Monday, July 15, 2013

Interesting one

Gulp by Mary Roach. And absolutely fascinating look at all this digestive, from the jaw to saliva to the stomach and the not-so-glamourous output. Very interesting and well-written.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

There must be a better way

It is certainly not a matter of life or death that I get my reading list recorded for posterity (really for myself), but I sure wish I could come up with a better way for me to get it done. Probably just logging on to the blog and typing is the better way (rather than procrastinating and saying I will get to it later), so maybe I will just go for that solution. But for now I am stuck trying to remember what I have read since January...

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. I am thoroughly convinced that if high schools focused on having kids read well-written YA like this instead of all Dickens and Shakespeare all the time that this world would contain more adult readers. I am all for the classics and wouldn't advocate not studying them anymore, but it is books like this that I think will truly engage young adults and open up the world of reading to "reluctant readers".

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an accidental country girl by Ree Drummond. Yes...another cookbook. But I read them from cover to cover, so I think they count as a read book! And the recipes I tried were super yummy.

Stranger Here: How Weight Loss Surgery Transformed my Body and Messed with my Head by Jen Larsen. I bought this one for a friend that recently had weight-loss surgery and had to preview it, of course. Interesting and insightful. Can't say it made me want to line up for gastric bypass surgery - sounds pretty unpleasant.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This was probably the first time I actually really read this book (I skimmed an Cliff-noted my way through it before) and it was a really good book. Tragic and sad and left me feeling pretty hopeless (briefly!), but an excellent book.

Fat to Skinny Fast and Easy by Doug Varrieur. I am always hopeful! But there was nothing terribly new in this one.

Let's Pretend this Never Happened by Jenny Lawson. This one didn't disappoint. I love these humor/memoir type books. And I totally appreciated the part about buying a huge metal chicken that just "needed" to go home with her...totally something I would do. That is why I have a taxidermied raccoon eating Cracker jacks on a shelf in my basement.

The 100-year Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. This was a great book. We've all got some life in us no matter how old we get.

Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal by Melanie Warner. Another "food" book...I don't know exactly why I love these books so, but it is always fascinating to me to read about the food industry and gross myself out with the details of processed foods. Chicken nuggets don't mold, they turn to liquid gross-ness...who knew!?!?!

Carpe Demon: Tales of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom by Julie Kenner. Mindless and fun. Haf to track down the remaining books as they are currently out of print, but I suspect it will be totally worth it to have a bit more fluffy fun!

And there are about three books I am REALLY wanting to add as I am ALMOST done with them, but I will wait. It will provide a memory challenge when i get around to posting again, six months from now.