Win a Kindle

I would love  to find one of these under the Christmas tree this year.   I just entered a contest to win a free Kindle from Noobie (worth $259!) and I wanted you to have a chance to win one too!

All you need to do to enter is to click the link below or copy and paste it into your favorite Internet browser:

http://www.noobie.com/kindle-giveaway?ref=39796817

Mythbusters Science Kit Review

Have you ever watched the Discovery Channel’s show Mythbusters? They have come out with a new kit to help teach and encourage children to explore science. We were sent the Weird World of Water kit to test out by Team Mom. My five year old son is a little young, but with dad’s help he still had a lot of fun creating the twister and especially launching the water rocket. It does actually work! The kit is a fun activity to spend time with your child and helps them to learn new things, so I do recommend it and would buy any of the other kits they developed. Just make sure you have some time and patience. I like toys like this because they require you to spend time with your children and build memories. The description of the kit is below.

The Discovery Channel’s popular team of crazy Mythbusters find the truth behind urban legends using the scientific method and plenty of curiosity and ingenuity. Their unique and offbeat approach to science brings excitement to this kit that teaches kids all about the properties and power of water.

Aspiring mythbusters will test the secrets of water as they uncover its many mysteries. Water freezes and boils and turns into gas – is there anything it can’t do? They’ll find the mythbusting answer to that and many more questions:

• Can water suck a ship down the drain?

• Will you find hot water at the North Pole?

• Can water blast a rocket into space?

Kids will test the power of whirlpools, create a liquid rainbow, learn how to walk on water, and much more with the Mythbusters.

Ages 9 and up.

Mythbusters Force of Flight Science Kit and Mythbusters Power of Air Pressure Science Kit. Each kit is available for $19.95 on Amazon or Discovery.com or all 3 sets can be purchased together for $49.99. A great deal in time for the holidays.

Team Mom and Discovery provided the product for this review. All my thoughts and opinions are based on my honest opinion and aren’t influenced in any way.

Into the Beautiful North Book Review

  

BOOK REVIEW

Into The Beautiful North is initially set in the village of Tres Camarones in Mexico. Nayeli, who works at The Fallen Hand Taco Shop & Internet Cafe, dreams of travelling to the United States and riding in an elevator like one of those she’s seen in the movies. No major highway runs through Tres Camarones, there is no local police station, no radio or television station, no harbor, no supermarket, and even the high school is in another city — according to the official highway guide, her village doesn’t even exist! Along with the owner of the cafe, Tacho, Nayeli yearns for London, Madrid, Paris and especially New York. Often at night she dreams that she lives:

“in a big white house, surrounded by trees and fountains. There was snow on the distant mountain range. Her horses were white, and the swans in her lake floated serenely as the maids served her. She had English muffins with strawberry jam on a silver tray. She spoke perfect English. She wore a long gown and ate ice cream when she was done with the muffins. Her husband, Johnny Depp, had gold teeth, black eyeliner, and waist-length hair. “Tomorrow,” he said with a metallic grin, “we will go to Kankekee.”

There were, however, advantages to living in Tres Camarones, like crabbing:

“Crabbing was like going to heaven. A whole day immersed in the clean lagoon, with barrels of ice full of soda and beer, the thatched-roofed huts in the sand swinging with hammocks, the big pots boiling crabs to be eaten on stiff fried tortillas. There was nothing better than crabbing.”

Nayeli sees that in the crab basket “the armored creatures wrestled one another, and when one seemed about to climb out of the basket and make its escape, the others could grab it and haul it back down into the endless battle,” and Nayeli felt that was exactly what was happening to her and her friends, staying in Mexico, especially in Tres Camarones where most of the the men had left the village and there were no women who were pregnant. But when Mexican bandits and drug lords start to infiltrate the village and take away people’s homes, Nayeli and her friends decide to go to America and bring back men to protect their village as soldiers. They feel like they’re on a mission from God, just like Los Hermanos Blues, The Blues Brothers (since at least at their cinema, run by just one man, they saw many movies), and they would take a side-trip to Kankekee to find Nayeli’s father, who had left suddenly and inexplicably many years ago.

