The Get Organized Answer Book

Dingy Desk? 50 lb. Purse? STILL Haven’t Done Your Taxes Cuz of All the Mess??
Clear Away the Clutter and Save $$ NOW!!

Spring has finally arrived and you can start fresh with new organizational skills that will pay off big time and last all year round. Jamie Novak, clutter-free queen and author of the newly released The Get Organized Answer Book: Practical Solutions for 275 Questions on Conquering Clutter, Sorting Stuff, and Finding More Time and Energy, can help you de-clutter your home and open yourself up to all the possibilities extra space and organization have to offer.

Jamie is a nationally recognized home inventory expert and professional organizer who says that about 80% of the clutter in every home or office is a result of disorganization, not lack of space. Her strategies, tips, and tools for success can help everyone conquer their messes, learn how to save money, and start living a much richer, more productive life today.

· Lack energy to organize? How to get motivated
· Is organizing pricey? How you can save BIG bucks and BIG room at the same time
· Fooled by all the freebies? How you can and should stop taking home free stuff
· Kids who love to clutter? How to get your children involved in the organizing process
· And much more!

Known as the “World’s Most Relatable Organizer,” Jamie Novak is the organizing expert for NBC’s iVillage and the author of two bestselling books, 1000 Best Quick and Easy Organizing Secrets and 1,000 Best Time Saving Strategies. Jamie and her organizing tips are frequently featured in national publications and programs that include Family Circle, Woman’s Day, American Baby, Parents, QVC, and HGTV's Mission Organization. For more info, including Jamie’s new video reel, visit http://jamienovak.com/MediaRoom.html

My Grammar and I... Or Should That Be Me?

I really enjoy writing, and because I do a lot of it, I must make sure my grammar is spot-on. Plus, poor grammar is a pet peeve of mine and no matter how many times I grind my teeth over a poorly written sentence, I can't change the way others write. It makes it even harder for some since the rules of writing tend to change a little over time. For example, when I was in high school, you always, always added a comma at the end of a string of words, right before the word "and" (known as a serial comma). But now, the last comma isn't always necessary. So, when is it necessary? My Grammar and I Or Should That Be Me?: Old School Ways to Improve Your English answers this and many more questions (including the big question posed in the title)!

For those of us addicted to proper grammar, and for those of you interested in being able to improve your writing, My Grammar and I Or Should That Be Me? provides the answers to questions you have with a relaxed and sometimes comedic approach. Even through my fogged mommy-brain, I am able to sit and read through My Grammar and I Or Should That Be Me? quite easily, which is more than I can say for some of my college level English textbooks!

Some of you may be wondering if I am one of those social networkers that reads and re-reads my Facebook status updates before I post. The answer is yes, I do. In fact, if I do see a grammatical error, I promptly delete it and start over or post again and explain my lack of accuracy by blaming it on my fogged mommy-brain! I suppose it would be a little too much for me to purchase My Grammar and I Or Should That Be Me? as secret pal gifts for those who don't worry about grammatically correct status updates, especially now after reviewing the book.

Surely, there must be many more of you out there stressing over the serial comma, and if you are, My Grammar and I Or Should That Be Me? is a helpful piece of therapy! For those of you simply pondering the proper usage of various nouns, pronouns, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, or even the serial comma (and many more), My Grammar and I Or Should That Be Me?: Old School Ways to Improve Your English will provide you with a simple and easy to remember explanation for each question you may have.

If you like this book, you may also be interested in reading reviews on these other books:

• I Used to Know That
• i before e (except after c)

I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School

I am a stickler for fact based books. I still have all my college books for reference, and even though they are only collecting dust in the bottom of a spare closet, I've convinced myself I need to keep them. I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School, by Caroline Taggart, is the book that isn't collecting dust because it wraps so many different facts into one compact book! In fact, it as found a nice little home on my computer desk - far away from the dark depths of a closet!

Unless you are teaching a subject in school or are a super genius, there's just no way you are going to be able to remember everything you were taught. You will probably remember the difference between an adverb and an adjective, but will you remember what "diphthongs" are? In fact, I had to read that word twice because I couldn't recall anything having been called a diphthong!

I've studied a fair amount of literature and even though it was in college - my most recent studies - I still am unable to retain everything, even after writing research papers on the same topics! I just don't use the information every day and of course, much of what I had learned has disappeared from my mental database. But I sat back and flipped through the literature portion of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School and it was amazing to see what memories were being triggered! From Shakespeare to J.R.R. Tolkien, each literary great has at least a small spotlight in I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School.

