Book of the Month Recommendations
from Relaxation at Home

A wonderful way to relax at home is to enjoy a great read. This Relaxation at Home Book of the Month page is updated monthly and provides you with my monthly picks for fiction and non-fiction reading, except for this month where I offer 2 fiction book recommendations If you need help starting your own home library, my suggestions may be useful.

If you disagree with my selections or want to add your comments, feel free to use the form provided at the bottom of this page. I will personally review your comments and include them on this page for others to see.

My fiction recommendation for February 2010 is Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah.

Julia Cates, a child psychologist who recently got a bad reputation and extremely negative media coverage following one of her patient's going on a killing spree, has nothing left to lose. The parents of her other patients have cancelled all their appointments and her career is pretty much destroyed.

When her estranged sister calls to request her help, she decides to leave her Californian lifestyle and return to her hometown to help this strange and frightened little girl who came out of the woods.

The author really captured how such a wild girl would feel and react when placed in our "civilized world." The relationship and bond that gradually appears between Julia and the little girl is beautifully written and it's easy to picture them in your mind.

My non-fiction book for February 2010 is PHP and MySQL For Dummies by Janet Valade.

If you've been reading my monthly recommendations for a while, you probably know that I enjoy learning about web sites and how they are made. I've now progressed to dynamic web sites that let visitors interact with the content.

Dynamic web sites are replacing many static sites because they allow the creator to connect everything to a database. While it sounds fantastic, it's a lot more complex than static web sites, and that's why I got this "Dummies" book.

I really love the way the writer approached the whole concept. She starts by explaining what a database is and how you can create your own. The book then goes into PHP, with a nice, easy and funny approach that makes this difficult subject a lot easier to understand.