Moms Featured Book

What Would You Add To Your List To Make Your Life Better?

cammie@momsmaterial.com — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:27:05 GMT

Are you looking for a book that is entertaining, fun to read and still challenges you to become a better person? If you answered yes, then you should read The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski. This is the latest book that I have been recommending.

June Parker is one of those women that goes through life a little lost, not sure where she fits in. Everything is just OK. No passion, no drive, just making it through life. Then the unthinkable happens, she is involved in a car accident and her new acquaintance (and passenger), Marissa, dies.

June comes across a list in Marissa’s purse titled “20 Things To Do by my 25th Birthday.” Enter June’s world as her new mission in life becomes clear and she decides to complete Marissa’s list. June must leave her comfort zone and try things she would have never considered before. She must kiss a stranger, go on a blind date and run a 5K. All these events help June to evolve into a better person. This book will have you reflect on the impact you are making and might even change your life.

I found myself making a mental note of changes I would like to make in my own life. And the next thing on my list is to write them all down.

MomsMaterial recommends this book!

From the Publisher

“You’ll be hooked by this charming story. . . . Smolinski gives us a quick-witted heroine . . . with just the right amount of romance and a tad of suspense.”
—Richmond Times-Dispatch

After a car accident in which her passenger, Marissa, dies, June Parker finds herself in possession of a list Marissa has written: “20 Things to Do by My 25th Birthday.” The tasks range from inspiring (run a 5K) to daring (go braless) to near-impossible (change someone’s life).

To assuage her guilt, June races to achieve each goal herself before the deadline, learning more about her own life than she ever bargained for.

Let me know what you think.

Cammie Moise

If You Are Looking For One Book, One Resource To Help Parent Toddlers To Teens, The BIG Book of Parenting Solutions is The Answer!

cammie@momsmaterial.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:20:45 GMT

Who wants their child to be happy, caring, confident and prepared for adulthood? I believe we all do, but we find it difficult to navigate parenthood these days. Parenting is more difficult than we imagined and today’s challenges can’t always be handled the way they were in the past. How do you know when to use the tried and true or the latest parenting technique? Unfortunately, I am navigating this stage right now and I don’t know the answers. Luckily, my favorite parenting expert, Dr. Michele Borba does, and she has shared her answers with me. In fact, she wants everyone to know and she shares her 20+ years of knowledge, in her latest book, The BIG BOOK of Parenting Solutions:101 Answers to your Everyday Challenges and Wildest Worries.

When you see this book, you will realize it includes Dr. Michele Borba's own research and work over the last 20 years. It is one BIG BOOK! It includes the most up to date issues parents face today. This book is not one to sit down and read through in one sitting. It is a reference book that you come back to again and again. This is my most recommended book to parents with toddlers to teens. It includes up to date topics such as cell phones, video games, cyberbullying, and internet safety. One section addresses school and includes topics on special needs ranging from ADHD, Gifted, Learning Disabilities, Weight Issues and even Depression. In addition, issues related to family, behavior, character and emotions are also included. For the most part, any topic you will need to address from toddler to tween is included.

I found Dr. Michele Borba on Twitter and follow her closely. She is frequently featured as a Parent Expert on the TODAY Show and I really enjoy watching her because she comes across as if she is having a conversation with you instead of just passing along information. It is easy to pick up on her passion for parenting when you see her in action. Through our tweets and emails, I have found her very personable. She is always ready to share valuable information related to the latest news, trends and behaviors of today’s children.

As a parent that needs one book, one resource to go to, I highly recommend this book.

About the Author:
Michele Borba, Ed.D. is an internationally renowned educator and recipient of the National Educator Award who is recognized for her practical, solution-based strategies to strengthen children’s behavior and character. She has lectured worldwide to over one million participants, and has been featured on NPR, Today show, The Early Show, The View, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Focus on the Family and many others. She serves on Parents magazine advisory board and is the author of over 20 books including The Big Book of Parenting Solutions, Parents Do Make a Difference, Nobody Likes Me, Everybody Hates Me, and No More Misbehavin', and 2 Simple Secrets Real Moms Know. For more information, visit her website: www.micheleborba.com.

Follow her on Twitter @micheleborba and become a fan on Facebook

Click on the link below to find out more information or to purchase:

The only parenting book you'll need for kids 3-13.

Look for upcoming articles including an interview with Dr. Michele Borba and she will be sharing some of her articles with MomsMaterial readers. Let me know in the comments below, if you have a specific topic or question you would like me to ask her. If you don’t see a comments section, please click on the title of this article and it should be available at the bottom.

