Love Rules (Hamilton High series) (Paperback) Review

"I didn't turn into a lesbian any more than you turned straight.You are straight.I am lesbian.That's just how it is."This is how Kit explains things to her best friend, Lynn in Marilyn Reynolds, Love Rules.Love Rules is the eighth novel in Reynold's True-to-Life Series from Hamilton High.At first glance, this book may seem like a simple book on friendship and coming out as a lesbian in high school.It is all that and much, much more.It is a story of friendship, love and romance, values, prejudices of all kinds and standing up for what you believed in.Reynold's does all this while creating a gripping novel and without being the least bit preachy or boring.Love Rules is definitely true-to-life and definitely, a good read.I highly recommend it!

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Medical Management of Pregnancy Complicated by Diabetes, 4th Edition [Paperback] Review

While the book provided some good information, I was expecting more judging by the title. (I was also surprised at how small the book was given its cost.) Bottom line? There is much more specific and far more up-to-date information available for free on the internet. A quick search under "diabetes mellitus and pregnancy" will provide a wealth of it, including specific (and current) rates of birth defects at what blood sugar levels and which tests should be conducted during which trimester.

I think the problem may be that it's trying to do too much. The introduction states that the book is designed to "present to the clinician a complete package of protocols."Given some of the very basic information, I hope there are no clinicians who don't know some of this stuff.

The first chapter discusses the fact that it's a good idea to talk to women before conception about the importance of good blood sugar control (does anyone not know that?) and lists the doctors one should see and some of the tests that should be conducted. It basicaly suggests a thorough exam for all the diabetic trouble spots--eyes, kidneys, A1c levels, thyroid, etc. All good sense. However, the second chapter is on contraception, which seems unecessary and out of place.Worse, the first chapter boldly states that if the woman has "clinically proven" cardiac disease, she should not only be counseled against pregnancy, but "should be asked to consider permanent sterilization"(!). No discussion about risk factors or degrees of severity--just any cardiac disease equals sterilization.If the book is only geared toward "clinicians," perhaps that's acceptable. But a discussion of birth control, and a list of what kinds of insulin exist and their duration seems geared toward the completely uninitiated. I found it shocking.

A large problem I had was with the graph of birth defect rates, something I was very, very concerned with. It doesn't seem to be labeled accurately. It says it measures number of spontaneous abortions, major malformations and no major malformations in conjunction with HA1c levels in the first trimester. However, above the HA1c levels it says "Mean + SD (standard deviation)." You can't tell what the SD refers to, and it reports some pretty high numbers. I contacted the ADA (publisher) about this since it suggests that an A1c between 7.7 and 9.3 has fewer incidents of major malformation than an A1c below 7.7. The person I corresponded with was very nice, and told me a few times they would get back to me. They finally said I should check with my doctor if I'm pregnant, which did NOT answer the question. I checked the source material listed at the end of the chapter--this graph is based on information from "reference 13," which was an article published in 1979. I found much more current info on my own with a simple internet check.

There was information about the fact that insulin requirements will increase as the pregnancy progresses, but my doctor has a chart that shows you the typical increases. Further, the book Pumping Insulin has a good chapter on pregnancy and what to expect in dosage increases, diet breakdowns and blood sugar goals pre- and post-meal.

Much of the rest of the book seems like common sense,things you could find in almost any book on pregnancy or in some other book designed for the lay person written from the diabetic's point of view rather than the clinician's.

Overall, I wish someone had steered me toward better information. Given the title, I was expecting it to be sort of a "one-stop shop" where I could get all the factual information I would need. Perhaps I expected too much.

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Product Description:

The most trusted reference on treatingpregnancy with diabetes is back in a newedition


Pregnancy complicated by diabetes is a medical challengethat can be minimized through a program ofexpert protocols and patient partnerships. This bookpresents a complete package of these protocols thatwhen followed, can help produce healthy infants inpregnancies complicated by type 1, type 2, and gestationaldiabetes.
Based on an ADA Technical Review, this fourth editionprovides up-to-date information that includes: newguidelines for treatment using the new insulinanalogues; a discussion on the use of oral hypoglycemicagents in pregnancy; and the latest in obstetrical surveillanceof pregnant women with diabetes.

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Conscience: The Search for Truth [Paperback] Review

If you already have Ouspensky's main work books this book, Conscience, is still worth acquiring.It covers the same subjects yet does it in a slightly different way.I actually found Conscience to be more helpful when I was first learning the work than some of the larger books.
There are 5 chapters:
1. Memory (Memory, Self-Remembering, Recurrence)
2. Surface Personality (A Study of Imaginary Man)
3. Self-Will (On Controlling Self-Will for Growth of Real Will)
4. Negative Emotions (no subtitle)
5. Notes on Work (no subtitle)
Each was originally a separately published essay.It's a helpful presentation because it's intentionally designed to focused in a more concentrated way on each of the central work subjects presented (as opposed to the content of, say, the Fourth Way).My copy gave me alot in my initial study (and doing) of the work ideas, practices, and goals...

