Cammykitty's Minimalist Category Challenge

Last year, I had one zillion categories so this year, I'm going to do the opposite. I'm going to have four categories and a slush category for everything else. I may end up analyzing the slush later, but hey, no pressure... except for those four categories. The four categories are designed to stretch me, push me out of my comfort zone or in general build more neurons in my brain. Yup, neuron growth is good... 5 books in each category.

Here are my reading companions, Wanda & Sage.


Sage is sitting back, teaching Wanda to read.




My Categories are:
1. Lambda Award winners or shortlist
2. Animal (and human) behavior
3. Authors from Central America, Columbia or Venezuela
4. Books in Spanish
5. everything else

And as in the past, a book over 400 pages can count as two.

Category 1
Lambda Award nominees or winners
1. Things Invisible to See
2. Hard Love
3. Slow River
4.
5.

Possibles:
Sacrament
Fingersmith

Category 2
Animal (and human) behavior
1. Lads Before the Wind
2. Fight!: A Practical Guide to the Treatment of Dog-dog Aggression by Jean Donaldson
3. Pawprints of History by Stanley Coren
4.
5.

Possibles:
Frankensteins Cat

Category 3
Authors from Central America, Columbia or Venezuela
1. There Never Was a Once Upon a Time
2. One Day of Life
3. Our Lady of Assassins
4.
5.

Possibles
Gabriel Garcia Marquez No one writes to the Colonel
Rodrigo Rey Rosa Guatemala The Good Cripple or The African Shore
Carmen Naranjo There Never Was a Once Upon a Time Costa Rica Pearl Ruled
Manlio Argueta Magic Dogs of the volcanoes El Salvador
Omar Cabeza Fire from the Mountain Nicaragua
Fernando Vallejo our lady of assassins Columbia
Romulo Gallegos Dona Barbara Venezuela
Salvador Garmendia Memories of Altagracia Venezuela
Ruben Dario Nicarauga (Juan P's rec)
Clandestine in Chile
Papillon by Henri Charrière Venezuela

I'm finding tons of authors who aren't readily available translated. !!! Especially from Venezuela and I'm wondering if it's partly political. Hmmm

Category 4
Books in Spanish
1. El Hada de las Cadenas by Francisca Solar
2. Blacksad: un lugar entre las sombras
3. Magic Dogs of the Volcanoes
4.
5.

Possibles:
The Censors

Group Reads???
March The Three Musketeers
Second Quarter Wild Swans
May Umberto Eco Six walks in the fictional woods
June The Brothers Karamazov
July Armadale
November Shirley
Year Long Arabian Nights

1and2. The Three Musketeers

Category 5



A "goodly portion" of these should come from books I already own

Everything Else:
1. The Coroner's Lunch
2. Suite Francaise
3. Toning the Sweep
4. Keesha's House
5. Insects and Angels
6. Darkness, Take my Hand
7. Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment
8. The Confusions of Young Törless (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by Robert Musil
9. Trash Sex Magic by Jennifer Stevenson
10. The Well's End ER novel
11. The dog at the Door
12. The Everything Guide to Managing and Reversing Pre-Diabetes
13. The Prediabetes Diet Plan
14-15 The Lies of Locke Lamora
16. Salt Sugar Fat
17. The Ice Owl

Books listed as possible in 2013 that I never got to and still want to:
Columbine by Dave Cullen
Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane
Anything We Love Can Be Saved
Corpse Walker
The Professor and the Madman
The Razor's Edge
Emma
Portrait of a Lady
Natural History by Justina Robson

Other books I want to read:
Wunderkind by Nikolai Grozni

8

9

10

I'm first to say hi! :-)

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Hi Di!!! Thanks for corrupting me so I would get this thread done today!

Awwww I love the doggies!!! :D Adorable.

Awesome to see your thread now up, Katie and I love the picture of your reading companions!

Is that a graphic novel they're reading? Got you starred again.

ooh, an animal behaviour category and a Spanish category... I will be making an attempt at reading Spanish this year, so I'll have to keep an eye on that one :)

Good luck with this years reading, hope you'll find many lovely books on your way :)

Next year I am going to learn my lesson and have an everything else category. Every year not being able to record all my reading in my cat challenge drives me mad, every year I forgot to do something about that :)

Anyway good luck!

Great to see you back, Katie.

Thanks for stopping by everyone. Yes, the dogs decided to see what they thought of Fairest. I haven't had a chance to check it out myself yet. They thought the pictures might make it easier since they are still learning to read. I think I can read Spanish just a little easier than they can read English. ;)

Britt, I've had Spanish as a part of my challenge for a few years to make sure I do it. Last year was my first venture into books that didn't have translations side by side. My advice is take it easy on yourself! I tried one last year that was just too hard. This year, I'm hoping to find some Blacksad and some YA from the library.

Claire, oh yes! A fairly open category is a must to doing this challenge and keeping your sanity!!! I think that's why I hit my reading slump last year. It was close to the end and obviously the categories that were left were the more difficult ones. They started to become have tos rather than want tos.

I'm looking forward to seeing all your threads soon! Di and I were talking about some of them yesterday. Mamzel, we love the ships.

And #1 is a book I got from bookmooch because I kept hearing it praised hear. The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill. The mystery side of it was good, but what really makes the books is Dr. Siri, his friends, and the setting which is Laos post communist revolution. It is down to earth, with a wonderful blend of spiritual beliefs and science. The dogs enjoyed it too, since there was a rather heroic dog in the story as well. They thought the story was about Saloop and his learning to get along with a weird human that is followed by spirits.

Hey! Are you coming back to the 75 group, or should I bother you over here? :-)

You're going to read Slow River?! Yay!!!

Katie - Glad to see you here and lets shake those reading slumps right off!

*Starred* for your 2014 category adventures!

Kerri, good to hear some enthusiasm for Slow River. I don't know much about it, but when I looked up the list of Lambda Awards, it called my name. I am in the 75ers, so if you want to just follow one thread, I'll find you over there.

Roberta & Laura - yes, down with reading slumps!!!

And here's my first "adventure" for 2014. #2 in the Spanish Language category El Hada de las Cadenas by Francisca Solar was an adventure fitting for Scooby Doo. Okay, I bit too scary for Shaggy since it had cadavers, leopards and blood in it, but it had that feel. We were in the Amazon Rain Forest among a tribe that understood Spanish but didn't speak it (???) looking for a bunch of missing people who were possibly taken by el hada, the local ghost-spirit. It was an okay read, but I got annoyed with the self-centered protagonist who is a woman with a hint of schizophrenia. Angels watch over her. Still, she forces her not-a-friend to come with her on this adventure by pulling rank, even though he has just come from his father's funeral. I didn't see anything that said this was a series in process, but it read like one. Without more background information, that's pretty... cruel? But the story needed him. Marco, el matasantos, was the best character in the book.