Whether you are a literary buff, a lover of science, or just interested in unlocking the memory back that's collecting a little bit of dust, I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School covers many other topics like Religion, History, Geography, Nature and more!

If you like this book, you may also be interested in reading reviews on these other books:

• My Grammar and I... Or Should That Be Me?
• i before e (except after c)

Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge (Excerpt #2)

The following is an excerpt from Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge by Susan Aldridge, Elizabeth King Humphrey and Julie Whitaker. You can read my review of this book here.

The Religions of the World

The map of world religions reflects the political and social history of humankind. Eternal quests for meaning, along with conquests, migration, trade, and evangelistic fervor have helped to shape the beliefs of nations and peoples alike.

Every human society has had some form of religious belief or practice. In simplest terms, religion is the belief that the world is inspired and directed by a superhuman power of some type.

Christianity, with some 2.1 billion followers, is the largest of the world's religions. Though it originally began in the Middle East, Christianity is no longer the dominant faith there. It is, however, the predominant religion in much of Europe and in North and South America.

Like some other religions, Christianity is divided into a number of different churches: In Russia, Orthodox Christianity is the leading religion. In South America, most Christians are Roman Catholics, and the same holds true in southern Europe.

Protestantism is more prevalent in both northern Europe and North America. With more than 1.5 billion adherents, Islam is the world's second most popular faith. Following the faith are most people of the Middle East and North Africa, a significant number in South and Southeast Asia, and long-standing minorities in the Balkans and eastern Europe. An influx of immigrants from former European colonies has seen the number of Muslims in Western Europe rise in recent decades.
Hinduism, the world's third largest religion, is prevalent in India, though large populations of Sikhs and Muslims can also be found on the Indian subcontinent.

Although Buddhism originated in India, the countries with the largest Buddhist populations are now China, Japan, and Southeast Asian states such as Vietnam and Thailand. Buddhism also has many followers in the Western world.

A notable exception to the dominance of Islam throughout the Middle East is Israel. Large populations of Jews are also found across Europe and North America, the latter home to more than 40 percent of the world's Jews. In fact, New York City has the second largest population of Jews of any city in the world, after Tel Aviv.

The United States is unusual for a developed nation in that a greater than usual proportion of its population holds religious beliefs, most commonly Protestant Christianity.

South America is predominantly a Catholic Christian continent. This is a legacy of the Spanish and Portugese Conquistadors, who brought the continent under colonial rule.

Africans retain many traditional religious practices in some regions. Christianity arrived more than two millennia ago, and Islam is the dominant religion of North Africa and West Africa.

India is a country of many religions. Four in every five Indians are Hindu, but there are also significant numbers of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains.

Australia is primarily Christian; however, its indigenous religions, centered around a belief in the ancient "Dreamtime" of creation, are key to its culture.

The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

The above is an excerpt from the book Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge
A Reader's Digest book published in association with Quid Publishing. Copyright © Quid Publishing 2008.

Author Bios
Susan Aldridge has been a freelance science and medical writer for more than 15 years and has contributed to a number of magazines and websites. She lives in London.

Elizabeth King Humphrey has been a contributing writer, editorial advisor, copy editor, and co-designer for several magazines, books, and PBS documentaries. She lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Julie Whitaker has a master’s degree in anthropology and American studies. Whitaker has contributed to many books, including several encyclopedias. She lives on Vancouver Island, Canada.

Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge (Excerpt)

