Category: books

Shakespeare’s works are some of the archetypes of classics, for both reading and performing. Whichever way you choose to take it, 60-Minute Shakespeare helps you do it. We read the newest edition in the series “Taming of the Shrew,” and Cass Foster has condensed the play so that it’s shorter and easier to read. If you want to act out the play, the abridged version helps the performance to keep to an hour (hence the title).

If you have an 8 or 9 year old boy around your home and you said “A world without UNDERPANTS?!!!” You wouldn’t just be creating bouts of laughter (I’m sure), but also referencing a most loved book series by Dav Pilkey. And the newest book in this series geared for grade school students is:

Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers

Classic literature is a staple of reading and language arts classes across the world. People fondly claim that reading old literature enhances your knowledge and gives you a better appreciation for ‘real’ writing. This might be true, but it is also an honest fact that most students find ‘classics’ to be boring and confusing. By the time they’re done reading, most of them will have no idea, or understanding of what they’ve just read. Including my 16 year old daughter as bright as she is.

That’s where Providence E-Learning’s e-books shine; explaining these classic literature pieces and their seemingly unrelated morals to today’s culture.

One of the best things about having a smart phone is also having a camera with you at all times. I bit the bullet and got an iPhone 4S around Thanksgiving last year, and I’ve taken so many more impromptu pictures then I ever had, just because I can. You never know what kind of moment you can capture in time, and now I can because I always have a camera on me. The thing is, all these pictures I’ve taken…they just sort of ‘stay’ in my phone. I mean sure I upload them to Instagram or Facebook, but it’s not like I sit and bring up those sites to just look through my photos. So unless I take the time to cord my phone to my computer and then use a photo service to print them, they just ‘sit’ there.

When you’re trying to sell your home and you get offered to write a review on a book called “5 Days to a Clutter Free House” you jump right on that.

I struggle with clutter – it’s not that my house is messy, it usually isn’t, but we like to ‘keep’ things. It’s what we do around here. But as so many of you know, all those little things tend to add up, and then there’s no room to keep them anymore, or if you’re like us in our transition in life, you have to box them up to move them, and it seems so so overwhelming.

Well here it is a month into the new year, and I can honestly say that I’ve been doing really well watching what I’ve been eating. I didn’t set out to lose any weight per say, but just to eat a bit healthier and be more active. It’s obviously been working, and I have been using different books over the past few weeks to get into a routine. I have actually lost nearly 4 pounds, plus I have more energy and have been sleeping better!

One of the books that I received was Reader’s Digest “The Digest Diet Cookbook.”

Get the strategy that was created in the kitchen of a 300-pound wife and mother who couldn’t afford another expensive weight loss plan. There was no more room in the family budget for ordering diet foods and supplements through the mail, no money to buy ongoing weekly support, and no way to pay for a high-priced weight loss surgery. Linda Goff had to find budget-friendly way to lose half of her body weight and keep it off for good. The Skinny Budget Diet was born.

If you’re looking for new, more productive ways to get things done in your home and life, one of the best resources you’ll find is Mary Hunt’s “Cheaper, Better, Faster” book. This book is full of tips that can help you do what you’re already doing, well….cheaper, better and faster. But probably the main benefit is actually finding solutions to annoying problems that you just couldn’t solve on your own. By using these tips, you’ll be using your time and your money more effectively. This book is a wonderful way to help you make smarter changes in the way you do everyday things. Here are a few tips that I really liked from the book:

When I bought my iPad in 2011, I was an app downloading fiend. If I saw a free app, I downloaded it. I felt like it was free so I should. At the beginning I was pretty unsavvy as to what made a good app and what didn’t.

Now that I’ve had it for a couple of years, I realize that there are ‘meh’ apps, ‘good’ apps, and (gasp) ‘really good’ apps « and those are the ones that are worth paying for.

We’ve all thought it when we’ve seen a celebrity chef that’s slim – “How do they stay trim with a career like that?”

Allison Adato explores this in her new book Smart Chefs Stay Slim by interviewing America’s Best Chefs and getting lessons on eating and living from them.

I was thrilled to be able to read this book, as well as try some of the chef created recipes in my own kitchen.