Outsmarting Google by Evan and Bradley Bailyn

I know I haven't been around for awhile. I had knee surgery in April. Very successful surgery I might add. I figured during my recuperation time I would have lots of time to catch up on my book reviews and other sit around projects. Well between physical therapy, time laying in bed using a CPM machine I was exhausted. Sitting at the desk computer was totally uncomfortable until this past week or two and I discovered that using a laptop while having an ice pack on your knee defeated the purpose of the ice pack as the heat from the laptop kept melting the ice. I finally gave up. But I'm back again until the doctor revises my other knee.

One of the things that I do to keep busy is run an online sewing pattern store called Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts. I'm always looking for ways to get my site noticed more, so when this book came up as an option on the Amazon Vine program, I grabbed it and was very glad I did! Here is the review on Outsmarting Google by Evan Bailyn with Bradley Bailyn that I did for the Amazon Vine program.

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Many people have a website, an ecommerce site and a blog or two. But how do you get the attention you want and need. You especially need search engine attention if you are using your website or ecommerce site to earn money. If you aren’t getting noticed (i.e. you aren’t showing up in the first page or two of the search engines), you may be blaming the economy, the war, politicians, PMS or the phase of the moon. But really when it comes down to it, are YOU doing what you need to, to receive search engine attention and especially Google’s attention? This book tells you what to look for in your site and how to correct things so that you can progressively increase your ranking when someone searches for one of your keywords. This is a very practical book written for normal speaking people as opposed to a book written in techno-geek-speak. After reading the book, I immediately sat down to figure out what I could do to further the cause of my website, store and blog and you should too.


My only problem with the book itself was that the examples/illustrations were too small and I needed a magnifier to see and understand them. I would have also liked to see a simple step-by-step “to do” list at the end of the book as a easy guide to be sure you are doing what you need to do and keep your priorities straight. Then I realized that the Table of Contents takes care of that need fairly well.
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When checking the reviews from other readers, most of them were also enthusiastic about the book. A few felt that the authors were making guesses and were just writing about what everyone knew anyways. Well, I didn't know some of what was in the book and I felt like I learned a lot and that is what was important to me. I have more ideas to try. I hope you find that this book is useful to you also.

Japan Earthquake Relief

Due to the devastation in Japan, we wanted to let you know that now, March 14th through March 31, 2011, 10% of the sales at our store, Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts will be donated to Japan Earthquake Relief by way of CAMA Disaster Relief Fund the relief branch of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. With so many lives lost and property washed away, we wanted to be able to reach out a helping hand as best as we can. Thank you for your purchases or direct donation to the CAMA Diasaster Relief Fund.

The Frugalista Files by Natalie P. McNeal

The Frugalista Files: How One Woman Got Out of Debt Without Giving Up the Fabulous Life
I'm always interested in reading the latest book on frugal living, especially if I'm given it for free. This one, The Frugalista Files by Natalie P. McNeal, I got through the Amazon Vine Review program. Below you will find my review of the book. My suggestion however is check out the author's blog: thefrugalista.com ,some of the other links I give you or do a Google search for the word 'frugal living'. You will swamp yourself with ideas and ways to make your money go further. I did visit her blog for a few minutes and saw some references to and links to sites that will help you keep the cost of life down. Here is my review:

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When a young single woman in Miami realizes that she is over $20,000 in debt and getting worse each month, she decides she has to do something significant about it. She wants to be able to lose the debt but still wants to live a fun life without doing without anything that is truly important to her. She decides to do a `no spend month' and ends up saving over $400. She also begins blogging about her journey and trying to learn everything she can about saving. This book takes us through her first year as a "Frugalista", during which time she pays off over $7000 in debt. Her blog is located at thefrugalista.com where you can check on her continued progress in saving and being frugal.


As someone who has been frugal most of my life, I was surprised at the things she did to be frugal as they were things that have never even made it into my budget in the first place. Most of the info wasn't new to me but for those who haven't yet been able to get their finances in order, they should learn some valuable information from this book. The best info being, that being more frugal doesn't mean giving up everything important in your life. The author's natural exuberance for life and helping others to be more frugal shines throughout the whole book. This book is written in a style to cater to the 20-30 year old age group with many expressions that I've never even heard of in the book.

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For more info, visit her blog thefrugalista.com  or these other great sites that can help you save such as Groupon for great discounts, Big Crumbs for cash back and savings on on-line purchases, and places like Saving Advice for all round information on saving money to the max.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

As a seamstress and a reader, I was impressed by this book. Even though there might have been technical flaws with the timeline of the book, the story itself was astonishing. In our world today, most of us who sew have sewing machines, if not more than one. We also may have embroidery machines, all sorts of notions and gadgets, access to all sorts of fabric and the freedom to use them any way we like. Here is a story of women risking their lives to sew to provide needed financial help to their family. This book will make you appreciate your freedom to sew. This review is from my Amazon Vine book review.

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The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe
by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon


As a seamstress I was fascinated by this book. When their world has gone mad and life as they know it had changed, the women of Afghanistan found themselves in a peculiar situation. They could not leave their homes without a male escort, they could not work out, they had a new dress code that was so old fashioned many of the women had to borrow clothes to leave their home as they didn’t have the proper dress to satisfy the Taliban. As many of them found that they were widows with children to support they were left in a quandary. How do they support their families, feed their children and keep a roof over their heads and still follow the rules? If they didn’t follow the rules they could be beaten, tortured and killed. For women who were used to going to school (now no longer allowed), holding down jobs, and being able to shop and visit at will, not only were they in financial straights but bored beyond belief. They were essentially under house arrest.

