Excerpt of the Day: "Seal It with a Kiss" by Violet Blue

Get your kiss on with Violet Blue's Seal It with a Kiss, a guide to all the different ways to kiss and the varieties of techniques to perfect your very own style. No matter if you're a novice kisser or a kissing bandit, discover all the dos and don'ts in this adorable little volume devoted to making out.

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Chapter 1

The Secret Society of Kissing Artist

The average woman spends two weeks of her life kissing—but what girl wants to be average? Two weeks of smooches just won’t do—especially when you want to be the kind of kisser who has them coming back for seconds. And thirds. Maybe an all-you-can-kiss make-out buffet. With the secrets, tips, techniques, and detailed steps to becoming a master kisser in this book, you’ll be more than the average player: you’ll be at the top of the kissing game.

Kissing is one of the most sensual of all the acts of flirting, foreplay, seduction, and sex we can enjoy. In a kiss, you use all of your senses—and his too. You feel a kiss with your body, your heart, and your mind. You can communicate desire, urgency, caring—anything you want, because what you’re feeling when you kiss someone can be channeled right through you like an electric charge. The greatest kissers know a variety of techniques that can be applied to a range of situations, tricks to make their kisses unforgettable, strategies to seduce even the shyest pair of lips, and how to jump-start that erotic spark with a first (or second, or third) kiss.

The sensual kisser has a lot more going on than a pair of kissable lips—though I’ll tell you all about making your lips silky smooth and utterly irresistible in a bit. A truly sensual kisser is a girl who feels confident and sexy from within, no matter whether she happens to think she looks “perfect” at the moment, and a great kisser stays in touch with all of her senses—before kissing even begins. It’s like flipping a light switch: when you know a kiss is about to happen, all of your senses sharpen. And once the kiss starts, everything goes into overdrive as you drink in the taste, the smell, the touch, the sound, the feelings. And the person on the receiving end is hooked.

What’s in a Kiss?

Kissing is a single act that can convey a wide variety of intentions. For instance, one type of kiss, a light, affectionate peck, is a message of tenderness—it can be nonsexual, or a loving reminder. On the other hand, a first romantic kiss, built up to with nervousness and desire, might begin with the softest touch and pull you together like a red-hot magnet. A kiss between lovers is the spark that ignites passions into a blazing fire that may consume you both in a delicious makeout session. This kind of kiss can be more powerful than the need to eat when you’re famished. Sometimes the prelude to a kiss is the best part; other times it’s only a teasing, playful beginning.

One kiss can change everything. It can make friends into so much more. A kiss is the moment when sex and science meet, when we know whether our chemistry matches our desire. A casual encounter might turn into a pivotal, life-changing moment, after which ordinary everyday situations with your friend become lustful encounters. Often, when we kiss someone for the first time, we know instantly whether or not we click with them sexually.

Kissing is also really good for you and good for everyone around you. The act of kissing makes you feel emotionally ecstatic—it stimulates the release of endorphins, natural opiates similar to the delirious rush we feel while running and when we fall in love. Prolonged sensual kissing releases the arousal hormone oxytocin, essential for orgasm. And it’s good for our teeth, because the increased flow of saliva washes our teeth in a plaque-dispersing bath. Now, doesn’t that sound sexy?

Most of all, kissing is fun. Welcome to the world of kissing bandits and superkissers, where you’ll learn how to cast an unforgettable, seductive spell with your lips. You’ll join the legions of women who can melt a man like butter with a kiss, are always the first ones picked for the kissing booth, and can easily become rulers of small countries with their ability to deliver the perfect kiss anywhere, anytime. The tips in this guide will make your past experiences with kissing seem like amateur night, and already-great kissers will find more secret kissing weapons, tips, and tricks to fortify their arsenal of techniques. Here you’ll discover can’t-fail techniques for ramping up your sensuality, the keys to perfect first kisses, the fine points of timing a kiss, oodles of techniques and surprises, and how to make an innocent kiss turn into a lustful session of tonsil hockey.

