I’m in the middle of preparing for a Usborne Books homeshow after taking Paul to the airport (where he’s stuck on standby) and hitting the grocery store and nail salon. One can’t have yucky toe nails and look professional, you know.

I’m beyond swamped and will have just enough time to eat and get dressed if I get off this darn computer. So visit the other ClubMom blogs, write some haiku, and maybe sign up for a Barnes & Nobles University FREE online class.

Moms, it’s time to pour yourself a tall cool one, and indulge yourself in a little reading. Enjoy!

(Thanks to SteveCambronne.com for the cool metal, bar art picture.)

A friend was telling me about the 16 novels her son will be reading in his 9th grade AP (advanced placement) classes this fall. (He’s been assigned to read Watership Down over the summer.) Since the parents are required to read the books as well, she’s pretty stressed out about keeping up.

I suggested that she enlist the teacher’s help in forming a parent-child book club and study group to help the students and parents find time to discuss and study the books. It would be a great way to offer each family support and show the kids that their parents care enough to take the time. Plus, families could share in babysitting duties of the younger kids, giving the older students some quiet time to read and study.

But book clubs are not just for adults and teenagers, younger children (3rd through 8th grade) can benefit as well. As Martha C.Z. Baylisswrites at Scholastic.com, "Making the book club a priority will help make reading at home a priority as well."

Besides giving tips for getting started, she says that a parent-child book group can help you:

• get closer to your child
• share different aspects of his life
• expand your conversations beyond "How was school today?"
• provide insight into your child, her peers, and how they think

A terrific book that tells you how to start a mother-daughter book club is The Mother-Daughter Book Club: How Ten Busy Mothers and Daughters Came Together to Talk, Laugh and Learn Through Their Love of Reading. It’s the story of a group of mothers and their daughters and how their relationships were strengthened and changed by starting a monthly reading club. It’s also a practical step-by-step book, filled with stories, anecdotes and reading lists, that will inspire parents to start reading clubs of their own.

Here are some more tips on starting a mother-daughter book club and a parent-child book club. Even the PTA has some advice.

If you’re Interested in starting a parent-child book club, enter to win the Scholastic Parent-Child Book Club Kit Giveaway at Women’s Day magazine. Start your own parent-child book club with this kit, including two copies each of A Dog’s Life : The Autobiography Of A Stray, Out Standing In My Field, and Ghosthunters And The Incredibly Revolting Ghost, all published by Scholastic. Enter to win between July 11 and August 8.

Don’t have time for a book club? Try a magazine club instead, writes Denver Post entertainment columnist, Bill Husted.

Why should the kids have all the fun this summer? Instead, how about trying a little reading inspired cooking with my favorite kitchen saint, Julia Child?

Who says you have to cook anything? Some people can read baseball stats and replay games in their head. Do you think you could try to do a little imaginary cooking instead?

First, get a copy of Julie and Julia : 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell. Julie’s one of the first bloggers to get a book deal to transfer her blog to text. In Julie and Julia, she writes about her blog and the year she cooked every recipe – yes, EVERY single one – in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume One.

She’s been criticized for also writing about her job, friends, drinking, love life, and 9/11. Some people think that she should only write about food and the cooking she did. Heck folks, it’s a blog…in book form. Julie can write about anything she wants. That’s what blogging’s about.

I realized too late that Julie and Julia would have been a much more enjoyable read if I had a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking to consult while I read. While Julie describes what she’s cooking, she doesn’t give the actual recipes. Since she cooked every recipe, it probably would have been too cumbersome a book. (Plus, I doubt her publisher wanted to get permission to do so.) In the time of 30-minute meals and microwaves, Julia Child’s recipes are pretty out there…and entertaining in their own right.

Since you’ve pulled out your copy of MAFC, let’s take a look at My Life in France. (If you don’t own a copy of MAFC, shame on you! Bet your mom has a copy – my mom does – so borrow hers instead.)

Not only is My Life in France a chronicle of Julia’s love affair with her husband Paul, but it’s a fascinating look at an American in post-WW II Paris. It’s hard to believe now with our access to Mongolian BBQ, sushi, and good curry, that Americans had no clue about international cuisine. Julia Child was a pioneer who brought good cooking, appreciation for quality ingredients, and basic French cuisine to Americans.

But I’m convinced that if Julia had children, this would have never happened. Even though she and Paul wanted children, they were never able to have them. So to occupy herself and pursue a passion for good food, Julia enrolled at the Cordon Bleu. She then started a cooking school with friends Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, who were already at work on a French cookbook. In 1961, nine years after Julia teamed up with them, MAFC was finally published. After all, it’s hard to work all day long on perfecting a recipe when you have to care for children. If she was only able to work during nap time, MAFC probably wouldn’t have come out until 1980.

As far as family togetherness activities? Well, feel free to go ahead and cook up some recipes while learning about France. Or maybe you can pursue an anatomy lesson while you pick up some organ meats, ha, ha, ha. Well, a visit to the butcher (if there’s still one in your neighborhood) or the meat counter at a local ethnic market is always entertaining for the kids. Nothing more fun than grossing out the kids over tripe and calf’s liver.

So unless you have teens in the house who are interested in becoming professional chefs, Julia Child, like fine wine, is for grownups. Sometimes us moms need to take a break and do a little something for ourselves. Indulge in a little Julia Child today!

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The past few years I’ve been reading a lot of tweenager books. Granted, some books like Harry Potter and The Dark Materials Trilogy weren’t around when I was a kid. Still I’m catching up on all the reading I missed like the The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, and the A Wrinkle in Time series.

So what was I reading as a preteen?

MAD and Cracked magazines. (Thanks to the Cracked Magazine Cover Site for the picture.) Tiger Beat and Teen Beat. National Geographic Kids. Seventeen. As a teenager, I would later graduate to Creem, Circus, and Trouser Press since I was hungry for all things punk rock and new wave (with the occasional side order of Springsteen and Cheap Trick, too).

Except for Saint Judy Blume classics like, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Blubber, I can’t remember what books I was reading. I just remember going to the library almost every weekend.

I was – and still am – a magazine junky. I receive several cooking and parenting mags (love those free – or nearly free – subscriptions). I also get some writing journals, and news magazines, too. My secret indulgences are Vanity Fair, Bust, Bitch, and Smart Company. And if you haven’t discovered Brain, Child – The Magazine For Thinking Mothers yet, get a subscription NOW!

So, ‘fess up? What were you reading as a preteen (magazines or books) and what magazines do you subscribe to now?

Enquiring minds want to know!