fitting in fitness.

Our society is always pushing SKINNY SKINNY SKINNY! This can give a teenage girl with a little extra baby fat the wrong impression. Erin Whitehead and Jennipher Walters are pushing HEALTHY HEALTHY HEALTHY in their guide A Girl’s Guide to Fitting in Fitness.

Teenage girls are busy. They have school, friends, family commitments they are forced to be a part of. They juggle boyfriends and part-time jobs. How is a girl who doesn’t play seasonal sports all year round supposed to fit in a little exercise? It’s tough, especially for those who aren’t athletic at all. Whitehead and Walters have designed a fitness guide that focuses on a healthy lifestyle, including physical activity and healthy eating habits. The sample cardio and strength training workouts, recipes, and progress charts are very easy to follow.

Honestly, after age 18 gravity hits. I wish I would have developed the healthy habits I have now as a teenager so that I never would have had to feel uncomfortable in my body. This book does not promote revolving your life around exercise; it shows teenage girls that there are ways to fit a healthy lifestyle into a busy schedule more naturally.

well that was different, in a good way.

The main character and narrator of Lori Carson’s debut novel, The Original 1982 fell in love with a man who was not good for her. Been there, girlfriend. Back in 1982 Lisa was a misguided girl trying to get into the music industry as a singer/songwriter. She was young and stupid and got knocked up by her way too old for her musician boyfriend who convinced her to get an abortion. Thirty years later and full of regret, Lisa decides to go back to that moment in her life and choose differently. She takes us back to 1982, and tells the story as if she had the child, rewriting her past into something more complicated but easier to live with. Lisa gives her unborn child a name and a story, while turning herself into a mother. She is the writer of her story, so she can do whatever she wants, and she does, flashing back between the real and the make believe. Author Lori Carson’s fresh style is sure to shake up your summer reading list.

GIVEAWAY: If you would like the opportunity to win a free copy of this new release, follow this blog and email your name, address, and this book title to: jenileerose@yahoo.com! 

tailor your sales message to fit the sale.

After I read The Secret Language of Influence by Dan Seidman, I passed it along to one of my friends who started a Mary Kay business this year for a second opinion. She’s doing very well selling the products because she is so passionate about the company and their mission, yet she still found ways to improve her on selling skills in Seidman’s resource.

Seidman covers all of this bases focusing on how to handle a customer and also how to handle yourself. In the first part of the book Seidman explains that in order to master the art of selling, you need to develop the skill and ability to influence others and gain understanding of why people do the things they do. Seidman explores the various types of buyers in great detail (there are way more than you’d think, so this aspect is very useful). There are toward buyers and away buyers. There are artist buyers (creative, spontaneous) and accountant buyers (systematic and deliberate). There are big picture buyers and detail buyers. Lots and lots of buyers here people, and they cannot all be sold the same way.  These personalities all require a different approach.

The second part of the book is all about influencing yourself. According to Seidman, you need to learn how to be resilience, how to handle rejection (you cannot be sensitive in sales), and also how to set goals and priorities for yourself. What you need to do to be a successful sales person is all spelled out for you.

can the real jane austen please stand up?

The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne is not your average biography. Byrne tells her story by taking an item that Jane Austen owned, used or would have seen and uses it as a springboard to discuss the different aspects of her life and her family. The objects that Byrne describes allow the reader to glimpse Austen's life from a perspective somewhat over her shoulder. The first object Byrne describes is an engraving of Lyme Regis, a West Dorset coastal village, showing us Austen’s love of the sea. Also included is an East Indian shawl that introduces some of Austen's more exotic relatives. And her notebooks containing her youthful writings show how her family nurtured her writing. This strategy causes the biography to jump around a bit, but it’s still a genius idea with impeccable research.

I learned a lot. For example did you know that Jane Austen, contrary to what people might expect, was firmly not of the belief that there is only one person in the world whom you can love? I find this comforting.

This biography is different, informative, and fun to read. Three of my favorite things.

only includes the good stuff.

I am not even remotely tech savvy. Web wise, can’t go much further than this (very basic) blog. Other than my general disinterest, I also don’t have time to figure out how to use different web technologies, I’m busy molding the minds of America’s youth/trying not to hit them. Peter Gasston's The Modern Web, Multi-Device Web Development with HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript is exactly what people like me need. When I say people like me, I mean people who would benefit from building their own website, but don’t have time to research it themselves.  For me it would be useful for this blog, or a classroom website, for you it could be for something else like your own business. Gasston doesn’t give you a bunch of different directions in this resource; he gives you the RIGHT direction. He’s done the research for you; all you have to do is follow his lead, and BAM you’ve updated an outdated website, or created a brand spankin’ new one that suits your needs perfectly. We’ve got a reference that is worth it over here people, don’t miss out!

so you had a bad day.

At the start of Changing Lanes by Kathleen Long, thirty-year-old Abby Halladay has a really bad day, pretty much the worst. First she lost her job as an advice columnist, she recently purchased her first home and finds out today of all days that it has extensive termite damage, AND her fiancé suddenly left the country, and presumably her, a mere two months before their wedding. Abby girl, go back to bed.

Abby is now forced to stay with her parents until the house issues are straightened out, and before the days end she runs into her childhood buddy, Mick, whom she has been estranged for over a decade. Which doesn’t exactly add to her bad day, just makes it more surreal. He’s still handsome, and when Abby tries to get the gossip on his return to the neighborhood, she learns that she’s not the only one with bad luck lately. 

Long takes us from feel bad to feel good pretty quickly as the pages turn, things for Abby start looking up, and this novel turns into the perfect summer read.

since it’s golf season.

I am so glad manfriend doesn’t enjoy golfing. He’s not all that great at it, and the few times he’s gone, he is bored out of his mind until the beers start opening. He’s much too exciting for the likes of golf, he’d much rather watch Young and the Restless.

Golf caddie and author Oliver Horovitz’s memoir titled An American Caddie in St. Andrews: Growing up, Girls, and Looping on the Old Course adds a little UMPH to the game. Horovitz has been a caddie since the age of twelve and he takes us through that first summer and his journey to the top. He’s actually a pretty impressive guy, with a 1.8 handicap (whatever that means), but more importantly he was accepted into Harvard, but took the year off and spent it at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Horovitz was just a New York boy trying to fit in with the caddies at St. Andrews. His storytelling is excellent, making this memoir enjoyable for every reader, even those like me who don’t take it any farther than mini golf, which I’m excellent at by the way.