The following is an excerpt from Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge by Susan Aldridge, Elizabeth King Humphrey and Julie Whitaker. You can read my review of this book here.
Earth’s Climate: What Gives?
The Earth's average temperature has fluctuated greatly throughout its history. Today we worry about polar ice caps and glaciers melting more quickly than ever before. Still, there have been times in the past when ice and snow were virtually absent from the planet. Could we be headed for another iceless age?
The term ice age sometimes refers to periods when ice sheets were more extensive than usual. But these times are more accurately called glacials, and they occur within an ice age; the periods between glacials are called interglacials. We are now in an interglacial in what is probably the Earth's fourth great ice age. What has distinguished the last 200 years is the melting of ice at apparently unprecedented rates as the temperature of the Earth gradually grows warmer.
Climate Change
In the early nineteenth century the Swiss-German geologist Jean de Charpentier suggested that the Alpine glaciers he had been studying had at one time been far larger. Later a Swiss-American geologist, Louis Agassiz, built on Charpentier's notion and proposed that Earth at one time had been completely covered by ice.
Ice Ages Past . . .
Since then, scientific advances have contributed to our understanding of the Earth's ice ages, and it is now thought that the first major ice age occurred some 2 billion years ago. Another ice age, 850 to 630 million years ago -- probably the most severe -- may have covered the entire globe in ice, a frosty scenario known as "Snowball Earth."
The end of that ice age seems to have coincided with the evolution of a great many tiny organisms, although whether there is a causal link between these events and what they might be remains a matter of debate.
Then, between 400 and 300 million years ago, another ice age struck, and the planet was again plunged into a cold period, known as the Karoo Ice Age, named for the glacial till (sediment) found in the Karoo hills of South Africa.
. . . and Present
The current ice age began some 40,000,000 years ago, reaching its coldest period about 3,000,000 years ago. The last glacial period (often referred to inaccurately as an ice age) ended about 10,000 years ago, and the first human civilizations began to flourish shortly after. How global warming will affect Earth's cooling and warming cycles -- and, more urgently, sea level as glaciers and the polar ice caps melt -- is the pressing issue of our age.
The Global Greenhouse
Without the greenhouse effect, a natural process that heats the Earth's surface and atmosphere, our average temperature would be a frigid 0°F (–18°C) -- ensuring a permanent ice age, to say the least. The warmed globe radiates what is called "infrared radiation," most of which should travel through atmospheric layers to space. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s, more and more infrared radiation began to be absorbed by naturally occurring greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2). The increase of average concentrations of CO2, from about 280 parts per million in 1700 to about 380 parts per million in 2005 is the major cause of global warming.
In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) asserted that human activities -- including the use of fossil fuels -- was “very likely” the catalyst for global warming.
Some scientists estimate that the Earth's temperature will rise by as much as 9°F (5°C) by 2050, while others heatedly disagree. What isn't in dispute is that the world's ice is in a literal meltdown. For instance, the largest single block, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf in the Arctic, lasted some 3,000 years before it started to crack in 2000; a mere two years later it was split through and is now breaking apart.
The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.
The above is an excerpt from the book Know It All
A Reader's Digest book published in association with Quid Publishing. Copyright © Quid Publishing 2008.
Author Bios
Susan Aldridge has been a freelance science and medical writer for more than 15 years and has contributed to a number of magazines and websites. She lives in London.
Elizabeth King Humphrey has been a contributing writer, editorial advisor, copy editor, and co-designer for several magazines, books, and PBS documentaries. She lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Julie Whitaker has a master’s degree in anthropology and American studies. Whitaker has contributed to many books, including several encyclopedias. She lives on Vancouver Island, Canada.

i before e (except after c)

While in high school and college, I found some very ingenious ways to memorize those desperately needed tidbits of information for tests and reoccurring topics. Those mnemonic strategies are still with me today. In Judy Parkinson’s book i before e (except after c), countless mnemonic strategies are presented in ways the young and old can appreciate.

Parkinson starts with the first trick of memorization we learn in life, our ABCs. She actually provides a little history with this mnemonic learning tool, along with many others in i before e (except after c). Who knew there were so many different ways to memorize topics of the English Language?

Not only are English Language mnemonics used, but there are examples for memorizing a myriad of facts. One in particular I wish I had known in my science classes was for converting Celsius to Fahrenheit and vice versa. But it is coming in handy now that I have Canadian friends that refer to degrees Celsius when talking about the weather! I just remember:

Celsius to Fahrenheit:
Multiple C by 9
Divide the answer then by 5
Next, all you need to do, is to add 32.

We’ve all used mnemonics whether we realize it or not. Or perhaps you didn’t realize that old saying “Righty-tighty, Lefty-loosey” is an example of mnemonics. Either way, we all benefit from these simple and fun ways of memorizing rules, proverbs, facts, people, places and things! Judy Parkinson makes mnemonics fun for everyone of every age in i before e (except after c), which by the way, is something I say to myself each and every time I have to spell the word “receipt!”

More Book Information:

I Before E (Except After C)
Old-School Ways to Remember Stuff
By Judy Parkinson
Published by Reader's Digest
April 2008;$14.95US; 978-0-7621-0917-3

Description

Hundreds of Memory Tricks You Learned in the Classroom

"Thirty days hath September..." How many times have your relied on that old maxim to figure out a calendar?

Or how about "Every Good Boy Does Fine" to remember the notes on the treble clef?

These ingenious, practical memory techniques abound in I BEFORE E (EXCEPT AFTER C) with its hundreds of curious sayings. In this clever -- and often hilarious -- collection, you'll find engaging mnemonics, arranged in easy-to-find categories that include:

• Geographically Speaking
• Time and the Calendar
• Think of a Number
• The Sky at Night and by Day
• Guarenteed to amuse and inform, this little book is a perfect gift for students of all ages.