If you don’t want to miss out, be sure you stay connected (by visiting MomsMaterial's home page and choosing email, twitter, Facebook or RSS feed).

Cammie Moise

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Featured Book – The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

cammie@momsmaterial.com — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:15:06 GMT

I first heard about this book at the Women Who Read Are Dangerous Party hosted by my favorite local bookstore, Blue Willow Bookshop. The owner, Valerie Koehler, said this was a favorite and it would be one of her top 3 recommendations for summer reading. I was so intrigued by the mystery of this story that I couldn’t wait to get started. I was already behind on my reading but I decided to put this at the top of the list. I recently started reading this novel and I will comment below or review when I finish the last page. In the meantime, I wanted to introduce this novel to my readers.

From the Publisher

From the internationally bestselling author of The House at Riverton, an unforgettable new novel that transports the reader from the back alleys of poverty of pre-World War I London to the shores of colonial Australia where so many made a fresh start, and back to the windswept coast of Cornwall, England, past and present.

A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book -- a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-first birthday they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and with very little to go on, "Nell" sets out on a journey to England to try to trace her story, to find her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell's death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled. At Cliff Cottage, on the grounds of Blackhurst Manor, Cassandra discovers the forgotten garden of the book's title and is able to unlock the secrets of the beautiful book of fairy tales.

This is a novel of outer and inner journeys and an homage to the power of storytelling. The Forgotten Garden is filled with unforgettable characters who weave their way through its spellbinding plot to astounding effect.

Morton's novels are #1 bestsellers in England and Australia and are published in more than twenty languages. Her first novel, The House at Riverton, was a New York Times bestseller.

About the Author
Kate Morton, a native Australian, holds degrees in dramatic art and English literature and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Queensland. She lives with her family in Brisbane, Australia, and is writing her second novel.

Click here to purchase this book from Amazon.

Cammie Moise

Review - Everyone Is Beautiful by Katherine Center

cammie@momsmaterial.com — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:43:10 GMT

By the first paragraph, I was hooked. By the third page, I was laughing out loud and had found a part in the book that I couldn't wait to tell others about. For the first time in years, I was highlighting portions of the book and telling anybody who would listen about the book. A month later, I find myself still wanting to tell everyone I know about this book and discussing portions of the book that have made an impact on the way I think.

As a mother of two, I can relate to the main character, Lanie, as she realizes her life is a mess. It is easy to recognize that she loves her children, but has lost herself. She is barely getting by taking care of 3 little boys and is too exhausted to take care of herself. Several things happen that cause her to mourn the loss of her old self.

Then when someone mistakes her for being pregnant, she has no choice but to take a good long look at herself. She doesn't like what she sees and begins to make changes. Step one, join a gym. Step two, sign up for a photography class. Lanie's adventure of finding herself again will make you laugh out loud and make you cry. It reminds us that we are all beautiful and it is up to each one of us to discover not only our own beauty but the beauty others possess. Some people have a beauty that is easy to recognize while others need to see their beauty through someone else's eyes. One of the last lines in the book sums it up, "I have trained my eyes to look for beauty, and I've gotten very good at finding it."

This book is designed to bring about conversations that end with deep meaningful discussions. I highly recommend this book and look forward to more novels from this author.

USA Today Review:

"If you like novels with happy endings that will remind you of childhood fairy tales, then Katherine Center's Everyone Is Beautiful is the perfect book. Center's second novel tells the story of Lanie Coates, who is struggling with three young children and a lack of self-esteem. Any novel that starts with "The day I decided to change my life, I was wearing sweatpants" is bound to catch the sympathetic attention of women looking for stories of self-improvement on physical and emotional levels. This is a breezy read that glows, in part, because its characters bask in the sunny side of life."

About the Author

Katherine Center’s second novel, Everyone Is Beautiful, was featured in the March issue of Redbook and just received glowing reviews from People magazine and USA Today. Kirkus Reviews likens it to the 1950s motherhood classic Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, and says, “Center ’s breezy style invites the reader to commiserate, laughing all the way.” Booklist calls it “a superbly written novel filled with unique and resonant characters.”

Katherine’s first novel, The Bright Side of Disaster, was featured in People, USA Today, Vanity Fair, the Houston Chronicle, and the Dallas Morning News, among others. BookPage named Katherine one of seven new writers to watch, and the paperback of Bright Side was a Breakout Title at Target. Bright Side was also optioned last fall by Varsity Pictures.

