"Your Pregnancy Week By Week 6th Edition" By Glade B Curtis MD, MPH & Judith Schuler MS

Title: Your Pregnancy Week By Week 6th Edition
Authors: Glade B Curtis M.D., M.P.H. & Judith Schuler M.S.
Published Year: 2008
Pages: 648


This book probably doesn't look like something I would normally read, and the reason I read it was because I was pregnant which is what the book is actually for. Yes I "was" pregnant, and now I have a beautiful baby girl.

When I found out I was pregnant one of the first stops I made when I went out and ran errands was a trip to my local book store. I wanted to find out information on my pregnancy and try and find a good source to look to when I had questions and also so I knew what to expect throughout my pregnancy. I had heard of other popular books, but not this one. When I actually got to the bookstore, I say this one and was instantly intrigued. I compared it to the other more popular one (at least it was the only one I had actually heard of from friends who had read books about pregnancy during their pregnancy) and just by looking at the way the book was set up and how it flowed, I chose this one. I wanted the best I could find as this was my first ever pregnancy and I wanted as much detailed information as possible.

The way this book is set up is that it provides information on a week by week basis which is evident from the title. To make things easy to find and for the reader to read what they want, each week is dividing into different sections with separate headings. There are sections for the following: how big is the baby, how big are you, nutrition. In addition it also has a section with information on what to expect during the week such as baby movements and what will happen at the doctor's visits along with what to watch for that may cause issues during your pregnancy. Each week also has a little blurb for the dad with a suggestion and a general one that has a good tidbit of information. At the end of each week there is also a recommended exercise move based on how far along.

There is a ton of information throughout the book, and reading it during my pregnancy put me more at ease when I knew what to expect. At the end of the book there is also an appendix about what happens if you have a premature baby, and one that has a general list for each week after pregnancy of a general idea of what is going on with your own body. If you forget what different terms mean, there is also a glossary at the back of the book and an index if you need to reference back to something from an earlier week.

For any first time mom-to-be, or for someone who hasn't had a baby in awhile I highly recommend this book. As I mentioned earlier, it is easy to understand and it provides information that is important to know throughout the pregnancy. I would have been lost and confused if I had not read this one. I did read the more popular one as well (that's another blog entry for another day), and this one helped me out much more.

"Four Past Midnight" By Stephen King

Title: Four Past Midnight
Author: Stephen King
Published Year: 1990
Pages: 744

Four Past Midnight is a collection of four novellas written by one of the masters of horror himself, Stephen King. This book includes the following novellas: "The Langoliers", "Secret Window, Secret Garden", "The Library Policeman", and "The Sun Dog". I do have to say that I enjoyed all four of the novellas and having novellas instead of one long book also helps when you don't exactly have the time to focus and read like I used to (don't worry, I am learning to adapt and will continue my reading adventures). Both "The Langoliers" and "Secret Window, Secret Garden" have both been made into silver screen editions (i.e. tv miniseries for the first and an actual full-length feature film for the latter). An extra bonus for this book is that for each selection King has a sort of introduction to each one explaining some of the thought behind each one.

"The Langoliers" may sound familiar to those of you who have watched Stephen King's works come to life on television and in film. Before I read as many of his books that I have as of present I found this on the sy-fy channel one day and decided to watch it. I didn't expect the mini-series to be as long as it was, and now after reading the actual novella I can understand why. There is a lot of action packed in the over 200 pages of writing, and most of it can actual be found in the mini-series edition too. I won't give away any surprises, but there are some things that differ between the two which is a common theme in most books that have been adapted for film or television, anyways onto the actual story. In this particular story we follow the story of people that suddenly wake up on a plane only to find that most of the passengers are missing, yet they have all left things behind that should not have been including such things as pace makers and teeth fillings just to give you an idea. Luckily for the people on the plane one of the people that is left is a pilot so the plane is able to fly. Also on the plane is one man who does not want to go along with the others and is personally fighting some inner demons of his own throughout the story. The story follows the group's realization of what kind of situation they are in and how they handle it. Not only is there conflict with the paranormal, but the passengers on the plane itself have to deal with conflict among the group. The paranormal part comes from what is the thing that made the passengers disappear and the airport they arrive at look like a ghost town. I personally like the story better than the mini-series adaptation since there is more character development and a whole different twist presented.

