500 Things You Should Know

Do you know how to how to brush a dog's teeth? How about do basic embroidery? These are just a few of the 500 things you'll learn to do in the recently released Show Me How: 500 Things You Should Know Instructions for Life From the Everyday to the Exotic.

While flipping through the book, my 5-year old decided she'd like to try embroidery. She wanted to do every single stitch shown, and I have to admit that she did a great job! This became a fun project to do together, and we're going to create some holiday gifts from her handiwork! I've known how to embroider for years, but it was nice to have such a simple and straightforeward description to get her inspired and make her feel that she could do it herself.

That's pretty much the tone throughout the book. Kind of like a how-to for dummies, Show Me How gives you the basics on a multitude of topics. The range of how-tos is quite broad, with useful advice about smartening up on color theory and choosing a color palette for your home, to folding your clothes for travel. It also has a bit of the wild and crazy thrown in for good measure - like ripping some gnarly surf maneuvers, evade a panther attack and spin a crazy donut. Chock full of useful, fascinating and fun topics, this book is sure to be useful as well as entertaining, and makes the perfect gift for adults of all ages.