As a participant in the American Heart Association Shape-Up Challenge, I am required to do 45 minutes of aerobic activity each day to reach my optimum points goal. I have taken up the art of crocheting lacy-doily units as my aerobic activity. I expect there will be some difference of opinion regarding the aerobic nature of lacy-doily making. I will explain. Any time you try something new its inevitably aerobic. On my first doily effort I had to run downstairs every five minutes to display my accomplishments to the loving husband. Then there were aerobic moments when I couldn’t understand the instructions, flailing of arms, hyperventilating, expressing words of frustration, and yelling, "I need my Grandma." It’s safe to assume that mistakes may occur when attempting a new enterprise. It’s disturbing to have to rip out three rows of tiny crochet stitches to repair a large gaping hole in your lacy doily. Oftentimes, it involves jumping up and down, pounding the couch cushions and yelling other "words of frustration." It’s obvious, lacy-doily making is much more strenuous than walking the treadmill, and I have the sore muscles to prove it. Several years ago I tried to explain how fishing was aerobic, but they didn’t go for that either. I won’t try to pass off reading as aerobic, but it’s definitely an activity that contributes to your wellness. New on the shelf this week is, "Survivor in Death," by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts). The members of the Swisher family were murdered in their beds with brutal, military precision. The state-of-the-art security was breached, and the killers used night-vision equipment to find their way through the cozy, middle-class house. Clearly, Lt. Eve Dallas is dealing with pros. It seems the only mistake they made was to overlook the 9-year-old girl cowering in the darkened kitchen. Now Nixie Swisher is an orphan and the sole eyewitness to a seemingly inexplicable crime. Kids are not Dallas' strong suit. But Nixie needs a safe place to stay, and Dallas needs to solve this case. With her partner, Peabody, back on the job and her husband, Roarke, providing the kind of help that only he can give, Dallas is running after shadows and dead-set on finding out who's behind them. Also new on the shelf is, "The Real Mother," by Judith Michael. Sara Elliott has been forced to give up the life she's dreamed of to return home to Chicago and take charge of her sisters and brother. She finds a job and settles into the house she grew up in, building a life for 10-year-old Doug and teenagers Carrie and Abby. But Sara has another brother, Mack, now 20, who left home three years earlier. Suddenly he reappears, cheerful and unconcerned, as if he had never broken his promise to stay and help Sara with the children and the house. With bewildering volatility, Mack swings from kindness to cruelty, affection to hostility, keeping the family always on edge, his past and present a mystery. But with expensive gifts, storytelling, and the excitement of his presence, he is winning over the children, and sometimes the four of them stand together against Sara. Then she meets Reuben Lister, a client from New York. As Sara helps him find and furnish a house and explore the city, they discover a closeness neither has known before and share new ways of dealing with conflicts each has always faced alone. New on the non-fiction shelf is "A Brother’s Journey" by Richard Pelzer. He is the brother of Dave Pelzer, who authored "A Child called It." Once David, the elder of the two, was removed from the household, the author became the target of their mother's alcohol-induced rage. As Pelzer details his outward struggle to survive, he assaults readers with the graphic facts about being beaten for falling asleep, and being forbidden to bathe and forced to eat scraps from a dog bowl. By looking back at the skinny, red-haired boy who wanted nothing more than his mother's love, Pelzer discovers his true spirit, which he shares with us in hopes of healing himself.
