Category: Books

If you’re a regular reader here, you know that Emily and I both loooove to read.  And of course, we love to read to our kids.  It has been a great joy watching my kids learn to read and learn to love books.  Jonah, like his siblings before him, also loooves books. He loves to be read to and to sit and turn the pages on his own. He also loves to make a big mess of his books in the living room every day. Books are so multi-purpose!

When Blue Manatee Books, a super cool kids’ bookstore and de-cafe asked me if I’d like to review one of their special boxes of books, it was a total no-brainer!  I got to pick out a 3-book Baby Unplugged box of books. It was so fun selecting books for Jonah. There were really just TOO many good choices. In the end I went with these three: Baby Unplugged: Ball, Baby Bear, Baby Bear What do You See? by Eric Carle, and Bugs which is a fabulous touchy-feely book.

Here’s Jonah enjoying Baby Unplugged: Ball. It’s such a cute book and is great for vocabulary building! There is a whole Baby Unplugged series and I definitely want to get more of them!

Blue Manatee boxes make great gifts because you can customize the box with any books you want to! It comes it awesome, re-usable eco-friendly packaging (complete with play ideas for the box!) and a custom gift message.

I love getting and giving books at the holidays! And I love when my kids get them too.

Wanna try a blue manatee box for yourself? You can win one 3-book Baby Unplugged box! Here’s how to enter!

1) Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite children’s book

2) Like Blue Manatee Boxes on Facebook and then come back here and leave a comment letting me know you did

3) Like Mommin’ It Up on Facebook and then come back here and leave me a comment letting me know you did

The winner will be chosen at random on Thursday October 18th at 6 pm. GOOD LUCK! May the best book-lover win!

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Blue Manatee provided me with a 3-book box to facilitate my review. All opinions are my own.

For the past three springs and summers, I have read books about World War II.  I’m not sure why exactly.  I know it is partly because I love history, and it is partly because I want to identify with my grandfathers, both of whom fought in World War II in the Pacific, one in the army, on the ground in the Philippines, and one in the Navy, on a ship in the Pacific.  The War fascinates me because it was so vast.  I think it’s hard for us today, especially people as removed from it as my generation is, to grasp how far the war reached.  It spanned Africa, North America, Asia, and Europe.  Australia, New Guinea, tons of tiny Pacific atolls and wakes and islands.  It’s just incredible really.

And the atrocities.  Staggering and unbelievable Japanese brutality towards POWs.  The bombing of London.  And the sickest of all, the Holocaust.

Last year I read a book that really changed me.  It broke my heart and put a permanent marker on it.  A memorial if you will, engraved there.  I will never think of the War without thinking of it.

It is the best book I have ever read, hands down. When I say “it changed me” I’m not being dramatic.  I will never be the same person I was before I read it.  It wasn’t the easiest read, it wasn’t a feel-good read, but oh – I think it is a must-read.  It is called, simply, The Lost.  The subtitle is: A Search for Six of Six Million.

In this book, the author, Daniel Mendelsohn, a secular, non-observant Jew born and raised in the United States, goes on a quest to find out what happened to his great-uncle, his beloved grandfather’s brother, along with his wife and four daughters.  They were killed by the Nazis in Ukrainian Poland – a part of Poland that sort of bounced back and forth between being part of Poland and being the Ukraine  – but that’s all any of his family knew.  Just that they were killed. Not when, or how, or by whom exactly.  They didn’t know if they were together or separated.  They didn’t know.  They just knew they had been killed.  And so a generation later, Daniel set out to find out what his older relatives whispered and wondered about in hushed tones during his childhood.

He didn’t even know all of his great-uncles’ daughters’ names when he started looking.  His joy, in the book, when he finds out the last name that he had been missing – to put a name to that life- it’s tremendously touching.

Mendelsohn’s years of dogged research and thousands of miles traveled paid off, and the resulting memoir is heart-breaking, eye-opening, and hopefully life-changing to all who read it.  I know I’ll never forget this incredible story.  I think I am going to close out my summer by reading the book again.  There’s so much about it I already don’t remember, and I never want to forget.

What books have you read that you’ll always remember?

Let’s make this short and sweet: Go buy this book, read it, thank me later.

Ok ok, you know I can’t leave it at that.

You may remember a couple weeks ago when Jenny and I were at the Mom 2.0 Summit in Miami. I think we might have mentioned it.

You may also remember that as we were standing outside the hotel waiting to go to the Versace Mansion, we just so happened to be standing in the presence of greatness right by Jenny Lawson. The Bloggess. Who totally wrote the funniest book in the history of the world (see above).

Jenny (my Jenny, not the awesome Jenny.) and I were all “OMGgggggggggg, it’s the Bloggess!!!” and I was all “Quick, take my picture!”

Which is how we wound up with this classic piece of photography.

But then, since Rachel is a normal person and all, she was like “Hi I’m Rachel, could we get our picture taken with you?” And so we got another picture with the Bloggess, this time like normal people.

I am really getting away from the point here, people. The point is, this book is freaking hilarious.

Last night I was in bed reading a chapter about Jenny (not my Jenny, the awesome Jenny.) OD’ing on laxatives, and I was cracking up and making such a racket that Andy came running into our room to see what in the holy hell was going on. He said he thought there was an intruder murdering me or something, which is ironic since a good portion of the book is dedicated to the possibility of being attacked by things like zombie cougars.

In other news, I must have a really pleasant laugh.

Seriously, though, I haven’t laughed like that since I saw my own life portrayed on the big screen in the movie “I Love You, Man.”

I am pretty sure this book will out-sell the Bible.

Go buy it. You can thank me later.