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Product Description:
The five essays in this collection are based on P. D. Ouspensky's talks and answers to questions, transcribed at private meetings in England and the United States from 1931 to 1946. They bring contemporary readers the wisdom of Gurdjieff as interpreted and refined by a spiritual master in his own right. Topics include "Memory," "Surface Personality," "Self-Will," "Negative Emotions," and "Notes on Work." These essays argue persuasively that direct observation of self is the key to awakening from the "waking sleep" that characterizes life for so many.

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Shorter Christian Prayer: The Four-Week Psalter of the Liturgy of the Hours Containing Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer [Bonded Leather] Review

There are many forms of prayer.This little book provides the kick-start, spiritually, for more formal and regular prayer-living.Centered on the psalms and holy scripture, any Christian or person interested in Christianprayer life can gain much for a small dollar investment.By one and getone for your closest friend.Pray together!

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Product Description:
This shorter edition of Christian Prayer presents a selection of material for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer in a format that is easier for the lay person to use that the complete Christian Prayer or the four-volume Liturgy of the Hours.

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The Spiritual Roots of Yoga: Royal Path to Freedom (Paperback) Review

If you have read or would like to read The Sutras of Pantanjali and the Bhagahad Gita this is a great companion book to pull the two philosophical books together..oh, and apply yoga to everyday life.I'd recommend reading the last chapter first, it was recommended to me and I am to really apply the "everyday yoga" to my life and my journaling.I highly recommend this boo.

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Product Description:
Rather than a hatha how-to guide with asanas and step-by-step instructions, The Spiritual Roots of Yoga explains yoga's origin and underlying philosophy. The book dives straight to the heart of the yogic tradition embodied in the figure of Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, an understanding broadened through an examination of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra. It then provides the framework for an accessible comparison between yoga and Christian, Buddhist, and other systems of thought. The author of several acclaimed interfaith studies, Ravi Ravindra writes from a deep understanding of not only the philosophy but the context from which yoga evolved, as well as its standing within the community of religious thought and practice, offering practitioners and other spiritual pilgrims a deeper appreciation of the tradition.

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Mornings in Mexico (Paperback) Review

Lawrence was a good traveller in these parts and he spent a lot of time carefully observing the Indians he met along the way.He was particularly interested in the ways of thought of the Indians and their religious beliefs and the ways their ideas differed from yours and mine. On simple concepts like time and distance, for example: "To an Indian, time is a vague, foggy reality.There are only three times: en la manana (morning); en la tarde (afternoon); en la noche (night).But to the white monkey (you and me) there are exact spots of time, such as five o'clock and half past three." The Indian's concept of God was different from ours."With the Indians...there is strictly no god.The Indian does not consider himself as created and therefore external to God, or the creature of God. There is, in our sense of the word, no God. But all is godly. There is no great mind directing the universe. Yet the mystery of creation, the wonder and fascination of creation shimmers in every leaf and stone... There is no God looking on. The only God there is is involved all the time in the dramatic wonder and inconsistency of creation. God is immersed, as it were, in creation, not to be separated or distinguished.There can be no ideal God." Lawrence does a wonderful job of digging into this exotic culture and explaining to us the significance of Indian rituals and dances. I particularly liked one of his statements: "The Indian is completely immersed in the wonder of his own drama." There is also a lovely example of descriptive travel writing in "Market Day", a chapter that makes you slow down your reading pace to savor the beautiful descriptions of small things like a bird's flight or flowers in a doorway. I guess this is the difference between reading and information-processing, which we do so much of today.

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Product Description:
Much of D.H. Lawrence's life was defined by his passion for travel and it was those wanderings that gave life to some of his greatest novels. In the 1920s Lawrence travelled several times to Mexico, where he was fascinated by the clash of beauty and brutality, purity and darkness that he observed. The diverse and evocative essays that make up Mornings in Mexico wander from an admiring portrayal of the Indian way of life to a visit to the studio of Diego Rivera and are brightly adorned with simple and evocative details: piles of fruit in a village market, strolls in a courtyard filled with hibiscus and roses, the play of light on an adobe wall. It was during his time in Mexico that Lawrence re-wrote The Plumed Serpent, which is infused with his own experiences there. To read Mornings in Mexico is thus to discover the inspiration behind of one of Lawrence's most loved works and to be immersed in a portrait of the country like no other.--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Forty Days: A Book By Tommy Jonq [Paperback] Review

Forty Days is high quality fiction, at a tremendously affordable price. The writing again showcases the author's deft narrative skill and imaginative flair (I have read Gemini Tiger by the same author). I really enjoyed the award-winning "Ivy", the first story -- mostly because you wouldn't think that a male author would be behind the female narrator in the piece ;)! These aren't short stories to be quickly skimmed through -- doing so would thoroughly decrease a reader's chances of savoring the clever wordplay, through the pieces.

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The award-winning author of "Gemini Tiger" takes on Barbie-Ken dream weddings, Jimmy Carter, and Teenaged Atomic Cheerleaders in this collection of short stories, poems, and a thing or two in between.

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