You don’t need to be a man-eater or a villainous vixen to deliver the most wicked smooches—though all skill levels are encouraged to apply. Perhaps you’re tired of being a one-date wonder or feel that you’ve missed far too many kissing opportunities. Or maybe you’re a would-be kissing virtuoso, coiled up and ready to spring. Maybe you’d just like to know when and where different types of kisses are appropriate, how to be a better kisser, how to become a more magnetic kisser, or you want to learn new kissing techniques to make your sweetie give you—and your kissable lips—a double-take. This guide gives you concrete tools to nurture your kissing prowess, useful for a lifetime of being a first-rate, unforgettable kisser.

Excerpt of the Day: "The Frugal Foodie Cookbook" by Lara Starr and Lynette Shirk

Eat better for less?  Sounds crazy, right? The Frugal Foodie Cookbook will help you do just that.  Lara Starr and Lynette Shirk have packed this book with hundreds of delicious recipes and expert advice to help you save both your wallet and your sanity.

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Cents-able Solutions:

Meal Planning 101

You can avoid both overshopping and undershopping by setting aside a few minutes over the weekend to plan out your meals for the week. There are countless benefits to meal planning. You won’t find yourself roaming the aisles desperate for inspiration for the evening’s meal, and you won’t be tempted by the expensive prepared foods in the in-store delis. And when you buy what you need for the week, you’ll save time and money on midweek trips to the store.

Dinners

On the day you do your shopping, make a list of the dinners you’ll have for the week, including the main dish and any veggies and sides. If you’re making a “big dish” like pasta or a roast, you can slot in “leftover night” as well. Then, make a grocery list of all of the items you’ll need to prepare the week’s menu. You’ll know exactly what you need and don’t.

Post the week’s menu on the fridge, and save them up for a few weeks—you’ll build a repertoire of your family’s favorite dishes.

Lunches

Most kids are happy to eat the same thing over and over again, but neither man nor child can live on peanut butter and jelly alone. Foods like pizza, quesadillas, and even homemade chicken nuggets are perfectly palatable to kids at room temperature and make great lunches.

To keep yourself sane and your kids healthy and happy, make a five-day menu that can be repeated week to week. Monday could be pizza day, Tuesday bagel and cream cheese day, etc. Supplement the main dish with fruit or cut-up veggies and something crunchy, like crackers, dry cereal, pretzels, or rice cakes. These “sides” keep well and are easy to grab if junior wants to dip into his lunchbox at recess.

Breakfasts

Weekday breakfasts are usually quick affairs. Save your big cooking guns for the weekend, when you can make waffles, pancakes, and quiches that can last for several meals. It takes only minimally more time and trouble to make two quiches than to make one, and you’ll have a hearty slice of eggy goodness ready for weekday breakfast.

Excerpt of the Day: "Help! My Baby Came Without Instructions" by Blythe Lipman

Make no mistake, babies are precious.  With their cute little noses, teeny tiny toes, eyes full of wonder, and infectious giggles, these little bundles can bring you hours of joy and entertainment.  But for a new parent, bringing home a baby can be the scariest day of his or her life.

It doesn’t have to be. 

Help! My Baby Came Without Instructions is a truly useful how-to that will have nervous new moms and sleep-deprived dads feeling confident about their parenting skills.  Blythe Lipman has devoted her life to the gentle art of infant care and offers wise and witty practical advice in this parent-tested, expert-approved book.  Rest easy, new parents, help is here.

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Slip and Slide

The safe, fun way to bathe your baby

Bathing can be very scary for your new baby. Once the water hits her little body, it is a whole new experience of slipping, sliding, and squirming. Here are a few tips to make Bath Time 101 a bit easier.

-Before you fill up any kind of tub, have the baby’s towel (and all other supplies you might need) next to the tub.

-Fill the tub or sink with enough water to cover the baby’s tummy. Before you put your baby in the water, test the water temperature with your elbow. It should be warm to the touch.

-Make sure all the windows are closed and fans are turned off. The room should be free of drafts.

-Take the baby’s diaper off last. Naked babies (as you will learn probably sooner than later) go to the bathroom anyplace. Don’t be alarmed if she goes in the bath. This is very natural but sometimes frustrating when you have to start all over.