Didn't notice your thread yesterday while I was goofing off at work, but I've found and starred it now. Looking forward to your animal category.

Happy New Year, Katie, and here's to another great reading year. I've given up on teaching Emmie to read. She's stubbornly illiterate.

Hi Betty & Kay,
After Suite Francaise, I may start Lads before the Wind to see if there are any reading tips for Wanda. I'll bet I can at least get her to pose better over a book, for a treat. The treats actually made the photo session worse because she kept getting excited and lunging for the treat. Okay, confession. They can't read. I posed them.

Katie - So sorry it is a day late but Happy New Year! I hope 2014 is filled with many blessings for you.

It's never too late to wish someone a Happy New Year! Thanks luv.

Gracie hates the camera so getting a picture never mind getting her to pose, is difficult. And she's all black too (border collie but no white streak on her face) and doesn't photo well anyway.

When my son was an infant we had a Golden Retriever. As it is with most first children, I had the camera handy to record his growth. Satchmo would sigh, move over to wherever my son was and resignedly sit and pose. It cracked me up. There are hardly any pictures without him in them.

>30 dudes22: Gracie is WHITE! :-) Ok, my Gracie who helps Cammykitty with Sages courage issues is small & white. She was actually holding a book open for me the other day. And I thought about taking a picture. . . but it was just too much effort! I don't think she cares either way about getting her picture taken.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Oh yes, black dogs don't photograph well! Mine are dark enough that I have problems too. Watch the commercials. You'll almost never see a black dog in them. Mamzel, how funny! The dog knows he's really the star, not the baby! Di, aw! We would've loved to have seen the picture. I almost never have a camera when cute stuff happens. At Woof Central, I was in the rowdy dog room and yes they were being rowdy, when Bear who is a big hairy gold god knows what and Delilah a little bowling ball of a bulldog decided to both flop down belly up in the middle of the room while another dog kept play bowing them. Funny funny.

#3 in the meant to read it last year category, Suite Francaise. This book wasn't what I expected. It started off slowly, but I was really into it about 60 pages in and loved the second half of it. How uncomfortable! Some people have this book tagged as a Holocaust novel, but it isn't. Two sections of it were never completed because the author was a Jew and was sent to a concentration camp by the Nazis, but there are only a few comments about over zealous Christians and one reference to Anti-Semitism. The historical background of the book is a chilling subtext that Nemirovsky didn't address. What she did address was the class structure of the French people and how they interacted with each other, good and bad, during the end of France's fighting and the first year of the occupation. This is a deeply psychological novel, and no one is wholly evil and perhaps only one couple is blameless. I'm amazed she was able to write with this sharp a vision while the whole mess was happening. It has the feel of distance, of an author who has had time to see how it historically shakes out but chooses to stick to a certain time and place. However, she didn't live to see how it all shook out. Highly recommended. I gave it 4 1/2 stars. Now to find out what an Alsation is. I know it's a fairly common breed, but we don't call it that in the United States.

It's a German Shepard here, Katie.

Oh, we certainly don't call them Alsations. They are of course German Shepherds. Of course there would be a German Shepherd in Suite Francaise.

Hi cammykitty, great review for Suite Française, on the BB list, it goes ! I wanted to read it a few years back and then forget about it, thanks :)

@34 ok thats the final push for me to read Suite Francaise. I have been solidly ignoring it whilst it languishes on the tbr but you review pushes to potential reads..

I was "shoulding" and avoiding Suite Francaise for awhile too. The second half is especially good. Electrice and Claire, you won't be sorry if you read it.

Nice review of Suite Francaise, Katie. I'm hoping to read it this summer. Your review has me looking forward to the experience.

RE Suite Francaise: This is a deeply psychological novel,

That is why I have it on my TBR bookcase! I kept on staring at it, wondering why I had purchased it and now I know. Time to move it up the future reading list.

Violet & Lori, good Summer reading. I swear I read something recently that said heating fuel was scarce so the old people were staying in bed because it was the only place warm enough. Must have been Suite Francaise. I feel like I'm living that now. I'm in Minnesota and it's something like -20 F outside and it's 52 F on the thermostat in the house. & school is cancelled for the second day in the row due to the weather. Excuse to read?

I was reading Lads before the wind: Diary of a Dolphin Trainer and it inspired me to cut up some treats and run around the house calling each dog's name. Wanda has a horrible habit of blowing me off when she's outside barking and I want her to come in. Too cold to keep calling her!!!

You're so lucky you don't have to go to work n this weather. -20!! yikes! It's 6F degrees here and I only just got out of bed to make some tea and oatmeal. Luckily I am not scheduled to work today or I would have had a 45 minute walk in this weather. I'm worried about everyone in the middle of the continent. It doesn't help that I'm presently reading The Children's Blizzard and learning about all the snow that fell every winter from 1881 until the devastating blizzard in 1888. (I think I have the years correct).
Can you let Wanda stay in the yard, barking, until she gets cold enough to come to the door looking to be let inside?
Stay warm!!

Wow! I wouldn't dare read The Children's Blizzard right now! If it were just 30 degrees, sure, but that would seem like reading a probable apocalypse story at the moment.

Thing is, Wanda doesn't seem to get cold??? I saw her lifting up one paw outside, but it was up for just a second. Small dogs let you know. They stand on three legs for a while and then switch and stand on a different group of three legs. Wanda could get frostbite and still want to run around and look for squirrels that have more sense then to be out in this.

Katie - I cannot imagine how cold it is in Minnesota right now. I don't ever want to find out.

I'm not looking at Suite Francaise. I'm not! *closes her eyes tight*

I give in!

Ha! Gracie runs around outside like usual. About the only difference is the speed at which she goes through the door coming in, if I have it open fast enough. Last night she slid to a stop about 6 feet away from the door. I was thinking that with it being 15 below she would run out pee and run back to the door, but nope.

And I have now posted some reviews . . . Mom!

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

ooh, I actually have Suite Francaise on my stack of unread books somewhere! Sounds like I need to pull it out and put it somewhere near the top :)

The dogs at Woof are being babies about it!!! I was told even some of the big dogs were standing on three paws and none of them wanted to stay outside long enough to do what they needed too. See, Gracie really is bold! She's the perfect choice for a courage consultant.

