Readers of the Womanly Art have criticized it for “pushing” strong views of parenting on its readers. Comments on a guest post where I recommended the WAB reflected this. But even the naysayers acknowledged that WAB has always had the most comprehensive and up-to-date technical breastfeeding information available. Neither has changed in the new edition. Those readers who disagree with LLL’s approach to mothering through breastfeeding might still object, but they will buy the book anyway because of the vast amount of information.

One controversial section in the new edition include a recommendation not to use hormonal birth control until six months In previous editions the progestin-only pill is considered to have minimal effect on supply.

As an expectant mom, The Womanly Art gave me a perspective on mothering I wouldn’t have considered otherwise. I had little support and needed much more than technical information. The new edition doesn’t dilute the classic LLL approach to keeping your baby close, following baby’s lead, staying home with your baby or arranging a working schedule to allow maximum togetherness, discipline, toddler nursing, and weaning. But instead of a chapter on each topic, the essence is mentioned in a few pages along with book recommendations. Throughout, it encourages mothers to overcome challenges. The authors see the goal as a loving relationship with the baby.

The authors devote a long section to birth, explaining that few books go into detail on the effect of interventions, including epidurals, on breastfeeding. Other chapters discuss nesting, building a network, “latching and attaching,” common concerns at different stages of breastfeeding, solids, weaning, sleeping and working. Two fact-filled chapters address special concerns like prematurity, adoptive nursing, multiples, and common problems. You’ll find sections on piercing, breast surgery, d-mer (a condition where mothers have a short, sudden emotional dip during a milk ejection reflex), tongue-tie including pictures of lesser-known types, depression, and much more, along with resources for further information on each topic.

At the end of the book you’ll find LLL resources, “tear-off sheets” with charts and useful information for family and friends, and scientific references.

Previous editions referred to the mother as “she” and the baby as “he.” The new edition addresses the mother as “you,” and alternates the gender of the baby. This is a clever approach, although the perky style with an excess of exclamation points— “How important is breastfeeding, really? Extemely!”—may make some mother feel talked down to.  And while the content is universal, I wonder whether the style will appeal to readers outside the US.

Expectant and new moms not looking for mothering advice will buy this book for the information, and be sure to find the answers they need. But putting the needs of the baby first, without neglecting your own, has helped mothers throughout history succeed at breastfeeding and learn to enjoy motherhood. Skeptical readers may be surprised to find how much of  LLL’s approach in the newest edition of Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (WAB) still works in today’s world.

You may also enjoy:

An Alternative to Adler: Parenting Answers from Dr. Gordon Neufeld

My Favorite Parenting Books

Breastfeeding in Public: The “Cringe” Factor

Flaws in Israeli Study on Dairy Allergy

Breastfeeding posts by A Mother in Israel

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In 1913 former US president Theodore Roosevelt,54, accepted a speaking engagement in South America. While there he planned to visit with his son Kermit and travel throughout the continent. Known for his love of adventure, physical prowess, and knowledge of plants and animals, Roosevelt began delegating the arrangements for a trip to people supposedly familiar with the terrain.

But when Roosevelt arrived, a Brazilian official suggested he scrap his planned tour. Roosevelt agreed to explore and chart an unknown river deep in the Amazon rain-forest known as Rio du Duvida, the River of Doubt. Despite the unsuitability of the boats and provisions, he forged ahead with his son Kermit; Colonel Candido Mariana de Silvo Rondon, a Brazilian explorer; and ornithologist George Cherrie.

The difficulties with the journey become apparent during the 100-mile overland trek to the mouth of the river. Much of the staff was sent on its way and provisions abandoned. But the real problems began on the river. Every time the group hit strong rapids, they needed to carry all of the heavy boats and provisions along the banks. The source of the river was high in the mountains, so they often traveled only a few miles a day.

Occasionally they sent boats over the rapids. But if one crashed they spent a day or two making a new one, if they could find suitable wood.

Conflicts arose frequently between Roosevelt and Rondon. Rondon was reluctant to use faster, less effective methods of charting the river even once it became clear that the rations would not hold. When one rower killed another and hid, Rondon wanted to take time to search for him so he could be tried. He was never found, and was later stabbed by an Indian. But a few days later, Roosevelt insisted on spending a day searching for Kermit’s dog. Funnily enough, Rondon’s diary shows more sympathy and affection for his dogs than the three rowers killed during the journey.

