No spoilers, I promise!
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling I read it. I enjoyed it. I’m currently listening to the audio book. I’ll be happy to discuss with anyone who’s interested, but don’t really feel like writing up a review. So there.
California Demon by Julie Kennon I must confess that I couldn’t get through this second book about a Buffy-like demon hunter mom. It’s just that it’s a little too personal at this time. I can’t really enjoy reading about a mother dealing with potty training and demons, when just potty training feels like too much just now. Maybe in 5 or 10 years I’ll be able to joke about it. Meanwhile, if you’re a Buffy fan and are not involved in toddler rearing, you might very well enjoy this.
The No-Cry Discipline Solution by Elizabeth Pantley “No-cry” may sound radical, but this is a gentle and practical guide to parenting. Pantley starts out with a chapter devoted to parenting myths, such as, “If my kids don’t behave all the time, I must be doing something wrong.” Kids will misbehave, and you will do things you’ll wish you hadn’t. Then she covers a basic theory of discipline: understanding why children misbehave, looking at the long term to decide what’s important when dealing with younger children. She has chapters dealing with major everyday problems such as tantrums, whining and hitting. An important and unusual chapter deals with managing your own anger and frustration as a parent. These are the core of the book, but the second half or so is devoted to short sections on a multitude of common problems with targeted solutions, such as biting, trouble with daycare drop-offs and pick-ups, and so on. I don’t agree with her on everything – I’d wish for a more nuanced discussion of praise, for example. I do like the approach, starting with a discussion of each problem, how to prevent it from happening in the first place and what to do when it happens. In an analogy that stuck with me, Pantley says that having just one or two parenting techniques is like having a little sandwich baggy of solutions. If they don’t work, you’re out of luck. She aims instead to offer you a laundry bag full of techniques, for you to practice and find ones that work for you and your family. Pantley may not have any child-related degrees, but she knows what she’s talking about. In addition to four children of her own, ranging from primary school to college, she has done a lot of research, both of the reading and the hands-on variety. Her methods are tested with a couple hundred kids, from several countries, of many ages, and from many different types of families. They are aimed at raising loving, happy and functional adults, as well as maintaining peace and order now. This is an extremely useful and excellent book.
1-2-3 Magic by Thomas W. Phelan I am always suspicious of parenting books that say, “If our method doesn’t work for you, you’re not following the instructions correctly.” Different kids work very differently. At any rate, this is a punishment-based book. Your kids are out to get you, says Phelan, and you’d better punish them quickly before they get out of hand. Don’t talk to them, because kids aren’t capable of reasoning. The only punishment he offers is the time-out, a popular one to be sure, but ineffective for some kids, and emotionally difficult for others. This emphasis on instant obedience without understanding seems geared to produce adults who can say they’re “just following orders”. After you’ve gotten the worst of their bad behavior out of them, you can start using some rewards and praise to encourage good behavior, and then you might actually start to like your kids. The author appears to be a pediatrician who leaves most of the actual kid-rearing to his wife, and this book is based on his experience with patients who have followed his advice and come back and said that it works. There’s a lot of research out there on discipline techniques and their effect on child behavior and psychology, but Phelan doesn’t reference or appear to have read any of it. He is also very rigid, saying, for example, that there is no excuse for parents and children to be in the same bed together ever, even in cases of nightmares, illness, or thunderstorms. 
Charmed Knits: Projects for Fans of Harry Potter by Alison Hansel When I first saw this book advertised, I thought that I wasn’t really a big enough Harry Potter fan to want a book like this. Then I actually saw it. I guess I’m a bigger fan than I thought. Now I’m longing to knit Mrs. Weasley’s initial sweaters, recreated in tweedy yarn with soft rolled edges, sized for children, adults, or Christmas ornaments. Her clock is made into an afghan, with the arrow conveniently pointing to “at home”. The striped scarves from the movies are included in both the wide stripes of the early movies and the narrower double barred versions from the later movies, with matching hats and mittens. A Hogwarts v-neck sweater with narrow stripes in house colors at the cuffs and waist is subtle enough to wear without any but other fans noticing, while only the most die-hard of movie buffs would recognize the (still nifty) zigzag cabled hat and mittens from Hermione’s trip to Hogsmeade in the fourth movie. Knit mismatched Dobby socks, including a pair with Snitches on one sock and broomsticks on the other, wand cozies, a miniature stuffed Errol, house elf hats for babies. The patterns look well crafted, the book is nicely put together, and there are projects for both the rabid and the shy Harry Potter fan.