Luv, so sorry I hit you with a book bullet. ;) Britt, hope your stack is small enough that you can find it. As for me, I just found a bag of books from a library book sale that happened sometime last year and still hasn't been entered in LT. And of course, the first book is something I would've read in December to finish of my Mexico category, if only I'd known I had it.

Was Suite Francaise a library book? Because I am wondering if I should read it. . . I know it doesn't fit into any of my categories (right now) but I am thinking that I also want to learn about the time period around 1900-1950, but mostly the time between the two world wars. I figure start with a smaller pool, and then expand.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Sorry. It is a library book. An e- book that usually has a wait list.

Just as well, it's not like I don't have enough to read already!

I don't suppose you want to re-do your kitchen with a Mexican/South American kind of theme? We could throw in a little Irish too. . . :-) A nice bright yellow/gold on the walls. . .we could search the junk shops for tiles for a back splash. . .

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Oh my oh my, I'd feel a bit like a poser with a South American kitchen! Did I tell you our Mexican kids didn't know what avocado was even with a picture, and when I told them guacamole, they said "I don't like that but my parents do." !!! No accounting for taste. I was a teenager when I first tasted avocado and I fell in love with it right away.

And speaking of, I had to use my Spanish in gym class today. "Tu camisa es muy baja." In other words, I got to tell one of our 13 year old girls her shirt was showing more cleavage than the boys could handle. She zipped up her hoodie and blushed.

They want to be American, and are rebelling. Sort of like there is nothing worse then a reformed smoker. . .

Just a hint of Mexican/South American as inspiration. . . we can add Celtic knot-work around the doors & windows if it makes you feel better. Check out Hacienda Style by Karen Witynski or Mexican Country Style. . .

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

@53 LOL, you know she zipped up her Aeropostale sweatshirt to hide her cleavage.

Rosy orange Celtic knot work with teal blue outlines? Someone would get offended! Although I've said before, my largely Irish background has got to be Protestant Irish. Too many Lutheran ministers in my background for them to have been Catholic.

Or we could find a tea towel or something to use for inspiration. . .

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Do you think a tea towel would survive in my kitchen? With Ms Wanda?

>52 cammykitty: I was a teenager when I first tasted avocado and I fell in love with it right away.
I have always loved them too. I fed it as one of the first foods to my first son, and it was the only one he spat out! I was shocked :)
He has come around now though.

One of my latest reads fits into one of your categories: Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel García Márquez ....probably available in Spanish too, I'd assume. It was goooood. (and short if you are looking for a quickie- as it were)

Lol! I guess avocado requires an "educated" palate! I just had a nice Yucatan Chicken salad with avocado in it. Di, alias DS, alias Bruce's evil twin, for company. :)

Thanks Megan for the book req. Clandestine in Chile sounds perfect, and not one of the the obvious Garcia Marquez candidates ... which I've already read.

Book #4 Toning the Sweep was a big disappointment, but at least it was a quick read. Angela Johnson is an incredible writer that I know from reading The First Part Last, but Toning the Sweep left me cold. I wasn't even five pages in when I thought, oh no another YA novel where Grandma dies in the end. Well, SPOILERS, to Johnson's credit, she ended the book at a celebration while Grandma was still alive, but had refused chemo. The grieving/healing centered around a death that happened previous to the action of the novel. I love the African-American aspect of the novel, but it's a subject I'm tired of and I feel Missing May and Walk Two Moons do a better job of covering similar ground.

Love your categories - looking forward to following along. And the pic of Wanda and Sage is great!

I feel really good about the fact that Suite Francaise is already on the library TBR list. Now I just have to find time to read it!

I love the dog talk here! My little guy is white, tan, and brown, but he has play dates with a dog that's black with gray highlights. I've tried to get pictures of them together but they just don't turn out well. I have to tell people that the thing that looks like a rug, blanket, or pillow is really a dog!

!!! Some dogs just look like rugs !!! I remember walking by a garage sale and thinking "oh tacky! They are selling a bear skin rug." Then the rug got up and moved. It was a Newfoundland of course. Carrie, it's so hard to get pictures of dogs playing. I wish I lived near enough to you so I could try myself, or have Jerome try. Jerome, my boyfriend, is really good at getting dog photos. I used to take photos at the dog park, and found I had to take a lot of photos to get a few good ones, and I also had to point and shoot where I thought the dogs were going to be, not where they were.

Hope you do get to read Suite Francaise!

I can't even get a good picture of Stella when she's lying still! She's so dark that she just doesn't photograph well.

I hear ya Carrie! It's that black dog thing. They're awfully cute, but they don't photograph. Just black and glowing eyes, if you're lucky.

#5 Keesha's House is a YA novel in poems about a group of kids who need to leave home and struggle to find shelter and people who care about them. As for the poems, I was a poetry major in college so I'm picky. She picked the sonnet and the sestina as her forms. Both are challenging forms, and she didn't pull them off. As poetry, it fell apart. As a novel though, it was a great little piece with a chorus.

#6Things Invisible to See starts out the 1st category, Lambda Awards. This is a collection of GLBT "magical realism" short stories. I, personally, don't like the term magical realism referring to anything than Latin American writing which comes out of a tradition of Catholicism. Only one story had an angel in it, if you can call that an angel, so I'd call these urban fantasy. On the whole, the stories were really good and would resonate with most people, be they GLBT or not. One story, "The Penis Story" about a woman who grows one, was awful IMHO but perhaps I'm not the audience for that one. I much preferred the one (horror story) where Elvis shows up. The last story, "The Vision of Men" was a sleeper. It started out slow and I thought about skipping it, but I'm glad I didn't. It was subtle and romantic.

#7 begins the animal behavior category Lads Before the Wind. That isn't the only thing this book started. This is Karen Pryor's account of how she became a dolphin trainer and how she trained. Her methods, based on operant conditioning and the work of BF Skinner and others, became the basis for clicker training that is used now on dogs. The book has taken on a life of it's own. At first, it was a book on dolphins. Later, it became popular as a book on training. The book originally came out in the 70s and much has been done with this kind of training since, so there are better books on clicker training. This book would be for the well-seasoned trainer who could read between the lines to see what she was doing and wanted some history behind the method. As a book on dolphins, animal cognition and shaping behavior, it has much to offer. At times, it's fascinating. However, the book sometimes took a broad scope and talked about her marriages, people she worked with, people she had to fire etc. I wasn't interested in managing the people she worked with, only the animals. So I skipped a couple of chapters.

