Books of August

One of the best books I've read this year.  Of course I'd heard about the determent
camps for Japanese on the West Coast but I'd never heard of the family camp at Crystal City, a small town south of San Antonio, where Japanese, German and Italian families were kept behind barbed wire for years.  Most of the children there were born in America.  The stories of these families were fascinating and heartbreaking.  A must read.

A private plane crashes this novel tells what happened before.  What...or who really caused the plane to crash?  A late season beach read.

A lifelong love story between a Jew and an Arab in Jerusalem.  I especially liked the writing style.

About seven famous skeletons, one of them a hoax, and how they furthered our knowledge of early humans and how they influenced our culture.  I'm always fascinated by such information but somehow this book didn't bring it together as well as I'd hoped.  I'd give the author a couple of stars for trying but that's about it.

quote for the week

Quote for the Week

Because I'm a speech-language pathologist, this is one of my favorite quotes:

"The limits of my language are the limits of my world."
                                      Ludwig Wittengenstein

A Success Story

Once upon a time there was a young mom, my niece Joy, whose baby daughter's skin was so  sensitive that she could hardly tolerate disposal diapers.  What could be done?  Joy looked into cloth diapers, enlisted her mother Carol's help and began designing cloth diapers herself.  They were not just the old-fashioned white diapers that my children wore when they when they were babies, not just cutesy pink or blue diapers for infants, but bright-colored, cleverly designed diapers that looked like pants.  She and Carol decided to market them on-line, and Ragababe was born.  To me this seemed like a risky endeavor.  Who would pay a lot of money to buy a cloth diaper when you could buy a package of disposable ones for much less.  But Joy and Carol tapped into something--families who wanted to go green, who liked the idea of diapers that would last and that looked adorable besides.  Ragababe began to grow.  Now they have 15 employees; they have a Facebook page and devoted cloth-diaper fans who post frequently, who chat and give each other advice about how best to use the diapers.  Recently some of the customers asked to visit the shop and had a Ragaconference where they met one another, had a chance to visit the company and design a diaper of their own.  Now Joy has five children and another on the way.  There's a play area for the little ones so they can have fun while Joy and Carol and Joy's husband Andy and Carol's husband Dave run the shop.  Here's a picture of their current designs--they change frequently 

Below is a picture of their shop.

And here's Joy's car with her personalized license plate:  Ragamom.  Of course.

I'm so impressed with their creativity and their determination to create product that benefits both babies and the environment.  You can read more at www.ragababe.com 

Quote for the Week

It's the time of year Texans live for--football season is about to start, so here are two football quote for all the fans out there:

"Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble the football."
     John Heisman (Recognize the name?)

"A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall."
     Frank Leahy, Notre Dame

Books of July

Oh, my goodness!  Here it is, the end of August and I'm just getting to my July summaries. 

 Daniel Silva's books about Gabriel Allon, Israeli spy, assassin, art restorer are my favorite guilty pleasures.  This is his latest.  Just before Allon is about to take over as head of "The Office," a woman in France is killed in an explosion and off he goes to find the culprits.  He is aided by an Israeli doctor who goes undercover.  Great read!

The story of Adele, whose portrait was painted by Klimpt, and of her circle in Vienna and the long battle to get the portrait returned to her family after World War II.  Helen Mirren starred in the movie version.  Very interesting.  

Quote for the Week

Here's a new quote I found for the new school year:

"You educate a man, you educate a man.
You educate a woman, you educate a generation."
              Brigham Young

To all girls (and boys, too) have a great school year.