Tag Archives: book review

Bona Vita by Ross Machitto

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For those of us that love memories and biographies my I suggest Bona Vita by Ross Machitto. Bona Vita is a family history told in a style that evokes fire side chats with the grandfather you always wanted. The story traces a families journey from Italy to California farm country and a mans journey from a potential baseball career to starting his own business. With the great depression and World War II as a back drop Bona Vita is part history lesson and part tale of the value of hard work and a good education. If you love family histories and tales of perseverance than check out Bona Vita for an easy and enjoyable read that will leave you with a smile on your face.

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Manga Guides to all sorts of subjects

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Lately I’ve been reading a bunch of Graphic novels and really enjoying the story telling medium. I was not much of a comics kid growing up though I do remember reading my cousins Richie Rich comics when we would come to visit. It wasn’t until well into adulthood that I got ahold of a series of comics and really connected with the genere. Recently I was sent a couple of Books from No Starch Press to have a look at and it seemed to go right along with this new found appreciation of graphic novels and comics. The books were The Manga Guide To The Universe and The Manga Guide To Physics. Manga was a genere that I had not really had chance to explore and these books were an interesting entrance into Japanesse comic style.

The Manga Guide To The Universe combines comics, explanatory paragraphs and diagrams, and even a little history of Japanesse culture using a couple of High School characters to guide us through. Answering questions like “Is Earth the center of the universe?“ and “What’s it like at the edge of the universe?” with graphic story telling and in depth explanations. I liked how the comics lead you into a subject and then the more technical part came at the end. There was almost a softening up and easing into new subjects before getting into the meat of the information.

The Manga Guide To Physics uses the same format of comics and paragraphs but this time we are reading about Megumi, an all-star athlete that needs a little help with her Physics. The Law of action and reaction, force and motion, momentum, and energy is covered but through story. There are even lab exercises in the book for the reader to put what they are learning into action. This seems like a great book for those students taking physics right now as well as those that just want a refresher course on the basics. Having not taken Physics myself it was kid of fun to dig into the subject right along with Megumi.

I don’t know that I am a big Manga fan and I think that you should be to fully appreciate these books. While the subject matter is great I think that a familiarity with the comic style would help. If you like Magna already or know someone that does then these are the books for them. They deal with complex subjects in a fun narrative way. There are Manga titles on a wide range of subjects at the No Starch website so if Physics and the Universe don’t grab you attention maybe Statistics, Calculus, or Relativity will. Check the wide range of titles at the site and start learning a new subject or catch up with one you may have forgotten.

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Book Review: Tractors, Planes, Golf & Dames

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A little home spun truisms about family, love, and good old fashioned work ethic provide the backbone for this memoir, Tractors, Planes, Golf, & Dames by Don Volk. The book tells the story of Don’s life on the farm learning all about hard work and how things work from his parents. It then traces his time flying planes in three campaigns for the with the U.S. Army Air Corps where he started his career at 18, and on to his pursuit of life in the PGA. Through out this journey Don shares the lessons he has learned along the way and the stories he’s accumulated.

The real spark of this book are his relationships, first with his first wife Petie as they faced her fight and eventual passing from Cancer. Don shares candidly of their struggle and their endearing love as they battle the insidious desease. After losing Petie he falls in love with Sandy only to go through much of same battle with Cancer. The enduring power of love and his capacity for strength lead Don through and finally into his second marriage with Wandi.

This book is an odd love story, a memoir, and a testament to the extraordinary lives that all of us ordinary people lead.

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Book Review: Pop Culture by Bill Campbell

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Originally Posted on Bookdads

Pop Culture: Politics, Puns, and Poohbutt from a Liberal Stay-at-Home Dade by Bill Campbell

After deciding to stay at home with his new daughter, affectionately named Poohbutt, and write a novel Bill Campbell became so worked up over the news coverage of Obama playing the ‘Race Card’ in the 2008 Presidential Election that he created a blog and wrote a response. That response starts this collection of essays. Along with that first post, originally posted on his blog Tome of the Unknown Writer, Campbell goes on to cover a wide range of topics from politics to the zenith of the hip hop in the 80′s, parenting to pop culture and he does it with wit and candor and an unmistaken powerful voice.

