Sunday Book Review: Blood Shot

So I'm not all that into the vampire genre  except for Buffy and Angel.  But my husband recommended Blood Shot by Cherie Preist because it's not just about vampires it's a vampire mystery novel.  He knows how I love a good mystery.  Since I did enjoy Priest's other novel Boneshaker the first in a steampunk zombie series.  I thought I'd give Blood Shot a chance.  I'm glad I did.

Who knew vampires could be so human.  Reylene, our intrepid thief and mystery solver,  has her issues.  She's very concerned about safety and being prepared for anything which doesn't seem much like a vampire and she cares. She can also kick some serious ass.  You can almost forget she's a vampire until she eats that is.  She only eats the bad guys.  I don't want to give too much more away.  If you are in the mood for some light reading then this might be the book for you.  I just started Hell Bent which is book two in the series. I love a good series.

Sunday Book Review: French Women Don't Get Fat

I've heard in the news that French women don't get fat or we should eat more like the the French or eat a Mediterranean diet. I'm never sure what that actually means.




After reading French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano I know! I'm being a bit facetious here ya'll.  Mireille shares her experience of gaining a 20 lbs in the US when she was an exchange student. How their family doctor who she fondly calls Dr. Miracle helped her get back on track.

What I took away from the book is to really enjoy your food.  We should do more than eat to live. This insight is the best part of the book.  So she encourages you to eat flavorful healthy meals.
   
Her diet plan as such is divided into four phases.

Phase One:  For 3 weeks pay attention to what and how eat.  Like do you snack, skip meals, indulges in lots of sweets?

Looking back I snacked a lot.  I was skipping breakfast.  Eating more sweets than I needed and possibly enjoyed.   My food was pretty joyless most days of the week.

One thing I've found because I did choose to take out dairy with my diet is I don't miss it with my mexi-bowl lunches at all. I find some avocado much more decadent.  I love cheese best melted in an omelet or a small bites of a rich cheddar sans crackers or bread.  

I don't miss the corn chips either.  I do miss the crunchiness so I am trying to find other tastier healthy crunchy things to enjoy. Like kale chips.

The weekend before she recommends eating leeks and broth for 48 hours and a jump start to the changes.  I don't see that as particularly unique. I remember women in my family doing all salads for  a weekend.

Phase Two Re-casting:  This can last one to three months.  Start eating three meals a day. Look at your habits. What could you give up completely? I managed to cut back on my coffee so I have removed over 1/2 cup a milk I used to drink every day.  I don't eat grains 6 days a week for now mostly to see how I feel.  I'd say one of my biggest offenders are breads. pasta and corn chips.

I don't really miss basic medium grain brown rice all that much.  I'd love a little basmati rice with some curries again on occasion.  I've found I much more enjoy Silva's corn chips then the organic ones.  So maybe on occasion I will indulge in a bit with some fresh salsa.

During this phase she recommends a day for indulgence(s).  Over time, she suggests, you need this less as and less as you figure out how to compensate during the week. Her suggestions seem very familiar to the things I learned in Mindless Eating. She's never really clear to me on what compensating means.

The thing I found a bit lacking in the book is a clearer idea of how much to eat. I know this is different for everyone. Her book French Women for all Seasons as some better examples as well as the French I Women Don't get Fat website.  When I look at the amounts I get the impression she is a rather pewit woman.

Phase Three Stabilization:  Here you might look to see if there are things you could cut back even more or not.  Now you can start changing things up and add some indulgences now and then.


Phase Four The Rest of Your Life:  Now you have found just the right amount of food you need and know the foods that you truly enjoy.


Lastly, get moving like a french woman.

So give it read.  Even if you don't want to lose weight she has some great recipes in it for croissants :)  That said I think I'd rather walk down to our local bakery and buy my croissants and walk home to enjoy it.  How very French of me ;)

Bonjour and Bon Apetit!

Sunday Book Review: Mindless Eating

So you have put on some pounds and you can't figure out why?  Don't want to go on a diet?  This is the book to read.  Not that anything one thing is an easy fix but just a few things in a years time can make a big difference.  Brian Wansik shares his research on our relationship to food and why it's it can be so hard to change.

Most Americans get visual queues to know they are done eating.  So if you use a smaller plate for your meal you will eat less and feel more satisfied than on a plate that looks half empty.

Put the good stuff to eat at eye level in your fridge.  I make a mixed bin of chopped veggies called Yuppie Veggies inspired by a local restaurant that is no longer in business.  Yuppie veggies include: broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, and carrots. It's easy peasy for me to pull out them out then steam or saute them for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Seriously, I do have veggies for breakfast.

Because we eat mindlessly and it's actually challenging to get our selves to be mindful.  The ideal is to make small changes that are positive then those good habit become mindlessly "dieting."

