Having grown up on a farm in Kentucky in an area much like what she describes as her home in Virginia, I often laughed out loud while reading this book addressing issues we are all facing today. It's obvious Kingsolver and her family feel strongly about the issues addressed in the book, but I enjoyed their celebration of simple pleasures as well as Kingsolver's ability to poke fun at herself

Sophie Uliano makes being environmentally responsible accessible, interesting, and even fun in Gorgeously Green.  She shares her personal experiences to illustrate both the importance and the ease of being environmentally responsible.  She even fesses up to sometimes not being as environmentally friendly as she could be and the guilt she feels.  Gorgeously Green talks about how to be green without breaking the bank or sacrificing life’s comforts.  She brings it home when she talks about the effects using many environmentally unfriendly products have not only on the earth but on people’s health as well.  Filled with resources to find environmentally responsible products and services, Gorgeously Green is a must have resource for anyone interested in protecting his/her body as well as the planet.

I bought Easy Green Living for the recipes (like the air freshener containing vodka and essential oil – very nice) inside because I’d just read another book on being green, so I thought I had enough information.  Then I started reading Loux’s take on the environment, and I couldn’t stop.  She detailed reasons from personal health to protecting the earth’s resources for becoming environmentally friendly.  Loux writes well and breaks the topic down with ease without lecturing.  She often injects personal stories as examples.  And, she’s budget conscious.  She is quick to point out which options are budget friendly and which aren’t necessarily.  Easy Green Living is a valuable resource for anyone wishing to understand the current movement toward being environmentally friendly.

Organizing From the Inside Out not only teaches the reader how to get organized but helps the reader identify the reasons for his/her lack of organization.  Morgenstern also demonstrates how organizing can help increase productivity, reduce stress, and help one feel better about one’s self.  Organizing From the Inside Out says the key to staying organized is to recognize the behavior patterns that lead to disorganization and the psychological reasons for staying unorganized.  Recognizing these patterns and the psychology behind them is worth the read even if it makes the reader squirm a bit.  Organizing From the Inside Out is a valuable resource for anyone wishing to get or stay organized.

I was unable to link to this book on amazon.

If you’ve ever wondered why you love one color and hate another, Colors For Your Every Mood is the book for you.  It begins with a test requiring you to list your reactions to a list of colors.  Don’t worry, it’s not something you can fail.  There’s no teacher looking over your shoulder.  Then Eiseman examines each color providing historical contest was well as known psychological and physiological reactions to the color.  Finally, she explains the connotations involved with the choice of colors in decorating individual rooms within a home.  Colors For Your Every Mood also offers tips on color selection, matching, and balance.  Whether or not you agree with her findings, Eiseman’s explorations of each color are interesting.

Calvin C. Johnson Junior’s story shines a spotlight on the issues within the American criminal justice system, yet is story is also one of self-discovery.  Together Johnson and Dr. Greg Hampikian write of a travesty with honesty and integrity.  Even though this story has a happy ending, don’t expect it to read like a novel.  It deals with heavy topics that are handled without ever forgetting there are real people involved.  The authors don’t attempt to paint Johnson as a hero or a victim.  They portray him as a human complete with flaws.  At time he will infuriate you and at others touch your heart deeply.  Telling someone’s truth as it really was is a difficult job, but Johnson and Hampikian shine in Exit to Freedom.

 Maya Angelou continues her life story in Gather Together In My Name.  She candidly describes her experiences being a young mother, experimenting with the temptations life presents, and her mistakes.  Through it all the reader grows from her experience alongside her.  Another page turning examination of the experience of life written with boldness, beauty, and simplicity.

 Maya Angelou pours her heart and soul into the pages of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.  She opens a window into her life that leaves the reader feeling voyeuristic and inspired at that same time.  Spanning her life from her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas to the birth of her son when she’s sixteen I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings leaves the reader anxious for the next book of Ms. Angelou’s life.  You can feel the dirt on your feet, smell Sunday dinner, and feel the silence of Angelou’s self imposed muteness.  Maya Angelou has a way with words captures the reader’s imagination.

Leap of Faith is first and foremost a love story, maybe not in the conventional sense but a love story nonetheless.  Queen Noor, born Lisa Halaby, sets the stage for the reader to understand her perspective by describing her childhood in the United States as well as her early adulthood.  The real intensity of the book begins when she meets King Hussein.  She describes her reactions throughout the beginning of the relationship in a way that immerses the reader in her moments of confusion as well as her moments of joy.  She gives the reader an inside look into her experience becoming royalty as well as her perception of world events and Jordan’s place in the world.  She talks of the deceptions that are prevalent in world politics and the games politicians play.  She describes her struggles to find her place as Queen in a country where she wasn’t born or raised as well as to balance her role as Queen with becoming a mother figure to her husband’s children and to raise the children they had together.  Leap of Faith is a beautifully written memoir that provides insight into the workings of government, politics on the world stage, Jordanian culture, the combining cultures, and the merging of families.

Slaves in the Family chronicles the history of the Ball family form 1698 to modern times.  Ball explores his ancestor’s ownership of slaves and the treatment of slaves.  In his journey to learn more about his family, he discovers family members who are descendents of this ancestor’s slaves.  He also describes how this discovery affected him and how the lives of his family and the lives of the families of the slaves his ancestors owned are still affected by slavery and other racially motivated injustices.  Slaves in the Family puts a human face to the history of racial relations in the United States in the way that a teacher in a classroom or a textbook never could.