The beauty of this book is that you can pick an choose where to start and stop, if you get your fill of the politics you can move into the hilarious stories of Poohbutt, his daughter he is raising as a stay at home dad. After a story or two on parenting you can move right back into an essay like Cold Case: The Hip Hop Saga where he pictures what the CBS show would do with unsolved rap murders. Politics are always close by in these essays and it is where Campbell shines. If you are wary of too much politics in your daddy blog than this is one to stay away from but I found his posts interesting, enlightening, and always entertaining.

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Book Review: Let’s Go Outside by Jennifer Ward

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Fall is on us in the Northwest and with it comes the rains. After a spring and summer of being outside almost the entire day we have found ourselves in the house much more as the season changes. The effect it has on the kids is easy to see. They are less patient and more likely to lose their patience with each other.  We see the importance of that time to explore, run free, and interact with the outdoors in our own kids lives and even when the weather changes we still need to get out there and experience it.

Let’s Go Outside’s author Jennifer Ward, who also wrote I Love Dirt!, would agree I imagine. She did write a book about getting outside and gave us 52 different ideas for games, activities, and adventures to do while we are out there. Her book was written for pre-teens and the parents in their lives but a lot of the activities are fun for children of all ages. I can’t get the two year old to understand all the rules to Kick the Can but he has a pretty good time hiding and running to kick that can. This book is a great primer for not only getting outside but engaging with our kids once we are out there.

I recommend this book to parents looking for ideas to get outside with their kids. It helps to have an activity ready when you’re out there so you all can enjoy the time. We can all use a little more time outside and even when the rain comes we can throw on our rain boots and jackets and splash our way to a good time.

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Sisters In Arms: A Father’s Remembrance by John Witmer

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Sisters In Arms: A Father Remembers by John Witmer

About the Author:

John Witmer is the father of five children after some moving around while they were young, has made New Berlin Wisconsin home. Three of his five kids, all girls, signed up for the National Guard and were deployed to Iraq “not as part of the a women’s auxiliary, but as part of a fully-trained, fully-equipped fighting force” as he writes in the prologue.

About the Book:

Sisters in Arms is a twenty-first century war story – the Witmer family’s personal war story. Michelle Witmer was the first female National Guard member in history to be killed in action and the first Wisconsin National Guard combat fatality since WWII. The Witmer family’s struggle with the complex issue of family members serving side-by-side received world-wide media attention and Michelle Witmer’s story would later be included in the HBO documentary “Last Letters Home.” Using the letters, emails and phone calls received during their deployment, John Witmer describes his daughters experiences in Iraq and provides insight not only into the lives of female soldiers, but into the lives of families who wait for soldiers. Sisters in Arms illuminates the changing roles of women in the military while sharing the deeply personal story of a family’s struggle to come to terms with profound loss.

My take of the Book:

Right from the first chapter as Witmer paints the picture of a tense situation as a crowd of people start to march on the police station that he daughter Rachel is guarding as part of the 32nd MPs, you are drawn, almost unwillingly into what is going to be a tense yet heart warming remembrance from a powerless father. Immediately after that heart racing intro you are brought back in time to got to know this family better. As with all great stories you have to go back to make sense of what is happening now.

Witmer’s three daughters Michelle, Rachel, and Charity all joined the National Guard on their own without any prompting or encouragement from their parents. They were strong self sufficient women who saw what they wanted and went after it, even laying out their plans to their parents when two of the girls were too young to enlist. They went through the same training that every solider goes through at basic training, there is no easier “women’s” section. Michelle and Rachel deployed first and Charity would deploy later as part of the 118th Medical Battalion that was meant to be un-deployable. In a war where the combat lines and front lines are no longer clearly drawn the idea that women are not on the front line is no longer true.

Sisters In Arms tells the story of war and a family watching their loved ones in harms way through journal entries, letters home, and the remembrance of a Father. Knowing that three women were deployed but only one returns makes this book a tough read but it is a good and important read. More than anything Witmer wants to convey the true cost of war so that we are not sending our Sons and Daughters into harms way without that understanding. He does not want this to be a political book and he admits that there is nothing he could have done to change his daughters minds. They are great kids, raised well, and made their own decisions with clear eyes. I think the hope is that those that would send these kids to war would make decisions in the same way.