Candace Millard, a former writer for National Geographic magazine, quotes frequently from Roosevelt, Cherrie and Rondon’s daily accounts. Her descriptions of the snakes, insects, piranhas, plants, and Indians are equally fascinating.

The Cinta Larga Indians, who lived on the River of Doubt, had never encountered modern man. They had never even seen a boat. Millard analyzes the tribe’s social structure and how they could not come to a consensus about whether or not to attack the invaders. So while the Indians tracked the explorers, they left them alone. Gifts Rondon left along the trail also helped.

Roosevelt contracted malaria and barely survived the journey. He never fully recovered and died several years later. The river was renamed the Roosevelt River in his honor.

When you read The River of Doubt, you feel like you are exploring the Amazon along with  Roosevelt. Only you are an expert, thanks to Millard.

Book Reviews of 2009

This review contains afilliate links.

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• He’s successful, with three blogs and millions of page views.
• He covers every aspect of blogging, including writing, productivity, design, traffic, monetization and much more.
• He doesn’t assume that everyone has a high level of knowledge. You feel like you are learning along with him.
• He freely shares details of what works for him and what doesn’t.

In his e-book, 31 Days to a Better Blog, Darren helps bloggers of all levels learn and practice new skills and techniques. This book is for anyone who wants to develop a blog, whether you see your blog as a hobby or the road to a full-time career. You can do the exercises over a week, a month, or as long as you need.

Order this week to get three bonuses for the New Year. Click here to view more details.

Update: Reader Se7en left the following comment:

“I did the 31 days when it first came out and I tell you I can’t praise it enough… It really was fantastic and a blogging breakthrough for me.”

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I’m reading Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom—and Revenge by Edward Kritzler. In the aftermath of the Spanish Inquisition, Jews, who were forced to emigrate in order to practice Judaism, often ended up in the New World.

As throughout history, Jews found creative ways to thrive in a hostile environment. One colorful character is Moroccan Samuel Palache, who may be related to author Hayim Palaggi. Son of an illustrious scholarly family, Palache received rabbinic ordination but engaged in international trade, legal and illegal,  both for profit and to find a safe haven for his people. Palache also worked to ally Holland and Morocco against Spain, but when he turned to Spain he was suspected as a double agent. The Spanish monarchy couldn’t live with the Jews, but it turned out they could not live without them either. Kritzler maintains that Palache remained loyal to his people until the end.

Equally fascinating is Kritzler’s description of the new Jewish community in Amsterdam, comprised of Portuguese refugees who had been hiding their Judaism for several generations. These former conversos suffered from a literal understanding of Jewish law and a totalitarian approach to enforcing Jewish communal norms, absorbed from the culture of the Inquisition.

The book suffers from poor editing both of individual sentences and overall structure. Yet Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean describes, with humor and psychological insight, the early settlement of Jamaica and Brazil by Spanish and Portuguese Jews. The Inquisition later followed these Jews to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies.  Kritzler highlights economic considerations involved in Jewish persecution, showing how religious fervor diminished when the monarchy could benefit from Jewish activity. Jewish Pirates tells of an unusual chapter in both Jewish and world history.

Note: If you decide to order the book via Amazon through the links above, I will earn a small commission. Thank you.

If you enjoyed this post you may also like:

Rada”K on Feminine Beauty

Writing Group Exercise: Show, Don’t Tell

Rashi’s Daughters, Book I

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There are two main characters: Lisbeth, a brilliant yet socially inept young woman with a history of abuse.  An accomplished computer hacker, she has been hurt so badly by the system that she refuses to cooperate with authorities. She is declared mentally unfit and assigned a guardian. The guardian rapes and abuses her, but Lisbeth gets the better of him and manages to escape and live more or less successfully on her own.

Mikael is an established journalist who befriends Lisbeth when they work together solve a serial murder case and uncover the biggest financial scam in Swedish history. When Lisbeth is accused of three murders at the beginning of the second novel, he works to prove her innocence.

I don’t know why it still surprises me when Jews turn up in unexpected places, like Swedish adventure novels. Some characters in the first novel had a Nazi past but I didn’t expect the detective in charge of the muhttp://www.amotherinisrael.com/wp-admin/post-new.phprder investigation to be a Jew. He wears a yarmulke on “certain high holy days,” orders vegetarian meals in restaurants, and avoids working on the Sabbath. But I’m not sure how his Jewishness developed the plot.