-Wash from the bottom of the toes up to the head. Some babies don’t like having their hair washed. Starting with tears is not fun.

-Buy Summer Comfy Baby’s Safety Foam Bath Sponge, by Summer Infant, a rectangular sponge with indentations that look like the baby’s body. This sponge will fit in the bathtub or a large sink. Fill the tub or sink with enough water to cover three-fourths of the sponge. Put the baby on her back so you have both hands free to soap, wash, and play. You can find this sponge at Babies “R” Us, Target, and Walmart, as well as online.

-Use a small plastic baby tub that will fit into your large tub. They make these tubs with fabric attached to the top (like a hammock), extending from top to bottom on a slant. The baby’s bottom is submerged in the water and the rest of her body is partially covered. You still need to support the baby with one hand, but you don’t have to worry that her head will go under the water.

-Or put a large towel in the bottom of the sink and fill it with a few inches of water. While you support the baby’s head and body with your hand, the towel will prevent her from sliding.

-When the baby can sit up, purchase a plastic bath chair. This seat attaches to the bottom of the tub with suction cups.

-When washing the baby’s hair, hold a washcloth in front of her eyes while you rinse, to keep them dry and shampoo-free. Gently tilt the baby’s head back and rinse using a plastic cup filled with warm water.

-There’s even a product that looks like a circle of soft plastic, almost like a sun visor, that attaches around the back of the baby’s head with Velcro. This hat fits on top of the baby’s head so you can pour water to rinse the shampoo away without it getting into her eyes.

-Picking baby shampoos or bath products is personal. Some contain aloe, lavender, roses, and conditioner together with shampoo, baby wash to relax the baby, and so on. Try them all until you find one that you and she like.

-Bubble bath sometimes irritates the baby’s skin. As an alternative, if you want to make bubbles, pour a small capful of shampoo under the running water.

-The bathtub is a great place to blow bubbles with a wand, for the baby to play with.

-Take the baby out and put her onto a big towel, wrap her up, and give her a kiss.

-If you use powder, pour it into your hand first, then rub it on the baby. Never shake it directly on her body, as it could get into her eyes, nose, mouth, and lungs.

-Don’t forget to have fun washing, singing, and playing. There is nothing cuter than a squeaky-clean baby to make you smile.

Excerpt of the Day: "Total Flirt" by Violet Blue

Did you know there are two types of flirting?  Have you ever wished you could “just tell” if he was interested in you?  Whether you’re tired of waiting for your chance or you want to play for higher stakes, Total Flirt will teach you the tools of the flirting trade—and sexy secrets no girl should be without.  Under Violet Blue’s wise and helpful tutelage, readers learn how to walk like a siren, talk like a bombshell, and seduce like a vamp — and even do it all online!

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The Flirting Game: Two Ways to Play

Flirting is a game that no girl should ever wait to play: you can play now or later, but flirting is too much fun to let the party pass you by. And besides, the legions of flirt fatales who enjoy the fruits of guys on tap could always use another talented secret agent to join in the quest for world domination (or the snaring of the sweetest heart in the sexiest package to keep all to herself).

The first step in our master plan is understanding the concept of flirting. Guys see girls who flirt in a number of ways: cute, sweet, annoying, sexually available (most guys mistake female attention for sexual interest), scary but exciting, thrilling, and slutty, or they’re relieved not to be guessing whether you’re interested at all. In later chapters you’ll find out how to navigate all of these situations and turn them to your advantage, even if that turns into “get me outta here!”

The most important thing to know about the concept of flirting is that there are two ways to flirt. There is flirting for fun, and there is flirting with intent. Flirting for fun is when you use all those wickedly wonderful smiles, teases, eyelash bats—many but not all of the flirting skills detailed in this book—for a playful tête-à-tête with someone you think is cute but who is off the menu. They may be off the menu for a variety of reasons: because he has a girlfriend (naughty you!), or she’s a friend of a friend, or he’s your gay pal who flirts back with feeling and fun. You don’t mean anything when you flirt for fun, except to feel saucy and make your friend feel the same. It’s reserved for people who feel safe to flirt with.