Wansik suggest the power of three.  So maybe you want to lose some weight find three 100 calories things you can take remove without feeling deprived.  In a year you could likely lose 30 lbs!

Or maybe you want to eat healthier.  Then make it a goal.  Try keeping track of it with some awareness for a while.  He even has some free downloads on his web page. 

Sunday Book Review: Book of Learning and Forgetting

I read, The Book of Learning and Forgetting by Frank Smitth,  about a month ago but it was on my  to read list for a while now.  Finally my local library purchased it.  Despite the fact that I have a radical view on learning I found myself thinking are you freakin' for real?

 We only really learn the things we learn when we learn it naturally and 

learning shouldn't be difficult. 

He does clarify that you might want to learn how to do something but you might not learn it easily because to learn something you need to have understanding.  So understanding may take time.  That was the best part of the book to me.  That understanding can take time.  

So maybe Smith is right. Learning isn't difficult we sometimes start from a place of  confusion then move to a state of understanding. Now that I think about it,  I do that all the time.  

Sunday Book Review: Girl in Translation

I truly enjoyed reading A Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok.  Kwok with seriousness and humor shares Kim and her mother's lives as immigrants in Brooklyn.  You soon learn that the help they get isn't much.  Kim now Kimberly goes to school and in time does very well despite the hours she needs to work to help her mother prepare clothing orders for pennies at  the clothing factory.  Kim grows up in a bit of a limbo of the Chinese culture and United States culture.  You get a window into the challenges immigrants  face when they come to the States.  How even their own can limit them and the prejudices they face everywhere.

Sunday Book Review: A Grown Up Kind of Pretty

Another winner by Joshylin Jackson, A Grown Up Kind of Pretty.  Is about family and what makes a family.  It's sort of a mystery too. If you are bit  put off by the beginning of the book do keep reading it gets better.  At first I was a bit worried the direction this book might go but it was fine. I was looking for something uplifting and happier making.  There are sad parts but good sad parts.

Currently reading:


Looks like you get this review anyways since I forgot to move it to next Sunday.

Sunday Book Review: Sort of a Review

I had a different book I want to review and recommend but something came across my facebook feed that I thought was important to share.   February 19th is Rememberance Day is a day to remember and never forget the internment of Japanese Americans and immigrants during World War II.

One way we can remember is to read a book.  Even it's fictional it gives us a window into a time we didn't live.  It may not tell the whole story but it tells part of the story.  Hopefully we learn something and we remember.

Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas is a story told through the eyes of young Rennie a13 year old girl.  How Rennie's family and a Japanese family lives intersect after an internment camp is set up near their home.  You learn a bit about what interment was like. You explore along with Rennie the morality of it all.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford is about love but about fitting in but what if you can't fit in.  It's told through the eyes of a young Chinese boy living in San Francisco just after the Japanese Americans and immigrants were sent away to live in the internment camps. You get to hear how they were removed from their home.  How they had to leave so many important things behind.   How Japantown became a ghost city and how others took advantage of it.

Sunday Book Review: Austenland

It's been a while since I read anything by Jane Austen but I enjoyed Austenland by Sharaon Hale as much as I have enjoyed other books by Hale.




Austenland is a light hearted story about Jane, a young woman who might be a bit more obsessed with the world of Jane Austen than is healthy.  She inherits a trip to escape into the world of Austen.   She gets to dress, talk, and eat in the manner of time.   She finds herself again and maybe love as well.

Sunday Book Review: The Leftovers

The Leftovers, by Tom Perrotta is all about the "What if?"  What if the Rapture happened  but those who left weren't who you expected to go.  What if your entire family disappeared, your two young kids and your husband? How would you feel?  Would you be disappointed if you weren't chosen? If you weren't what would you do?  I warn you there is a bit of a disturbing plot twist near the end.  I'd tell you more but I might give too much away. All in all I'd give it a thumbs up since I couldn't put it down. I read it in about day and half.

Sunday Book Review: Rise and Shine

Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlin narrated by Carol Monda - A very belated posting of this review.  I started writing it over a year ago.  So take the review for what it is.

I picked this audiobook up because of the narrator. At least I thought I did.  I thought Monda had narrated at least one of the books in the Ember Series by Jeanne DuPrau. I was wrong.  If you like to listen to audiobooks and find you really like a certain narrators voice all you need to do is put the narrator in the author field at the library or on amazon you can find other books the narrator has read.  Just make sure you have the right one.

I still liked Monda's reading of  Rise and Shine. Her voice really seemed to fit for the narrator of the story, Bridget or Brightie as her nephew called her. I found the story compelling although at times hard to listen too. It's hard for me when I know someone has made a mistake even if the character in the book was a jerk. I don't want to give too much of the story away. There is some sad parts in the very end. Over all a very real story and one about relatonships: sisters, family, comittment, love, parenting etc.

