Two Promising Memoirs: One by Michele Norris of All Things Considered and Condolezza Rice
It’s a crying shame that as a busy mother and business owner that I don’t have time like I used to to simply delve into books at my leisure. I spend so much time working and mothering that books far too often fall to tenth and eleventh place in my priority spectrum. That said, I want to let you know about two upcoming memoirs that just may move up to sixth or even fifth place.
Michele Norris, the beloved host of All Things Considered, has penned a memoir, The Grace of Silence, about race, but in doing her research she unearthed hidden secrets from her own family. It sounds like a great book. In fact, it has been heavily endorsed by Henry Louis Gates, Gwen Ifill, Tom Brokaw, Richard Wolf and Doris Kearns Goodwin. With their recommendations I know it’s good!
And, Condoleeza Rice is back in the limelight with a book about her family, Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family. I have been wondering where in the world she has been hiding. Apparently behind a computer screen like the rest of us.
Book and Tech Wednesday: Raindrops and the New Microsoft Phone
Raindrops: A Shower of Colors by Chieu Anh Urban
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Spring is just around the corner and for young ones who are just beginning to learn their colors, Raindrops: A Shower of Colors is an excellent board book to teach them about animals and the various hues of the rainbow.
More and more I judge toddler books primarily by their illustrations.
When my daughters were quite young their little eyes feverishly gazed across the pages of vibrantly-colored books. And while their young ears heard the stories the illustrations really told the story. That said, the illustrations in Raindrops paints the entire story beautifully and the wording is ideal for young children whose brains are constantly learning new things.
What I love most about Raindrops is each page has a see-through raindrop of its respective color.
Why I love this book: Raindrops: A Shower of Colors is a perfect book for young children to read alone when they’re sitting on the floor using their tiny fingers to explore their piles and piles of board books. The illustrations in Raindrops are vibrant enough to capture and keep your child’s attention and the story is simple enough to teach them new insects, animals and colors without overwhelming them or taking away from their favorite things: pictures!
Reading “The Help” on My iPod Touch
I have been wanting to read “The Help” for about three months. A couple of weeks ago when I was in the airport on my way to Chicago I almost plunked down $24.95 for a hardcover copy, but couldn’t bear to do it because I knew I could get it somewhere, anyway cheaper. Then it dawned on me that I can read it as an ebook and save a lot of money and that’s what I’m currently doing. I’m reading “The Help” on my iPod Touch and it only cost me $8.55 from Barnes & Noble.
Read More…
Discovering the Real John Henry + a Review of the TwitterPeek
Ain’t Nothing but a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry by Scott Reynolds Nelson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Even though Ain’t Nothing But A Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry is a children’s book I had a real problem putting it down. That is certainly not to say the content will fly over the head of children. Rather, the content is so stellar it will keeps kids and adults alike riveted to the pages as the author recounts his quest to find the real John Henry. Read more after the jump.
TECH
On Christmas Eve I decided to take my TwitterPeek with me when I went shopping to see how it worked. I received the TwitterPeek to review and I wanted to take it out into the field, so to speak.
The TwitterPeek is a device that allows you to mobile tweet only. You can’t check your email and you cannot surf the Net. The only function of the TwitterPeek is to use Twitter.
Although I had some initial problems with it because apparently you can’t use the same email as the one that’s synched to your Peek ( if you have one), the TwitterPeek proved to be a great device, especially for those who can’t tweet from their phone.
The TwitterPeek allows you to see tweets come in, respond to tweets, write your own tweets and see your @ mentions. Additionally you can see images that people upload into their Twitter stream and read links.
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Harriet Tubman: Secret Agent and the TwitterPeek
I had no idea that National Geographic publishes so many books with African-American themes. I was thrilled to received several books to review and will be posting my reviews now through the beginning of the year. Today I am posting my review of Harriet Tubman: Secret Agent, Also look for thorough reviews of 500 Miles to Freedom, Students on Strike, The Ground-breaking, Chance-Taking Life of George Washington Carver, Ain’t Nothing But a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry and Liberty or Death.
TECH
If you are looking to tweet when you’re on the go, you might want to check out the TwitterPeek. It’s the first dedicated Twitter client, allowing you only to tweet from it. You can’t check your email or upload pictures, but you can tweet, read tweets, read your @ mentions and also reply to your Twitter followers.
I am currently reviewing the TwitterPeek. Look for a review next week during Books and Tech Wednesday.
On the Net: www.getpeek.com
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Coming This Week — Topic-Based Posts
We all make New Year’s resolutions, right? My resolution for Mommy Too! in 2010 is to streamline the content so you can better find information and resources I post. Thing is, I’ll be starting this week.
Each day will be dedicated to a different topic, so three months from now when you want to find that amazing maternity dress I featured or the infant product recall you heard about, it will be easier to do. You’ll also be able to go through the archives as well.
So, without further ado, here are the topics I will cover each weekday. I hope you join me!
Nadia Simone: Age 2 1/2 years
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