Review of It's Your Time (Hardcover)

This was a great read - funny and inspirational.I went thorugh every room in my home and with Joe's methods, I actually organized the closets - I did it, just like he says.I would reccommend this book to anyone looking to organize their home or office.

Product Description
IT'S YOUR TIME, featured in Oprah's O Magazine, is about managing your time through organizing and managing the space you live and work in.A fun and simple way to do what you always wanted to do - take control of your time.Buy IT'S YOUR TIME today.Lead a happier, healthier life tomorrow.Reduce stress.Gain up to 2 hours of extra time each day.Manage your time by organizing your home and workplace in 7 easy steps.Only $9.95.

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Review of Oh, Solo Mia! : The Hip Chick's Guide to Fun for One (Paperback)

This is a fun book written by two witty thirty-something gals, Wendy
Burt and Erin Kindberg who appropriately have subtitled it "The
Hip Chick's guide to Fun for One." I smiled when I saw the bright
pink cover and snappy illustration, I smiled when I read the table of
contents, and I just kept smiling as I read through it. Each of the
125 chapters, that are less than two pages long, includes an idea that
a single woman can do alone. All of them encourage creativity and
include such diverse activities as volunteering in an animal shelter,
skydiving, learning to brew home-made beer, taking a road trip in a
convertible, and even crashing a wedding reception. Each idea is
presented with humor, followed by a short list of places to go for
more information, including appropriate websites.

The book, of course,
does more than just give ideas. It says something about the authors
themselves. These are women who enjoy their lives and are always on
the lookout for something interesting to do. And even though they
often humorously refer to the possibility of meeting some hunky guy
while learning to fly or going to a town meeting, this is somehow just
a footnote to the idea of the activity itself. There's encouragement
to take courses, learn a new skills, help the needy, and open your
eyes to the pleasures of just plain living. It's upbeat all the way. I
read the book all the way through but it can also be read by just
leafing though it or choosing a chapter at random. But however you
read it, I can guarantee it will make you smile as well as act as a
springboard to further inspiration. Recommended.


Product Description
Oh, Solo Mia is the essential guide for all women in search of ideas for entertaining themselves after wearing out the resources of the neighborhood Blockbuster. Oh, Solo Mia offers more than 100 creative ideas with attitude for swinging single chicks. Inspirations range from the cheap and tame to the chi-chi and daring, and all are guaranteed to provide hours of entertainment for girls (of all ages) who just wanna have fun!

From the Back Cover
As Cyndi Lauper succinctly put it in the early '80s, "Girls just wanna have fun!" In Oh, Solo Mia!, you'll find more than 100 ideas and inspirations for doing just that. From the mild to the wild and from the budget-conscious to the chichi, you'll have a blast reading about the many activities savvy solo chicks can do on their own. Here's just a sampling of the many fabulous and funky ideas inside:

• A star is born--host your own wild and crazy public access TV show
• Sneak into a college lecture and gawk at the cuties while expanding your intellectual horizons
• Jump feet first into everyone's greatest fear--tandem skydiving
• Attend a wine tasting and learn there's more to life than screw tops

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Review of Chick Living: Frugal And Fabulous (Paperback)

A disappointment. I picked up "Chick Living" from the library because it's about the various things you'll need to know when you're learning to live as an independent adult. It's also about living in a way that doesn't expend tons of money. Anything it can say will be handy, right? Well... its crippling flaw is that it's trying to cover such a wide array of topics that it can't really go into them far enough to be useful. You get a tiny little paragraph for each thing, basically, and most of it is stuff that you'd know even before you tried to live on your own. (And that's weird, because there's all kinds of stuff that you don't learn until you stumble into it when you're living by yourself.) Each subject is a lot of common knowledge, and is so brief that it's scarcely of use. For example, it tells you that if the toilet is running, you jiggle the handle; if that doesn't work, you call a plumber. If the toilet is blocked, you put the plunger in it and move it up and down, and if that doesn't work, you call a plumber. Seriously, that's all it says. The book is aimed at a female audience, which is peculiar, since the subject matter itself is unisex; the book's presentation is what makes it female-directed, with its pink and green ink (a decorative addition that makes the book pungent of chemicals, which turned me off of reading it for a week after I first opened it) and its writing style, which is identical to that used in teen girl fashion magazines such as "Jump" and "YM," including catchphrases such as "get glam." (I've never met anyone who really talks like a teen girl fashion magazine, so this stuck out to me.) The chapter on finances is where the main juicy I-didn't-know-that stuff is, but it mostly tells you to get some other book, which happens to be one I'd checked out at the same time, so I said "okay" and dropped Chick Living back into the library return slot.