Author Bio
Judy Parkinson is a graduate of Bristol University. She is a producer of documentaries, music videos, and commercials, and won a Clio award for a Greenpeace ad. Parkinson has published four books and has contributed to a show of life drawings at the Salon des Arts, Kensington.

Reviews
“Parkinson’s book is a welcome throwback, an indispensible guide that can be used for general knowledge revision, or whenever that simple nugget of information proves elusive.”
-The Good Book Guide

“Remember all those awesome acronyms and nifty mnemonics you learned in school, to stop stuff going in one ear and out the other? No? Well, never mind—a new book called i before e (except after c) is here to re-educate the educated.”
-The Sun
If you like this book, you may also be interested in reading reviews on these other books:

• My Grammar and I... Or Should That Be Me?
• I Used to Know That

Sharks and Other Sea Monsters

Whether you are interested in learning about sharks and sea monsters or you simply enjoy a good pop-up book, Robert Sabuda & Matthew Reinhart's Sharks and Other Sea Monsters is a must-have! Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart are both well known for their children's books and masterminded pop-ups. These authors aren't just great children's writers, they are paper engineers! The imagination and creativity put into Sharks and Other Sea Monsters is no match to the pop-ups we saw when we were kids! These pop-ups are high-tech creations for the new millennia!
Sharks and Other Sea Monsters begins by illustrating and identifying the origin of early sea "monsters" reported since the first sailors set to the sea. Each page is dedicated to individual sea life and includes astoundingly intricate and colorful pop-ups. At the center of the book is an exciting and very realistic pop-up relication of a modern day shark. Some of the smaller pop-ups on the Shark page include a 250 million year old shark and even a life-sized megalodon tooth, a type of shark that is long extinct and was more than 50 feet long, weighing over 50 tons.
The book continues on with reptiles, long-necked sea lizards and even marine mammals and birds. It uses simple explanations with scientific words and pronunciations so that readers of any age can easily understand the history of large and ancient sea life. From fossils of prehistoric life to the ancestors of a common-day crocodile, this book has it all. Plus, there isn't just one pop-up per page. There are large, medium and small pop-ups on each page. It's a pop-up lover's dreams!
Sharks and Other Sea Monsters stands up to the sub-title of Encyclopedia Prehistorica, making it a must have addition for any collection of reference books. The pop-ups are so complex, it could be examined over and over again and still be a complete amazement as to how the pop-ups all come together. From age five to ninety five, everyone will enjoy this remarkable creation for generations to come.

Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire

The following is an excerpt from Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire
by Rafe Esquith
Published by Penguin Books; January 2008;$14.00US/$16.50CAN; 978-0-14-311286-0
Reprinted by arrangement with Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire Copyright © Rafe Esquith, 2007

Replace Fear with Trust

On the first day of school, within the first two minutes, I discuss this issue with the children. While most classrooms are based on fear, our classroom is based on trust. The children hear the words and like them, but they are only words. It is deeds that will help the children see that I not only talk the talk but walk the walk.

I use the following example with the students on their first day. Most of us have participated in the trust exercise in which one person falls back and is caught by a peer. Even if the catch is made a hundred times in a row, the trust is broken forever if the friend lets you fall the next time as a joke. Even if he swears he is sorry and will never let you fall again, you can never fall
back without a seed of doubt. My students learn the first day that a broken trust is irreparable. Everything else can be fixed. Miss your homework assignment? Just tell me, accept the fact that you messed up, and we move on. Did you break something? It happens; we can take care of it. But break my trust and the rules change. Our relationship will be okay, but it will never, ever be what it once was. Of course kids do break trust, and they should be given an opportunity to earn it back. But it takes a long time. The kids are proud of the trust I give them, and they do not want to lose it. They rarely do, and I make sure on a daily basis that I deserve the trust I ask of them.

I answer all questions. It does not matter if I have been asked them before. It does not matter if I am tired. The kids must see that I passionately want them to understand, and it never bothers me when they don’t. During an interview, a student named Alan once told a reporter, “Last year, I tried to ask my teacher a question. She became angry and said, ‘We’ve been over this. You weren’t listening!’ But I was listening! I just didn’t get it! Rafe will go over something five hundred times until I understand.”

We parents and teachers get mad at our kids all the time, and often for good reason. Yet we should never become frustrated when a student doesn’t understand something. Our positive and patient response to questions builds an immediate and lasting trust that transcends fear.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rafe Esquith has been a classroom teacher for over twenty-five years with the majority of that time spent at Hobart Elementary in Los Angeles. He is the only teacher to be awarded the president’s National Medal of the Arts. His many other honors include the American Teacher Award, Parents magazine’s As You Grow Award, Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award TM, being made a Member of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth, and the Compassion in Action Award from the Dalai Lama. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Barbara.