I’ll warn you that the novel contains graphic descriptions of the Swedish underworld. But if you enjoy a fast-paced novel with unusual, well-developed characters, I recommend both The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played wtih Fire. Unfortunately, Larsson died shortly after delivering the third manuscript in the series.

If you enjoyed this post you might also like:

Review: Through the Narrow Gate by Karen Armstrong

Reading the Little House Books

For Those with Low Housekeeping Standards: She Got Up Off the Couch, by Haven Kimmel

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“How was it in jail?” my friend from Los Angeles asked them. Again, I felt my hands gripping the arms of my chair. “Very good,” Mahmoud said. “No,” my friend insisted, certain that Mahmoud had not understood. “In jail, how was it for you in jail?” “Yes,” Mahmoud persisted, “very good.”

In the Egyptian jail, where he had been held for demonstrating outside the UN office, 60 men had to take turns sleeping on the floor in a single cell. In the Israeli jail, they got their own beds and three hot meals a day. Gordis’s point is clear. Those who set out to criticize Israel will find plenty of material. But an unbiased, outsider’s view, often tells a different story. My husband pointed out that Gordis sounds like an American liberal who needed to adjust his views when he arrived in Israel. That explains why Saving Israel contains a chapter on the difference between American-style democracy and Israeli-style democracy. The United States was founded to allow equality for everyone. But Israel was founded to improve the condition of the Jewish people. Both are strong democracies, yet have different goals. Gordis devotes two chapters to explain the painful reality that Arabs in Israel, while enjoying equal rights on an individual level (despite  discrimination that should be eliminated), cannot have the same status on a national level without negating the reason for Israel’s existence. Saving Israel is an excellent book for anyone neutral about Israel, or confused about why the Jewish people in modern times need their own state. Gordis describes the appalling condition of the Jews after the Holocaust and what the foundation of Israel meant to them, something hard for the younger generation to appreciate. The first half of the book describes the insidious nature and injustice of relentless and ongoing physical, moral and political attacks on Israel and Jews. He explains that while Judaism does not glorify war and abhors cruelty, pacifism is not a Jewish value. It didn’t work to prevent the Holocaust, and  can’t work for any sovereign state with powerful enemies. I read it in sections because there was so much to absorb and because Gordis’ personal, conversational tone, unusual for this type of book, irritated me at times. In Saving Israel, Gordis presents the many dilemmas faced by Israel an answers common charges made against Israel and Zionism. Read it for yourself or give a copy to an ambivalent friend. Whether or not you agree, it will make you think about the issues on a deeper level. More book reviews: She Got Up Off the Couch, by Haven Kimmel Through the Narrow Gate, by Karen Armstrong Show, Don’t Tell. Features a writing exercise based on a passage from another of Brooks’ books. Rashi’s Daughters, Book I, by Maggie Anton.

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1. Writing Life Stories by Bill Roorbach, along with pen and paper. If you’ve ever thought about writing memoirs or creative non-fiction, Roorbach is the best: entertaining, encouraging and inspiring. I’ve had the book for a while and am dying to finish it, but if Roorbach tells you not to continue until you’ve done the exercise, you listen. Now is my chance.
   When exercises are hard, I remind myself (like Roorbach does) that they don’t have to be good.
2. A review copy of a book about Israel and politics.
3. Barbara W. Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror about France in the 14^th century. It’s a long book, and I’m skimming until I get to the Black Plague. I love to read about plagues and epidemics. But the chapter on children got my attention:
   “Medieval illustrations show people in every other human activity—making love and dying, sleeping and eating, in bed and in the bath, praying, hunting, dancing, playing, in games and in combat, trading, traveling, reading and writing—yet so rarely with children as to raise the question: Why not?”

Of the month’s book club books, my favorite was Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat. Early on I half-guessed the twist at the end but decided I couldn’t be right. I read it a second time to see how Harris had set it up. It’s about a child who longs to be a student at a local elite school, and takes revenge as an adult. If you like suspenseful drama, you’ll love Harris.

What are you reading this summer?

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Geraldine Brooks’ historical novel, The People of the Book, is based on the mysterious past of the famous Sarajevo Haggadah. Brooks intersperses the modern-day adventures of a book-restorer with a fictionalized account of the Haggadah’s creation and its movement from one destroyed Jewish community to another.

