2009

Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, cookbooks, Non-Fiction /

Milk was a total impulse pick from the new nonfiction arrivals at the library. I saw it placed on top of the nonfiction shelves as we made our way to the check out counter and grabbed it.

TW made fun of me.

Because I do not like milk. Except in my quad grande nonfat caramel macchiato.

She’s right. I don’t. But, I thought it might be interesting to read. It was. It also made me glad that I do not like milk. Also glad that I have not bought into the organic milk fad. I would like to try water buffalo milk, though. (By the way, the recipes and the “milk chemistry experiments” were really interesting. The book was worth picking up, just to read through those.)

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Two more Cybils

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I thought I’d finished with the picture books category but apparently not – I’ve still got some non-fiction books to go through and that’s good because the two I read yesterday are fantastic.

First, Wangari’s Trees of Peace – excellent drawings, simple story of a complex problem without overly frightening young children when speaking about the violence against Wangari.

Next, a book I will have to buy – several times over. My children are huge Wanda Gag fans. OK scratch that, they are huge Millions of Cats fans. The three older ones can probably tell the story word for word with just a wee bit of prompting. The three younger ones, probably can’t but have definitely heard “Hundreds of cats. Thousands of Cats. Millions and billions and trillions of cats.” over and over again.

Loved Wanda Gag: The Girl Who Lived to Draw. Loved the story, loved the art.

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Charlatan!

2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I reserved Charlatan at the library because @honeybeast told us about it in the BlogHer Book Club group and it sounded interesting.

Interesting does not even begin to describe the book or the life of JR Brinkley. I can’t believe I’ve never heard of him before. Crazy!

It made me a little queasy at first, all of that goat gonad surgery and stuff but once I settled in… it didn’t bother me at all. Actually, I think it was the goat ovary surgery that troubled me in the beginning, heh.

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Skinny Bitch

2009, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Non-Fiction /

I really could have and probably have sworn that I’d read Skinny Bitch shortly after it was published. But awhile back during a Chatter-fest of book review posts, @elisac led me to realize that I had not read it at all.

I was pretty troubled by this. A popular diet book that I have not read? Impossible.

So, I reserved it.

And now I’ve read it.

I did not enjoy it. In fact, I growled my way through it.

I’m not a vegan. I’m not anti vegan, either. And this book would not ever inspire me to become a vegan, for any reason at all.

There’s some good nutritional info lurking in this book but it’s twisted up in not so good info.

There’s some good food industry and food politics info but it’s twisted up in propaganda.

There are about two lines of information about how making smart food choices will help you be healthier but that’s twisted up in all of the profanity and all of the offensive and stereotypical commentary.

I’m glad I read it but I didn’t enjoy even a second of it.

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2 books – I’m behind on blogging

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Fiction, Non-Fiction /

I’m behind on everything. I’m also up at 10:30pm and have decided that I can’t do what I got up to do so I might as well catch up on the books before another three days go by and I’ve got to blog six books instead of two.

First, The Dead Beat. I saw this mentioned in a forum thread on the BlogHer Book Club group and reserved it at the library. I liked it but it wasn’t compelling. It wasn’t drop dead funny, either. So I kept putting it down rather than reading it straight through.

I’ll tell you what it did cause though – it caused me to spend a ton of time reading the obits of the little local paper. They were fabulous! It also has caused me to consider reading the Chicago Trib’s obits. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I have no free time for obit fixations.

(By the way, you should definitely join the BlogHer Book Club group – it’s fun! Really.)

Next, I read Infinity in the palm of her hand because A) I got it for TW and she seemed to enjoy it B) I got it for me because it is a creation story and I am a sucker for a good creation story.

This one didn’t let me down. Nice Adam & Eve story. I liked it a lot.

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Mighty Queens of Freeville

2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Women /

I am not an Ann Landers fan, I much prefer Dear Abby, so when Landers died and Ask Amy took her place, I really didn’t pay any attention. What led me to read The Mighty Queens of Freeville is simply…. I liked the title. I don’t even think I realized it was about Ask Amy until I got it home and TW started to read it.

TW didn’t really like the book very much. So, I didn’t know what to expect. I really started reading it because it was short and I was trying to decide what I wanted to read and couldn’t make the decision.

By the second chapter, I was hooked and didn’t want to put it down. I don’t know why TW didn’t love it… I certainly did. I’m almost tempted to read the Trib just to read her column. Almost. I mean it arrives in the driveway, you’d think I could take two minutes to find her column, right?

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The Hunger Games

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

I’ve heard an awful lot about The Hunger Games. I’ve seen blogs recommend it. I’ve had people I know recommend it. Sassymonkey has been bugging me to read it for ages and she hasn’t even read it yet (though she’d better have started it by now.)

Finally – got it from the library. TW read it and found it “oddly compelling” and could not put it down. She even stopped reading the second book she was reading so she could focus just on it.

I picked it up right after she finished it and oddly compelling doesn’t even come close to describing it.

Kids. Horrible controlling government. Survivor but for reals. Crazyness.

Sequel in September and I cannot WAIT.

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Handle with Care

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

I am a Jodi Picoult fan and every time I read one of her books I find myself wanting to throw the book across the room at some point (multiple points) in the story. Handle with Care caused that feeling at least six times. That probably means she did a good job with the story.

Jodi Picoult writes the adult version of the YA “problem” novel.

You know there’s going to be a serious problem with a kid (or several serious problems with several kids.) There’s going to be a law suit, or multiple law suits. There’s going to be a twist (or several twists) that you know is coming (but don’t really want to BELIEVE is coming.) That’s a Picoult novel.

Handle with Care had all of those Picoult elements.

I was worried this one was going to lose its way in the debate over abortion – it didn’t.

If you haven’t read this yet, but are planning on it – I recommend you not read the last entry by “Willow”. Just don’t bother. I liked the book until the ending. Picoult needs to stop going further than she needs to go – just leave it alone for goodness sakes before I stop reading your books.

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The Diary

2009, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction /

The Diary is another book I read just because it was sitting in the bedroom and meant I did not have to get up and go find a book in the dark office.

OK I also read it because TW read it the day before and went on and on about how good it was.

Well, it was ok but I wouldn’t rave about how good it was – even if I hadn’t been reading it when I punctured my foot on a ruler. It’s chick lit. It’s also very Nicholas Sparks-like, which probably means a lot of people would rave about how good it is.

I’m not one of those people.

Quick. Nice. Mushy love story. Done.

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