DIY type

Brighten your desk, personalize your parties, monogram your wardrobe and decorate your home; all with famous chalkboard artist- Dana Tanamachi's creative flare! Get acquainted with her through a little bit of her background story. Then browse a few pages of her designs and ideas, including a supplies list! And then test your creative hand by using some of her very own stencils. With letter stencils in large and small sizes, you are bound to find a project worthy of lettering! While I appreciate Tanamachis work in general, I wasn't very impressed with this book. Her chalkboard art is fun, elegant and whimsical. This book however doesn't display much of that. There are a few pages of some basic lettering ideas, and then the rest of the book is literally two sets of stencils. Which I believe I will use, as I always find use for anything crafty. But the lettering is nothing fancy, I'd call it basic. I think if you buy this book looking for something really fun and creative, you may not find it here, but if you are only needing a pack of stencils, then this book may be what you want. The book however is, before the stencils, very cute a creatively done. i received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Underground Girls of Kabul

Meet Azita, wife, politician and mom who's fourth daughter is a bacha posh. ("Dressed like boy") Why is she dressing her daughter like a son? And is she the only one doing so in Afghanistan? That's what Jenny Nordberg is determined to find out. But the lips of the Afghani people are tight lipped with foreigners about their secret customs. But Nordberg is able to find more clues to her puzzle when shadowing a much respected Dr. Fareiba at her family clinic. Her she gets a behind the scenes look into what really happens when a mother brings a daughter verses a son into the world. And it's unlike any other place in the world, it is said Afghanistan is the most dangerous place to be a woman. Here at the clinic men wait outside while woman bring life into this world, the babies gender determining if they will go home in honor or disgrace. Or in reality, if they will go home at all, and estimated 50 women per day in Afghanistan die daily due to childbirth complications. And then meet the others of this book. There's Zahara, who after being brought up as a boy is now full of anger, worrying and vexing her mother with the idea she will get a sex change. And then what about Shukria, who knew nothing about the conceiving of babies until a few weeks before her wedding, at twenty years old, because she too was not raised as her true gender. What about Nader? She doesn't want to be a woman after her thirty years of masquerading as a boy, because she enjoys all the freedoms she has now that a woman, dressed as a woman could not have. (Just to name a few) It's a culture steeped in age old traditions that even most the country men/woman don't necessarily believe in, but will shrug their shoulders as if to say, it is what it is... Driven to do what's respectable by their families, and having little choice being born female, you'll find these underground girls of Kabul and the stories that make them. Really fascinating read! I am always excited to find out about other cultures, and especially if the author can draw me into their world with the ease of a good story teller. And that I found here. Not only was the content interesting, if not sad at some points, Norberg did a great job pulling me in. I loved all the differnt stories and applaud her not only breaking an uncovered story, but doing her research, providing facts and sayng nothing that held any sort of bias or ignorance towards cultures so juxtaposed to our own.

940 Saturdays

Did you know that from birth to 18 years of age there are 940 Saturdays?  Which is (obviously) the premise for this book. When you open the book you will see pages laid out in a journal style format.  Every page in this book in fact is created just for recording great Saturdays with your family. And tucked neatly into an envelope found at the back of the book is a tiny booklet full of ideas on how to spend Saturdays with your children.  Each activity is dissected into age categories, so as to best interest everyone in the party. And you will find all of this nestled in between a sturdy puff binding. 
The book is much larger than I had imagined, which will make recording information much easier, however, it lacks a lot in the creativity department. While the outside is eye pleasing, the journal pages could have been printed on a higher quality paper, as this will be used for a keepsake. The activity book as well would have looked nice in color. For any parent wAnting to record their children, this will be a useful book, but one I'd suggest they kept on the coffee table, as it's definetly not small enough to go along in their purse like a lot of other journals of this nature are.
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.