Flirting with intent is when you flirt with a goal. Your “flirtee” is your prey, and you are the huntress. Flirting with intent is a lot of fun; it’s when the person you flirt with could be more than a friend, and you want to find out what that “more” looks like. You are sure it looks sexy, and will look good on your arm. Flirting with intent is how we scope for dates and mates, and while it’s not uncommon to go from “fun” to “intent” in the span of a few beverages, usually when we’re going out to flirt with intent a conquest of some kind is already on our to-do list. It’s when you flirt and you mean it.

Flirt fatales in the know already know this: flirting for fun and flirting with intent don’t look or sound very different to your flirt target. Even when flirting with intent, our manner is playful and teasing. We may in fact be engaged in a serious attempt to assess someone’s suitability as a potential date—and to advertise our own perfectness for this position—but we do not conduct this mate-selection process like a job interview. We exchange glances, smiles, jokes, compliments, and touches, not résumés and experience. (No, never experience, ahem.)

Use the valuable tips in this guide to help you cultivate the perfect Flirt Mode for your goals. This guide is designed to help you meet your goals and avoid confusion. The initial stages of flirting with intent can look a lot like flirting for fun—and this similarity can be a source of confusion and misunderstanding.

Researchers have found that two-thirds of all flirting is initiated by women. Did you know? Get down with your bad self! Girl flirting is done so subtly and unobtrusively that most people think men take the initiative with sexual cues. Women use subtle cues and signals so discreetly that men are not consciously aware of them and so men usually believe they have made the first move. Many studies show that men are not consciously aware of female flirt signals to which they are clearly responding. You can call the shots anytime you feel like stepping into the game. So even if you come across a “pickup artist” who thinks he’s “always closing the deal” when he’s chatting you up—this guide will keep you on top of the flirting food chain, right where you belong.

Excerpt of the Day: "Wordcatcher" by Phil Cousineau

Phil Cousineau’s Wordcatcher is a logophile’s dream.  250 words, each with a delightful back story to keep you entangled in etymologies, what’s not to love?  And, who knows, perhaps this treasure chest of remarkable words will encourage you to start your own wordcatching journey.

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Arachibutyrophobia

The fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. Curious, right? Every time I read or hear the word I think of spiders, from the Greek arachne. But it’s really a very long and potent word for a very peculiar phobia, stemming from the Greek arachi, a glutinous oil present in peanut butter; butryo, to stick or adhere; and phobia, fear. As someone who has been afflicted with esophageal and swallowing problems all his life, I can swear to what appears to be a universal fear of getting something stuck in the throat. So it’s not difficult to imagine someone, especially with a peanut allergy, being terrified of its buttery version clogging up her mouth. The problem is mythic, a larger-than-life fear, or phobia—a word that can be traced back to Phobos, son of Ares, god of terror, but the symptoms are real, persistent, an unrealistic fear that seizes the whole person, resulting in symptoms of nausea, dizziness, and shame. That said, there is no shortage of curious phobias, such as: erythrophobia, the fear of blushing; ablutophobia, fear of washing or cleaning; euphobia, fear of good news; chromophobia, fear of color; gnomophobia, fear of gnomes; catoptrophia, fear of mirrors; Venustraphobia, the fear of beautiful and alluring women; kakorrhapphiophobia is the fear of failure and hippomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, fear of long words, and perhaps longer definitions. Speaking of frightful words, a curious fear I’ve suffered from on occasion, especially on long airplane flights, is abibliophobia, the fear of not having enough to read. To be fair, let’s conclude with an antidote of a word, counterphobia, which refers to “the desire or seeking out of experiences that are consciously or unconsciously feared.” It’s not unlike the advice your mom gave you after your first bad fall from a bicycle—climb back on.

