Zen Sarcasm Reviews

But I'm All Over That Cartwheel

I'm not exactly a book groupie.  I don't wait for new books to be released very often and I don't check the New York Times bestseller list to see how my favorites are doing.  However, ever since I heard of the existence of this book, I had been anxiously waiting for its release.  And when MotherTalk announced that they'd be holding a tour for it, I actually ran up and down the stairs, squealing.

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"The Daring Book From Girls" is, in one word, awesome.

After getting "The Dangerous Book For Boys" for Monsieur Meow this past Father's day, a small part of me lamented that there was no equally cool and dangerous counterpart for us girls.  Still, I stole the book away from my husband and pored over information about different knots, nautical language, pirate flags, and all manner of cool things for boys to do.

"And girls, too," I kept thinking.

Luckily, so did Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz, and hence "The Daring Book For Girls" was born.  Thank YOU, daring girls!

Echoes of my childhood and of the childhood I wish I'd had came crashing into my mind as I read and reread how to play double dutch, how to do a back walk-over (eeks!), and how to make all sorts of different crafts--like friendship bracelets!! or the fortune cookie!!-- one of the favorite ways of asking yourself a million times if a boy liked you without getting tired (or feeling like you were, in fact, asking an inanimate object to give you an answer.  I felt nothing but pure, unbridled glee when reading about daring girls from the past and learning about girl pirates --information which I plan to use for a birthday party soon, as a matter of fact.

It's hard to pick which one of the many different things the book teaches you is the coolest.  Although I must say: girl pirates?  Yes.

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But the best part is possibly that the book dares you to be a more daring girl yourself.  Even if you're the mother of all boys, this is a skill and a set of values that you can appreciate:  that being a daring girl --a girl who knows how to use tools, how to tell a good story, how to tie up a dinghy so it doesn't go floating off, and who keeps tally of which fears she's stared right in the face and which she's yet to conquer-- is a skill that needs to be taught, cultivated, explored, and passed down from parents to children.

Being a daring girl, or rather a daring person, should be a goal to cultivate in us all.

Do I recommend this book?  Oh heck yeah. 

I'm passing on the back walk-over, though.

Sometimes, The Right Words Are "Read This"

When "The Right Words At The Right Time Volume 2: Your Turn! " arrived a couple of weeks ago for my review and I took it out of its nice, snug packaging, my husband let out a small whistle if I remember correctly.

The kind of whistle that says, "Ooh... a long book of possibly cheesy non-fiction.  Boy are you in for it." 

I shrugged and immediately opened it up.  I've been a fan of Marlo Thomas for a while --because she was so adorably perky in That Girl and I used to mainline Nick at Night like it was going out of style; because she cares about kids and is an educator; because she seems to genuinely believe in the good of people; and finally, because she just appears to be a famous person who's never lost her head in the abyss and perils of fame.

So while Monsieur Meow lost himself in some sort of sport on tv, I started reading this book and I simply could not put it down.  I was sucked into the spirit of it completely, and what my poor dear had to endure for the next couple of weeks or so was sessions of intense reading silence punctuated by little bitty sobs and blubbering.  Every once in a while, I would be asked if I was okay --all the while getting the "I told you so" look.  Yup... I'm predictably emotional, but this book is far from your average cheesiness.  Or maybe it is exactly your average cheesiness, and yet much more than that.

After getting several more headshakes, I started pushing the book under his nose to read a few of the vignettes.  And I don't know exactly which one got to him --made him grow silent, made him think, made him protest-- but soon thereafter he stopped picking on my blubbering and would squeeze my hand whenever I'd let out a treacly little whine.

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The original Right Words book was a compilation of short memoirs from famous and notorious people, whose lives were changed with simple words-- not always encouraging, these words, but always remembered by the writer. 

As a follow-up book --due to demand and to a contest by Parade magazine-- the soapbox was turned over to regular folks who were given an opportunity to share their stories and their right words.  What is compiled, then, is a patchwork of different voices.  These voices could be anyone you know: there are older folks and younger ones; male and female; convicted and free; mournful and recovered; doubtful and resolved.  Many of the writers have their own story of sorrow and hope brought to them by having lost a loved one during the September 11th tragedies.  The stories are simple but the act of reading them --as the act of writing them must have done for the writer-- have a catalyzing power that is deeply moving.

Because at the core of this experiment --a collective encouragement session-- is the true spirit of realizing that no matter how different we think we are from one another or how unique we perceive our sorrow or our grief or our pickle to be, we can always learn from others or take something meaningful from what could otherwise be perceived as a meaningless exchange.  In other words, some of these actual stories could have had all the meaning and connection of two ships passing each other in the darkest night, were it not for the time and love that the people for whom they've meant something put into passing them on to us.

This book is a sweet relief and a balm and a true gift.  And my husband, though he will never admit it, found some timely words himself within, for his own soothing.  But please don't tell him I told you.

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As usual, thank you to Mother Talk for letting me participate in their blog tours!