn her into a murderer? So claim the townsfolk of Snowden, Vermont, who still haven’t forgiven her for a tragic accident back in high school.
But Erika’s mother, Kim, is not about to let small-town gossip and a cop with an axe to grind destroy her daughter—again. With time running out and their own lives at risk, the mother-daughter duo set out to find what really happened to the Barrons. First, though, they’ll have to confront the vengeful former owner of Holly and Robert’s estate, ruthless reality-show producers, and a secret that might bring their own house down.
Fast-paced, full of humor, and undeniably twisty, We Love to Entertain is another winner from Sarah Strohmeyer.
Book Review: Touch Matters
As someone who doesn’t want to be touched (physical touch is often close to if not the bottom of my results on love language quizzes) I was curious to see how much “Touch Matters” and what I might have been missing out on by trying to avoid it. I think a bit of it might be because I wasn’t much for being given “pleasant touch” as a reward growing up. In fact, quite the opposite. I’m also in no way a fan of social touch.
While this book has shown me that a lot of these touches can be beneficial to me (especially hugging), I am not sure I am going to change how I feel about being touched any time soon! I guess I’ll just continue to be extra stressed. It is all I’ve ever known, after all.
The book will give you a quiz to find out your “Touch Persona” by having you answer a series of questions on a range from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”. Turns out I am more agreeable towards intimate touch and less so with unfamiliar touch, affective touch behaviors and friends and family. The outcome of this quiz was really not all that surprising to me.
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
An exploration of the new science behind our most underappreciated sense and why we need to harness the power of touch for our health and wellbeing.
Every day, we use our sense of touch to navigate the world. A handshake, a pat on the shoulder, a hug-all essential daily touches that make up our daily lives. In Title TK, Professor Michael Banissy brings together diverse scientific insights from the world’s largest study on touch with takeaways on how to enhance your levels of touch for a happier, healthier life. The book explains why touch is essential to our wellbeing, the role it plays in our relationships, friendships, in the bedroom, workplace, in team activities such as sports, and much more.
Banissy’s latest research explores:
- Our “touch personalities”
- Touch starvation
- How touch defines our relationships and self-esteem
- The impact of touch on our physical and mental health
This is a fascinating window into one of our most important and basic senses and how to harness its power.
Scrapbook Saturday – October 2021 (pt 1)
The rest of October…
Scrapbook Saturday – October 2021 (pt 1)
Hanson in Tulsa