Little by Little: A Writer’s Education by Jean Little
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This little book has been sitting on my real bookshelf forever, it seems. It is a bookcrossing copy, BCID: 979-11038203. It came into my care by way of my friend, Cheryl in CC NV. She was right, I did love it.

The reason, I think, that I put off reading this book is the tiny font. I often felt I could relate to Jean Little as my eyesight has been an issue of late. Trouble is, I can’t put the book next to my nose to see the letters better. There seems no good way to hold a book with small font so that I can read. I did find that under the right light and best conditions, I could make my way through the book—Little by Little. And, it worked! Still I would have preferred to read this on my Kindle with an Audible version playing. Or at least with text-to-speech enabled. I could have finished this book in a day or so that way instead of taking weeks.

Jean Little has written the ultimate ‘making of a writer’ book. I believe this would make a good book for teachers to read to students from third grade on. The vocabulary might be above the reach of a 9-10 year old, but the story is accessible for everyone. Who hasn’t had insecurity or kids teasing them mercilessly? This might just be the kind of book to squelch bullying.

To have both parents as doctors, way back in the day, was quite a lesson for families. Jean grew up in that household. Her family had a lot of help. Even so, Jean didn’t have the best life. But she found her passion, writing, to be the bread of life for her. There are so many lessons in this little book. I would like to read it again someday. And now I want to read other books by Jean Little including the continuation of her autobiography.

I’ll be moving this book to my friend Yvensong next

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The Miraculous Results of Extremely High Doses of Vitamin D3: A Year Long Experiment with Huge Doses of the Sunshine Hormone From 25,000 to 100,000 IU/Day by Jeff T. Bowles
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Yes, yet another book about D3. With my fibromyalgia and diabetes type II, I have found myself sick of meds that not only don’t work but are dangerous in themselves. So I am researching to take control of my own health.

I don’t know what to think about this book. There is a lot of research and information given. I like that it is based on real studies. The author brings in many great points.

Mr. Bowles puts his personal story to the forefront. I like that. I hate reading just facts and figures and trying to make sense of the sciences involved. Bowles makes it clearer than others I had found. There are a lot of URLs to click that drive you to sites of clinical trials and results. That is great. That means if I want to hand it to my doctor I can and feel halfway intelligent in the process.

But the book is never finished. In a lot of areas, the author leaves old information and just throws in a parenthetical update. Many authors go back and update their books. Kindle will send you notice or you can go into ‘Manage My Kindle’ to pick them up. But it is confusing all the (…) and (…). I think the old version should be given, i.e. ‘In 1987 I weighed this amount or we believed this…’ then follow it with, ‘Now I weigh, or now studies show…’ And it would flow much easier.

Bowles puts a lot of emails from people that have tried his method and failed or succeeded and adds his reasoning as to what happened in actuality. I liked that. It kept it personal.

I think what I like about the book, I dislike equally. (Hence the 3 stars). The book seems quite long, but it is mostly the studies that are spelled out or referenced in the end of the book (starting at about 50%).

I did appreciate his hard work and sharing it will all of us. I learned a lot and know I can go back for my own references. I think everyone should read this. You don’t have to agree, just know it is there. I think going a more natural way is better than all the side-effects of medicines that are prescribed.

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Eat Like A Farm Girl: 3 Ingredient Plant Based Recipes by Jennifer Prince
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you are into recipes, this is your book.

Me? I hate cooking. I fell for this because of the 3 Ingredient Plant Based part of the title. I am, for the most part a vegan who is gluten-free and must watch my sugar and fat intake. This book didn’t give me 3 ingredients ever. I was very confused by that. In fact, if I followed this diet I would violate nearly all my diet restrictions.

I liked reading about the author’s lifestyle. Having raised chickens, ducks and goats on an acre no-kill ‘farm’ and greenhorn at gardening, I loved reading about how it is supposed to be done. I so miss living in the country where I could have all those animals. I did eat the eggs and milked the goats. But I haven’t been able to eat eggs for a long time. Maybe there are too many hormones and the like in the grocery store eggs.

As for the rest of the book, I found the author repeated herself in the set up. The part that is about the problem at hand and how she has the answer. That got old for me. Then came the many recipes involving lots of ingredients that are not available for me, or that I can’t eat. Some do look delicious, though.

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