A Woman's Guide to a Healthy Stomach by Jacqueline Wolf

Why do my jeans fit only in the morning?

Why am I always guzzling Pepto-Bismol before a big meeting?

Could my PMS cramps mean something serious?

Here, finally, are the answers to these questions, and hundreds more, about the nagging stomach problems that plague so many women. In this reassuring guide, Dr. Jacqueline L. Wolf, a leading expert in the field of gastrointestinal health, explains the causes and cures for women's most common digestive ailments (including bloating, constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux, IBS) and more serious, life-altering conditions like Crohn's disease and endometriosis. This candid book deals with sensitive issues in a down-to-earth way and eradicates once and for all the secrecy and shame surrounding these urgent problems. - from Goodreads

 

As someone who suffers from more than one digestive ailment (from which I will spare you the details), I think this book is a must-have for your shelf if you are one such sufferer. The book was divided into logical chapters, and each chapter had subheadings in the form of questions for easy access to the information you need, so you can skip the information that doesn't apply to you.

I highly recommend this book to any woman who suffers from any sort of digestive ailment. It's the perfect go-to reference tool whenever new symptoms pop up (as they tend to do with me) or you're dealing with an ailment for the first time.  Since women deal with digestive issues more than men do, I appreciate the fact that Dr. Wolf catered to the audience who needed it the most. 

A Woman's Guide to a Healthy Stomach: Taking Control of Your Digestive Health by Jacqueline Wolf

Publish Date: February 18, 2011

Pages: 272

Genre: Nonfiction

Audience: Adult women

ARC downloaded through NetGalley

Another Reading Challenge: Non-fiction challenge

I love reading non-fiction.  So I came across the non-fiction challenge from The Broke and the Bookish and decided to give it a try.  I'm going to try for at least 7-9 books, but this might be difficult for me since all of the books have to be from different categories (culture, art, food, travel, history, etc.). I tend to just read food and travel memoirs so I'm really going to have to branch out for this one.  But I am up to the challenge!

It runs from now until December 31st.

Reviewing Books - Updated

As a middle school teacher, my main reading preferences are YA and middle grade lit but I also enjoy adult fiction and nonfiction on occasion, especially if it relates to food or travel. If you are an author, agent, or publisher and would like me to promote a book, please contact me at the email address listed below. I am willing to receive ARCs, do blog tours, or author interviews.

I do not accept self-published titles.

My contact info:
beths0103 AT yahoo DOT com

If I receive a book for review, I will promote the book on my blog, but I will also give my honest opinion based on my genre preferences, my impression of the writing, and/or whether I think it would be a book my students would enjoy reading.

Waiting On Wednesday: Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight new and upcoming book releases. 

What if your worst enemy turned out to be the best friend you ever had?

Meet Brooke: Popular, powerful and hating every minute of it, she’s the “It” girl at Douglas High in Lake Champion, Minnesota. Her real ambition? Using her operatic mezzo as a ticket back to NYC, where her family lived before her dad ran off with an up and coming male movie star.

Now meet Kathryn: An overachieving soprano with an underachieving savings account, she’s been a leper ever since Brooke punched her at a party junior year. For Kath, music is the key to a much-needed college scholarship.

The stage is set for a high-stakes duet between the two seniors as they prepare for the prestigious Blackmore competition. Brooke and Kathryn work toward the Blackmore with eyes not just on first prize but on one another, each still stinging from a past that started with friendship and ended in betrayal. With competition day nearing, Brooke dreams of escaping the in-crowd for life as a professional singer, but her scheming BFF Chloe has other plans. And when Kathryn gets an unlikely invitation to Homecoming, she suspects Brooke of trying to sabotage her with one last public humiliation.

As pressures mount, Brooke starts to sense that the person she hates most might just be the best friend she ever had. But Kathryn has a decision to make. Can she forgive? Or are some rivalries for life? - from Goodreads

Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer
Publish Date: February 15, 2011
Pages: 336
Genre: realistic fiction
Audience: YA

I can't WAIT to read this one!  I love books that have musical settings.  From the musical background of Mia and her family in If I Stay, to the prominence music plays in helping Nathaniel Ayers in The Soloist, stories that revolve around music or involve characters that are musically inclined always catch my attention.  Of course, the fact that I played classical piano for thirteen years might have something to do with that.  