No Impact Man

I picked up the audiobook of No Impact Man at the library yesterday. I vaguely remember a friend recommending it on facebook. I began it today with a bit of trepidation because my youthful idealism has been slowly replaced by middle aged cynicism. My cynicism is due to the fact that I did try to be No Impact Mom when my kids were younger. We bought a Wonder Wash for cryin' out loud and tried to do the laundry of a family of three whe one of those three was in diapers. What a joke...ahh the beginning of my cynical despair at such a tender age of 29yrs or so.

Back to the No Impact Man. I was a bit worried it would be on the preachy side. I'm hard enough on myself so I really don't need to have someone tell me how much I have failed. I'm pleased to say I really enjoy Colin Beavan's insight and struggles and I'm only on disc one. His own inner dialogue on our impact on the planet so far mirrors mine quite a bit. So I'm thinking again what to do, what do to do to save the world so to speak because I'm not going to buy another wonder wash. But maybe, just maybe we shouldn't replace our broken microwave.

So today I feel like sharing a bit what's coming up for me while listening to this book. This quote really stands out for me:

"What's so great about trying to be right if it makes you separate. What's so great about trying to be right if it makes you lonely?"

I found this to be so true when I was a strict vegetarian. This separated me from others and made it more difficult to sit down and just enjoy a meal with others. My feeling at the time of vegetarian rightness also separated me from others.

I'll be back later to share what other bits of wisdom from the book or not because my track record on the blog kind of sucks.

Book Review: Serving Up the Harvest

If you are struggling with some new ways to cook up your local veggies I recommend purchasing Serving up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman. I've seen this book several times but kept passing it up because I didn't want to spend the money. So when Borderd sent me a 40% coupon I decided it was time. It's the kind of cook book I like. It gives you basic information in a new way that helps you expand your cooking knowledge. It's the book to grab when you have a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

The first half of the book she shares basic recipes to make a lo mein, stir fry, cheese sauce, pastry, etc. Then the rest of the book is ordered by the veggies seasons. Each vegetable has basic gardening information, basic cooking times and information, several tasty recipes, and a meal or two to make with it.

I have several of the recipes marked that I want to try and the ingredients list is easy to find. So I'm sure this is book that I will take off the shelf and actually use.

Artisan Bread in 5 minutes!

Really it's more than five minutes but can you be against bread that you DO NOT need to knead! It's true, no knead artisan bread. I tell you it works and it tastes goooood and it's not just wine I drank with dinner either.


This is the dough just after mixing

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day If you can't find the book give the basic loaf recipe a try. You won't be sorry you did. I promise. Just go here. The book which I bought with 30% off coupon from borders has many more recipes, several which are whole grain or multi-grain and other yummy treats. If you follow the other link above it takes to the books blog which has other ideas.



After 60 minutes of rising



hour and half of rising


The loaf resting for about 20 minutes before I put it in the oven.

This loaf that is rest is only about fourth to a third of the dough. The rest is now in the fridge to make other yummy breads.



The loaf fresh from the oven

We had this with dinner tonight:



This is what my dinner looked like. The kids was not quite as veggie intensive.
Pasta, homemade tomato sauce, locally made Italian sausage, steamed broccoli and carrots topped with arugula pesto, local mesclun greens, and fresh bread. Oh yeah a glass of Gnarly Head Old vine Zinn , very, very good! Shhhh! Don't tell the kids but for dessert was another glass of wine and some Green & Black Chocolate with Cherries, also very good.

Today was a bit more intenseive of the wheat that I'd like but I want to get better at making this kind of bread. We had pasta that needed eatin', you see. I am trying to eat a great variety of grains which is why I had quinoa and rice with meals yestarday.

Sunday Book Review: Monkey Girl

Monkey Girl by Edward Hume made my head hurt but in good way. It's about evolution. So if this bothers you please stop reading now.

Things I learned:

The Scopes Monkey Trial was kind of a joke. The town was having some financial problems so the town elders thought that a trial about evolution would help the local economy. So they asked Scopes to say he taught evolution in his classroom. He agreed.

I didn't realize how much or for how long the teaching of evolution has been contested and challenged in the United States.

Text book publishing companies have watered down evolution because they fear the books won't be purchased.

Random Thoughts from reading the book:

I learned about about Intelligent Design. All I can say is why bring science into religion? I can't help but believe that this is drawing line in the sand. If intelligent design is real science then you need to test it. If you did test it would it hold up? I don't think so. So might that then prove there is no God?

I personally don't think evolution makes it so there is not a God. The more I know about the world and how it works the more amazed I am and the more I believe in something. How can you not look at your child's tiny body and not believe in something? How can you not think about life and not be amazed and thankful? I can't.