I enjoyed this book but find it hard to recommend to just anyone. It is an important and worthy story that needs to be heard but it is also hard and heart breaking. You will be glad that you picked this book up, and your heart will be full with this family.

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Book Review: Goodbye Pert Breasts: Diary of a newborn dad by Ben Wakeling

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Originally Posted on Book Dads this past Wednesday, please check out this and all the other reviews by dads who love to read and to share that love of books with their kids.


When we first found out we were pregnant I remember thinking that I was ready for this, that I would be good at the whole pregnancy and parenting thing. In all the excitement and shock that was a clear and strong feeling and it was short lived. I quickly went from that inherent blind confidence to self doubt so powerful I wanted to run away. During that time of self doubt my wife brought home a box of books on fatherhood from one of her co-workers and got started reading about what it meant to be a father even during this time of pregnancy. There were informative dry books, or entertaining silly ones but none like the book I was sent recently. Goodbye Pert Breasts: Diary of a newborn dad by Ben Wakeling is that book I would love to have had in those early days. It is a fantastic combination of useful and enlightening information on the 40 weeks of pregnancy told through the hilarious uncouth voice of an interested partner.

The book takes you through all 40 weeks though not really as the whole process starts with you finding out your pregnant around week 4 and finishes with some pro and cons for a number of hot button decisions that new parents need to make. Drugs vs. natural, cloth vs. paper, bottle vs. breast. Wakeling tackles all of these topics with irreverent humor and surprising detail making this a great book for any dad to be. This is the new What to Expect when Expecting for the men out there that like their facts filtered through a lens of  comedy and caring.

While I loved the funny anecdotes and stream of consciousness takes on things like the fetus looking like predator during the early stages, what is really striking about this book is the awareness and sensitivity to what his wife is going through during the process. As fathers to be we all go through our times of self doubt and questioning but even in that process we need to be mindful that there is so much more going on with the moms. Goodbye Pert Breasts does a wonderful job of cluing men into just what their partners are going through and offering timely advice on how to help.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is expecting a baby, male or female and wish that I had read a book this great when we were expecting. This book is just the right combination of comedy, caring, and curiosity and a must read.

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Bro-Jitsu: The Martial Art of Sibling Smackdown

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Originally Posted on Book Dads this past Wednesday, please check out this and all the other reviews by dads who love to read and to share that love of books with their kids.

My brother and I are a little more than two years apart and my boys are a little less than two years apart. Perfect ages for high quality sibling smackdown potential. Old enough to give the older brother a distinct advantage but not too old to make it completely unfair. There has to be something extra given to the first born and I know that even as my brother grew older and bigger there was still that psychological boundary of being the youngest that kept him from taking over. While reading Bro-Jitsu: The Martial Art of Sibling Smackdown by Daniel H Wilson, PhD I thought back to a lot of the battles my brother and I had growing up and the ones that are playing out now with my boys and will continue to play out for all of us.

The Sibling Smackdown knows no end date and like the introduction of Bro-Jitsu points out, in a world that has “become more safe, more evolved, and much more politically correct” children have not followed suit. Children and specifically siblings are as rough and mean as ever. Raising two boys and looking after various other kids I have seen this first hand and while we try to keep them safer they do a fairly good job of finding danger, or inflicting it on each other.

Young Bro-Jitsu

Daniel H. Wilson, also the author of How to Build a Robot Army, Where’s My Jetpack, and How to Survie a Robot Uprising, breaks down the 126 techniques for Family Domination into three categories: Offense, Defense, and Psychological in his funny, though often times violent book. There has been some talk in reviews about how violent this book is but as a brother and dad of two boys I have no problem with it. Neither of my kids can read and there fore have picked up no ideas from this book and yet they are already doing terrible things to each other. The book is meant to be humorous and those that complain about the violence miss that point. Bro-jitsu is a funny and nostalgic book with great illustrations and even better write ups on the various moves. I would recommend this book for anyone that fondly remembers the sibling battles they had growing up.

