If you are looking for the perfect gift for your daughter, niece, cousin, friend, or any special young lady you know, The Daring Book for Girls needs to be at the top of your list. I received the book from the authors and founders of MotherTalk, Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz, and I haven’t stopped reading it since. I read it quickly, then I went back and read it slowly, and then I started telling everyone around me about it.

It’s 279 pages of everything from how to build a scooter to the history of Queens and Princesses around the world. The introduction to the book reminds us that “Girls today are girls of the twenty-first century, with email accounts, digital cable, iPods, and complex video games”. They seem to be abandoning childhood sooner and sooner every year, and what this book does is remind us of all the possibilities that girls have.

Would you like to hear what Andi and Miriam have to say about the book? Watch their interview on The Today Show. Or, read the reviews posted on the book’s Amazon page.

I was amazed by the vastness of the knowledge contained in this book. I had forgotten all about Handclap Games, which took up most of recess when I was in elementary school. Same with Cootie Catchers-remember making those? My daughter is still too young for most of the games and crafts in this book, but you can bet that The Daring Book for Girls is going to occupy a prime spot on our living room bookshelf, and in five years when she’s having her first sleepover, I’ll know exactly how to teach a room full of seven year olds how to make God’s Eyes and how to do a cartwheel.

I also enjoyed the detailed information on basketball (I had no idea that there was more than one type of Forward), the 14 different ways to play Tag, and the history of women Explorers and Inventors. Women in history have done some amazing and, well, daring things, and that’s something that every female should know about, regardless of age.

Go, buy this book. Let’s help teach girls that there are a lot of things they can do besides text their friends and listen to their iPods. Let’s show them how empowering it is to know how to change a tire, paddle a canoe, and negotiate a salary (well, that one might be more for you than for a seven year old!). Let’s bring back jumping rope, how to tie a bandanna, and how to write an actual letter (on paper you make yourself, even, written in secret spy language!)

This book makes me want to be a kid again. Thank you so much Andi and Miriam, for writing this book and keeping the traditions of childhood alive. For reminding us of how important women have been in history up until now, and how important they will be in times to come. For making me excited about having a daughter to whom I can teach all the things in The Daring Book for Girls. I just wish I could get the words to “Miss Merry Mack” out of my head now

Last year while preparing to move to a new country, a friend of mine boxed up some books she thought I would enjoy and mailed them to me. Among the selections were two books by an author I had never heard of, and the jackets told me that the books were historical fiction. I was immediately skeptical, since I had never read any books in that genre. But, with an open mind, I picked up the first book and began to read. And was instantly swept away into a world I had never knew existed, the world of royal India. I read, fascinated, about palaces and harems, and unimaginable wealth. The book was The Twentieth Wife: A Novel, by Indu Sundrasen. The story then continued with The Feast of Roses: A Novel, and by the time I finished that one, I was a fan of historical fiction.

So, when MotherTalk asked for reviewers for Ms. Sundrasen’s newest book, The Splendor of Silence:A Novel, I clicked Reply as fast as I possibly could. When the book arrived, I couldn’t wait to dive right in. It starts in the present with a young woman receiving a trunk containing a letter written by her father, telling her the true story of her parentage. Then, the story jumps backwards to May, 1942, when Sam Hawthorne arrives by train in Rudrakot in West India. He has been injured after being sent by the newly-formed OSS into Burma to rescue a missionary. He arrives in Rudrakot ostensibly to heal at the home of the Indian Political Agent, a job that I think means government representative.

At the home of Raman, the political agent, Sam meets Raman’s daughter Mila and is instantly enchanted by her. He also meets Mila’s brother Ashok who we later learn is planning to join up with a Nationalist movement plotting to bomb the car of the British Political agent. I found that not knowing the history behind the British occupation of India made it hard for me to understand some of the story. It was also somewhat confusing to have the story jump back and forth between Sam’s rescuing of the missionary, Sam staying at Raman’s house, and then forward to Olivia reading this letter she received in the trunk.

The setting is the West Indian desert, and the desert itself should be thought of as a character in the story. It is four days before a monsoon is expected to hit, and the heat has built up to the literal boiling point. The sands of the desert, the waves of heat, and then the monsoon itself, are forces to be reckoned with. Sam has not told anyone in Rudrakot that he is actually there to search for his brother Mike, who had been stationed with the Rudrakot Rifles regiment, but has gone missing. Sam figures out that his brother is being held in a prison detention center, which might as well be the bowels of hell. I shudder to think that this is based in reality.

Other minor characters come and go, all the stories weaving together in and out. Mila has been promised to Jai, the Raj of Rudrakot who lives in extravagant palaces and for whom money is no object. But her heart belongs to Sam, and that mere fact will have repercussions for all of the characters in the story.

I loved this book. I loved the lushness of it, the “love at first sight” romance between Sam and Mila, the mouth-watering descriptions of each meal that was prepared and served, the beautiful clothes. I sympathized with the prostitutes who kept the soldiers happy, yet couldn’t read or write, and so had to be tutored by Mila in secret. I found myself hoping by the end that Sam and Mila would find a way to ride off into the sunset together, even as I knew it couldn’t be possible. I loved Mila and Sam huddled together under a blanket during a sandstorm, exchanging stolen kisses. I was fascinated by the party thrown by Jai, the prince of Rudrakot and Mila’s intended husband-the dessert was milk foam set in saucers in greenhouses so it would be perfumed with the scent of roses.

Even if you don’t think you are a fan of historical fiction, I encourage you to pick up this book. If you like romance, intrigue, espionage, and excitement, this book has all of that and more.