My mother never talked about her hysterectomy, so when it was my turn, I had to learn everything for myself.

 

Do you feel the same way? You can find answers in this book  by following this link to Amazon listing for "Hysterectomy Step by Step: A Practical Guide to Surgery and Healing." 

 

 

Book review: Backyard Bird Guide: Attracting Wild Birds to Your Yard

This book is aimed at novice bird watchers that live in Northeast. The book does not have as many photos as I was hoping for but the ones that were included are very nice.  It also did not cover all the birds we see in our back yard (we do live in Massachusetts). I found information about how to attract some species of birds we do not see most interesting. None of the information is unique, you can find everything by searching the web.  I was glad that I got the book during a free promo period.

We have a large number of bird feeders and I agree with the author that the commercial bird seed is not the bird's favorite food. If we fill one bird feeder with commercial bird seed and another with sunflowers, the bird feeder with commercial birdseed will hardly be touched where as sunflower seed will be gone very quickly.  I also can confirm that cracked corn attracts a lot of larger birds including wild turkeys and blue jays.

We have not seen Orioles and Waxwings in our backyard, and I will try adding their favorite foods to see if they appear.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★☆☆

Kindle book review: Tomato Container Gardening: 7 Easy Steps To Healthy Harvests from Small Spaces

I have been growing patio tomatoes on my kitchen deck for many years. I always look for new ideas to improve my tomato garden and to prolong the fairly short New England growing season. Tomato Container Gardening started a bit slow, but about 1/3 into the book even an experienced patio tomato grower like myself found some interesting and useful ideas.

Some of the ideas I liked is the ideas about preparing the soil prior to planting - covering the pot in plastic bags and fertilizing one week prior to planting. Another idea that was interesting is what to do in the fall to prolong the season by pruning late in the season and how to force the plant to ripen faster. I will definitely try these out this fall.

I also thought the section on watering was very good. The key to successful patio garden is good irrigation. I have a pretty extensive drip irrigation system controlled by a timer. The authors covers this option as well as several others, including how to build your own self-watering container at a lot lower price than buying one at the garden store.

There is one technique that I use that have not been covered by the book. This approach helps me extend the growing period by starting earlier. I start my tomato seedlings under a pop-up umbrella and hand pollinate the tomatoes. With a pop-umbrella greenhouse I typical my have the first green tomatoes appear during the last week of May, which is pretty amazing in the cold New England climate. Here is one of the pop-up umbrellas I use GreenThumb Pop-Up Greenhouse. Note that my review of the umbrella contains the description of the pollinating technique I use while the tomato plants are isolated from the bees.

The book ends with a few of the author's favorite recipes, including green tomatoes. There is always a bunch of green tomatoes left on the vine when my growing season is over, so I will be giving this recipe a try in the fall.

This book was useful even for someone who has been growing patio tomatoes for years, and certainly will be very educational for those who are just starting out.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Kindle book review: Quilts Their Story and How to Make Them

I am an experienced quilter, who enjoys creating quilts and is interested in the history of quilt making. This book contains no illustrations or instructions on making quilts. However, it contains a very detailed and interesting history of quilts and quilt making. I learned a lot of small new details that I did not know before and enjoyed reading this book very much.

The book was written n 1915 and starts with a brief explanation of quilt making. Then it starts its journey into the history of quilt making. The roots of quilting and weaving are dated back by their appearance in ancient art work. For example, the images of a loom appear in 2650 B.C. The old piece of patchwork can be found in a Museum of cairo and dates to 960 B.C.

The book traces the appearance of patchwork during Trojan War, Middle Ages, Renaissance. Appliqué makes it appearance in Florence (described as cut work). There a very lengthy chapter on history of quilts in America, which I found very interesting. There is an interesting chapter on quilt block names. I never gave the block names much thought but the author organized them by themes such as political, religion, sky. and it gave me a fresh new way to think about the blocks I know and love.

I found the book educational and enjoyable. Great trip into history!


You can find "Quilts : Their Story and How to Make Them" on Amazon by following this link


Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Kindle book review: Assimilative Memory or, How to Attend and Never Forget

Must have been ground breaking in 1899, still relevant today

This book is available as a free download from Amazon for Kindle or Kindle for PC.

Written in 1899, this book talks different ways human memory works and how to improve your ability to memorize.

Assimilative memory is absorbing of ideas and making them available for recall whenever wanted. It is learning through through grasping the ideas meaning and comprehension of the subject matter.

It is contrasted with Sensuous memory which is association through eye or ear of succession of sights or sounds without any reflection. It is learning by repetition, this is not a mode of learning that is lasting.

These two methods of learning are illustrated by example memorizing a series of words. One by repeating the words over and over, another by thinking of relationships between the words.

The author's premise is that thinking of the relationships between the words makes it easier to memorize the words
and retrieve them later.

The authors method of memorization is based on the three laws are : Inclusion, Exclusion, and Concurrences. The book goes through various example of three laws of forming relationship between words, numbers in improving memorization. Then it progress to more complex examples such as sentences, poems, foreign words.

The book contains a larger number of exercises, starting with simple and ending with quite complex.

Some of the ideas in this book must have been ground breaking at the time they were written. They are still interesting and relevant today.

You can find this book on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Kindle book review: Mother's Remedies Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers of the United States and Canada

Very interesting to see how people treated deceases in 1915

This book is available as a free download from Amazon for Kindle or Kindle for PC.

I like honesty in a book, so the first sentence in the preface immediately attracted me. It stated that some remedies might be helpful as a placebo only.

The actual remedies were written in 1915. The book starts with extensive dictionary of medicines and terms.

The book is organized in chapters, each one addressing a number of issues. For example, a section on babies consists of more than 500 questions. The answers are written in plain language, useful and to the point. The section on herbs provides a description of common roots and plants, with recommendations when to collect them, and how to use them. Unfortunately, the illustrations are not part of the Kindle publication.

In addition to mother's remedies some sections have Physician's treatment section.

The book is nicely organized with an index, so you can find topics by either by decease or by remedy.

I found this book to be an interesting read. Both to see how things change and what remained the same. My great grandfather was a doctor at that time frame so the reference had a special meaning to me, trying to imagine his life.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Kindle book review: The Heart of Abundance: A Simple Guide to Appreciating and Enjoying Life

Create your own reality: mindset and your attitude control how you feel
 
At the present time this Kindle book is free on Amazon.  It is well worth reading, grab while it is free! This is a very positive book.

The basic idea in the book is that everyone has something to be grateful for. If even on our worst days we start looking at what we already have, rather than what we do not have we can improve out outlook and spirit.

The book encourages the readers to believe in the best in each person they meet and provide each person some positive feedback. Small specific acts to make a positive difference, for example offer a ride, say a few nice words, say thank you.

Her positive thoughts and ideas are accompanied by paragraphs from scriptures. If you are religious you will find comfort in these frequent references. If you are not religious you might find these references to God too frequent, but I would still encourage you to plow through it, as the book has a lot of positive thoughts especially for someone who is struggling with difficulties in life.

The Heart of Abundance is about appreciating life right now. No matter what hand you were dealt, finding even the small things that are good can help pass through a dark passage. This book is about being positive about life every day, not just on the occasions when everything seems to be going your way.

I was pleased to recognize some of the things I do when things are not going well. I do find it helps to concentrate thinking about something you look forward to every day, even if it can be as small as, say, a TV episode you plan to see when the bad day at work is over. I found it helps me to get through a bad day.

This book will help you create your own reality - mindset and your attitude control how you feel.


You can find this book on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★