You skipped some chapters?!??!

:-)

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Yup! I'm an adult now. I can skip chapters if I want! The main one I skipped was on training the trainers, which spent a lot of time saying who the trainers were but not how she trained them. Chapter title from outline obviously stayed, even though it wasn't what she wrote. She also added about 4 chapters to the book after its first publication, and the chapters didn't really fit. Some of them were interesting articles, but I'll confess to skimming the one on dolphin safe tuna. There was one on dolphins helping fishermen net fish in Brazil that was really interesting though.

The Magic Realism tag is an interesting one. I'm leaning toward agreeing with you that it should refer to a specific literary movement and not just anything "magical". Maybe we could come up with a cool name for books like that so they could be characterized without being thrown in with the S. American stuff. I like both, but don't think the novels of Sarah Addison Allen and Gabriel García Márquez necessarily belong in the same category.

edited to fix a typo.

@70 agree, although probably because I am not a huge fan of that literary movement it means I miss some great stuff!

One of the differences seems to be that in the Latin American stuff, it's usually woven in as incidental to the plot - Like Water for Chocolate and The Stone Raft being exceptions - whereas in English "magical" gasp "realism" it tends to take center stage - look, see what happens if we flood a whole town but it's not like a real sewage and dead body type flood. Ick. Terri Windling's short stories is of course the exception, but she calls her writing "interstitial" not magical realism.

I'm reading Angels and Insects now and it's very rich but slow going. Of course I expected that from A.S. Byatt and totally expect it to be worth it by the end.

When it was warm, long long ago this Sunday, we took 4 Irish Water Spaniels to Battle Creek Dog park. Here's one of the photos. Sage was in his element.



Ah, the dark dog problem! You can barely see his eyes!

Yes, but with the snow as a background at least you can tell that there's a dog there!

I have trouble getting pics of my dogs too. A children's photographer who used to be a nanny told me to keep my finger on the shutter release and release at the "magic" moment. It works most of the time. Works on kids too. :)

Magical Realism is a difficult one. I am with RidgewayGirl - it is a bit of stretch when a genre tries to lump both Sarah Addison Allen and Gabriel García Márquez into the same category.

Love the picture of Sage running in the snow!

Lori's right about the odd categorizations of "magical realism," but then I suspect that with as many varieties of mysteries and so forth, that a person could complain about the difference in a hard-boiled/noir and a cozy read both being categorized as mystery. I read Garden Spells when it first came out. Later I heard it was classified as "magical realism," and I found myself asking why it was categorized that way. I've come to understand the nuance a little better since that time, but I didn't get it at the time.

I haven't read the Garden Spells books but they look like they are tending towards something that could be called urban fantasy (not that it has an urban setting) or realistic fantasy. I agree with you somewhat Lori T, but mystery is a genre, hard- boiled and cozy are sub-genres. Usually, magical realism is a sub-genre of the literary genre, but sometimes it's fighting to be a sub-genre of Fantasy. The term is being used much more broadly than it was to begin with, to the point that I can find an essay that states that the definition of "magical realism" is fantasy written by someone with a PHD. Cynical, but it is becoming that way and then it opens the door to the hard feelings of Science Fiction/Fantasy writers to the University/Literary establishment. It's become a loaded term.

That said, book #8 Insects and Angels by A.S. Byatt falls somewhere in the broad category of realistic fantasy, "interstitial" blending the borders between faith, folklore and fact. The first novella in the collection "Morpho Eugenia" has no magic or supernatural in it, but it works heavily with symbolism and compares social insects to Victorian British society. There's also an undercurrent of Darwinism vs Deism, that kind of ends up sadly.

The second story I really loved, "The Conjugial Angel." It is one of the only stories I've read that walk the fine line of Spiritualism between belief and fraud. Only some subtle form of realistic fantasy could successfully pull this off. Reading this, I can see why so many learned people including Arthur Conan Doyle, became such a part of the Spiritualist movement. It is a story about lost loves and conflicting allegiences, but it is also a thinking story involving poetry, Swedenborgian angels, the place of man in the world, men's worlds vs women's worlds and the nature of soul mates. There are so many thoughts raised in it that I wish I could draw a plot diagram for you. It doesn't go up and down in a pyramid. It doesn't expose the problem, make the problem worse and then tie up the problem. Instead there are a few plot threads that are sort of resolved in the end, but the threads are made out of a shaggy yarn full of ideas. So what my plot diagram would end up looking like would be a misshapen, fuzzy macrame bracelet. Which isn't a bad thing at all. I admire her daring and ability to pull that off.

And while I was reading Angels and Insects, I started the year long group read of The Arabian Nights and my edition has an essay in it by none other than AS Byatt. She is a modern folklorist, and her The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye definitely reflects that.

>73 cammykitty:, Yes, but at least your dogs will let themselves be photographed. Mine hates the camera and will run away / hide so you can't get a picture.

What a great picture! He looks like he's having so much fun.

@79 Jennifer, I've heard of dogs who are afraid of/hate the camera. I'll bet it's the flash. Maybe lots of treats and outdoor photos? Or maybe he thinks it's going to steal his soul!

@80 Thanks Betty. He always has a blast when he can run someplace he feels safe. This is my chicken dog!

Katie is so much braver with the weather than I. I figured if Gracie & I went I would freeze to before she decided it was time to go home.

I found a picture of Gracie from the park this summer. I made it our profile pic. I found a pretty good picture of Odie too, but no idea how to post it. . .

DS
(Bruce'e evil twin :-))

I don't feel so brave hiding in the house with snow blowing around, dreaming of matzo ball soup or thai food! I'll show you how to post some time. It's kind of awkward, unless someone knows a way to post to a thread without putting the photo on a host site like photobucket first.

Too bad that Thai place in Uptown doesn't deliver anymore. I shoveled a tiny bit on my way out to the CONvergence Ops meeting. When I got home the snow had blown down the driveway so much you couldn't tell I did anything. In fact it was even deeper! And its not even SNOWING!! Just blowing.

I backed my car into the driveway tonight. I figure given that the temps are cold enough to close the University of MN & most of the schools tomorrow, parking so the wind isn't blowing on the front end would be a good thing.

Wish I had a fireplace, so I could curl up in front of it with a good book! I think that soon will be a good time for some romance novels. I am reading Tablet and Pen and it is starting to wear me out. I vaguely remember reading Iqbal in Urdu and liking him a lot, so either the works that they chose to include are just not my taste or the translator didn't really evoke the right feelings/moods.

