Book Recommendations

We stumbled across Baby, Boo! and it is the best baby book ever. My daughter would look at it even when we weren't reading it to her. She's finally grown out of it, so we passed it on to my niece, who apparently will throw the book at whoever she wants to read it to her.

I have a 7 month old and some of our favorites (because let's be honest, at the infant stage, it's you doing the reading and I prefer to have some sort of rhythm or something to a book) are:

- the aforementioned Sandra Boynton - we have 2 sets of them and they almost all have a catchy song or something. I have not heard of Little Pookie though!
- Bear Snores On I love this one, we also just bought her the Christmas one to put in her stocking and I was excited to find they're a whole series!
- All of Baby, Nose to Toes Cute and I like how it helps with the body parts and the routine of a day

We've also found that board book versions of old favorites, like Dr. Seuss or Corduroy, are a big hit. I don't feel like I can read books with paper pages yet because she likes to grab onto them, but she can't destroy the board books yet (at least, only by chewing them!)

Finally, another big hit has been cloth books because she can easily hold them and chew them!

We had a cloth book that had a little 'activity' on each page (teddy goes in the pocket etc, all attached so nothing goes missing), and they were a hit for years.

whatthedeuce wrote:

laddical wrote:I don't know... even a used car seems a little excessive for a newborn.

I was all "Is that comment in the right thread?" Then I clicked the mialoubug's link and LOLed.

Whoops!  Glad to amuse you all.

Here's the correct link..

Unlucky Bear wrote:Ever hear about the BabyLit board books? I want this Dracula counting one so bad but alas, I haz no baby. My friends who have had baby girls have gotten the Pride & Prejudice (counting), the Sense & Sensibility (opposites), and the Anna Karenina (fashion) ones.

Oooo I got the Pride and Prejudice one for my god-daughter! She loves it!

Yeah, I just remembered one of my coworkers is having a baby boy in March; I think I'm going to buy him the Sherlock Holmes one. Mostly so I have a reason to get it and flip through it.

Poubelle wrote:Does anyone know what would be a good book to start with for Hawaii's history? I only know the vaguest outline, and would like to know more, and I'm pretty sure neither HGTV's Hawaii Life nor the odd episode of Hawaii 5-0 are good sources for anything other than entertainment and "oooh, so pretty."

I was browsing Girlebooks and came across The Hawaiian Archipelago by Isabella L. Bird. It's a travelogue published in 1875.

If anyone's looking for a fun urban fantasy series I recommend the hell out of Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series. They're set in the future when magic has taken back over the world (the premise is that magic and technology take turns fluctuating until one gets too powerful). It hits the main tropes of the genre; the main character is a sassy butt-kicker with growing power that she has to hide because she's hiding from someone, and there's a sexy were-lion, but thankfully there's no love triangle. It's hard to pinpoint what exactly makes me love this series so much, I think it's that the mythology is well developed and obviously well researched, and the authors - a husband and wife team - have built a really complex and interesting world for the books.

Would those of you who read Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel still recommend it if I hated her A Place of Greater Safety? Wolf Hall is on sale and I'm tempted to buy it, and I'm more interested in the subject material and it's gotten a lot of good reviews, but I really, really hated A Place of Greater Safetly. Haha. So I just was wondering if the writing styles are different enough that Wolf Hall would worth a go.

Has anyone read "I am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak, the writer of "The Book Thief?"  My colleague picked it up but hasn't started it yet.  It looks intriguing, but "TBT" kicked my emotional ass this way to Sunday, and as much as I loved it, I'm not sure I want to go down that path again.

I read I Am the Messenger years ago and though I can't recall the plot anymore, I remember absolutely loving the book. I don't think there was anything heartbreaking about it loke TBT, but I could be wrong since I read it about 6-7 years ago.

Might I recommend something from the new line from Penguin?

Don't you mean the new line from Penguin!

This is so exciting!!! I don't know if I can ever convert to be a full time proponent of the exclamation mark but I realize I'm getting old and times are passing me by! When I was in elementary school, Pluto was still a planet! Now the NFL is talking about getting rid of the extra point after the touchdown! A major publisher is advocating replacing the period/full stop with an exclamation point! What other changes are coming:/ I don't know but I don't want to be one of those old, get off my lawn types who can't stop talking about the good old days! I intend to accept middle-age gracefully!

The kicker:

The Penguin Now! list is also set to be supplemented by a range of corresponding audiobooks, read by Brian Blessed.

I heard him do King Lear in Glastonbury last time I was in London.

Can anyone suggest good science fiction books for the early elementary grades? There's a ton of fantasy, but I'm interested in using science fiction to spark an interest in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) curriculum. Stuff like the old Danny Dunn series. Thanks!

William Sleator! (Also, I loved the Danny Dunn books.) Sleator's "The Boy Who Reversed Himself," which is really about, and narrated by, a girl, is a great book about the fourth dimension. Also, "Strange Attractors" is about chaos theory and time travel. Sleator's protagonists tend to be assholes, and they usually find out how horrible they are by the end of the novel.

These are older books so I have no idea how available they are and they're not exactly science fiction, but I loved The Mad Scientists Club series by Betrand Brinley. They're about a group of boys who use science for hijinks.

They aren't exactly what you want but certain Magic Treehouse Books would work.  The Little Prince is also awesome for this.

I should add that TLP is now a pop up book that is actually fantastic.

Thank you all. These are great suggestions. And The Mad Scientists Club has science and it's fiction, ergo science fiction.

The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet is a delightful classic. And I wholeheartedly second the recommendation for The Little Prince. (If you're trying to actually teach kids science, I learned about extinct volcanoes from that one.) And for "future on Earth" and not just outer space, The Ear, The Eye, and the Arm is just incredible (though it might be more of a read-aloud for younger kids).

I am looking for a self-help book on focusing/self-discipline/time management that covers life in general, not just work. I am having a HUGE problem staying on top of my shit lately and just have no idea where to begin. All the books I'm coming across are about staying on top of your inbox and keeping your coworkers from distracting you, and that is not my issue. Any recommendations?

inversed wrote:I am looking for a self-help book on focusing/self-discipline/time management that covers life in general, not just work. I am having a HUGE problem staying on top of my shit lately and just have no idea where to begin. All the books I'm coming across are about staying on top of your inbox and keeping your coworkers from distracting you, and that is not my issue. Any recommendations?

I'm interested in this recommendation as well. I am so over my head EVERYWHERE that I need to rejigger all my time management skills. I have been looking for something like this for a long time.

I'm heading to Italy for the first time, and I'd love recommendations for books set in Florence or Rome - particularly set in ancient or Renaissance periods. I'm generally a fan of fiction, but I'll take non-fiction if it's really good. Thanks!

rivki8699 wrote:I'm heading to Italy for the first time, and I'd love recommendations for books set in Florence or Rome - particularly set in ancient or Renaissance periods. I'm generally a fan of fiction, but I'll take non-fiction if it's really good. Thanks!

If you haven't read A Room with a View, now is the time to do so! It's like a love letter to Italy, particularly Florence.