Awesome Girlfriend Album and Music Offers

Beginning with the "10 Greatest Lies About Pregnancy" (number 10: Lamaze works), and ending with postpartum dementia, Vicki Iovine's Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy has fast become the laywoman's mouthpiece for the American pregnancy experience Iovine is irreverent, sassy, and incredibly reassuring as she exposes the "truths" of pregnancy and childbirth, from sex to cellulite to cesareans. Iovine birthed four kids in six years, none of them twins, which certainly qualifies her as an expert. The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy does reveal Iovine's particular cultural biases (pregnant or not, most of us don't have record-producer husbands, hang out with supermodels, or wear size-four pants) and philosophical beliefs (she's not a particularly strong proponent of natural childbirth or nursing), but, taken with a grain or two of salt, she provides many hilarious moments, acres of advice, and honest reassurance readers will find nowhere else. --Ericka Lutz.
Price: $5.96 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Not for the faint of heart, Cherry Bomb is an A-to-Z reference for everything awesome a girl needs to know, including the obvious (style, beauty, dating, and sex tips) and the not-so-obvious (instructions for preparing absinthe, how to hit on a celebrity). It's a girl's guide with a difference: one that shows readers how to identify, go after, and get whatever they want in life -- be it a hot guy, a great job, a mind-blowing orgasm, or a sexy new look -- all while marching to her own (rock) beat.

Bona fide rock chick Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna's tips are smart, funny, edgy, and will empower women to veer away from the pack, work every situation to their advantage, and look cool while doing it. She's also recruited a rocking list of contributors who offer advice on all things cool, including:

• Betsey Johnson on personal style
• A step-by-step guide to performing a striptease by Dita Von Teese
• Tips on getting inked by Kat Von D.
• Fashion inspiration from Anna Sui
• Lisa Loeb on how to be the perfect hostess
• Life lessons from Tori Amos
• A drum lesson from Samantha Maloney of Peaches
• Dating advice from Terri Nunn of Berlin

The perfect guide for the female who prefers black nail polish to French manicures, who would only be caught in pearls if they were paired with a cool black tank top, and who prefers Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier to any Klein (Calvin or Anne), Coach, or Kate Spade, Cherry Bomb will have readers taking chances and daring to be different..
Price: $11.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Beyond child development theory and experts, beyond the "shoulds" and the "don'ts" that guilt-ridden parents constantly hear echoing in their ears, there's Vicki Iovine, America's favorite "girlfriend" and mother-in-the-trenches. In The Girlfriends' Guide to Toddlers, Iovine's third addition to her parenting panoply (The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy and The Girlfriends' Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood) Iovine focuses, for the first time, more on the child than on the mother. (Toddlers always get all the attention, don't they?) Iovine is wise, and not just because she's read all the current parenting literature (she has) or heard it from her famous mythical "girlfriends." Iovine knows what she's talking about because she has four young children and she's been through it all. In her ongoing vision of parenting, humor and a network of friends play an important role, bribery has its place, discipline is sensible and loving, and advice is grounded in the practical rather than the theoretical. From "Eating (or Not)" to "Discipline" to "The Comfort Zone" (Binkies, Bankies, Loveys and Thumbs) to Potty Training ("What's the Big Rush?") to "Sleepy Time" to "Fashion" (yes, it's an issue for toddlers), Iovine continues her mission to inform the contemporary parent, to tell the truth, to boldly go where many child development experts have gone before, and to keep her readers laughing while she does it. --Ericka Lutz.
Price: $4.78 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Just had a baby? Lie down, rest your weary womb, and muster up a rousing cheer! (Shh! Don't wake the baby!) Now, from the author of The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy, comes the book all new moms have been waiting for, whether they know it or not. Vicki Iovine talks turkey ... and stitches, and weight loss, and depression, and sex (trying it for the first time after labor and delivery? "Inebriate and Lubricate"). Vicki--yeah, I know I'm calling her by her first name but after reading this book you'll be on a first-name basis with her, too--is funny, informative, and utterly (udderly?) irreverent. New mothers have never had it so good..
Price: $3.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Sex should be "an experience to be relished from beginning to end," says Lou Paget in How to Be a Great Lover: Girlfriend-to-Girlfriend Totally Explicit Techniques That Will Blow His Mind. Paget (a woman) aims "to empower you as a woman, heighten the intimacy of your romantic relationship, and enable you and your partner to enjoy yourselves in intense new ways." She lives up to that promise with this friendly, titillating, educational, and explicit guide to enlivening your sex life and keeping your man coming back for more. Is he a bad kisser? Learn an easy strategy to get him to kiss you just the way you like it. Does he object to using a condom? Use your mouth to put it on him (a six-step process, complete with illustrations). You'll find information you might not find anywhere else, such as dozens of explicit manual and oral techniques (many illustrated) that will drive him crazy, a comparison of different brands of lubricant for different uses (along with sexy ways to apply it), techniques for anal stimulation, and a guide to sex toys. This book is fun to read, and will certainly open up the sensuality in your relationship. --Joan Price.
Price: $7.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne are the rock stars of the knitting community--fans flock to their popular blog (masondixonknitting.com) for a daily dose of knitting genius, tips, and humor. In their first book, Mason-Dixon Knitting, you'll find practical advice, instruction, and more than 30 incredible patterns. Want a taste? Check out the details below for making your very own Moderne Log Cabin Blanket. --Daphne Durham