I have Garden Spells and enjoyed it, but not enough that it was one of those books that I think everyone should read.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

It's a balmy summer day here. I got the lawn furniture out! And chucked it in the snow bank. Won't need it ever again. Yes, good day for a light, fluffy read. And Thai food, delivered. Sigh, things that are not to be.

Yesterday, I finished reading book #9 Darkness, Take My Hand which is a book I've been looking forward to reading for years but for some reason never getting to it. I read the first book in the series A drink before the war while taking a class on mystery writing and was very impressed. As for Darkness, the characterization was great for the main characters, little more than red shirts for many of the clients and victims - which is right for a book with such a high body count, but we should care about at least one client. Nope. The setting is fabulous, an Irish neighborhood in Boston filled with triple-locked apartments, booby-trapped abandoned buildings and a playground that has seen it's share of dead bodies stuffed in the garbage barrels. If the intent of this book is to build suspense, enter a world where everything is wrong and end feeling dirty, Dennis Lehane succeeded. That's what I loved from the first novel, but I took it for granted in the second and instead had time to notice what felt contrived. Certain things felt like they happened for the plot. They weren't logical outcomes out of characterization or circumstance. For example, why SPOILER would you take your idiot friend who can't even hold a gun to meet some mobsters you're threatening if you know he can't keep his mouth shut and can't handle the situation, even if he threatens you with the gun that he can't handle? Puhleeze! Patrick isn't an idiot, and what he did toward the end of the novel was perfectly idiotic and the same results could have been accomplished a different way.

>81 cammykitty:, That's probably it. I got a new phone a few months ago that flashes briefly to focus the image, and since then it's gone from this ("Aren't I cute?"):



to this ("Why won't you leave me alone!"):



ETA, 9/6/14: Rest in peace, my cute little terrier

That is one cute dog. What kind is he?

She's a terrier mix, basically a shorter, stockier Jack Russell.

What a cutie!

My boss wants to know who was so bad that the world decided to keep dumping snow on us! OMG I am so glad I start work at Oh God hundred! Other people had 3-4 hour commutes this morning, mine was only about 15 minutes longer.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Oh, Jennifer! Poor Baby!!! She is so cute!!! Even when she's hiding from the camera! I'd say she hates the flash. Maybe we can get some sunglasses for her. ;)

@89 My 10 minute drive took closer to 25. I live so close to work, it shouldn't be a big deal. I did see a garbage truck swerve across both lanes of Penn though and was very thankful no one was near him. Of all things that should be able to stay on the road, a garbage truck is one of them. My coworker who just moved here from New York didn't dare leave her apartment. I have to say I understand. Today wasn't a good day to learn how to drive in snow. & I'm so so so grateful for my bf because he shoveled and let the dogs out while I was at work. 5 stars for him today!

Love the dog photos ... as well as the discussion on magical realism as I'd just started One Hundred Years of Solitude. I'm not sure how I feel about this genre (or sub-genre), though there have been some works (e.g. Murakami's) in this category that I've really liked. The description that you'd cited, "fantasy written by someone with a Ph.D," has some merit. :)

All caught up, star dropped!

The magical realism discussion is interesting to me. I feel like many of you that it mainly connects with a certain brand of south american writing. But in my opinion the works of, for instance, Murakami have much of the same feeling, and way of handling it's "magical" element. So for me, the label doesn't necessarily have to be limited to a defined literary movement - but it still absolutely strikes me as way too broad.

I've occasionally tried to use the term "slipstream", often used to described writers like Karen Russell or George Saunders or Catherinne Dunn or Toby Litt. But I don't seem to quite get the hang of it. To me, it seems to be about writing operating on yet another step closer to realism, but with an odd, grotesque quality to it. But I have a hard time trying to define the borders of that too, even if it's easy to see the kinship between the above writers for instance.

>73 cammykitty: Who needs to see eyes when you can flaunt a tongue like that!?

A lot of the stories in Tablet & Pen involve magical realism. In one story the main character is walking in the street at night and someone comes running out of a building and yells that he has just killed his girlfriend needs to hide, so the main character has him hide in his pocket and then later the guy jumps out as a sesame seed.

It is so hard to relate when it was originally written for your 'native' culture, but when it is from another culture it is even harder to understand what is going on because there may be cultural cues that you don't catch. Give me straight fantasy any time!

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Hi Katie! Just checking in on your white winter. I hope you re keeping warm and have plenty of great books to keep you company.

I'm finally going to finish Watchmen.

Paulina, Murakami - interesting that you should mention him. I haven't read nearly enough of his work, but you are right. His writing actually does feel like it would fit in Magical Realism, except for being Japanese instead of Latin. His fantastic elements come from folk belief and feel right, like two dragons shifting around under the earth causing earthquakes. He is an odd writer, who doesn't seem to want to be pinned down to a genre or category.

& Anders, Slipstream! Yes, that's the other term for "interstitial" and for writers who don't want to be tied down to a category. Yes, our vocabulary for talking about all this is getting muddled, or never was terribly precise in the first place. I'm beginning to think that sorting out all the variations in fantastic writing is as daunting a task as developing the first periodic table of elements.

& yes! The Irish Water Spaniel tongue!!! Pretty funny, isn't it. I had a friend who was working with an artist who was doing a portrait of an IWS. There was something wrong with the portrait and they just couldn't place it. Then my friend said "I know! The tongue should be twice as long."

Roberta, yeah!!! You're going to finish Watchmen! I'll swing by to see what you think.

As for my reading, I've been sick with the sinus infection from h.e. double toothpicks and my reading has just failed me. I'm reading Maximum Ride which isn't living up to it's reputation and There Never Was a Once Upon A Time which baffles me. It's a group of short stories by a highly praised Costa Rican poet/author. They aren't early work, but they seem very sophomorish and precious written in an experimental style that is all too familiar. They are very vague, which is a deliberate author's choice, and could take place anywhere. They are 1st person, children, but all the voices sound the same and not terribly authentic. At least not to me. Each story has a twist that is interesting, but not quite interesting enough to carry the whole story. The book is only 100 pages long but I'm pearl ruling it at 45. I hope it's just a book I don't like and not the start of a reading slump. Right now, I'm not eager to pick up another book but that's the antidote.

Oh no, a sinus infection! Hope you feel better soon and that your next book manages to cheer you up!

Sinus infections are the worst! Inhale lots and lots of steam!

Sinus infections are not fun.... hope you are feeling better soon! Do you have a vaporizer you can use to help cleanse the nasal passages?

