Wait, that's not entirely true. I remember when I used to live in Moreno Valley, my mom would force me to sit on the steps and read while she sewed. I think I was 7 at the time. Ok, I've been an avid reader since I was 8. Heehee.
Since I love to read so much of course one of the things on my list would involve books!
Here are my 4 for the month:
How Nancy Drew Saved My Life by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
You gals/guys know me well enough; how could I not resist?! I've been reading Nancy Drews since I was 9...and 14 years later, I still do. That's a post for another day though. :)
The first and foremost reason that I read this book was because of the title. Doh. That's enough for me. Haha, ok all kidding set aside, I was pleasantly surprised at how the book was written. It wasn't as fluffy as it sounds. Basically it uses the same story vehicle made popular by other pieces of chick-lit: girl meets boy, boy breaks girl's heart, girl moves away and takes a job somewhere else and meets other boy. But you add in a setting in Iceland, an adorable little girl, a somewhat silly but smart heroine (Charlotte Bell) and Nancy Drew (doh!), and it's not just another boring story. Oh yeah, it has a non-conventional ending, which was refreshing!
I actually read it in one sitting the second I came home from the library, and I plan to read it once more before it's due at the library next week. :)
Anybody Out There? by Marian Keyes
Marian Keyes is an author that I stumbled upon by accident. I think the first book I read by her was Sushi For Beginners, and I saw that, as well as this book, at the "recommended" section of my local library. I've been looking for another author to get into ever since I finished reading all of Olivia Goldsmith's books (she died of plastic surgery complications maybe 2-3 years ago?).
Anybody Out There? was a pretty good story. It's about a woman named Anna who wakes up from a terrible accident and doesn't know what happened to her or her husband. The book weaves in and out between past and present so it can get confusing. Plus Anna has a zillion sisters so it was hard to keep track sometimes. Oh and did I mention it takes place in the US and Ireland?? However, all the random stories lead to what happened to her husband, and how she copes. It's almost like a mystery, but more poignantly told. I actually teared up at some parts. This book really made me think about how we deal with loss- not just the actual loss, but the eventual acceptance of it.
After reading Anybody Out There? I think I will make it a point to check out all of Marian Keye's books.
24-Karat Kids by Dr. Judy Goldstein & Sebastian Stuart
Okay, I just read this book b/c it looked fun. And I wasn't really look for substance, which is the reason why I also read Bergdorf Blondes last year. What is so great about reading fluff is that sometimes there's something of value in it, and if there isn't, well at least I had fun reading it. :P
This book is about a lady who gets an offer to practice in THE prestigious Upper West Side peds clinic. Of course she comes from humble beginnings and hates everything that the rich stands for. Her fiance (who she's kinda bored with) also shares her sentiments. But she takes the job anyway, vowing to never become one of them. Almost immediately, she bonds with her little patients and she doesn't want to leave them to their psycho parents, so she has to learn to understand the lifestyle of the rich so she can better understand and treat her parents accordingly. And of course she and the fiance had a break up and she met other guys. The book is very predictable from the beginning. I knew what was going to happen at the end. But it is what happens in the pages in between is what made me like the book alot.
This book isn't for everybody! Boys, you'd be bored. :P
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Finally, no more fluff! Okay, I LOVED THIS BOOK. I need to read this again. There is amazing stuff in here! Gosh, where to start.
Okay, this book is divided into 3 parts- corn, grass, and the forager. In the corn part, you learn about how corn is such an integral part of our everyday diet- it's in nearly every processed food we eat! Even the meat some of us eat come from corn-fed animals. In this section, the author walks the reader through how meat is processed (pretty sad), and how cows aren't sposed to eat corn but they are force-fed it b/c it makes 'em grow faster! Cows, by nature, are only sposed to eat grass. There's some other stuff too but I don't remember it.
Okay in part two it's basically about the organic food industry. It talks about if the "organic" food really that much better than regular stuff, and if there is such a difference in the end. Very interesting! Then he talks about farms that rely on old-school farming. Man, that's way too much for me to even go into. You people need to read this book!
Finally in the last section he talks about pig hunting and mushroom gathering among other things. Made me hungry for salami and mushrooms! Sigh. The book was due today and I couldn't renew it, so I had to shove the last 80 pages or so in during work today. Okay, this is what I remember. (Jen walked into my office during lunch and I showed her an excerpt, so that's why it's come to mind.) In this one paragraph, he talks about how even though vegans don't eat animals b/c they don't wanna kill them, animals still die as a result of the planting/cultivating/harvesting of the grains that vegans eat (I don't remember the examples). So if we want to kill the least number of animals as possible, we need to eat the biggest single unit of food that exists in the smallest space- which is cow! (That's good news for Christina! :D)
This book was really interesting, I wish I could remember all the stories! What I really liked was that the author wasn't telling us what to eat or how to think. He just laid all the facts/stories there for us to digest, and for us to make what we wanted out of it.
I want to re-read this book a year from now. It's that good!
Whew. Look out for my next 4 books in a month! :) I hope all my reviews won't be as long as this one.
2 comments:
i wish i was a bookworm...
i was about to the omnivore's dilemma for my dad as a book on tape, but then i remembered he's vegetarian also thought he might get bored. maybe i'll read it first.
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