KDY's World

As a Girl Scout leader, I'm always on the lookout for women role models to inspire our girls to lead. When the opportunity came to review this book, I snatched it up!

First the positives--I was intrigued that it was organized by geographic location and discussed women leaders around the globe, not just the USA. The aim was to inform us regarding women who have shaped the course of history, not just women who are famous. Each page has a drawing of the person discussed and then a 2-page spread discussing their accomplishents. It would be impossible for me to fact-check this book, as many of the women are unknown to me (yay for learning something new!) so please beware if you are looking to use this as a source for school, etc.

The negatives--The title. I'm not sure I appreciate the full meaning and context of the word RAD used in this title but it seems a little too ingratiating to the intended audience and honestly, my daughter screwed up her nose when she read the title. The color scheme. Ick. The drawings--every single one of them looks mean, angry or just not human. The choice of women--being informed about women's history, I could have listed at least 100 other women to include as well, but some of their choices were interesting, if not just as important, but many women who I felt have shaped history were decidedly missing from this book.

Overall, the content is important and fascinating. The packaging leaves much to be desired but I will ask my daughter to flip through it with me and learn about someone new every once in a while.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

I Almost Forgot About (This Book) You
The latest book by Terri MicMillan was just so so for me. I just wasn't feeling her main character or the "throw caution to the wind, quit my job and go on a soul-searching adventure" at this time in my life. I guess I should be lucky I haven't ever felt the need to do so.

I can see where there would be much to discuss about this book and for the right audience, the right time in their lives, maybe this would make a book club selection. I am recommending it with reservations.

I've moved!!

I moved my blog to wordpress and am I glad I did!! It's so much easier to use and configure. You should give it a try. My new blog is up at www.kdysworld.wordpress.com Bye bye!

And we have a winner!

Congratulations to the winners of my first contest. Please check back to see if I come up with any other contests for free knitting stuff.

Another contest to win a free hotsling

http://holdmenear.com/store/index.php?main_page=index

Anyone else need a vacation from their vacation?

Well, it's been 3 days since I returned home from our 9 day family cruise. There were 14 of us and it was hectic!! I can't see over the pile of laundry that needs to be put away--at least almost everything is cleaned (still need to make a run to the dry cleaners). Cruising with a toddler is..... different, to say the least. It certainly is not as relaxing as our cruises past, but it was fun to see things through her eyes. Since DD had just learned to walk 3 weeks before we left, she was still a bit of a novice, and that made me on edge the whole time. She took 3 major spills, the first one before we even left port! But she recovered just fine and it has not deterred her one bit! I managed to read one book while we were away (The Nanny Diaries--beware, I did not think it was nearly as funny as I have heard. In fact, I found it disturbing and sad), but I barely knit. I don't know why I didn't get to do any knitting. It just didn't happen. I did get to be a bit creative, though. They held scrapbooking classes, which I attended as much as possible, and arts and crafts classes. The one class I really enjoyed was making a beaded bookmark. Let's just hope for all our sake I don't get addicted to that, too. Although I am taking my nieces to the local bead store tomorrow to make some jewelry http://www.redbankbeadcompany.com/

Anyway, we woke up every morning and all DD would say was "Water, water, water" and she would pop herself up on the ledge by the porthole and sit herself down and watch the waves. She had a difficult time sitting still during dinner (who am I kidding, I found it hard to sit still for 2 hours, too!) and we would all take turns bringing her outside the restaurant to walk back and forth and back and forth. I guess that was a major advantage to having a large group with us--many entertainers!

So it is a few days until I close the contest for the sock yarn. I definitely have not made up my mind who the winners are, so there's still time to join in the contest. I hope everyone will be pleased with their yarn and happy knitting!