Basketball for Dummies

One of my favorite things to do is play basketball. Unfortunately, I am not the most skilled athlete as many of you know. Generally speaking, my basketball skills are quite similar to this particular example:








Now, I have been playing the game for a long time, but one thing that has always held me back is my lack of understanding of the fundamentals. Desperate for some sort of solution to my problem, I decided to resort to different tactics. Sitting at home and practicing wasn't going to get me where I needed to be. I needed to adopt more drastic measures. So I did something that comes natural to me, I bought a book.





Now there are lots of books at your local bookstore about sports. I've read a few of them, and maybe at some point I will review them as well. But I needed something more than just the standard old Dennis Rodman autobiography to help my long-suffering game. I needed Basketball for Dummies. Like I said folks, desperate times call for desperate measures.



This book was a revelation to me. The author, Richard Phelps, is more commonly known as Digger Phelps. Digger's biography can be found here.

Now Phelps breaks down the game into very manageable pieces. He discusses the equipment needed to play basketball. He breaks down each position on the team and explains the skillset and body type needed to play the position. Throughout the book, Phelps intersperses the text with stories from his long basketball career. For a speed reader, this book went way too easily. After I finished it, I didn't just put it up on my library shelf. I made sure I put it into a visible space where I would consistently go back to it as a reference guide. Phelps is successful on many fronts. For those new to the game, he gives a great introduction that is not just helpful but also entertaining. For individuals like myself, the book was a real confidence booster. I learned a lot about the game within the game, so to speak.

For about $15 on amazon, this book can be yours. I would definitely recommend it for anyone that has children who are just started to learning how to play the game, or perhaps an adult that wants to get back into the game after a long layoff. Perhaps after reading Basketball for Dummies, you will be willing to try and attempt to soar to great heights, like this famous athlete.

Homework for Grown Ups

Ever found yourself trying to explain to a person the definition of a noun or a verb? Find yourself working on some geometry and can't seem to remember the formula for the area of a circle?

Homework for Grown-ups advertises that it is the book that can give the answers to all of these questions and more. Now I know what you all might be thinking. Why would I want to read a book that essentially takes the dozen or so years of schooling between kindergarten and the end of high school and boils them down to a few succinct pages? There's a few reasons.

1) Although our brains are very large and highly capable, they do lose a lot of random bits of knowledge over the years. Just like any instrument, if we don't work to keep our brain in shape, it will eventually lose the hard earned knowledge that we spent so many years obtaining. This book helps keep the brain sharp.

2) How many times have you helped a younger sibling or relative with some school work and simply could not remember how to figure out the square root of 169? (By the way, it's 13) This book is a useful guide for those types of situations.

The book is broken down into individual chapters discussing specific subjects in school. The chapters are essentially formatted like those survey courses we all knew and loved in college. They don't delve deeply into the development of a particular subject, but hit on the key ideas. For example, the chapter, "English Language and Literature", has a quick discussion of the key texts that one should be familiar with. After each title, it has a quick line or two discussing the book. I particularly enjoyed the reference to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in this section.

After each chapter, there is a test for the reader. The questions range from true/false to multiple choice and extended response. As far as style is concerned, the book is at times sarcastic. I found that style to be quite refreshing and made for an easy to read experience.

The book is relatively long, about 351 pages, but it's no meant to be read from front to back. It's meant to be used as a quick reference guide. The idea is for the reader to page to the section about mathematics if he or she is working on something involving math. The reader does not need to read the whole book in one sitting. I found this development to be refreshing.

At times, the book can be a bit overambitious. It's a challenge to write for such a large audience, and some chapters were more interesting to me than others.I found the chapters discussing science to be very interesting and quite helpful, but the history chapter was a bit tedious. Some subjects are just more interesting than others I suppose. Also, it's impossible to fill all of the gaps that occur over the years. The book advertises that it "has all of the answers." Perhaps Random House's marketing team should have stated that the book "has plenty of answers" but that's not as easy to market.

The book is at it's best when the writers display a deft, sarcastic tone. It makes the reading much more fun and enjoyable. The book fails when it tries to stray away from that style. Perhaps that is why I did not enjoy the history chapter as much.

It retails for $20, but can be found on amazon for $13.59.

What was your favorite subject in school? My answer?

The Illustrated Quick Cook

For the longest time I have been looking for books that could fit my lifestyle. Consider these facts. During the week, I work from the wee hours of the morning until the wee hours of the evening. Between a school cafeteria lunch and my usual leftovers/takeout dinner, I don't have very many good options for dining.

For the longest time I used the time constraints of my schedule as an excuse to not cook. There's also a fear factor associated with cooking. I'm quite hesitant to cook because I am afraid of the ramifications of my decisions. Consider this example:





Now, as appealing as the "bugar" looks to me, we all know that no human being can survive on that type of diet. Recently I have decided that perhaps I should start looking for other options. Reluctantly, I've decided to watch more cooking shows, but with my schedule as it stands, time is at a premium. I decided that the best option was to start applying my energy towards looking for cook books that could help me with this dilemma. That's what lead me to this book:



The first thing I noticed about this book was its size. The book itself feels like it weighs about as much as my textbooks, and well, I have a few of those. The book intimidated me. When I opened it up though, I found that it wasn't as scary as I imagined. The book is set up in very nicely. It's designed for all kinds of cooks. There's a useful info section for novice cooks. After the "useful info" section, it has an illustrated recipe chooser section. Each recipe is categorized depending on the main ingredients and cook time. Also, in this section there is a picture of the "hopeful" finished product. All of these features made it very easy for me to decide what item I wanted to cook.

After looking at the illustrated recipe chooser, I decided to keep on paging through the book. I wanted to find something that a beginning cook would prepare. After paging through it for a while, I came upon a chapter in the Everyday cooking section titled, "10 Ways With Eggs...". I'm a huge fan of scrambled eggs and egg dishes with rice, so I figured that this would be a good place to stop.

Many of the recipes in this collection were the usual egg dishes that I have known and my stomach has loved, but I was quite surprised when I saw some of the other options. The chapter has recipes for the usual favorites like french toast and omelets, but I was surprised when I saw the recipe for egg fried rice. This dish is one of my favorites, but I don't have a clue how the heck to make it. The recipe was simplified to a point that even I understood it. It listed how many people it would serve, the prep and cook time, and even stated if I would need any special equipment to make the dish.

I found that this recipe wasn't an exception in the book. All of the recipes are simplified and explained so clearly, that even a beginning cook could learn how to cook effectively with just this one resource.

One thing that I wish the authors had done with this book was to pare it down a little bit and only focus on everyday cooking. For a novice cook like myself, I was hesitant to buy the book because of its sheer size. Perhaps the "Food For Friends" section could have been made into its own book. At this stage in my "cooking career", I'm not confident enough to pull together any large dinners for my friends and family.

Also, before I forget to tell, the book retails for $35.00, but I was able to find it on amazon.com for $23.10 and at Barnes and Noble's online bookshop for $28.00. Buy the book and treat yourself to a lovely meal! I recommend the quesadilla with chicken and sweet onion recipe that can be found on pg.191.

And before you go out and buy the book, please feel free to share one of your favorite cooking stories. What kind of successes and/or failures have you had in the kitchen?