• Multicultural Children's Literature: Through the Eyes of Many Children - Donna E. Norton
  

Don't read it! It's horrid! It might be useful if you need to skim through just to get a title of a book to use in class, but the book as a whole is useless.

• Craig Davis' The Middle East for Dummies

The book is poorly organized and incredibly repetitve. Sometimes the author forgets to give you key information. For instance, he tells you to read a book that has received all kinds of negative reactions from the Muslim world and about the persecutions that this man has faced, but he fails to ever tell you what the book is about. However, despite the poor writing skills, the book does have some important information that is very useuful for understanding the culture, politics, religions, extremists, and countries in the Middle East. It's a decent starter book, but maybe I should try The Idiot's Guide version just to see if it's better since Idiots are better than dummies. Dummies are just stupid. Idiots just have dumb moments, they have more potential. =)

• South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss by Arthur Agatston, M.D.

I never thought I'd end up reading it, but I picked it up to look through it at Barnes and Nobles. I thought it was unique that the book actually suggested ways for you to eat your favorites, like PB&J's, Bacon, etc. The book doesn't tell you that you can't eat things, it just suggests better combinations for you to try. Like, limit the jelly and put it on pita bread. I'd like to say that I'd never seen a diet book that did that, but I've never picked up a diet book so that doesn't work. I really enjoyed it and read it in less than a day (half the book's menus, but I read through those too). Even if you don't plan on dieting, I think the book is just good for you to have a better understanding of what food does to you, and why you're still hungry after you eat a lot of the time.

I've decided to start a mid-year resolution that I probably should have made back in January. I'm determined to finish at least 12 books this year. I don't know if that's going to be too easy for me or just perfect, but I have a tendency to begin a ton of books and stop reading them for something else. I'm currently in the middle of 20 different books on my shelf if I don't include books for class that I never actually finished. There are a few books that I am not going to include in my list since I'm not sure if I completed them in 2005 or early 2006. I've started a lot of books this year, but here are the one's that I've completed in 2006 so far (It's sad actually):

• Il Gigante: Michelangelo, Florence, and the David, 1492-1504 - Anton Gill

This book was okay. It was entertaining, but there were some factual errors. It was fun finding them. I think the author's major concentration in history is Germany so I'm not sure why he wrote a book about Michelangelo in the first place. He also focuses on contemporary history and art. His previous writing on art was centered around Peggy Guggenheim, a far cry from the Italian Renaissance

• The Alphabet Verses the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image - Leonard Shlain

Amazing! Entertaining! and well worth the read. I loved this book. It starts out in the beginning historically, and works it's way to today's conflicts between the male and the female. It was recommended by Coulsby and it was one of the best books I've read so far.

• The House of Medici: It's Rise and Fall - Christopher Hibbert

Of course I loved it. It's about the Medici's. =) While the text is very text bookish (which I happen to like), I think that Hibbert does a great job of depicting the Medici family. At times the names get a bit confusing since there was more than one Cosimo, but if you pay attention and know a little bit about the Medici's before picking it up, you'll do just fine.

• Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceilinig - Ross King

If you liked Brunelleschi's Dome, you'll enjoy this one as well. I've read at least a dozen books on the Sistine Ceiling, but this one stands out. King goes more in depth and talks about the commission, a detailed explaination of the process and layout of the ceiling, as well as compairing them to Raphael's Stanza's a few rooms away. If you like Michelangelo you should give this book a try.

• Complete Idiot's Guid to Understanding Judaism - Benjamin Blech

So, I may have been the only person in the world that didn't know Rabbi's were funny. I felt like I had gotten through school without really learning about Judaism, so I picked it up. I didn't expect to read the whole thing in two days. Obviously the book is designed for a brief overview, and doesn't get too far in depth, but I learned a lot and I'd recommend it to anyone looking to get a basic understanding of the Jewish religion.