Fore more information, please visit www.hobartshakespeareans.org.

Baby Signing 1-2-3

When my son was born, I knew nothing about baby signing. The older he got, the more I started seeing topics on the internet about the benefits of baby signing. As mothers, we want our children to be the smartest, most intelligent child on the block. However, I thought I had cheated him out of this language skill because I didn't start him as soon as I could have. Then I was introduced to Baby Signing 1-2-3 by Nancy Cadjan, and to my surprise, it really doesn't matter when you begin baby signing because children of all ages will benefit from the use of ASL (American Sign Language).

Baby Signing 1-2-3 is arranged in a very comprehensive way. The first part of the book addresses your child's developmental stages and the appropriate signing that can be used during that time. For those with children who develop at a slower pace either mentally or physically, an entire chapter is designed on how to modify the signing used during that child's individual development. The actual signs used during the developmental stages are contained in the second half of the book, and those same words are bolded in the text in the chapters from the first half of the book. This design makes it incredibly easy to reference the stage you are in with your child.

Since my son is four now, the stages of development aren't the most important parts of the book for our situation, but he can still learn signs in the order in which he would have if I had introduced ASL to him as an infant. Much like our children's own speech development and their capacity to understand, learning the signs he would have learned from stage one still applies. Words like mommy, daddy, milk and more are great starters even for the older child. The best thing is we can learn more signs at a quicker pace now that he is older.

Baby Signing 1-2-3 has been a great tool for my both my son and myself, and we've both enjoyed sitting down and learning signs together. He actually picks up the book and asks for me to help him learn. The added benefit is that once our next child is born, both my older son and I will be able to help baby learn ASL at a much younger age with the great help of Baby Signing 1-2-3. I highly recommend Baby Signing 1-2-3 for any individuals who are new to ASL and want to teach themselves and their children this life long, beneficial communication tool.

Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge (Review)

At least once each time my husband and I sit down to watch television, I spout off some useless trivia about Hollywood stars that he has absolutely no interest in. It usually starts off with something like "Hey, did you know the lead singer of that group is married to..." or "That actress' mom is the same actress who played in…" and so on. His usual response sounds something more like an animal's grunt, far from the response full of amazement or shock that my best friend would have supplied. Either way, I still enjoy sharing this useless information because I believe - rather, I dream of the day it will come in handy for him. Who knows, maybe he'll end up on Jeopardy one day and the question to the answer will be something he learned from me. Yeah right… dream on!

But now I have a plethora of facts to quote to him. Everything from protons, neutrons and electrons, to facts about the Cold War, Stock Markets, Religion, Philosophy, art, music and so much more. Facts that are more likely to be topics of interest on Jeopardy as opposed to which actor is divorcing over a love interest they met on their last movie set. Not that either of us will ever end up on Jeopardy, but Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge is in fact the best book I have on hand to help me feel like the studious citizen I wish I had time to be!

Know It All wraps up almost a hundred different subjects in just two pages each of straight facts. Each topic provides just enough information on its subject to enlighten and educate the reader, in preparation of conversations that could make their way around to these talking points. These "subjects of study" are broken down into nine different chapters of the book, including "Invention and Discovery," "Conflicts of the Modern Age" and "Religion and Thought." Know It All wraps up many things I should have learned (or remembered) from my schooling, but I either didn't pay attention that day, or I didn't use it, and years ago, I truly did lose it.

Know It All also throws in special features - little snippets of information packaging a topic in "an even smaller nutshell" like "Conversation Starters" you can use in casual situations, and even quiz pages to review what you may have learned in that chapter. Even as the book educates you, it does it in a fun and interesting way that will leave the reader wanting more. Each subject is an easy read as there are no fillers and the information doesn't go on and on - just the facts ma'am!

So, whether you are simply looking to increase your knowledge of worldly subjects, or you are interested in cramming for that Jeopardy try-out, Know It All is your best and quickest bet to learning more on the topics that not only come up from time to time, but actually have something to do with your day-to-day life.

Personally, I plan on memorizing a chapter or two so that when my husband and I are drinking our morning coffee and watching MSNBC, I can throw something even more meaningful out into the conversation at hand. Perhaps then I will watch his eyes light up in amazement of my broader scope of knowledge. That would be a nice change from his uninterested grunt over my Hollywood dribble! Thanks Know It All! Now I can feel like a know-it-all, too!