book reviews

-kids are worth it! by Barbara Coloroso
-This is a parenting book given to me by my parents, and since I like how they parented me, I was particularly eager to read it.
It was good. I really liked all the ideas the author had for basically defusing discipline situations. She has lots of methods for taking problems and turning them into growing, learning, connecting opportunities, instead of hassles. Her basic premise, "kids are worth it," means that she thinks the fact that kids are human too is where discipline should start. Instead of viewing kids as problems, you view them as people, and tailor your discipline style to them. You look to preserve their dignity while teaching them the things they need to know. This means that when they do something wrong, you don't just want to punish them, you want to help them think through, "why was that wrong? how do I fix it? what should I do differently next time", and she has lots of good practical thoughts on how to do this.
I did have to ignore the many hippy-ish, one world, new age-y comments sprinkled throughout the book, but they since they sort of just seem thrown in there because the author thought they were cool, it was easy to do. They didn't have much to do with the structure and content of the book.
This book is largely geared to parenting children old enough to talk, so I think I'll be revisiting it more when Brie gets a bit older. But I was glad I read it, and I recommend it.

-assorted heyer
-I've been rereading Georgette Heyer books that I haven't read for awhile, like The Grand Sophy and A Civil Arrangement (is that the right title?). Not much to say except: yes, she really is the Grand Old Lady of the comedy of manners. If you ever need some light reading that won't offend your literary sensibilities, go for a quiet sit-through of The Grand Sophy or The Masqueraders, and you won't go wrong.

-What Jane Austen Ate, What Charles Dickens Knew. . . by I-forget-who
I saw this book first in the Huntington Library and Gardens bookshop and knew I wanted to read it. It's a history book written specifically to enlighten readers of Victorian and just pre-Victorian literature (think Austen, Dickens, Trollope, Thackery and the like) of the basic facts of day-to-day Victorian life. The things the authors of the literature might take for granted and not explain to their readers because, of course, EVERYONE knows them (or at least everyone in the 1800's did). It includes chapters on how to address your betters, what the Mail was, how entailment worked and what exactly went into making pudding. I loved it. If you read any of the above-parenthesed authors, you'll probably love it too.