Ultimately, I believe Religion, Spirituality, and Philosophy is about why we exist. Science is about how. Let's keep it that way.

Booking Through Thursday: Cover up

This week’s question comes from Julie, who asks:While acknowledging that we can’t judge books by their covers, how much does the design of a book affect your reading enjoyment? Hardcover vs. softcover? Trade paperback vs. mass market paperback? Font? Illustrations? Etc.?

I admit that the cover of a book will induce me to read it. I wouldn't say it affects my enjoyment of the book. If the cover doesn't live up to what I think it represents then I feel let down, yet it doesn't necessarily change how I enjoyed the book.

Yet, I can't think of any titles that the covers really influenced me or that let me down.

More answers here

Sunday Book Review: Black Like Me

I read Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin in highschool. Recently I listened to the the audiobook narrated by Ray Childs. It made an impact when I read it in highschool and even more so as an adult. Childs did a fantastic narration job.

Griffin finds a way to make himself "black" then he goes in to the deep south as a black man and tells the story. He shares how he has to walk blocks or miles to find a bathroom or some water to drink. Basic things we take for granted were not available to the black man or woman in the 1960's.

It's shocking really. I think it's a must read if only that so that this never happens again.

Booking Through Thursday: The End

You’ve just reached the end of a book . . . what do you do now? Savor and muse over the book? Dive right into the next one? Go take the dog for a walk, the kids to the park, before even thinking about the next book you’re going to read? What?

(Obviously, there can be more than one answer, here–a book with a cliff-hanger is going to engender different reactions than a serene, stand-alone, but you get the idea!)

I suppose it does differ from the book and the mood I'm in too. Sometimes the dishes really do need to get done so I'm in the kitchen doing those. If I'm reading a good series and the next one is available I'm likely at the computer reserving the next book. If I have been reading a lot I might need a break from the reading and go play a game with the kids or watch some TV. Since it's getting nicer out I'll be in the garden some. If it was a disturbing book like some of Jodi Picoult's stories I might want a new book to get the icky taste from my mouth. (Yet I do like her stories but they just aren't happy ones.)

Want to see what others answered to this question? Go here.

Sunday Book Review: Twins

This is more of a shout out about a few books I've read recently about twins one fiction, the other non-fiction.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited by Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein

Both books share insight to the bond of twins. The Thirteenth Tale is a bit of mystery and is a bit like Jane Eyre in energy. There are reference to Jane Erye in the story too. Identical Strangers is a bit of Mystery as well. After the twins find each other they look for their mother and try to uncover why they were separated at birth. I listened to audio books for both books.

Bianca Amanto and Jill Tanner narrated The Thirteenth Tale and did superb jobs. The story took a few cds to get into but then I was hooked because I needed to know what the mystery was all about. It was like story within in a story.

Alma Cuervo narrated Identical Strangers and did a great job as well. I felt like I really got to know Paula and Elyse. I identified with wanting a twin or someone who you felt like really knows you and you know them.

Booking Through Thursday: Playing Editor and Cheif

How about a chance to play editor-in-chief? Fill in the blanks:

__________ would have been a much better book if ______________________.

In general I like a book or I don't like a book and sometimes I think it's a personal issue and less to do with the writing. There are a few books out there that I think needed some tweaking to be better reads.

I didn't care for For Give Me by Amanda Eyre Ward. There was a subplot story to the book that I never understood why it was there. So I think it needed to be ditched or maybe a story from that because I liked the subplot.

I like the Outlander Series. I wish there were a few less rape scenes in the story. I listen to the audiobooks now. That is the only way I can enjoy them now. These books are too dang big. So some size editing would be good too. I know other who love long books like this.

See more answers to the the questions here.

Sunday Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is about war torn Afghanistan from the 1970's when it was occupied by Soviet Union all the way to current times. Showing the destruction along the the way through two women who lives become intertwined.

It's the kind of book I read and think how damn lucky I am to live where I do. Yes, we had a terrible tragedy hit the US. I still think the US is so safe in comparison. I can as a woman walk down the street with out fear that I will be beaten because I'm not wearing a burqa or that I am walking alone. I can be whatever I want to be. I can can get more education if I want it. My daughter also has that freedom.

It had me reconsidering our involvement in the Middle East. For the most part, I feel we need to get out. Yet when I think of the atrocities that happen there and that some of what we have done there has brought some stability. I'm not so sure. Because if anything is true to the story I just read if we leave, the fundamentalists will again take over and make things worse rather than better.

I highly recommend reading it or listening to the audio book narrated by Atossa Leoni whose voice was compelling. I warn you it's raw. There is good stuff in it because it is about people and there lives but there is death and destruction. It's war. There is love too.