The Power of Habit by Eddie de Jong

Genre:  Nonfiction, Self Help

The author has created a book that effective helps people look at their habits, both good and bad and make decisions that will improve their life.  The book contains links to sites where you can get more help or info.  I’ve read multiple books like this throughout my life.  Like the author I was a very shy person and was comfortable sitting someplace alone with a book.  Books like this have helped me throughout my life.  They brought me out of my shell and made me the person I am today.  I think I liked this, more than any of the other books I’ve read because it was more user friendly.  I didn’t feel like the author had written over my head.  This is a book that should be required reading from high school on up. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone who needs to get their life in order.

 

Source: I received a copy to help facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Three Children's Books by Kyle Fuhrer and Illustrator Bethany Tallack

Billy Bob the Dog & Torkelson Turtle in: The Ancient Art of Asking

Fiddler’s Green is hopping.  Everyone is busy. That is everyone except Goober Ninja.  He can’t find anything to do.  He wants to have fun but everyone is too busy.  The town had a major problem. They were too busy to play, but too afraid to ask anyone for help.  Goober decided to use his super ninja powers to help his friends.  Each time he helped out the mob of people chasing him grew. How could he be in so much trouble just for helping? What will happen when he finds himself in a dead in alley?  Maybe they both have a lesson to learn.

Good Food Gone Bad

Billy Bob the Dog and Torkelson the Turtle are cops in Fiddler’s Green.  Hypnotherapy was the evilest villain they had to deal with. When Bob and Torkelson’s friend Smallfridge tells them he thinks it would be fun to eat nothing but junk food, Hypnotherapy decides to steal all of the healthy food in Fiddler’s Green. Hypnotherapy hypnotizes all of the store owners. They lock away the healthy food leaving only juk food. Everone ate so much junk food they got fat and lazy. This allowed Hypnotherapy to play tricks on everyone. Luckily for fiddler’s Green Torkelson the Turtle didn’t eat junk food. It was up to him to save Fiddler’s Green.

The Magical Imagination of Smallfridge: The Leap of Space

Smallfridge is a young boy who likes to bounce on his bed before going to sleep each night. On one particular night he bounces himself into space where he has all kinds of adventures.  He visits the Moon, Mars and Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto. He drinks milk from the Milky Way then catches a ride back to Earth on a shooting star. This is a simple story with simplistic illustrations that make it a great bedtime story.

Suitcase Filled With Nails: Lessons Learned From Teaching Art in Kuwait by Yvonne Wakefield

Genre:  Adult, Memoir

Source: I received a copy to help facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

From the back cover:

Artist and arts educator Yvonne Wakefield leaves a secure career and home life in the Pacific Northwest, so opposite to the climate and landscape she finds when she moves to the little desert state of Kuwait. For six years she will teach art there, to university aged Muslim women, and negotiate tribal and misogynistic land mines set by detractors who are threatened by anyone, especially a spirited American woman, who encourages freedom of expression. More than a good read, Suitcase Filled with Nails is filled with insights on working, living, and coping in a culture that transcends prevalent Middle East stereotypes.

My Thoughts:

I’m surprised by all that I read, and then to realize that after all she went through she continued to go back year after year. I feel I got a better look into life in Kuwait, even if it was told just from her side of it.  I believe there is more than one perspective to any story, and this is hers told from her experiences.One thing I admire is that no matter what happened she continued to fight for those she taught.  I know, even though I am an educator, I would not have the guts to go where she went and do what she do.  I believe that not only did she enrich their lives but they enriched hers.

I received a copy to help facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.