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (Audio book review)

In the valley of Fruitless mountain, a young girl named Minli lives in a ramshackle hut with her parents. In the evenings, her father regales her with old folktales of the Jade Dragon and the Old Man on the Moon, who knows the answers to all of life's questions. Inspired by these stories, Minli sets off on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man on the Moon to ask him how she can change her family's fortune. She encounters an assorted cast of characters and magical creatures along the way, including a dragon who accompanies her on her quest for the ultimate answer. - from Goodreads

Janet Song is the perfect narrator for this story. Her voice is soothing and has a twinge of an Asian accent to it which helps with making the story feel authentic. However, despite Song's beautiful narration, I do not entirely recommend solely listening to the story without following along with the actual book.The formatting of the book itself along with the stunning, colorful illustrations is part of the whole experience of the story and should not be missed.  

Grace Lin weaves Chinese folktales into Minli's journey, making the book feel like a novel told in short stories.  As someone who's not a fan of short stories, this was the only part of the book I did not enjoy. I really liked following Minli on her quest to find the Old Man on the Moon, but the adding of the folktales into the story didn't excite or interest me as much.  


Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Published: June 2009 by Little, Brown Young Readers (Audio book: February 2010 by Books on Tape)
Pages: 288 (audio book: 4 hours, 56 minutes)
Genre: fantasy
Audience: middle grade

IMM (14)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

Library Loot:

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems
Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman

 
Tibet: Through the Red Box by Peter Sis
Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and his Orchestra by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pin

 
The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein


What I got with my Scholastic bonus points this month:
 
The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn
Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Sugar and Ice by Kate Messner
Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord

 
Saving Zasha by Randi Barrow
The Romeo and Juliet Code by Phoebe Stone

What did you get in your mailbox?

Want to make kids readers? It's simple. Ditch the textbooks and give them REAL books!

I love reading workshop.  I will never teach reading another way ever again.  For those of you who don't know what reading workshop is, rather than teaching entire books to a whole class, students get to pick and monitor their own books.  I follow Donalyn Miller's format of requiring them to complete certain genres, but then they can choose whatever books they want within that genre.

The past couple of weeks I have really started to see the growth in my students as readers, but today was the culmination of realizing how far they have come.  I did a midyear reading reflection, and these were some of the responses I got:

My reading habits have changed because in the beginning of the year I was struggling to finish five books.  Now I'm finishing a book in three days.  I'm getting faster.

I now have explored different genres.  Also, now I know where to look for books and to get a new one right after I finish one.

I have gotten faster and I take a book everywhere.

My reading habits have changed by me bringing my books to more classes now and I am reading during most of my free time.  I like how we have so much time to read in reading workshop.  It is amazing how many pages you can get done.  I also like how it takes your mind off things.  If I have a science or math test, I don't worry about it and just read.

My reading habits have changed by me having more excitement to read books, making me want to read faster.

My reading habits have changed since September because now I can really focus on one book and not hop around from book to book.

I like reading a lot instead of doing millions of worksheets because I've always liked to read.

I really like the reading workshop because I'm trying out different genres and it helps me find a book to read.  Also, it feels as if reading counts more.

Reading workshop is the highlight of my day.  I don't dislike any of it.

I like how you just read instead of worksheets

I like that we get to chose what we read.  Being told what to read is annoying.

I dislike nothing [about reading workshop].  It is my perfect idea of reading class.

I do consider myself a reader and no not just because I have to read for school.  I feel I didn't like reading so much at the beginning of the year as I do now.  I love reading now. 

Some of these responses brought tears to my eyes.  These are not just from the star students.  These are from all types of students.

And the ultimate response from a student was not on a piece of paper.  A student who fought me tooth and nail at the beginning of the year and refused to read has FINALLY been quite occupied in a book lately, came up to me yesterday and said, "Thank you for helping me get more interested in reading.  I haven't felt this way in a long time."  It just goes to show that you can have all the money, technology, and updated textbooks in the world, but when it really comes down to it, if you want to make kids readers and improve their reading, all you have to do is just sit them down with a plain, old-fashioned book.