Product Description
You're young. You've used up the handful of decorating ideas you ever had and, frankly, it's time to take down the tapestries and the pushpin-worn posters. You're livin' in the real world now, sister. And, you're broke. So what if your mom thinks you're sassy and sophisticated-it's high time you showed everyone else you truly are. In Chick Living, Kris Koederitz Melcher teaches us how to live frugally while oozing fabulousness. Melcher's got your back with real-life lessons in necessity such as securing renter's insurance, getting enough calcium in your diet, and when to take your car and yourself in for a routine checkup. We can all learn a lesson or two from Melcher who, in her first year out of college, paid every bill on time and had funds left over for starting a Grown-up Girl wardrobe and a savings account. What's a Grown-up Girl Wardrobe, you ask? What's a savings account? Never fear, oh sweet young dear. Help is on the way. It's an expensive world out there and this guide is here to tell you what to spend on and when to put your money away. Quit dishing out three bucks for your morning latte and start making your frothy favorite at home. Discover the beauty of a yard sale and have enough cash left over for a monthly dinner-out splurge. Invest in a few classics for your closet but avoid the enticing lure of fad clothing. You'll find everything here but the kitchen sink (although Melcher tells you what should be underneath your sink). Whether you're in search of a job, a roommate, a couch, or a recipe, Melcher's preparedness savvy is the ideal remedy for the just-out-of-college blues or the woes of any fund-hungry chick. You'll thank your extra pennies that she's put her hard-won wisdom and experience into a guide for the rest of us.

About the Author
Kris Koederitz Melcher is an editor who has worked in publishing and public relations for several years. She has written, pitched, and placed articles in publications like Modern Bride, New Woman, Parade Magazine and more. She strives to live a frugal and fabulous life in Leawood, Kansas, with her husband and daughter.

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Review of Defending Gary: Unraveling the Mind of the Green River Killer (Paperback)

Well written book.Authors had a good understanding of Gary Ridgway and yet did not lose caring about those whose lives were ended or forever changed by his behavior.By reading this book, it became clear to me that Gary Ridgway was a person who had no ability to perceive his victims as real people.Those who cared for the victims are desperate for bits of information about what happened to them.Gary doesn't know--he killed them and dumped their bodies and that's all he knows.This book gives a good understanding of the grueling months of trying to gather information and find bodies and the toll it took on all involved.I would have preferred a little less of the verbatim interviews with Gary--the book was overly long.I also didn't see the relevance of all the information about the Prothero family and their swimming skill.All in all, however, this book is recommended to those who are still trying to understand these murders which were so horrific for so many.



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Review of The Jungian Experience: Analysis and Individuation (Studies in Jungian Psychology) (Paperback)

This book explains the very basics of Junguian analysis - and of psychoanalysis in general, for that matter, in a very clear and organized way. I do reccomend it for all those who want to learn something about thesubject and also to those who are considering going into analysis, becauseit contains an outline of the whole process and includes considerationsabout the frequency,duration and cost of sessions as well.The book didhelp me very much and I found it both concise and precise.I find it aclassic, a must read, along with Karen Horney's books. And I keep goingback to it every time I want to reflect about individuation and personalgrowth.



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Review of The Courage to Laugh (Paperback)

I purchased this book and read it after the deaths of three immediatefamily members (son, father, mother-in-law) occurred within a year's time. I reached a point wherein I asked myself, "How have I been able tocope with all the stress this year, and why am I coming unglued now?" The answer is in the title of the book. What helped me throughout the yearwas my wit. I realized that I needed to nurture my sense of humor as muchas I needed food, clothing, shelter, love and prayer.

Through AllenKlein's book I discovered that, in the face of trauma, humor is as much asaving grace as are spiritual/religious beliefs.

I heartily recommendthis book for anyone who is facing a terminal illness or who has a lovedone who has a terminal illness, as well as for those who are at least ayear past the death of their loved one (unless they have an extremelyaccessible wit).