The first historical chapter, about a group of partisans in the forest during World War II, was moving. I even cried at one scene. But as I continued reading I found both the present-day plot and the historical plots to be more and more fantastical.

One chapter takes place at the time of the Spanish Inquistion. Brooks describes how the nondescript daughter of the Haggadah’s scribe

. . . had a secret life of which her father could not conceive. For more than three years, Ruti had been immersed in the study of the Zohar. . . Alone, in secret, she had become a practitioner of the kabbalah.

Ruti had listened secretly while her father, from a family of kabbalists, taught “a small group of trusted scholars.” Then she borrowed the required books from the neighbor.

Micha, the binder, was a young man grown too soon old. . . his wife . . . was frail and drab, often ill, worn out by the bearing of children, several of whom always seemed to be trailing after her, crying. . . .

Micha guessed what she was about, and he knew the weight of the taboo that she was violating. If she was prepared to break such weighty rules as these, he reasoned, then perhaps there were other areas of transgression into which she might be tempted. In return for the use of the books, he had lain her down upon the soft scraps of hide. . .

All I have to say to that is “oy.”

I read the passage to my husband, knowing he would find the idea of a teenage girl who studies Kabbalah on her own and enjoys sleeping with the neighbor less than convincing. I asked him whether he thought that observant Jews in medieval times ever had premarital sex. “They did,” he said. “Just not as often as they do in these novels.”

See Chaviva’s review.

More book reviews:

She Got Up Off the Couch, by Haven Kimmel

Run, by Ann Patchett

Through the Narrow Gate, by Karen Armstrong

Show, Don’t Tell. Features a writing exercise based on a passage from another of Brooks’ books.

Rashi’s Daughters, Book I, by Maggie Anton.

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Chaya Rosen is a young woman living in Israel. She recently published Backstage with CBC: The Chaverim Boys Choir Live (Targum Press), a book for religious preteens.

Each chapter of Chaverim describes a member of the fictional choir, the boy’s family situation and a personal challenge he encounters: One is under pressure to help his mother with his younger siblings, one loses his grandfather, and another recognizes an unpleasant truth about himself.

Rosen describes the feelings of the children as each one learns his lesson, and I think children will identify with them. The central character, choirmaster Daniel, holds the book together. But he is idealized too much for my taste.

When a sister is jealous of her brother’s participation in the choir no reason is stated, as it’s meant to be understood that Orthodox girls won’t sing publicly. Chaverim is published by Targum Press and has a specific audience in mind.

Each chapter begins with the names and ages of the children in the family, even those that don’t appear in the story. Since the author went to the trouble of choosing the names, I’ll comment on them. The oldest children in two of the families have secular names, while the rest have traditional Hebrew or Yiddish names. Are these families supposed to be baalei teshuva (religious returnees)?

A third family has two daughters named Orit and Basya. Now I’ve never heard of an Orit being called Oris, and it’s hard to imagine a family with a Basya even considering the Israeli name Orit. Orit is older, so maybe the family became ashkenazis, or ashkenazis American,  in the interim?  (The t in Orit and the s in Basya are the same letter in Hebrew; the pronunciation depends on the community.)

It’s clear that much effort went into writing and editing Chaverim. Sometimes you can see where Rosen tried too hard, like substituting for “said” too often. But Rosen’s talent and enthusiasm for her characters and stories shine through.

Chaya Rosen kindly answered my questions by email:

1. When did you get the idea to write a book of stories? I’ve wanted to be an author since I was little. I have been writing stories in notebooks for years now!
2. What kind of books do you like to read? Is there one in particular that inspired you? I really like to read pretty much everything! I have a nice collection of books, and I get library books every two weeks. There is no book that I can think of that especially inspired me, but I think that every book I’ve read (or article, or the back of a cereal box!) has inspired me in one way at least – in my writing, and in my day-to-day life.
3. What other interests do you have? I have lots of hobbies. I love acting, reading, and writing most of all, but I also enjoy drawing and singing. I like observing people, too!
4. When did you make aliyah? Can you tell us about your experience? We made Aliyah when I was nine years old. I remember it pretty clearly. I was very excited and looking forward to living in Eretz Yisrael. We’ve actually moved around many times. For the most part, I remember moving as something fun, exciting, like an adventure.
5. What made you decide to write about a boys’ choir? I was sitting in my bedroom about two years ago, reading. I had just received my first music CD of my own, ever – Miami Boys Choir’s “One By One”. Suddenly, at a particularly good solo, I looked up from my book and thought, “Hold on for a second, that’s a kid singing this. In order to sing it, he had to practice. But he also, obviously, has a family, and friends, and a life – and his own problems, too. In short, he’s a kid just like me. But on the other hand…he has to practice, perform, record…” The mixture between a “regular” kid and a “choir” kid intrigued me. I thought about it a lot. He was “famous” yet “normal”. He had concert tours, yet he had to do homework, too.