During a recent family vacation we sat around the table passing the book and telling stories of the battles we had, and the moves we used to dominate our family. There was talk of car rides where we all did the “Not Touching you” game of putting your hand as close to your sibling without actually touching them. Or the well placed kicks to the back of the heel when walking behind. It was a fun conversation and we picked up some good ideas from the pages of Bro-Jitsu. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did and I would love to hear the ways in which you tortured your siblings in the comments below.

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Father Fiction by Donald Miller

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In a reprint of the book To Own A Dragon Donald Miller talks about growing up without a father and offers some chapter for a fatherless generation. The numbers tell a sad story of effects of missing fathers and the Father Factor effects area from Prisons to Childhood obesity. In Father Fiction Donald Miller goes through his own story of being raised by his mother and looking for father figures after his father left him and his sister. Having a father that was supportive and most importantly there made it a bit harder for me to relate to that glaring gap in the Miller’s life but it also helped me understand a great deal about what a father gives their children that no one else can give.

Through out his own story Miller also layers in chapters with practical advice to that Fatherless Generation the book was written for. Chapters on Authority, Making Decisions, Integrity, and Self Pity are filled with anecdotes and metaphors teaching those things that a father should be teaching organically. Really these chapters are great for anyone to read, father or not, but it is that shadow of the thing that is so sad. Miller is telling these things that should have been shown, that should have been passed down throughout childhood but have not.

It feels to me like this book is geared specifically for boys, and with Miller’s own experience that would make sense. He writes to girls as well but is most moving and most successful I think in dealing with that father wound in the lives of the boys that never learned how to be men from their absent fathers. In the introduction Miller talks about a movement he has started called The Mentoring Project. The Mentoring Project is a program using churches to help mentor 27 million kids growing up without fathers. By going through the hard stuff in this book and admitting that he indeed needed a father he was able to start to tell a bigger story of change. A goal to make father fiction no longer true.

The Mentoring Project – Rewriting the Story from The Mentoring Project on Vimeo.

I enjoyed this book and really love Donald Miller’s writing. He has a unique way of telling hard truths in a soft unassuming way. He is also very funny and the narrative is peppered with great stories that had me laughing. One in particular in Chapter 13 on Work Ethic, Miller talks about living with another family and wanting more then anything to sleep until he was done sleeping. With two kids of my own I know the pull of this desire and utter foolishness in trying accomplish it. After being jumped on and poked by a one and half year old she cried at the top of the stairs, afraid to go down. Half to the pillow and half to the girls he told her to slide down on her butt but she just cried. He threw a pillow to her and said “Roll! Grab the pillow tight and just roll down!” I would recommend this book if you grew up without a father, I would recommend it if you grew up with a father but would like to get involved with those who didn’t, and I would recommend this book if you are a father that needs a little help reminding you how important your role is.

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Book Review: Sugar Milk by Ron Mattocks

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Sugar Milk what dad drinks when he can't afford vodka

How does one go from being a successful, award winning salesman to finding creative ways to trick his new step kids into finishing their milk? Well that is the story that unfolds through the pages of Ron Mattocks’ book Sugar Milk, and what an entertaining and well written story. It is a true tale of a divorced dad treading the waters of internet dating, long distance parenting, job loss, being a stay at home dad, and what it mean to be a father.

The book is broken into chapters, like a collection of essays, that could be taken out of order and still stand on their own but work together to tell a story. While there are funny chapters on dates gone wrong and putting up with office nonsense it was the raw emotion and beauty of a chapter like Going Back where Mattocks writes about going back to Chicago for a Thanksgiving with his boys. The writing is strong and vivid and the emotion is moving. I have come back to read this chapter five or six times now and it still moves me. In there Mattocks talks about being self conscious about not being a writer but anyone that reads this book will strongly disagree.

Pick this book up for it’s funny stories, pick it up for it’s moving portrayal of parenting when your divorced and remarried, or pick it up for the creative ways that dad do things just a bit differently when they are at home. What ever you reason you will be glad you picked this book up.

P.S. I was not given anything for this review, not even a free book. This is just a book i picked up and enjoyed and think that you would enjoy too.

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