Katherine recently published an essay in Real Simple Family and has another in Because I Love Her: 34 Women Writers on the Mother-Daughter Bond. She has just turned in her third novel, Get Lucky, and is starting on a fourth. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and two young children.

The Parent Trip by Jenna McCarthy Gives A Hilarious But Real Account of Parenting - Now Wondering If The Other Authors Were Just Lucky or Lied?

cammie@momsmaterial.com — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:44:52 GMT

This book was recommended by a friend who promised it was not the typical parenting book. She was right! Jenna McCarthy gives us a hilarious, true account of pre-pregnancy through the toddler years. Years ago, I read as many parenting books as I could get my hands on. Just like Jenna, my experience seemed different than those reported. As I shared with friends, I realized the other authors were either just really lucky with their experience or were lying. To top that off, they certainly didn't have a sense of humor or a way with words like Jenna. If you are looking for a fun and honest book about pregnancy and parenting, add this to your list!

When discussing morning sickness, she doesn't describe it as nausea, she writes, “I’m as sick as a dog-assuming that dog swallowed a large porcupine and washed it down with a gallon of radiator fluid. Morning sickness, my ass. This particular breed of nausea wears no watch and just about the only thing that puts even the tiniest dent in it is the massive quantities of food.” You can tell by what she writes, this is the reason she writes the book. Jenna writes, “Untold numbers of books out there will tell you precisely how to do it and how to feel while you’re doing it (and I know this for a fact because I now own them all). But for the most part, reading them while pregnant is sort of like perusing a book on aerospace engineering while you sip a vodka and tonic on a flight to Lisbon: There might be lots of handy navigational tips, but you’re really just along for the ride.”

I am thrilled to finally have a book out there that reads like your best friend is spilling her guts about her genuine thoughts and feelings. For mothers of older kids, it is a laughable walk into the not so distant past. For mothers of newborns, you will not feel alone. For expectant mothers, it is a nice and funny warning about what is in store.

MomsMaterial highly recommends this book! I am adding this to my Top 10 Things You Should Know About If You Are Expecting! Look for this article, which will be coming soon.

From the publisher:

Edgy and honest, this resource was written to amuse, enlighten, and help new and veteran parents find humor in one of life’s wildest rides. Packed with insight, wit, and hard-won wisdom, it delivers the message every fledgling parent longs to hear: you are not alone. This mother of two shares her experiences from the moment of conception through pregnancy, labor, birth, and baby’s first steps. From the ungodly hours of feeding and pleading with her baby to sleep through the night to hiring an extra hand and quelling overreactions, this guidebook is a hilarious journey through the first wide-eyed, miraculous months with a baby.

To order the The Parent Trip: From High Heels and Parties to Highchairs and Potties, click here.

Please comment below if you have read this book, want to suggest other expecting books or have a great tip!

Cammie Moise

The Last Lecture By Randy Pausch

cammie@momsmaterial.com — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:13:25 GMT

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
—Randy Pausch
A lot of professors give talks titled “The Last Lecture.” Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can’t help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn’t have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave—“Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”—wasn’t about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because “time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think”). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.
In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

cammie@momsmaterial.com — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 06:19:45 GMT

Isabella "Bella" Swan moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona to rainy Forks, Washington to live with her father, Charlie. She chooses to do this so that her mother, Renée, can travel with her new husband, Phil Dwyer, who is a minor league baseball player. Bella attracts much attention at her new school and is quickly befriended by several students. Much to her dismay, several boys in the school compete for shy Bella's attention.

When Bella sits next to Edward Cullen in class on her first day of school, Edward seems utterly repulsed by her. After tricking a family friend, Jacob Black, into telling her local tribal legends, Bella concludes that Edward and his family are vampires who drink the blood of animals, not humans. Edward reveals that he initially avoided Bella because the scent of her blood was so desirable to him. Over time, Edward and Bella fall in love.

Their relationship is thrown into chaos when another vampire coven sweeps into Forks and James, a tracker vampire, decides that he wants to hunt Bella for sport. The Cullens plan to distract the tracker by splitting up Bella and Edward, and Bella is sent to hide in a hotel in Phoenix. Bella then gets a phone call from James in which he says that he has her mother, and that Bella must give herself up to save her. She does so and James attacks her, but Edward, along with the rest of the Cullen family, rescues Bella before James can kill her. Once they realize that James has bitten Bella's hand, Edward sucks the venom out of her system before it can spread and change her into a vampire. Upon returning to Forks, Bella and Edward attend their prom and Bella expresses her desire to become a vampire, which Edward refuses to let happen.