Pennyworth Books

In lieu of a traditional how-to article, I want to review two books that I’ve read recently that have had an enormous impact on my thinking. Women traditionally have such a hard time accepting their talents and abilities – and an even tougher time asking for and earning what they are worth.

Once I started reading each of the books I’m reviewing today, I could not put them down! The pages were filled with insight that had me scribbling down notes, to-do’s and exclamation points. The exercises in the books really drove the important points home.

These fabulous books are both written by Barbara Stanny, a popular motivational speaker, former journalist, and syndicated columnist. Her personal story is interesting because she actually came from a very privileged background. Then she married a guy who turned out to be less than skilled at managing her/their money and lost it all. After she divorced,…

The Beader’s Companion (Loveland, CO: Interweave Press, ISBN 1-8883010-56-X) by Judith Durant and Jean Campbell is an indispensable tool for bead jewelry designers at the beginning and intermediate level. It is a small (7″ x 5″) paperback book with spiral binding that lies flat, so you can keep it on your work surface next to your beading projects. The pages flip upwards, so that the text is in landscape mode, leaving plenty of space for illustrations.

It is amazing what amount of useful information can be crammed into a mere 104 pages! The book starts out by describing various kinds of beads (with illustrations), as well as types of glass and finishes used for beads. This is followed by section on threads/cords and different types of needles. Particularly useful is a chart telling beaders what thread to use with which kind of bead. There are also extensive chapters on various stitches and…

Marriage counseling or divorce? That is the question being asked thousands of times every day across America. With so many marriages ending in divorce, the question can be asked: How many of those marriages might have been saved? Now a new book, combining the insights of five experts in a single volume, offers a multifaceted resource for helping avert the emotional trauma of breaking up a once happy marriage.

Entitled The Marriage Medics, the manual, published online at http://www.marriagemedics.com and co-authored by clinical psychotherapist Cynthia Cooper, Ph.D., spells out key reasons why so many marriages crumble, and cites ways in which couples might save their marriage.

The quintet of experts are: Dr. Cooper, who counsels couples and families; Dan Smith, a financial executive who helps couples resolve money problems; Dr. Patti Britton, a nationally recognized clinical sexologist; John Hunt, a noted attorney specializing in family law; and Cmdr. Bobbitti May, a U.S. Navy…

The last Jodi Picoult book I read made me question my decisions as a mother. This one affirmed several decisions that I have already made. In Nineteen Minutes, the world can shift slightly, or it can tilt off its hinges. And Picoult is skilled at the tilting.

The premise of the novel is a Columbine-type school shooting, a bullied young man wrecking vengeance not only on those who were cruel to him, but also on those who were not. But with deft skill, the author steers us beyond surface-level judgements and into the issues at heart, forcing the reader to confront just what could make someone snap.

In Peter’s case, the snapping was the result of bullying that began in his first day of kindergarten, and continued every day for twelve years. But Picoult doesn’t just give him an easy out. Instead, she weaves into the story the history of Peter’s life,…