June, 2009

Adult / Guidebook — No Comments
22
Jun 09

REVIEW: Eating Well When You’re Expecting

What To Expect Eating Well When You're Expecting“What to Expect: Eating Well When You’re Expecting” is the fourth book I have of the “What to Expect” series – you’d think I collect them the way people do for the Harry Potter or Twilight series ;-)

I bought the book on transit in Dubai because it’s such a good quality print, (unlike the other “What to Expect” books I got from Malaysia!)and find it useful now especially these chapters:

  • “Eating Well for a Comfortable Pregnancy” – morning sickness, food cravings, constipation, gassiness and heartburn…
  • Healthy weight gain for baby and you – “If you’re gaining too fast!” LOL I definitely do not want to gain 30 kg AGAIN and neither do I want to go on a diet,
  • “Foods that make the grade” and “Eating Safely When You’re Expecting” – safe eating for pregnancy e.g. what foods are nutritious and delicious
  • “Eating Well While Breastfeeding” – tips for vegetarians too!

While I find some chapters are a repeat of what’s found in What to Expect When You’re Expecting: 4th Edition, this book contains more information on nutrition.

What’s best about this book are the 175

“delicious, easy-to-prepare and nutritious recipes developed especially for the mum-to-be and her baby (but yummy enough to satisfy the whole family.)”

I’ve already tried out the Cauliflower and Cheese, Salmon Cakes with Tropical Salsa (thumbs up from everyone!) and Stir-Fry Beef. Will be trying out the other Asian, Italian, Mediterranean, Mexican, Japanese and healthy variations of American recipes next…

If you’re pregnant or looking for a present for someone who’s pregnant, do consider this really useful book!

reading / writing — 2 Comments
18
Jun 09

Leapfrog’s Phonics Writing Desk

leapfrog-phonics-writing-deskI tried out the  Leapfrog Phonics Writing Desk recently at the shopping center.

Since I’d earned some money from a writing project, I thought I’d get a nice present for my boy as he’s settled into the Chinese preschool so well.

I have to admit that I worry about him a bit especially as I haven’t been giving him any pre-handwriting worksheets to do here. Also, those pre-handwriting workbooks are not that easy to find around here.

Since he’s learning more Chinese than English at preschool, I thought this Phonics Writing Desk would be useful for me to work on his handwriting at home. The version I tried had Chinese instructions printed instead of English.

The Phonics Writing Desk looks like an extension of the Leapfrog Fridge Phonics set as it had similar alphabets which vocalized the individual sounds for each letter. This set had the addition of lower case alphabets printed next to each capital letter.

To help the child practise handwriting, a display screen shows a letter (upper or lower case) for the child to print onto the double lines below.

Besides letters, the child will also learn to print words by selecting this function using the sliding button above. Seems like a great tool to practise spelling too :-)

There is also a “create-a-word” function which enables the child some degree of ‘free writing’.

I had great fun trying to Phonics Writing Desk out and was all ready to buy it but then, I was disappointed by the poor quality of:

a) the display screen – the letters do not appear as boldy as it does in the product photo and

b) the handwriting section – I had to apply quite a bit of pressure to write out each letter. I understand that preschoolers may grip pencils quite hard when they’re learning to write. Even so, the letters didn’t appear as clearly as shown on the product photo.

Even the sales assistant who helped me (seeing it used the first time) had to agree with me on this point. If you’re getting this for a toddler or preschooler, do try it out first.

In fact, bring the child along to test it out!

reading — 3 Comments
17
Jun 09

Buying books online at AbeBooks

ANNOUNCEMENT:
I am now selling USED books imported from the US at SecondhandChildrensBooks.blogspot.com. Come on over for a look!

AbeBooks Generic Banner 180x150

As a booklover, I buy most of my books from:

  • chain bookstores like Popular, MPH or Borders – I just love browsing through the shelves, looking through the discount bins and finding some really great reads :-)
  • thrift bookstores like (sniff, sniff) The Big Bookshop and Pay Less Books;
  • secondhand bookstores at Bazaar Chowrasta in Penang (I’ve yet to visit the secondhand bookstore haven I hear about at Amcorp Mall…) or
  • hanging on to books I’ve rented in the past from Novel Hut or Novel City!

I’m not much of an online book shopper (except for cases when I’ve bought books for friends or friends’ children as gifts).  Why?

Well…online bookstores come with shipping charges, which I’m really, really reluctant to pay. As it is, a novel in Malaysia already costs RM30+.

Imagine how hard it is to pay an additional RM10+ for shipping especially if the shipping charges go by weight. Books are heavy, you know!

Also, most online bookstores sell new books but the physical bookstore tend to have bargain bins.

What’s more, I prefer the experience of flipping through the pages or digging through the discount piles much more than clicking through pages and pages of book covers…it’s really not the same!

Most of the time, I come home really *happy* with an armload of books (both fiction and non-fiction, for myself or for my son), barely crossing a grand total of RM150 :-)

Even if some online bookstores offer FREE shipping, this is offered for purchases above RM150 or RM200. To reach that amount, I find myself pressured to find books that I want either by using the ‘Search’ feature or by browsing through the categories, if I have the patience…which I don’t.

Now…AbeBooks is slightly different.

At the AbeBooks – Best Buys section, you’ll get “brand new copies of the hottest titles at huge discounts“.

For example:

  • Lisa See’s Shanghai Girls, retailing at US$25.00 is selling at US$9.71 and
  • Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, retailing at US$24.95 is only US$6.15

What’s more AbeBooks – Free Shipping option rounds up booksellers who provides FREE Domestic Shipping on selected new, used, out of print books with NO minimum purchase! Now, that’s my kind of bookstore :-)

I’ve bought several used specialty books (on early childhood education, copywriting, running a home business etc) on AbeBooks. Using the ‘Advanced Search’ function,

  • I look for the book by author, title, keyword or ISBN number and
  • I then narrow down search to booksellers in Malaysia, Singapore or nearby countries.

Feels like I’m searching through a university library database, with the option of buying the books. This far, I’m happy with the condition of the books when they arrive!

Mothers and fathers may want to check out the Children’s Fiction section. Not only can you find MILLIONS of new and used children’s books, you can also return your purchase within 30 days if the books are not as described on the website.

College students may be interested to Save up to 90% on New and Used Textbooks. Since most college textbooks are used for only one semester, why waste money buying a NEW copy when a used copy is just as good? You can also sell your used textbooks there…

I’m really interested in the ‘buyback books’ section but currently, AbeBooks only offers this option in Australia, Canada and the UK. Hope they’ll broaden their regional coverage soon…

I can become a professional bookseller too but the monthly fee of US$24 deters me – would I be able to sell that many books to cover this fixed cost???

Lastly, I wish that AbeBooks would accept Paypal across all its sites – that way, I can buy more books LOL! For now, I need to find individual booksellers who offer that…

So, anyone out there who regularly buys or sells on Abebooks? Love to hear from you!

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