If I keep mulling over the scenes and picturing the story in my head does that mean it was a successful book? I think it does.
If I am disappointed by the character development after such vivid scenes were “painted” in my mind does that mean that the book was sup-par or just not living up to it’s own standards? Either way it’s not a good sign.
Would I recommend it? I can’t decide.
I’m not saying that I read this book, had a huge epiphany and now my kids eat everything.
Not- even- close.
Recently, the current six year old has chewed her food, spit it back out and then told me she couldn’t possibly eat any more because she didn’t like the parts she had already chewed on… 
But, I will say that my kids are eating slightly more of everything – and that’s not bad.
Would I recommend it? It’s a parenting book, I don’t recommend them on principle. My kids are not your kids, my style is not yours.
That said, I am glad I read it. While there were things about the book a didn’t like, I have attempted to be mindful of her “10 simple rules” and my kids did eat “yummy chard pie” for dinner tonight. Something that I doubt was coincidence!
Would I recommend it? If you came over to visit and share a cup of tea with me this evening I’d pick this book off the table where it is sitting and send it home with you.
Before I placed it in your hands I would probably check to make sure that you didn’t have issues reading about childbirth- it’s a book about a midwife after all.
But, if you did have issues with that sort of thing, I would tell you the story of the birthing class I went to before Ivy was born.
All three of my girls were born at a birth center staffed by midwives and when I was pregnant with Ivy we attended the requisite birthing class. In our first class they told us their intent was to turn us into “mini-midwives” and teach us as much about the process of childbirth as they could in the few Saturdays that we had. Which they did with the help of videos. Many, many videos of childbirth that we would watch and then discuss. On the last day we were given the opportunity to share any thoughts we had with our classmates. One of the husbands, in a room full of very pregnant, first time mothers, spoke up and told us that watching the videos was sort of like watching horror films. That they are awful at first but then you get desensitized to them.
And then, I would give you the book anyway.
Would we recommend it?
Four generations of my family (sorry, only three are pictured) say yes!
Get ready to pay attention!
Because as the main character relives her life over and over again you’ll want to remember who’s who, what was what and when things happened the last times around.
Would I recommend it? Yes – a book worth paying attention to!
There I am, standing at the circulation desk of the library waiting as my pile of books gets checked out when yet another book catches my eye.
How could I have missed it? The cover is muted red with black and shiny gold highlights. The title “Wicked Bugs” sounds interesting but once I see that the subtitle involves the word “diabolical” I pick it up.
I pick it up and discover that it is one of those hard cover books.
Perhaps someone can help me out here because I have no idea what the technical term is for this kind of cover. All I know is that there are hardcovers, and then there are those hardcovers. Those hardcovers have a matte finish, feel extra soft in hand and once I’m holding a book with one of those covers it’s all over. The book practically screams to come home with me, I must know what’s inside. Need it even be said? – I love those covers.
Once I’m done swooning over my favorite cover I see that it’s a unique size. Squarish, but not so square as to be awkward, just enough to be different. Smaller and cuter (which is saying something since I count ten bugs on the front alone) than your average book.
So, there I am, abandoning my favorite librarian mid-conversation, already in love with a book I have yet to open.
I quickly page through it and it just gets better. Line drawings of giant bugs, fancy fonts, off set quotes, informative boxes, classifications at the top of the page including “Horrible,” “Deadly” and “Painful” and the paper -it’s good paper, thick paper, I love this book.
I toss it on the top of my already too big pile, attempt to ignore the look from John which is trying to subtly inquire if I’ll ever be doing the dishes again with this pile of books to read and say “This one too!” just in case there is some other library patron ready to swoop in and take my new favorite book from me.
Would I recommend it? Need you ask? I’ve already read it, but it’s not due back at the library yet so I’m keeping it around the house thrusting it at people and forcing them to read crazy, wicked bug facts while admiring the cover.
Also I have made a mental note never to move any further south, too many “wicked bugs” down there where it’s warm!
And a second mental note that I must next read Wicked Plants by the same author.
And that e-readers are probably not my thing.
And that while I just gave this a broad recommendation probably people who go through the roof when they see a spider wouldn’t appreciate the larger than life drawings involved.
And a final mental note that the rest of my mental notes should be on post-it’s as I’ve been staying up way too late reading to be able to remember all this stuff.
What was I thinking?
A book about kidnapping that involves a seven foot iguana?
Seriously, I had to know that it was going to get ugly. 
Would I recommend this? It did get ugly, in the way that happens when crazy people who own giant iguanas kidnap people but, like I said, I probably should have been prepared for that. I think this was a good book, I just don’t think it was the right book for me.
Anyone else have an opinion on this one?
A excerpt from A.A. Milne’s The house at Pooh Corner sums up my feelings on this book quite nicely:
…”Christopher Robin tried to teach it to me once, but it didn’t.”
“What didn’t?” said Rabbit.
“Didn’t what?” said Piglet.
Pooh shook his head.
“I don’t know,” he said. “It just didn’t.”
Would I recommend it? It started out really promising, I thought I would love it, I thought I was loving it… and then, in the words of Pooh, “It just didn’t.”
Flavia is back!!!
Of course to be fair she’s been back before this in I Am Half-Sick Of Shadows but I see I didn’t manage to write a post about that.
Sorry.
Would I recommend it? Yes! I’d recommend all five and this one I liked better than the last two.
If you haven’t already please, do yourself a favor, read The Sweetness At The Bottom of the Pie where it all starts.
Some times it’s good to have a book that will be just exactly what you are looking for. No big surprises, just comfort in reliability and happy endings. This book fit that perfectly when I needed it to.
Would I recommend it? It’s not high class literature, but if you are, say, sick in bed and can barely focus and just need to get your mind on something else, it’s just about perfect.
Behind the Willows 