Thanks for wishing me health. It's been hanging on forever. Tomorrow, I'm going to go see my allergist. He usually knows how to get rid of these things. In the meantime, yes, lots of steam! Someone brought three kinds of soups in to work today and I had two - broccoli and Thai Coconut Carrot. I figure if I could eat every day like that, this infection wouldn't have a chance!

Well, I finished #10. I'm doing pretty good so far of picking books that have been languishing on my shelves for a long time. This one was the hot YA book before Hunger Games and Divergent. Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment. Big disappointment. It was a fast moving, meandering adventure story. I'm not really sure why it has been so successful.

Next up Hard Love which I am enjoying. The characterization in it is great.

My daughter really loved the Maximum Ride books. But then she's 11. I think the short chapters and non-stop action were what held her interest. I've only read the first two and wasn't terribly impressed.

@101 The short chapters are genius for that age group. It is frenetic action, but as an adult, you can see it's spinning their wheels sorts of actions. It isn't tightly plotted at all. I was able to find a kid to give my water stained copy to pretty quickly. He'd heard all about the series from someone else who loved them.

#11 Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger #2 in the Lambda section is based on a beautiful song by Minnesota's own Bob Franke. I've known and loved the song for years and never imagined it as the book does, but it fits as it fits many situations. You can find the song sung by June Tabor here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR-NbkYofO4 Bob Franke is an excellent folk song writer, but a horrible singer so he isn't well known. I'd love to hear someone like June do a collaboration with him.

Well, on to the book. I gave it a 5 star rating. It's a story about a straight boy who becomes close friends with a lesbian, and all the awkwardness that comes with that. Very well done. Great characterization and it doesn't have the "oh too bad" feel of Make Lemondade that borders on the offensive. That said, it isn't appropriate for the same age level as Make Lemonade. Make Lemonade is a safe book. Hard Love is not.

#12 My next Central American book is taking a long time to come from the library so I took There Never Was a Once a Time off of the pearl rule list and finished it. I don't know. I'm giving it a two star rating, but I understand my disappointment with it a little better now. With my "foreign" author categories, I expect to get a sense of place and history that is different than my own. There Never Was a Once upon a Time was a set of short stories written as fairy tales, mostly without the magic element. Once in a while, the politics of Central America would get a line or two in the stories but mostly the stories were anyplace happening to anyone. One story even kept changing the genders of the characters, and I was reading in translation so I'm not the one confused. I'm wondering how she did that in Spanish, because that is a much more gendered language than English. I only sort of liked two of the stories - one about a girl who wants to be like her uncle, the clown - one about a Utopia. The other stories felt a little like punch line stories that hinged on a twist, one twist so bad it made me groan.

#13 The Confusions of Young Törless (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by Robert Musil. Sexual extortion in an Austrian boys' school. I think I was supposed to be shocked but have seen/heard enough about the stereotypical British boys' school that it failed to shock. Torless's philosophizing about the act didn't do anything for me either. I just finished with a feeling of "ick, why did I finish this?" At least I can clear out one of the books I got at a library book sale.

#14 Blacksad: un lugar entre las sombras was the first Blacksad. It was of course, beautifully done kitty noir. A former flame of Blacksad's is found dead, and he feels compelled to avenge her. This takes him to the depths and heights of presumably New Orleans society. The story line, however, seemed to have a few loose ends in it - which is not something I've seen in the other books of the series. It was thick with atmosphere, but not steeped with historic New Orleans as some of the others are. I missed that.

One thing I found interesting - the Spanish version was all English in the illustrations, so even though this was written and illustrated (water colors) by two Spaniards, it was intended for a US audience. Sadly, I had to get this book through interlibrary loan. There are a lot more in the series, but I won't be able to get my hands on the Spanish versions without shelling out big bucks. :( B&N has this one for $150. Seriously. I'm assuming it's a first edition. Better be for that $. But the illustrations alone make the Blacksad books not cheap. Very few graphic novels take the care with the illustrations as these do.

Example: Here's the police chief. I swear I've met this dog, he's so realistic.

I do love the Blacksad art, I have only ever read the 1st one and found it good but not great. Mind you I only read it in English too.

Claire, I think I was lucky that I didn't read Blacksad in order. I've read three of them, one in English and two in Spanish. I don't think the language you read it in really makes a difference, but I do think the creators were still getting a feel for the setting, history and characters in the first one so I agree, it's good but not great. The others are great.

It's kind of funny, I reacted to the relationship between Blacksad and the movie actress as out of character. He wouldn't be running around with someone so glamorous. But it was the first one! So how can it be out of character?

#15 in the Central America category isOne Day of Life, the fictional and Salvadoran counterpart to I, Rigoberta. Unlike There Never Was a Once Upon A Time, the story could not have taken place anywhere or happened to anyone. It was clearly set in a poor mountain village during El Salvador's brutal civil war sometime around the 1980s. I knew where the people slept, what they ate, how many fleas the dog had. Okay, not exactly how many, but I know the dog was red and white with a tail docked as a puppy. The story follows a day, with all it's reflections and memories, in the life of a middle-aged peasant woman who is struggling to take care of her children and granddaughter while her husband hides in the hills because he has tried to organize the peasants into a union. Anyone who is involved in such "communist" activity is in danger from the "authorities," a foreign trained military of young men who came mostly from the peasant class. It is a very well done novel on a terribly difficult subject. Warning, the author doesn't spare us details on the brutality. Or probably he does, and I'd hate to think about what it would be really like being there. I'm glad I read it, I enjoyed it, but I'm ready for something lighter now.

In my school, the second most common country of origin for the Latinos is El Salvador. This book has raised some questions for me about them. I know they've been coming to Minnesota since the 80s because of war and political instability in their country. I have a friend whose church sponsored many of them. Now, I think the country has stabilized and most people are coming because they already have family here. I've heard many families have taken seven or nine years to get the money and papers together needed to bring the rest of the family over. I'm wondering if One day of life accurately describes the parents' experiences, or if they came mostly from the cities where life would have been quite different.

Blacksad has been on my wishlist for a while now (most likely, the blame goes to Claire....) and I think it'll need to be on my next shopping-list. So beautiful!

Eva, it is really beautifully done. The first Blacksad I read wasn't #1. It was A Silent Hell. It included an article on how the artwork was done. Really interesting, especially the fact that they were working with period photos of New Orleans. That is how careful with detail they are.

I've got the omnibus (Blacksad) wishlisted and, from what I can decipher, it contains numbers 1-3. The drawings look spectacular from the previews I've seen.