So Tacho, Nayeli, and Nayeli’s two girlfriends, Yolo and Vampi (the latter so-called because she dressed in Goth clothing) set out on a bus to America. The poverty and difficulty they see along the way makes their tiny village look like Eden! They get caught at the border as illegals (where Tacho is also mistaken as a terrorist from the Middle East) and are constantly eluding robbers and con-men. But they do finally cross the border in an unusual manner and end up in San Diego, wher they can begin their mission in America (Los Yunaites).

Read about the adventures of Nayeli and her friends in Into The Beautiful North as Nayeli and Tacho see snow for the first time and in America they see “Ravens, hawks, eagles. Deer beside the road. Evergreens look over the cottonwoods and alleys and ranges of mountains with vivid snowscaps on their points marching to infinity.  The sky was fractured in great blocks of cloud – chunks of white, blue, orange, violet.  Nayeli gasped.  She began to cry upon sight of it.”  But what happens in America is entirely different than they expect!  This book is exceedingly colorfully written with life constantly pushing its way out of the surrounding chaos and decay, like a green sprout rising up out of a crack in the sidewalk or roses in the desert.  A very unique book! 

  

REVIEWED BY:

Christina Zawadiwsky is Ukrainian-American, born in New York City, has a degree in Fine Arts, and is a poet, artist, journalist and TV producer. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Award, two Wisconsin Arts Boards Awards, a Co-Ordinating Council of Literary Magazines Writer’s Award, and an Art Futures Award, among other honors. She was the originator and producer of “Where The Waters Meet”, a local TV series created to facilitate the voices of artists of all genres in the media, for which she won two national and twenty local awards, including a Commitment to Community Television Award. She is also a contributing editor to the annual Pushcart Prize Anthology, the recipient of an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, and has published four books of poetry.

 

Psi Bands Giveaway

I suffered horribly from morning sickness during both of my pregnancies. Boy, do I wish I knew about Psi Bands then. Psi Bands (pronounced “Sigh Bands”) are drug-free wrist bands for the relief of nausea due to morning sickness (pregnancy), motion sickness/travel, chemotherapy, and anesthesia. They are FDA-cleared and safe to use.

Psi Bands may be worn on an as needed basis (up to 48 continuous hours) at the first sign of nausea. They may also be worn up to 5 minutes before traveling or surgery. The response to acupressure is individual. While some experience relief within minutes, others notice changes in hours or subsequent days.

They would work perfectly for an active traveler, an expectant mom or someone undergoing medical procedures, A bonus is they are so cute and stylish. There are five styles to choose from. Psi Bands can be re-used and I thought they were very comfortable. I also think the price is very affordable and reasonable.

Where To Buy:
You can purchase Psi Bands on Amazon.com and for a complete list of retailers in store and online check the Psi Bands website.

THE GENEROUS LADIES FROM PSI BANDS WANT TO GIVE ONE OF YOU A SET OF PSI BANDS IN ANY COLOR! YEAH!

TO ENTER: VISIT THE PSI BAND WEBSITE, SIGN UP FOR THEIR NEWSLETTER, FIND TWO THINGS ABOUT PSI BANDS NOT COVERED IN MY REVIEW AND REPORT BACK TO ME IN A COMMENT.

ANOTHER ENTRY: STUMBLE THIS CONTEST, TWITTER(FOLLOW AND TWEET,(HEART BUTTONS BELOW) OR SUBCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER OR BLOG. (IN SIDEBARS) LET ME KNOW LINKS

ANOTHER ENTRY: GRAB MY BUTTONS AND LET ME KNOW LINKS

THIS CONTEST WILL END MARCH 6TH AND RANDOM.ORG WILL CHOOSE THE WINNER. U.S. ONLY PLEASE. PLEASE RESPOND WITHIN 48 HOURS OR YOU WILL FORFEIT THE PRIZE AND I WILL RE-DRAW ANOTHER WINNER. GOOD LUCK AND I’M EXCITED FOR THIS GIVEAWAY! MARK YOUR CALENDERS FOR THE BOOK GIVEAWAY CARNIVAL MARCH 2ND-8TH!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett: Review and Giveaway