The Vegetarian Mother’s Cookbook by Cathe Olson This cookbook is full of yummy recipes aimed at the pregnant or nursing vegetarian mother. While that group may be small, the recipes are really good, with appeal well beyond the target audience. They are designed for maximum nutritional benefits, with balanced protein, fat, and whole grains, and includes nutritional profiles for all the recipes. (Adding vitamin-rich seaweed mix to nearly everything seemed strange at first, and then we discovered that seaweed is also one of the biggest natural sources of umame – the flavor that MSG recreates without the health benefits.) I was first impressed by the book when, after the usual trope on the importance of breakfast, she actually devoted a full third of the book to breakfast recipes designed to work for busy mornings, including porridges, whole-grain pancakes and waffles, granolas, and breakfasts on the go. Then there are recipes for dinners, snacks, teas, and baked goods and sorbets that will satisfy your cravings without throwing your blood sugar out of whack. The dinners especially include advice on which recipes freeze well and how to bake in small stages throughout the day around baby duties. This is the rare book that we actually bought, because there were so many recipes that looked really good, even to my carnivorous husband – better than beef stew, many variations on lasagna, nori rice balls, and more. And while meatless entrees might not be for everyone, the careful attention to sugar balance makes this an excellent choice for anyone who wants good food that doesn’t compromise on flavor or nutrition.
Easy Care Shade Flowers by Patricia A. Taylor Don’t limit yourself to hostas and ferns in the shade! Taylor has some theory, profiles of outstanding public and private shady gardens, and lists of good plants by type (shrub, perennial, annual) and by region (given by regional experts). The only thing I felt was a little short was help planning your own garden. 
Beautiful Easy Herbs by Laurence Sombke This is a book that I am still drooling over, even though most herbs want lots of sun, which I don’t have. The author first profiles one hundred easy-care herbs, with growing habits and uses. This was a little disappointing, as he doesn’t include medicinal uses at all. Since this information is easily available elsewhere, though, that’s not such a great loss. Where I really loved the book was the garden plans. He included lots of plans for different herb gardens, including colonial, culinary, tea, Mediterranean, flowering border, and bird and butterfly. Every design included a layout, which plants to buy from seed and which in pots, short descriptions of everything, and a first year and following years care guide. I was absolutely smitten. I’d be out in the garden with a shovel right now if it weren’t for that pesky sun issue. 
Ann Lovejoy’s Organic Garden Design School by Ann Lovejoy Organic gardening may be good for the planet, but Lovejoy gets into that only briefly in this comprehensive look at organic garden design. For her, the primary benefits of an organic garden are minimal care, plants that thrive without taking over, and gardens that tie into the surrounding landscapes. The pictures are beautiful, and the descriptions inspiring. The hitch, of course, is the amount of planning and research that goes into making these extremely site-specific gardens – though she give lots of suggestions, they seem mostly geared towards the western U.S. The book leads you through it all, though, concluding with a 30-pages workbook to help figure out what you want and how to get there. If you follow the steps and do the research, you’ll be rewarded with a garden that needs little more than annual compost to keep it beautiful.
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale14-year-old Miri’s one goal in life so far has been to convince her father that she’s big enough to quarry valuable linder blocks with him and the rest of the people in the village. Then, a messenger arrives from the distant capital: the priests have chosen Mount Eskel as the home of the prince’s future bride. And since the residents of Mount Eskel are illiterate country bumpkins, all girls of eligible age will be required to attend a Princess Academy for one year to learn the necessary skills to help run a kingdom. At first, no one believes the messenger: The Lowlanders would surely never allow a mountain girl to be Princess. Once at the Academy, though, where winter snows soon block off the route home, the girls have to work hard whether or not they believe. Miri discovers a talent for learning she never knew she had and makes new discoveries about the silent Quarry Speak as she also learns to negotiate the pitfalls of friendships and rivalries. Yes, there is a ball where the prince is meant to choose a bride – but it happens only halfway through the book. With deep reflections on themes of home, belonging, and the nature of romantic love, this is a beautiful book for fans of fairy tale novels and character-based fiction. It’s probably good from 5th grade up, and, oh yes, it was a Newbury honor book.
Demon’s Kiss by Eve Silver Clea Masters always thought her parents died in a car accident twenty years ago. She doesn’t know why she survived. Ciarran D’Arbois, a sorcerer sworn to protect the boundary between the human and demon worlds, remembers the dying eight-year-old who managed to draw on his power to heal herself very well. The crack in the boundary she opened up left him with a demon permanently struggling to escape its prison in his left hand. He just didn’t know she would be so irresistible 20 years later, and still able to siphon of his power without knowing it. But now, someone has betrayed the Compact of Sorcerers. Someone seems to think that Clea is the key destroying the boundary and letting demons have free reign on earth. Meanwhile, Clea and Ciarran can’t keep their hands off each other. Will this dangerous attraction prove to be their salvation or their downfall? OK, so there were some parts of this that made me snort – our sorcerer has an evil hand, for goodness’ sake, and it seems to draw a bit uncomfortably on Renaissance thinking about sex to have our heroine just leach power from our hero. However, the plot is fun, our heroine smart and capable, the sex steamy, and the author an anatomist who does not feel the need to use silly phrases like “woman cleft”. If you want some hot lovin’ with actual sparks, this is a good choice.