In "Secret Window, Secret Garden" the reader follows the conflict that an author has with another man that claims the author stole one of his stories. This one was made into a feature length film titled "Secret Window" which is an average movie based on my opinion. After reading this I am going to re-watch the movie and see how it compares. At the time I watched the movie I did not know it was based on this novella, and now my curiosity is sparked to see how well the two relate to each other. Not only does the author that is the main character have to deal with this conflict of being accused of stealing a story, but he also goes through his thoughts and feelings of dealing with his ex-wife since they are now divorced but they haven't completely separated their lives from each other along with their personal belongings. He also deals with an internal conflict with himself trying to determine whether or not he is going crazy and whether or not he is making up or hallucinating the man that claims the author stole his story. Lots of conflict in a novella and twists and turns makes this story intriguing and I personally did not want to stop reading it once I got into it.

"The Library Policeman" has got to be my favorite out of these four stories. Maybe its just the book nut in me, but I could actually place myself in the story and understand what the characters were going through. In this story, the library policeman is story that is used to get kids to return their books to the library on time and in a good condition on top of that. The story goes that if a kid (or in this case, an adult) does not turn their library books in on time, the library policeman will come after them and its not a nice policeman at that. Sam the main character in this novella forgets to turn his books in on time and the library policeman comes after him. Not only does he have to deal with this menacing other-worldly being, he has also ran into the old librarian at his small town librarian who has her own evil agenda. I won't spoil it by stating what this agenda is, or how it all fits together, you'll have to read the story to find out. I spent a lot of time at the small town library in the town I lived in where I grew up. I was at the library easily at least once a week, and I could picture the events in this novella taking place in the small town I grew up in. Any story that I can really identify with gets and extra brownie point with me.

Castle Rock is a primary town in many of Stephen King's works, not only in novellas like this one, but also in his short stories and full length novels. "Sun Dog" is one of these works that takes place in this fictional town of his. As mention in King's introduction to his story, this one takes place before the full length novel of Needful Things. I personally love how King is able to take and intertwine many of his stories and bring them into each other at points too. For this novella, it follows the story of Kevin who is just celebrating his 15th birthday at the beginning of the story. Kevin receives a Polaroid camera for his birthday, but there is something weird with the camera. He takes it to the local guy in town who is a sort of tinker, and the story just keeps getting stranger and stranger from there. This camera does not produce the picture you are taking, but of a different time and each one advances in time with each picture taken. Preventing the beast from coming out of the picture becomes a life and death struggle for Kevin and his dad. The whole time I was reading this story I kept thinking of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps: Say Cheese and Die! book, but I am pretty sure that this came out before that one, and this one is directed at an older age group as well.

So as a wrap up, this selection includes plenty of twists and turns and a bit of terror along the way. Its not something that will keep me up at night, but will keep me thinking long after I put the book down and start on whichever one I pick up next.

"Drive" By James Sallis

Title: Drive
Author: James Sallis
Published Year: 2005
Pages: 158


Wow, I haven't posted in awhile, but then again I have been busy with my newborn daughter. I was looking at my last posting and I did it two days before she was born. I haven't been reading as much as I like too, and that is one reason why I was able to finish this book. It was short and the print was larger than the books that I am used to, so in between baby naps and feedings it was a breeze to get through.

Just recently this book was released as a movie, one thing I am going to say from the start is that I have not seen the movie and that I am curious to what the movie is going to be like. I went and added it into my saved section of my Netflix queue after reading the book, and after reading the description of the movie on their site, I am wondering how similar the book is to the movie. So I will just wait until it comes out on dvd to compare the two. Hmmm, maybe another blog site based on the movies I watch (and I do watch a ton of those)? Anyways enough of that and onto the actual book.

