Someoneโs Always Watching Me Pee: And Other Realities of Motherhood
By MaryLynn St. Germaine.
CreateSpace ($13.99)
Motherhood is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it for the humorless, as MaryLynn St. Germaine ably demonstrates with her droll reflections on parenting and suburban life. These short essays channel comic mid-century mommy memoiristsโthink Jean Kerr of โPlease donโt Eat the Daisiesโ fame and Erma Bombeckโs โMotherhood: The Second Oldest Professionโโwhile offering an updated take on childrearingโs pitfalls, pressures, and palliatives. (Prozac, anyone?) โHippie-sling momsโ and over-achievers who jar their own baby food should skip this book, advises St. Germaine.
Itโs intended for overwhelmed mothers who long for powder room privacy, fantasize about cars that donโt smell like fugitive string-cheese, and sometimes find themselves preferring their childโs imaginary friend to their actual child. St. Germaine, a third-generation Tucsonan, is the mother of two small children and owns an organizing business.
Donโt Call Me Turtle
By Elaine A. Powers. Illustrations by Nicholas Thorpe.
Lyric Power Publishing, ($14.95)
To the casual observer, turtles and tortoises appear to share so many similarities that we often use the names โturtleโ and โtortoiseโ interchangeably. But the fact is that they couldnโt be more different, says Elaine Powers, whose charming picture book employs clever rhymes and colorful illustrations to demonstrate why the two should never be confused. To begin with, while some turtles were built to paddle around in the water, she says, tortoises were not โ throw a tortoise in the water, and heโll drown. And thatโs just the beginning of her lesson about these special โ and very distinctive โ reptiles, a lesson sure to fascinate junior naturalists and animal lovers. Powers, who is a biologist and a scriptwriter, lives in Tucson.
Uncle Big Rat, Rats & Snakes All Lie!
By โSkyler;โ Illustrated by Bob Zaborsky.
Green Ivy Publishing ($19.99)
At Southern Arizonaโs Squeaky Hospital the greedy rodent and reptile bureaucrats make lots of lettuce while they willfully abuse, ignore, and misdiagnose their beleaguered Mighty Mice patients. The Mighty Mice served their country and deserve better โbut their problems are unnoticed by a nation of sleeping sheep who permit these outrages to exist. The anonymous author of this allegory clearly has issues with the VA. The illustrationsโwhich are stark, disturbing, and plentifulโare by Tucsonan Bob Zaborsky.
Myth Rider
By Cynthia Kennedy Henzel
4RV Publishing ($15.99)
Born in the country of Georgia and raised under the watchful eyes of exiled Centaurs, young trick-rider Tamara leaves her homeland and journeys to fledging Oklahoma to perform in Wild West Shows. There she meets Mark Twain, Annie Oakley, Bill Pickett and other colorful characters of the frontier, but longs to return to her homeland and fulfill her legacy of restoring the Centaurs to the fertile fields of their birthplace. Tamaraโs skills draw the attention of a Hollywood producer who offers her a chance to become a stunt rider. Now Tamara must choose between reclaiming her past and creating her future.
Horsey and historical, a fast read for middle-school ages.
Sedona Verde Valley Art:
A History from Red Rocks
to Plein-Air
By Lili DeBarbieri
The History Press ($21.99)
Tucson author Lili DeBarbieri chose to focus on the Verde Valley region in part, โbecause of the integration of art in virtually every part of the city,โ and presents a valuable field guide of the artwork created and displayed throughout the district. This slim volume includes local history, artist profiles, and a listing of galleries with contact and product information.
An entertaining and informative companion on your next Central Arizona road trip.
Peril, Passion, Peru
By Eve Dew Crook
The Wild Rose Press ($16.95)
Newspaper editor Jill Flanders flies to Peru in search of her estranged husband reported missing from an archeology site. Well versed to his cheating, lying ways, Jill is not concerned for his safety but wants to hand him the divorce papers he neglected to sign before leaving. Danger looms, and a sexy archeologist who rekindles a passion Jill thought long lost.