SYNOPSIS OF BOOK

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t. (from publisher)

THEMES IN THE BOOK

MY REVIEW

I dream of those stories and characters that will challenge and move me and The Help makes that dream come true. The Help goes back to the history of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi as told through the eyes of two black maids and one young, idealistic white woman. Each woman takes turns narrating the chapters and it works well with the story. The author, Kathryn Stockett, made me feel the unimaginable humiliation and disregard that Aibileen and Minny endured, but it is their strength and dignity that helps them overcome. Learning how the three women come together in the story and how things will turn out, kept me anxiously turning the pages. The Help is about hope, loss, bravery, fear, change and love. I think you will not only learn from these incredible characters, but you will also wish they were your friends.  You can purchase The Help, published by Penguin Books, at Amazon and bookstores everywhere.  Thank you to mom.central.

I happen to have an extra ARC of The Help and I loved it so much that I want to give it to one of you lovely book readers!

TO ENTER: LEAVE ME A COMMENT TELLING ME YOUR FAVORITE BOOK YOU’VE READ RECENTLY. I LOVE TO HEAR RECOMMENDATIONS.

FOR SECOND ENTRY: ADD THE BOOKROOM GIVEAWAY CARNIVAL BUTTON TO YOUR WEBSITE. (CODE AND BUTTON BELOW)  PLEASE LET ME KNOW IN SEPARATE ENTRY

FOR THIRD ENTRY:  CHANGE MY OLD LINK TO MY NEW ONE OR ADD MY NEW LINK TO YOUR SITE.  WWW.BOOKROOMREVIEWS.COM  PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND THANK YOU!

THIS CONTEST WILL END FEBRUARY 19TH. RANDOM.ORG WILL CHOOSE THE LUCKY WINNER. I’M SO SORRY BUT U.S. ONLY PLEASE. GOOD LUCK AND HUGS!   Another chance to win this amazing book at Hey Lady!

<img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-3455″ title=”bookroombookgiveawaybuttonfinal” src=”http://www.bookroomreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/bookroombookgiveawaybuttonfinal.jpg” alt=”bookroombookgiveawaybuttonfinal” width=”180″ height=”200″ />

Get Peeked

I own a simple cell phone and the only thing it does is phone calls and Pacman.    I basically bought it for safety reasons for when I am in the car.   As a stay at home mom, I don’t really have the need for something fancy (though I wouldn’t mind trying something new) hint to PR reps:)   I have found myself needing to keep touch with my e-mails constantly and when I found out about The Peek, I knew that would be the perfect gadget for me.

The Peek is a thin handheld e-mail device that allows you to receive and send e-mails from anywhere.   The device feels great, it looks stylish and best of all, is simple to use.   It has a full QWERTY keypad and side thumb wheel control.  It will also handle up to three email accounts.   Best of all, the device is inexpensive: $79.95, plus $19.95 per month for Peek service (paid month-to-month: NO CONTRACT REQUIRED).  The Peek is usable throughout the U.S. with full nationwide wireless coverage.

Sending and receiving emails on the Peek is so easy.  You just scroll the side thumb wheel control up and down to view your e-mails, click a button to read them, and hit the x to delete them.  You can set your Peek to vibrate or ring when you receive new e-mails.  You can also send text messages!  They recently made it available to tweet on Twitter using your Peek too, which is so cool.   I love my Peek and I think it is a great companion to my cell phone.

Remember, The Peek isn’t for everyone. It basically does e-mail, so it’s not for people who are hard core techies and it says so on their website.  But it’s a great solution for someone who wants a simple device, or can’t pay for an expensive one.  The Peek is available at Target and online at www.GetPeek.com and Amazon.

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