Eva cool! I can't wait to see what you think of it.

#16 was the hot book at WisCon, a feminist science fiction & fantasy convention, one year that I went: Trash Sex Magic by Jennifer Stevenson. I'm not really sure what to think of it. 3 1/2 stars??? It's a very strange ride, and is worth it just for that. Perhaps a few too many characters. I found myself not caring about some of them because they got so little story time, and actually found I forgot one of them and was confused when his POV showed up. Oops.

It involved trailer trash, lots of sex and a wild earth magic. There was so much sex in it that it ceased to be sexy. Really. Gnats having sex? Ick. Basic plot is a developer has bought the land across from a dilapidated trailer park that has become as strange as the small town in Deliverance. The developer cuts down a tree, not knowing that the tree controls the river, the generative energy of the land, and the human women in the area. I can't say much more without supplying spoilers. The heart throb of the book is a young black man from the Bahamas, and yes, he gets called the n-word. Most of the time, it was justified by the plot but I really question her use of the term "Okies." The story wasn't set during the Great Depression, and no one was a displaced farmer from Oklahoma. On the positive side, she does create a beautiful and wild setting, complete with frogs, fish and... cast iron foxes?

This winter is making me feel like a hypochondriac. I've got a cold trying to turn into a sinus infection again! On top of the time change which is making everyone groggy and crabby. Sorry I haven't been around as much as I want, or reading as much as I want. I just realized the Three Musketeers read already started. Dingnabbit!

So here's my recent reading:
#17 is an ER novel The Well's End. It was a fast paced science fiction thriller. The too good to be true love interest was SORT OF SPOILER in fact too good to be true, but I'm sure he'll redeem himself in the sequels. END SPOILER It also has the mad/semi mad scientist father figure going on. He's either a hero or a villain, but either way, there are a lot of secrets around him.

The plot, a fake reporter comes to Mia's elite boarding school. He is pretending to interview her, but obviously he is really there to send a message to her father. Her father works in "the cave" doing something secretive "for the government." After this meeting, a virus that ages people rapidly (and to death) is unleashed on the campus and her father somehow knew it was going to happen. Mia and her friends have to escape campus, find her father and figure out what is going to happen.

Warning: the novel ends with almost as many questions as it answers. It is obviously a set up for a sequel. I really enjoyed it, and the ending didn't bother me too much, but only because I'm getting used to the trend in the industry of writing books in trilogies. If I hadn't read plenty of books that were bigger offenders, the ending would certainly lower my 4 star rating. But it's YA thriller/sf so of course they expect the kids to plow through three books to get all the answers. Geez, am I becoming complacent? This kind of ending would usually make me want to tear a publisher to shreds. What if Fishman never writes the next book? Or what if it stinks? Ugh.

Boo to colds trying to turn themselves into sinus infections! I hope you are able to get rid of this one pronto and that your reading mojo returns! I found The Three Musketeers to be quite a fun read, and faster than anticipated. (It did perhaps help that I was reading an abridged translation, but the story itself is also just swashbuckling good fun.)

#18 The Dog at the Door is part of the Animal Ark series for middle grade readers. They all follow a girl whose parents run a vet clinic. I was reading this one at school, when I had to model reading for the students, but of course wouldn't get the concentration time needed for something like One hundred years of solitude. It was cute, and it does do a fairly good job of covering what it is like to assist the birth of puppies. Obviously Baglio has done it or did his research, unlike other... oh I want to whistle in their direction... authors who write ridiculous things about the puppies first crawling and then walking. Part of the novel was a mystery, why did the owner abandon the dog? This is where the book fell down. SPOILER: The kids assumed the dog had been much loved. The owner kept making anonymous calls to the clinic, so I suppose it's a reasonable assumption. They assumed the dog would be better off reunited with the owner. Okay, I've worked with rescue. That's being idealistic. And the reason the owner abandoned the dog without saying anything? Her landlord was in the hospital and the landlord's nephew said the dog had to go and he would call authorities and take the dog. Maybe I'm being naive, but I think the average person would tell everyone what was going on and ask for help. They wouldn't just leave the dog tied up on the doorstep of a vet clinic for fear they would send her away.

Hi Rabbitprincess!

Yes, big boo to colds. Any sort of colds. I wish I had some of that well water in The Well's End. I might join The Three Musketeers read late. The Count of Monte Cristo was certainly in the top three books I read last year. Even the unexpurgated version should be fast-paced, even if it's long. I'll bet your version just took out all the opium references and perhaps some of the political bits. There were plenty of those in The Count.

>115 cammykitty: Sorry to see the cold and sinus infection have created their own little dance inside your body. I hope you are feeling better soon!

As for the group read of The Three Musketeers, you know we will be around if you - or anyone else - decides to join in. I think it will take me the entire month to get through it because I am juggling between three books right now. ;-)

Lori, I bought the Pavear translation on my nook just this night and started reading it. I remember the 3 Musketeers being on tv quite often as a kid and remember thinking Michael York as D'Artagnon was quite the hunk. Now one chapter in to the real thing and I am thinking it was terribly miscast. Raquel Welch as Milady?

Yes, the casting on that version is a little dubious. I mean, Oliver Reed as Athos? Raquel Welch is Constance Bonacieux, though. Milady is Faye Dunaway and quite good. Heston made a very good Cardinal, too.

ETA

Sinus infection went psycho and I've been without a voice at all for two days. No need to pick up the phone. I had just enough voice on friday to call in sick and assume they'd figure out who called in. Saturday, not even enough voice for that, but I did manage to go to a meeting at the doggy day care. It was probably a good thing that I lost my voice because our laziest employee (won't throw the poop out on her weekend shifts. Yuk!!!!) was throwing a mini fit because one day she came in for a morning shift and the evening shift hadn't put a clean mop head on her mop for her. Apparently this happened twice, so she's making a federal case about it. I had a few very pointed comments in return, but my voice saved me. One of my coworkers gave a heated response before I could have found markers and made a sign.

Miss Watson, thanks for stopping by! I'm a few chapters in and D'Artagnan still doesn't look remotely like Michael York in my mind. I'm tempted to look for the old movie online though. I usually can't watch a movie after I've read the book though. It's never right, and sometimes not even close to right. The movies that are way off like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil are sometimes easier to take.

Oh my! The 1948 vs of The Three Musketeers has Gene Kelly, Angela Lansbury and Gig Young in it. Do they sing and dance too???