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The Unofficial Scoop on Military Life

Whether you're dating, engaged, or married to an active military servicemember or reservist -- or you've just signed up yourself -- you may feel as if you've somehow married the United States military! While there are plenty of orientation books for him, there are almost no handy, user-friendly resources for you. Meredith Leyva, a military wife and founder of CinCHouse.com, the Internet's largest community for military wives, girlfriends, and women in uniform, details everything you need to know to manage day-to-day issues and get on with the adventure of military life. From relocation to deployment, protocol to finances, and career to kids, Leyva offers time-tested advice about:

• Keeping your love life together during deployments

• Relocating yourself and your family around the world

• Maintaining your own career when you're expected to move every three years

• Understanding what pay and benefits you're entitled to -- and how to maximize them

• Translating those odd acronyms and jargon

Written by a seasoned military wife, this smart and savvy guide will help you take control at every point of your servicemember's career -- from filing marriage papers as newlyweds to choosing prenatal and child care when you start a family to figuring out his pension when he's ready to retire..
Price: $1.96 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Vicki Iovine and her passel of friends tell mothers-to-be when to skimp and when to splurge, and which hand-me-downs are safe and which are sorry. Readers will get advice on...

€ Where to get what you need
€ Crib and car seat dos and don'ts
€ Wardrobe musts and misses-for mother and child
€ Stocking the nursery and the rest of the house
€ What every new mom should have on hand for herself
€ Which brand names are the best
€ The Master Shopping List-don't leave home without it.
Price: $4.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In this latest novel from the poet laureate of Gen X--who is himself now a dangerously mature 36--boy does indeed meet girl. The year is 1979, and the lovers get right down to business in a very Couplandian bit of plein air intercourse: "Karen and I deflowered each other atop Grouse Mountain, among the cedars beside a ski slope, atop crystal snow shards beneath penlight stars. It was a December night so cold and clear that the air felt like the air of the Moon--lung-burning; mentholated and pure; hint of ozone, zinc, ski wax, and Karen's strawberry shampoo." Are we in for an archetypal '80s romance, played out against a pop-cultural backdrop? Nope. Only hours after losing her virginity, Karen loses consciousness as well--for almost two decades. The narrator and his circle soldier on, making the slow progression from debauched Vancouver youths to semiresponsible adults. Several end up working on a television series that bears a suspicious resemblance to The X-Files (surely a self-referential wink on the author's part). And then ... Karen wakes up. Her astonishment--which suggests a 20th-century, substance-abusing Rip Van Winkle--dominates the second half of the novel, and gives Coupland free reign to muse about time, identity, and the meaning (if any) of the impending millennium. Alas, he also slaps a concluding apocalypse onto the novel. As sleeping sickness overwhelms the populace, the world ends with neither a bang nor a whimper, but a universal yawn--which doesn't, fortunately, outweigh the sweetness, oddity, and ironic smarts of everything that has preceded it..
Price: $5.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This engaging, information-packed guide presents ten categories of Best Places for women to go. The wide-ranging chapters have something for everyone. "Best City Getaways for Girls Who Just Wanna Have Fun" focuses on San Francisco, Miami, Quebec, New York City, and New Orleans. "Where to Celebrate Big Birthdays" suggests Las Vegas, Northern California wine country, and Savannah. "Best Places for Adventure Escapes" includes rafting the Colorado, heli-hiking the Canadian Rockies, and kayaking or canoeing in Maine. "Best Bonding Vacations" recommends Ashland, Oregon, Rocky Mountain National Park, Chicago, and Lake Chatauqua, New York, while "Best Places to Heal When You've Been Dumped" sends you to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and to Hershey, Pennsylvania, for its sumptuous chocolate baths. Other chapters offer suggestions for golf getaways, pampering retreats, artsy getaways, and great retail therapy.

The book is filled with practical tips on roommate etiquette, safety, packing, budgeting, and other specific advice for the growing number of women—young, old, single, married, divorced, and widowed—who are hitting the road. Short, true stories about women's experiences open each chapter, and quotes from all types of women travelers broaden the appeal—further inspiring readers to pack up their bags, call a girlfriend, and say "let's go!".
Price: $5.68 [Notify me when price goes down.]