Finally I sat down and started to write. I wrote a forty-page story about a choir kid, but then it ended, and I got pretty upset it was over. I told my best friend that I enjoyed writing about choir kids so much – I wanted to continue. She answered calmly, “So write a book about choir kids!” The rest, as they say, is history.

6. What is your next project? I’ve written a few sequels to the book, but I don’t know if any of them will ever get published. In the meantime, I am working on a couple of new books with different characters and themes that I am enjoying writing.
7. I don’t think I would have had the guts to publish a book at your age. Has there been criticism of the book, and how have you handled that?
   For the most part, Baruch Hashem, the comments have been positive. After the book was published, a couple of technical mistakes were found. Well, that’s how we learn!
8. How long did it take from the time you seriously began to write until the book was published? I started the first story that I told you about before (the forty page one) about two years ago. I began the actual book that was published about a year and a half ago.
9. Any tips for aspiring authors, teenagers and others? Firstly, you have to trust in Hashem! I daven to him when I need ideas, and miraculously, an idea always appears – from the strangest places! And you have to read a lot. I love reading. You absolutely have to have a love for books, and words, and stories – and, I’ve discovered, of people and all of Hashem’s creation. I love creating my characters, thinking about them, wondering about them, talking to them. Sometimes I even dream about them. I enjoy describing the places that my characters go to, or live in. I like picturing my characters out of the book’s settings – I find that helps me get to know them. If I’m bored, or stuck in a doctor’s waiting room or something, I talk to them, wonder what they’d do if they were there. I’m always interested about everything going on. You have to keep your eyes and ears open – Hashem will always send you a good idea!
10. What kind of feedback have you gotten? Baruch Hashem, people have really been enjoying the book! My favorite feedback has been when people tell me they enjoy the realism of the characters – probably, because they feel so real to me!

Chaya, thank you for answering the questions and we wish you a lot of success.

Another talented young Jewish woman: The editor of Yaldah Magazine.

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Patchett depicts unconventional characters. She is good at explaining their motives, and how other characters perceive them and why. But she chose an improbable plot, and tries to accomplish too much.

The main character is the former mayor of Boston, a widower with one biological son and two adopted sons. The younger sons are in college, and all three grieve for their mother who died many years earlier. But (insert suspenseful music) the birth mother and sister of the adopted sons live in a nearby housing project and have been secretly following the lives of the family since the adoption.

One evening, all except the oldest son are on their way home in the snow from a speech by Jesse Jackson. (Both the father and the biological mother of the younger boys are Catholic and political speech junkies. They both dream of their children becoming president.) After pushing the older of her sons out of the way of an oncoming car, the mother is hit and admitted to the hospital with moderate injuries.

At the hospital (the son’s ankle was run over by the car), the spunky daughter introduces herself to the boys’ family. She allows herself to be talked into going home with them, after some discussion as to whether any authorities will try to prevent this. The widower’s family loves the girl and they all become friends instantly.

By the next morning the widower’s oldest son has visited his younger brothers’ birth mother in the hospital and told her his tragic life story. She is the first to get him to talk after all these years. We then learn about the mother’s life before and after the adoption — through a ghost, or is it an hallucination? — while under anesthesia before surgery. This went on for several pages.

Let’s quickly review the themes Patchett addresses:

• Loss of a parent.
• Loss of a child given up to adoption.
• Unrealistic expectations of parents for their children.
• Inter-racial adoption.
• Society’s lack of protection of minority children.
• Alienation of children from their parents.
• Politicians as parents.

After the hallucination I gave myself permission to stop reading. I haven’t even mentioned the dead mother’ brother, a priest in a nursing home and the confidant of the youngest son, who is considering the priesthood as a career. I will have to find out the ending from someone else.

Other book reviews:

For those with low housekeeping standards: She Got Up Off the Couch by Haven Kimmel

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