Review of I'm Their Dad! Not Their Babysitter!: Essays, Anecdotes and War Stories Celebrating Fatherhood (Paperback)

This is a must read for parents, young and old.The author has a great flair for humor mixed with serious thoughts on parenting, fatherhood in particular.The stories are drawn from his experiences raising his ownchildren, but the reader soon realizes the universal application to allparents.Take this book to the beach, on an airplane, etc.You will beglad you did.Bruce & Marge Rice

Product Description

I'm Their Dad! Not Their Babysitter is a humorous collection of essays and anecdotes about family life as seen through a loving father's eyes. Author Tim Herrera strikes a common chord with all parents by offering a charming and totally real look at the joys and frustrations of parenthood.

About the Author
Tim Herrera is a writer, columnist, television news reporter and Little League and soccer coach in Sacramento, California. Tim has written articles for national publications including: The New York Times, Modern Dad, News Photographer Magazine and Catholic Forester. His work has also appeared in the on-line magazine My Village. Tim and his wife are the parents of four children.

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Review of The Wedding Book: The Big Book for Your Big Day (Paperback)

This book totally saved me.After feeling overwhelmed about planning my wedding for weeks and weeks, I can finally take a deep breath and say that my fiance and I are REALLY EXCITED after reading Mindy's book.There are so many great ideas in here that I would have never thought of, and so many of them are absolutely inspiring.This book is so comprehensive, it really talks about everything you want and need to know about planning your wedding. It's like Mindy is right there guiding you through every step of the way! The BEST part though, is that there are so many fun facts and cute details in the book...I couldn't put it down :) If you're a bride-to-be, I highly recommend Mindy's book...you'll absolutely love it.If you're a bridesmaid, do the bride a big favor and pick this up for her!

Product Description
Announcing the wedding bible: the most complete, lively, handholding, step-by-step guide to help every couple have a perfect wedding-no matter their budget, taste, or personalities. More than 2.2 million North American couples tie the knot each year; until now, only a mere fraction could work with celebrity wedding planner Mindy Weiss. But the significant fact is not Ms. Weiss's clientele, but the reason for it: She's so very good at what she does. And now she shares all of her hard-won experience, wisdom, inspiration, and style tips.

The Wedding Book covers everything, in a voice filled with understanding: announcing the engagement, and what to do when someone isn't happy about the news; creating a budget; the pros and cons of destination weddings. Drawing up the guest list; planning the ceremony (and how to personalize your vows); menus to inspire; contracts and wedding insurance. Shopping for the dress, six great hairstyles, tuxedo vs. dinner jacket, the etiquette of invitations. Style tips for flowers, the tabletop, linens; a cake that says "you"; the crucial "Sixty Days Until I Do"; rehearsal dinner strategies; plus freezing the cake and preserving the bouquet.

Today the average cost of a wedding is $25,000-at $19.95, The Wedding Book is the smartest investment a bride-to-be could make.

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Review of My Sister Life (Paperback)

I am ambivalent about this book. It is a page-turner; it is easy to read, and it is salacious. But it is also cold, distant, and doesn't offer anything particularly insightful about motivation or causes of the familial dysfunction, other than the mother's remoteness from her children and the father's diffidence.

I wondered at several times whether this was indeed biography, or just an elaborate fiction, along the lines of an earlier generation's "Go Ask Alice". A bit of Internet research suggests that it is indeed real, and that the author set out with a forensic-like dispassionate intent.

I suppose I had expected something a little bit more personal. I am pleased it does not have the schmaltzy tones of a bad telemovie. It certainly desrcibes in exquisite and distressingdetail the processes of mental and physical abuse, but it is all conveyed as a description of a specimen on a glass slide.

Read it, and don't weep - for there is no emotional connection made with this reader, at least!



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Review of Starting Out Sideways (Hardcover)

Roseanna Plow knows her life has fallen apart.Her husband Teddy has left her after admitting to an affair with her best friend Inga; they live together.Her vocation as a social worker focusing on career counseling is difficult yet rewarding when she places one of her developmentally challenged clients; however, now one of her successes Milton Beyer seems to be stalking her as he is everywhere.Her dad has prostrate cancer and now her mom the steamroller, who informs everyone with mirth that her daughter came down the birth canal sideways, has moved in temporarily to give her maternal support, TKO style.

The only positive note is Milton's boss at the SaveWay Mickey "Ham" Hamilton seems nice.However, before she can decide whether to forget cheating Teddy and move on perhaps with Ham, she learns a dark family secret.Soon she and her mom are going toe to toe over what she now knows.

This is a well written poignant family drama starring a likable heroine who believes she must be the female reincarnation of Job as everything suddenly has gone wrong.Roseanna is a wonderful character who holds the deep tale together although the support cast is fully developed and enhances the plot.Contemporary readers will enjoy Mary E. Mitchell's amusing yet discerning character study.

Harriet Klausner




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