Library Loot: October 24 - 30

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Okay, I thought last time it had been an embarrassingly long time since I've posted. *Ahem.* Considering I haven't been able to finish a book that isn't made of cardboard in more than a month, I may have been a bit ambitious. This was my first trip to my new library (I moved), and there's a limit on how many times I can renew books (I may be in trouble).

Last year I read A Distant Mirror, Barbara Tuchman's survey of Europe in the 14th century. Tuchman was a fascinating historian and her dry sense of humor and genuine talent for bringing history to life make her books fun to read. So I picked up The Guns of August, which is an in-depth look at the beginning of World War I. (I'll admit, part of the draw of this time period has to do with Downton Abbey.) Tuchman's ability to describe history is unparalleled. The book opens with the funeral of Edward VII of England in 1910: "The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history's clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to bee seen again."

One of my friends recommended Your Self-Confident Baby by Magda Gerber. A year ago I would have scoffed at this book and its self-helpy title, but I trust this friend. She recommended it because of an e-mail chain that went around our little circle of new mommies recently. It started with the question, "So ... now what? The kid is too old to sleep all the time but still too young for finger painting. What do I do with him?" We all admitted to some degree of angst over the quantity and quality of our interactions with our infants. Were we singing the right songs, introducing the right stimuli, spending enough time with them? Was it okay for us to put them on a play mat on the floor or in a swing while we read a book or surfed the web or did anything that wasn't vital to survival (eating, napping, showering, laundry, dishes, etc.)? My friend described this book as liberating. She said she's more comfortable standing back and watching her son instead of constantly interacting with him, and she's realized that it's not too early for him to start figuring things out on his own. (Interestingly, the copy I got from the library is autographed.)

Another recommendation from my mommy circle: Touchpoints by T. Berry Brazelton. I met all of my fantastic new friends through a centering group at the doctor's office while we were all still pregnant. The midwife and the nurse who led the group both talked about this book a lot. It's broken down in two different ways - by age and by issue. The first part of the book deals with what Brazelton looks for at each visit to the pediatrician, beginning with the prenatal visit (oops ... I didn't have one of those. But in my defense, my pediatrician's office told me to call back when I actually had a baby.) The second part of the book is broken down by topic, and it looks pretty comprehensive. Brazelton covers everything from bedwetting and toilet training to eating and sleeping. I'll probably read only the parts that are relevant to me right now, and I'm looking forward to seeing whether I connect with any of the information in this book.