For one family of many daughters, Kamela Sediqi found a way to be productive, earn an income and involve not only her many sisters but other women and girls from her area. She became a seamstress. With one sewing lessons from her married sister that was a tailor, she set up shop and made her first garment. Escorted by her younger brother, she went to the market, avoiding the Taliban soldiers, and took orders for the dresses she and her sisters would make. As someone who has sewed for 40+ years, she did something I would never even think of attempting. But she got orders and took them home and carefully she and her sisters cut the cloth and hand sewed and embroidered the garments. Her business grew, all being secretly done in her home, to the point she was able to hire other women and girls to help her and thus also help with their financial difficulties.

Sewing by lamplight and eventually with sewing machines during the times of infrequent electric power, Kamela and sisters and friends, beat their boredom, supported their families and showed that even when the chips were down, they could succeed against all odds,

I very much enjoyed this book although there were some areas that were confusing, especially the timeline. I was reading the advanced reading copy so I hope someone caught the discrepancies before actual publication. Other than that, it was a very inspirational true story that I enjoyed very much.

Jubilee Dishes: Patriotic Recipes for the 21st Century by Marguerite Patten

Last year, I had mentioned to a friend that I was interested in learning more about the rationing of food that went on in England both during World War II and for many years after. She was kind enough to send me this book, Jubilee Dishes: Patriotic Recipes for the 21st Century by Marguerite Patten OBE. As I have to sit and take frequent breaks while cooking, I keep this book handy to read during the breaks. I was very surprised to find a recipe that I used to use fairly often. I had found the recipe in a Taste of Home magazine for frosting only the book calls it Mock Cream. This is a wonderful item that if made correctly becomes the texture and close to the taste of the white Twinkie or HoHo filling. Yum. The books recipe though, gave the ingredients in teaspoons and tablespoons of ingredients instead of cups, as everything was carefully measured to make it stretch and it calls for ingredients that were in short supply, sugar and fat.

Rationing of food lasted in Great Britain until 1954. If you would like to read about and actually experience the taste of food from that era, this book includes many recipes developed to use with the rationed food and with the food that was supposedly unlimited, or such things as powdered eggs as fresh eggs were rare and precious. One interesting recipe was for a mock banana sandwich filling made using parsnips.

Reading this book makes me very glad for the plenty I see in the grocery store and also makes me realize what a spoiled nation we are. Most of the items, we couldn't get our children to eat. Obviously no chips, no pop, no candy, no abundance of anything. Yet during this period of time the British people were very healthy as they had a low fat, low sugar, low meat, high vegetable diet.

Mary Russel - Author

I just found a children's book author on Facebook. I haven't had an opportunity to read any of her books yet but they certainly sound interesting. If you have a young child that like animals and mysteries, you may want to check out her blog . One of the best things you can do for your child is get them reading!

Redemption: A Story of Sisterhood, Survival and Finding Freedom Behind Bars

No I haven't stopped reading, but between the holidays and an almost non-stop arthritis flare up through the month of December, I got very behind on my book reviews. I also had some lousy pablum type books that I wouldn't inflict the reviews on you. I'm not sure why, but I wasn't offered very many good books in my last few times of picking books for the Amazon Vine Program.

This book however was an exception. Redemption: A Story of Sisterhood, Survival, and Finding Freedom Behind Bars by Stacey Lannert and Kristen Kemp. Stacey Lannert was sexually abused by her father for 10 years and tried to protect her younger sister from his advances by placing herself as the sacrifice until the day that he finally grabbed her little sister and raped her. Later she did the unthinkable and shot her father as he slept off a drinking binge on the couch. Stacey was arrested, spent 2 years in jail while waiting for trial and then was found guilty of murder and given a life sentence without parole. 18 years later a compassionate outgoing Governor Matt Blunt commuted her sentence and she was free. This book is her story of a family that became progressively more dysfunctional, a father that she loved as a child becoming her worst nightmare, and the years she spent in prison where she truly did restore her life. While doing her prison work she became a leader and also worked with the helper dog program.


Her story is troubling in that any child could grow up in such circumstances and unfortunately the last statistic I heard is that 1 in 4 girls will be sexually abused by a male relative in her home. Her home that should be a place of safety not one of ultimate terror.

Here is my Amazon Vine Review. I gave the book 5 stars. Everyone should read this book if only to know that this does go on perhaps next door or even in your own home. We all have to stop turning a blind eye. Visit her website Healing Sisters to learn more.
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This was a very interesting book, but I think it could have used some better editing to have it flow better. Some parts of the story seemed to be repeated only with the details slightly changed and the time line falters as well. Those things aside this is a story of horrendous sexual and physical abuse of a daughter by a father and her ultimately killing dear old dad.


Two main things frustrated me about the story. One the legality of her arrest and questioning, lack of a lawyer when she requested one and being taken to the scene of the crime while her father was still laying in a pool of blood. This is supposed to be a true story. How is this possible for that to have happened in the USA? The case should have been thrown out of court for legal violations. If these scenes really didn't happen then how can we believe the rest of the story? Since I assume that this really did happen, then I am very glad that finally someone saw the light and released her from jail.

The other thing that frustrated me the entire time I was reading this book. The statistics of girls being abused by a male relative in their own home are staggering and it seems nothing is being done about it. Every decent human being needs to help children understand that these kinds of 'secrets' aren't secrets and should be told. Teachers, social workers, police, the OTHER PARENT and each and every one of us have a responsibility to stop this terror. If a child's home isn't a place of safety what is? We have to stop having the attitude of not wanting to be involved. When a child's safety and well-being is at risk we have to step in. Abusive fathers (or mothers as the case may be) need lengthy jail terms and counseling. This cycle must be stopped!