Argonaut

A bold and daring sailor. A smooth-sailing word that combines the ancient Greek argos, swift; the beauty of a fine ship, naus; and the sailor courage of a nautes. They merge in Argo, the galley on which the Argonauts set sail, which in turn was named after Argus, its ingenious builder. Webster’s succinctly defines an Argonaut as “any of a band of heroes who sailed with Jason in quest of the Golden Fleece.” I vividly recall my father’s Heritage Club edition of the book by Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, which we read aloud as a family over one long Michigan winter. The legend recounts how Jason persuaded forty-nine sailors to accompany him on a perilous mission from Iolcos to remote Colchis, in what is now Georgia, at the far end of the Black Sea. Their mythic task was to capture the golden fleece, which hung on a sacred oak guarded by a fire-snorting dragon. Curiously, in 1849, many of those who left home and hearth for the California gold mines were called “Argonauts,” in honor of Jason’s adventure, as well as “’49ers,” an uncanny echo of the forty-nine sailors who traveled with him in search of the resplendent wool. The Argonauts adventure lives on in Argos, a constellation in the northern sky; Captain Nemo’s ship, the Nautilus, in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; the spiral-shelled nautilus, which the ancients believed sailed underwater; and nausea, seasickness, from naus, ship. Another haunting echo of the word is found in one of the most touching scenes in all of literature, from the final book of the Odyssey, when the hero returns home to Ithaka after his twenty-year long adventure and is recognized by his faithful dog Argos— who wags his tail, then dies quietly.

Excerpt of the Day: "Every Day Love" by Judy Ford

Falling in love: easy

Sustaining love: well, it’d be easier to complete a triathlon ten times over.

We long for love.  It’s a universal want.  But for some of us, sustaining love is difficult.  Counselor and author Judy Ford’s Every Day Love can help.  Filled with stories and experiences that are often overlooked as insignificant, this book sheds light on how to avoid pitfalls and celebrate the differences between yourself and your love.

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Not Easy Being a Sweetheart

You’ve probably experienced how your sweetheart can bring out the best in you and the worst in you? In the morning, sharing the paper, sipping coffee, making pancakes for the kiddies, looking forward to the evening out together—content and optimistic—all is right with the world. Your kids are smart and cute, your husband’s smart and cute, and you’re feeling on the smart and cute side yourself. In those smart and cute moments your heart swells up so big that you think it might burst.

Later it’s a whole new scenario. The kids make sandwiches, spill ketchup on the floor, leave crumbs on the counter. Your husband decides to remodel the bathroom. You’re glad to get the project started but secretly question his timing. Proud for showing restraint and not wanting to stir up trouble, you squelch your observations. But two hours before you’re scheduled to go out he’s still tearing down a wall and removing the sink.

“We have reservations across town,” you say. “Aren’t you going to get ready?”

He doesn’t respond.

“Are you going to get ready?” you ask a little louder. Still, no answer. To get his attention, you call his name. Firmly.

“What?” he answers.

“Why do you always do this?”

“Do what?”

“Why do you squeeze everything in at the last minute?”

“I thought you wanted me to remodel the bathroom.”

“Not when we have plans,” you snap.

“What’s your problem?” he snaps back. “There’s plenty of time.”

Next thing you know, you’re crying and slamming the door. “Geez,” you hear him mutter as he steps into the shower.

After all I do for you, you’re thinking. Later he confesses what he was thinking: I can never do anything right.

Without even knowing there are triggers, triggers get triggered. Buttons get pushed. Feelings get bruised. You hate to admit it but you’re hard on your sweetheart and hard on yourself. You know it’s impossible to get it right every time, but you want to. You expect to do better, you fail, you beat yourself up, you try again. You’re tired and cranky and when your sweetheart asks what’s wrong, you know you should be happy that he noticed, but his tone sounds more like criticism than concern.

“Nothing,” you snap.

“I was just asking,” he snaps.

Suddenly you’re embroiled in a snapping match.

You’d like to reach out, kiss and make up, but instead you walk on eggshells for a while. It’s hard. It hurts. It’s very confusing.

“I’m sorry,” you say.

You both mean it. You promise not to act that way again. You love your sweetheart, yet life around the home doesn’t always go in the direction intended.

It is not easy to be a person. It is not easy to be a sweetheart. A lover. A partner. A spouse. A friend. A parent. A child. A companion. A confidante. Much is expected, so many surprises. That smart, cute side we’re so proud of is not the only side. It seems there are multiple sides—our public side, our private side, and the secret side only our sweetheart knows.