Laughter is excellent medicine.Buy this book, but thenremember to take the medicine!Laughing in the face of death, or findinglight when one feels that life is dark, is a challenging task.It takescourage to search thoroughly and find humor's rainbow behind the darkclouds of grief.



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Review of How to Iron Your Own Damn Shirt: The Perfect Husband Handbook Featuring Over 50 Foolproof Ways to Win, Woo & Wow Your Wife (Paperback)

Craig Boreth has done it yet again. First there was that other thing and now . . . this. Wow! What next? But, let's focus on this right now . . .

I must admit that I was immediately drawn to the hilariously strident tone of the title when I included the book in my Amazon guide "So You Want To Be Your Own Wife." But that is part of the brilliance of " . . . Damn Shirt . . ."'s concept: looks like a feminist screed, actually is a cleverly disguised spy manual for men to the secret and mysterious world of connubial bliss, nay, even concupiscience.

Ok, yes, my wife and I blithely disregarded the rules for reading (See "For Men Only" and "For Women Only") and read it selectively aloud together. We hooted again and again and agreed that it was not only funny but spot-on. Although we are surely not the target audience (my wife thinks farts are quite amusing and I find ironing meditative . . . go figure!), we loved the book and ordered a few more copies as gifts for friends.

On one level, the book's short chapter bites and Jay Mazhar's great illustrations make for the quintessential "coffee table/bathroom book." But it is much more. Each chapter---with great titles like "How To Eliminate Gas" and "How To Walk Slowly Through a Museum"---has a witty and humorous lead-in that then manages to segue into very real useful and well-researched information for, not just wife-pleasing and appearance-of-sophistication, but things that all self-respecting, socially-mobile adult males should take personal pride in doing. Things like being considerate of others in one's environment, listening to others (or at least appearing to), tying a bow tie, keeping your body fit, and, my personal favorite, "How To Have a Reasonable Midlife Crisis". The best thing is that Boreth slips all these important things in while you are chuckling over his humorous presentation so nothing has any kind of a preachy feel ("I'm happy, fabulous, hunky, sensitive, and evolved and here's how you can be, too!").

This book is many things for most people. Would-be metrosexuals will eat it up as a starter guide. Young married (and impending matrimony) couples will benefit mightily. I predict, in fact, that this will become the hot shower gift of the next generation. Older couples may pick up pointers. The clueless will find clues and the clued will become yet more clueful. Skunkish boors will be predictably unchanged and unchangable but their wives will get some brownie points with friends and family for having tried something, anything. As well, we showed it to our gay friends (in fact, one couple just got married) and they loved it for the kitsch factor, the studly voice, and the retro illustrations. The general gay literary critique: "Craig Boreth is hot."

All said and done, "winning, wooing, and wowing" is, as the author so succinctly put it, "a journey, not a destination." "How to Iron Your Own Damn Shirt . . ." is one hilarious and well-written roadmap to the ultimate satisfaction, seemingly scarce in today's world, of happily bonding with your life partner, and to that most enigmatic of human institutions, marriage. Buy copies for your friends and laugh and learn together!

Product Description
PERFECT HUSBANDS ARE MADE, NOT BORN

LADIES: At long last, a practical guide to help your man become the perfect husband. How to Iron Your Own Damn Shirt is your salvation, with simple, easy-for-a-guy-to-follow instructions on those little things you can never get him to do, such as:

- How to Put the Toilet Seat Down
- How to Stop Snoring
- How to Ask for Directions
- Plus, more than 50 other essential topics (even How to Dance at a Wedding)

It's a must-have guide that will finally convince him it's in his best interest to make you happy, no matter what it takes.

GUYS: Don't panic. It's not how perfect you are, it's how perfect she thinks you are. How to Iron Your Own Damn Shirt is your key to the castle. Imagine what she'll let you get away with if you master a few skills, such as:

- How to Appear Calm While She's Driving
- How to Apologize Convincingly
- How to Enjoy a Chick Flick
- Plus, more than 50 other essential topics (even How to Hide Your Porn)

How to Iron Your Own Damn Shirt includes countless tips and tricks for keeping you sane, keeping her happy, and keeping you both laughing.

About the Author
Craig Boreth is a perfect-husband-in-training who lives in Santa Monica, California, with his perfect wife.

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