Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

Look at me! I’m hosting the Book Review Blog Carnival!

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Nonfiction

Busy Moms Who Love to Read reviews The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. “I would recommend this book. But be forewarned, it is in no way a happy read, you will be disturbed.”

Clark Bjorke, this blog carnival’s head honcho, covers The Secret Lives of Buildings over at his I’ll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book!. “Buildings are never finished as Edward Hollis shows by telling the stories of some very old buildings that have gone through a lot of renovation, like the Parthenon, the Hagia Sofia and Notre Dame de Paris.”

My Political Side recommends Going Rouge: An American Nightmare. No, it’s not the Sarah Palin memoir. In that one, the “u” is over to the right a little more. This one is “a thinking person’s guide to every aspect of what is wrong with the lady in red. The essays are deliciously intelligent. They analyze Palin’s popularity, her politics, and her impact on America with the seriousness her lack of intelligence and credibility deserves.”

The Long Way Home by David Laskin reminds us that WWI was fought when waves of immigrants were coming into the United States. The new arrivals were often not even citizens before being asked to take up arms and go back across the ocean in the name of their new country. Find out more at A Progressive on the Prairie.

While there, why not also read about Armenian Golgotha by Grigoris Balakian? Balakian was an Armenian living in what would eventually become modern-day Turkey. “But the somewhat surprising fact that the Armenian genocide continues to cause debate nearly a century later doesn’t detract from the fact Balakian accomplished his main goal — to commemorate the events of 1914-1918 and the people caught up in them.”

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson is from me. The author and a friend set out on a humor-filled hike along the Appalachian Trail and hope to not end up dead via bears or rednecks.

The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks is “as simple as a personal transformation book can be; yet it is exceptionally powerful, influential, and effective,” says Your Best Library.

The Get Ready Dad talks about how helpful he found The Expectant Father. “Perhaps it is the style of writing, but this book spoke to me more than any other “Dad to be” title I purchased.”

Science On Tap reviews The Genius In All of Us. “A different slant on genetic influence from journalist David Shenk, or, why we all have greater potential than we may realize.”

Money

Are you curious why Suze Orman is so well-regarded and famous? The Smarter Wallet offers a look inside her Women and Money. “Women and Money takes a look at why women either don’t know about, or hand over control of, their finances. It then explains the key points that every woman needs to know about their money, and provides easy to follow instructions for taking control of one’s financial destiny.”

Your Money, The Missing Manual is reviewed at The Digerati Life. “I don’t say this lightly as someone who’s collected more than a few financial books throughout the years, but this kind of book is something I’d quickly call a favorite.”

Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity covers Payback Time by Phil Town. “Making big money is the best revenge, which is exactly what Town seeks to teach with his book.”

The Dough Roller plans to have no debt besides the mortgage in one year’s time. Life or Debt 2010 by Stacy Johnson should be of help with this endeavor. “Stacy approaches money and debt in a no-nonsense fashion.”

Mysteries

Read about The Right Call by Kathy Herman over at Incurable Disease of Writing. “The Right Call is a pulse-pounding suspense that puts its characters into seemingly impossible situations where they must rely on their faith to survive.”

Kerrie thinks Bleed For Me by Michael Robotham should be an award winner this year. Learn more at Mysteries in Paradise. “These days I rarely read a book in one sitting, but BLEED FOR ME just kept me reading.”

More Fiction

Jim Murdoch presents what sounds like a complicated and intriguing A Cure for Death by Lightning by Gail Anderson-Dargatz at The Truth About Lies. “The remote Turtle Valley in British Columbia is home to 15-year-old Beth Weeks and a community of eccentric but familiar characters. There, amidst a stunning landscape strange and unsettling events occur: children go missing, a girl is mauled by a crazy bear and Beth too is being pursued but is it by someone human or something ancient and even more frightening? A rich, thrilling novel, a strange mixture of the domestic and the mystic.”

There’s a fine review of Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes at Colloquium. “Thus, this story does not boast a clas­sic pro­tag­o­nist and antag­o­nist, and raises numer­ous dif­fi­cult ques­tions, ulti­mately pro­vid­ing few, if any, answers.”

Writer Lisa See lets Jeanne down with Peony in Love, posted at Necromancy Never Pays. “That’s an adolescent dream, and what kind of adult person goes around telling stories to encourage the belief that it can actually happen?”

Incurable Disease of Writing invites you to check out Glaen by Fred R. Lybrand. “A fictional account of how one woman learns to build and maintain relationships. Everyone can benefit from reading Glaen.”

If you don’t feel up to tackling something by Tolstoy just yet, how about a book about Tolstoy? Jim Murdoch gives you more background on The Last Station by Jay Parini at The Truth About Lies. “The last days of Tolstoy were well documented at the time. It seems that everyone was writing a diary. None of which tell the whole story. Jay Parini’s novel brings all these sources together and produces a rounded picture. Narrated in six different voices, ‘The Last Station’ is a richly inventive novel that dances bewitchingly between fact and fiction and has recently been turned into an Oscar-winning movie.”

Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz is about an ivy-league admissions officer forced into self-reflection that has long been postponed. Read more at Books with a cup of coffee. “Admissions. Admission. Aren’t there two sides to the word? And two opposing sides… It’s what we let in, but it’s also what we let out.”

Children’s

A Feminist Mom in Montreal gives her thoughts about Love You Forever and I Love You, Stinky Face, two books about unconditional parental love.

Loud Mouth Mama presents her My Top 5 Favorite Children’s Books.

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