Drive is based on bits and pieces of a man named Driver's life. He is a stunt driver for movies by day and a getaway driver by night. Sallis' book takes you back and forth through major events in his life and none of them are in any particular order. If you cannot focus and pay attention to the details conveyed in the book you can get lost even with how short the book actually is. Memories of childhood float in and out of what is going on in his current events as well as the events that got him to where he is at the present. Somehow Sallis manages to bring all of this together and succeeds in getting Driver's general story across. I was amazed at the detailed development of Driver in the limited amount of pages that were there. Sallis could have just detailed the situation Driver finds himself in during the present and left the rest out, but then there would be no character development. I like depth in my characters when I read books and for a stunt driver/getaway driver, the main character actually has depth thanks to the outstanding storytelling of Sallis.

Of course like every other book out there, this book will not be for everyone. It can be easy to get lost in if you are not wanting to pay attention and some people may just not get it. I can personally think of people that I would not recommend it to just because their attention spans would not be able to appreciate the book as I did. Looking at some of Sallis' other works, in the future I may have to venture further into his works and see if he continues to weave good stories with strong characters.

"Treasure Legends of the West" By Choral Pepper

Title: Treasure Legends of the West
Author: Choral Pepper
Published Year: 1994
Pages: 90
Genre: Hobby/Western America

Don't waste your time if your looking for a real treasure hunting book. This is just as described and is a hobby book nothing more. The book is written by a lady who has a hobby of trying to find so-called lost treasures of history. These lost treasures are usually based on legend and not all of them have concrete proof that they even existed. She does include a bibliography so there is a chance that some of the information that she tries to write about can be sought out.

This whole book is written from her perspective of going and looking for some of these lost treasures of the west. In this case the west goes all the way from Montana down to Texas and to the west of there. Each case includes information on the background of each story, yet I was left with a feeling of incompleteness after reading the entire book.

There are maps included, but I would not use them in real life to get to the locations written about in the book. These maps are not geographical maps, and instead are drawn out maps with drawings of landmarks and people, with a more artistic sense than actual mapping.

I would overall not recommend this book except for entertainment purposes. It is not something to be taken literally.

"Unsolved Myteries of American History" By Paul Aron

Title: Unsolved Mysteries of American History
Author: Paul Aron
Published Year: 1997
Pages: 225
Genre: History/Reference

First off just let me tell you that this is obviously not a complete look at all the unsolved mysteries that involve American history. As a country, the United States has a relatively short history, but that still doesn't mean all of the unsolved things are found within these pages. The author has actual written a second book on the subject and let's just say that I am not quite sure if I am going to go ahead and check it out yet or not. I have plenty of other books to read that I already own and I should be giving them more attention than I have been.

Here is a list of the mysteries that you can find within the pages of this specific book:

• When did the first people arrive in America?
• Did Leif Ericsson discover America?
• Why did the Anasazi abandon their cities?
• Where did Columbus land?
• How did Cortez conquer the Aztecs?
• What happened to the lost colony of Roanoke?
• Did Pocahontas save John Smith?
• What caused the Salem Witch hunt?
• Was Daniel Boone a traitor?
• Why did Benedict Arnold turn Traitor?
• Was Sally Hemings the mistress of Thomas Jefferson?
• Was Meriwether Lewis murdered?
• Was Rachel Jackson a bigamist?
• How did Davy Crockett die?
• Why did Lee order Pickett's charge?
• Who is to blame for Wounder Knee?
• What destroyed the Maine?
• Were Sacco and Vanzetti guilty?
• Who kidnapped the Lindbergh baby?
• Did Babe Ruth call his shot?
• Was Amelia Earhart a spy?
• Who was to blame for Pearl Harbor?
• Why did Truman drop the bomb?
• Were the Rosenbergs guilty?
• Who killed JFK?
• What happened at the Gulf of Tonkin?
• Who killed Malcom X?
• Who was to blame for the Kent State killings?
• What did Nixon know about watergate?
• What did Reagan know about Iran-Contra?

As you can see this is a pretty long list with not enough pages to thoroughly look at each one. The author does provide the reader with enough information to get the reader thinking and want more information, at least it did for myself. One thing I did learn from reading this book is that I obviously did not learn anything from my high school history class, and I was in the advanced one.

It's time for me to go back and re-learn a lot more about history, and include up to the present day. If anyone has some good suggestions on that, please enlighten me. I am feeling academically challenged based on what I thought I knew and the fact that there is a lot more out there to read and discover.