false 35 878 541 true 5643893 read 3 true 411924 currently-reading 334 true 411923 to-read 6 false 1657183 favorites 6 false 1859599 book-club 2 false 1561773 giving-away-bookmooch 0 false 748378 waitingroom <![CDATA[Danine added 'Great Expectations']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70251184 to: Great Expectations (Paperback) by Kathy Acker
]]> <![CDATA[Danine added 'Magic for Beginners']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/36831653 Magic for Beginners (Paperback) by Kelly Link
bookshelves: book-club, currently-reading
]]> <![CDATA[Danine added 'Dispatches from a Not-So-Perfect Life: Or How I Learned to Love the House, the Man, the Child']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77468462 to: Dispatches from a Not-So-Perfect Life: Or How I Learned to Love the House, the Man, the Child (Hardcover) by Faulkner Fox
This review is based on the fact that I could not make it past the first chapter. I enjoy memoirs by mothers but I enjoy them if they are witty and humorous. This book did not deliever the humor or wit that I've grown to love in mommy memoirs.

This is a cliche story of an average mother's life. Maybe that is why people are drawn to the book because they can relate to the humdrum of daily life. I don't want cliche. I want to be offered a different and fresh perspective of motherhood that I didn't think about before. This book covers the basics. Childbirth is painful, motherhood is not what we had expected, husbands don't get what it's like to be us. Blah. Blah. Blah. BFD. The book wasn't edgy enough for me. I don't necessarily want tragedy and struggle but I don't want to read about what I can go find at the nearest lame mommy group either.

Maybe the book does get better. I don't know. All I know is that I couldn't get past the first chapter and that is where my bias comes from. ]]> <![CDATA[Danine added 'The Doctor Delivers']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70633471 The Doctor Delivers (Harlequin Superromance No. 1060) by Janice Macdonald
bookshelves: to-read
]]> <![CDATA[Danine is on page 1 of Great Expectations ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70251184 Danine is starting Great Expectations ]]> <![CDATA[Danine added 'The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70193135 The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections (Paperback) by Amanda Blake Soule
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> <![CDATA[Danine added 'At Home with the Marquis de Sade: A Life']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70183859 At Home with the Marquis de Sade: A Life (Paperback) by Francine du Plessix Gray
bookshelves: to-read
]]> <![CDATA[Danine added 'Skinny Bitch: Bun in the Oven: A Gutsy Guide to Becoming One Hot (and Healthy) Mother!']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68952126 to: Skinny Bitch: Bun in the Oven: A Gutsy Guide to Becoming One Hot (and Healthy) Mother! by Rory Freedman
While browsing the bookstore the original "Skinny Bitch" was on the display rack. It made me laugh...a lot. I noticed there was a pregnancy version so I was all to happy to get it. I think most pregnancy books are stupid and there is no reason you should be purchasing a pregnancy book when you have the internet to reference.

I knew beforehand that this book promoted a vegetarian, mostly vegan, lifestyle. Sarcasm and vegetarianism is just right up my alley. This wasn't another boring month-to-month guide about how your precious alien is growing inside of you. Most people will contest the vegetarian/vegan pregnancy out of ignorance and old fartyness (is that a word?). If the mother-to-be has a clue about how to calculate protein and other than that should be an idicator that she might know what she's doing. Mommy won't be eating junk food her whole pregnancy. If she does not this book does help.

The one thing that I didn't like about this book is the fact after fact after fact after fact format. I also wish it had a section about how to tell and educate your grandma and other skeptical people in your life about your choice to have a vegetarian pregnancy. If you tell an uneducated person about how you are not going to eat meat during your pregnancy you will get the dreaded protein lecture in hopes you will come to your senses. You maybe even get stoned or get the silent treatment.

I enjoyed this the sarcasm, raunchiness and vulgarity that this book had to offer. Thank you. ]]> <![CDATA[Danine added 'Travel as a Political Act']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/69804390 Travel as a Political Act (Paperback) by Rick Steves
bookshelves: to-read
]]> <![CDATA[Danine added 'Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man's Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas, and Thailand']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/69269672 to: Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man's Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas, and Thailand (Paperback) by Andrew Gottlieb
Because I loathe whiny and sappy books like "Eat. Pray. Love." I was very curious to read this fictitious alternative. The first part had to do with drinking in Ireland. I laughed so hard during these chapters I thought I would have a brain aneurysm. I thought for sure this would be a four star book.

As I moved to the second part about gambling and golf my four star rating turned into a three star rating. I don't gamble and I don't golf and maybe I shouldn't judge a book because of my own ignorance to the subject.

I was curious about the third section having to do with getting laid. Was the narrator going to be jock obnoxious about going to Thailand to get some tail? No. There was sex but not the flamboyant kind of sexual narrative. I appreciated that.

This was a fun book to read but quite average. My favorite quote from the book is: "The Irish drink the way Americans work and invade sovereign nations. It's what they're about" ]]>