Here's the 1973 trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT9zRqv-2s0

And the 1948 trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud4KgXsldsg

I think there may be more sex in the older one??? As for the 70s one, geez louise!!! Even little 10 year old me could tell those fights weren't for real.

Thrash-a-lackey. For when whack-a-mole just won't do.

I don't remember whether they sing in the 1948 version, but the sword-fighting is very well choreographed!

What about the 1993 version?? Chris O'Donnell was D'Artagnan, and Tim Curry was Cardinal Richelieu?? Rounded out by Charlie Sheen, Oliver Pratt and Keifer Sutherland?

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Yeah, that's the version I always think of as the real one!

I've never seen the 1993 version, but Tim Curry??? I just see Richelieu saying "Come back to the lab and see what's on my slab" to someone he intends to torture. I'll have to have a month devoted to watching 3Musketeers movies. Rabbitprincess, from the trailer, I'm thinking the fight scenes in the 1948 version are both well choreographed and well scripted. Looked like they didn't miss a chance to put humor in there.

So Happy St Paddy's Day. I'm celebrating my listening to a Flogging Molly album and torturing my dogs with a photo shoot. I was going for the Irish pirate look, but Wanda was thinking more 1930s toothache.

Great picture!

Thanks Judy!

I must have seen the 1948 Musketeers because I remember the fight scene in the trailer where our hero is swinging on the chandelier. I wonder how that move would work in a real fight.

Look at those beautiful dogs!

Tim Curry is wonderful as Richelieu. As is Eddy Izzard in the latest version, which had the worst D'Artagnan ever, in the worst wig ever (although the actor was good in The Perks of Being a Wallflower and my daughter disagreed with me, strongly).

Ah, no worries Cammykitty! I can bring the DVD over and we can watch Tim Curry and a much younger Keifer Sutherland. Oh for other Doctor Who fans, Paul McGann (who played the 8th Doctor in the 1996 TV film ) is alos in the movie.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Kay, Eddy Izzard as Richelieu??? The historic man is rolling over in his grave! I'll bet Eddy is the best dressed Richelieu ever. It would be worth watching just for that.

Di, we'll have to pick a weekend in April for a Musketeer fest! I also have been thinking about doing an "oops, I thought this had subtitles" party to watch Santos movies from Mexico. I've never watched one, because all the copies I've run across are Spanish only but I'm thinking with enough people, you could figure out the plot together and supply equally worthy dialog as the original.

The dogs have been protesting today.



Wanda says I don't feed them. She wants to learn how to make a pb&j sandwich for herself, but she'll settle for learning how to open the kibble bucket herself.

I'll have to have a month devoted to watching 3Musketeers movies.

YAY! The 1993 version is my personal favorite as well, for versions that try to stay true to the story and try to present the characters correctly, but my personal favorite for getting some of the characters right is the 2011 steampunk version starring Matthew Macfadyen as Athos, Luke Evans as Aramis and Logan Lerman as D'Artagnan. After watching that version, I have decided that Ray Stevenson is Porthos, he pulls the character off that well! Macfadyen is a good brooding Athos and Lerman plays D'Artagnan quite well. ;-)

Lori, I was just at my brother's house with friends, and one of my friends took out her phone and started pulling up pictures of all the different actors from all the different versions. The 2011 version looks like it has a lot of eye candy, and she talked about how they did the costuming for each of the different characters to try to make them each individuals. I'm looking forward to our 3Musketeers marathon. As for reading, it's long but maybe I'll get it done this week. I'm on Spring Break, but also have my dog job and a list of things I want to get done too. I've just been at the ball where the queen thanks the king for 14 gold pendants. I thought that was the major plot of the novel. Can't be though because I've got more than 1/2 the novel left.

My favorite is the 1973 version, but I haven't seen the 1993 yet, so we'll see if it changes once I get around to that one.

Eva, my other friend agrees with you. She wasn't allowed to watch tv growing up, but somehow managed to see the 1973 version enough times to get a crush on Michael York that seems to have lasted all these years.

>139 cammykitty:
I do agree with your friend - he was very, very dreamy to a little girl and there's some of that crush still there for me too, I have to admit. :)

I liked him too, but I think I'm over it. I'll let yyou know after I refresh my memory.

I'm trying to figure out an html code. Does anyone know Show/Hide. For example, someone writes a spoiler and hides the text behind the word "Spoiler" that you click on and all is revealed?

I've almost got it!!! But this is doing something really weird.

Okay, here's what the guru says:

innocuous text hidden text innocuous text

in other words I could say blah blah skippy Quixote = D'artagnon which means D'artagnon can be a twit skippy skippy

I feel so edumacated now!

Sorry for the little spoiler test! I know you can't see the answer, but it's saved for me. Answer is less-than-sign spoiler greater-than-sign secret secret less-than-sign backslash spoiler greater-than-sign

Typing with a bit of pain. Wanda-brat wanted the yogurt container I was holding for Good-Sage to lick, so Wanda-brat snatched it from Sage, forgetting that my pinky finger might be between her teeth and the plastic container. Owwww!!!! Both dogs were very penitent, but I'm not sure they knew what they were being penitent about. No more licking out bowls and containers for them!

And reading news, I'm at the half-way point of 3 Musketeers, which means 340 some pages in. I'm starting to get bored with duels and first love silliness. So I'm thinking about "researching" for CONvergence. Di has been dragging me to the Special Ops meeting, and forcing me to drink tea and eat tater tots. So at the last Special Ops meeting, we both got roped into the decor committee. Which is like being on the stage crew, gone mad. Our special guests include Emma Bull and Scott Lynch. War for the Oaks is going to be great to decorate for, local landmarks (we're in Minneapolis) and a sexy, naughty black dog of a pooka. I have no idea what decor goes with Scott Lynch though, but I've heard The Lies of Locke Lamora is great and a lot like Douglas Hulick's Kin series. So, yup, on spring break, sleepy, lazy and easily distracted. The first meeting is this weekend and Cynn has a decor budget that is bigger than Diversicon's complete budget, and he's acting like it is small. Then again, Diversicon doesn't worry about decorating. Once you pay for printers, and last years decor had professionally printed cut-outs and banners, it might be small. I'm thinking more tagboard and markers.

>143 cammykitty:
Well done, you! :)

Sorry about your pinkie, though - that's the good thing about having small dogs, their accidental bites won't even break skin. :)

Eva, she was going in for the kill. She just thought it was plastic she was getting. I have a healthy respect for all dogs' teeth, even small ones.

Never stand between a doggie and noms. :)

Great advice!

Katie, I had trouble figuring out that "hidden spoiler" feature but eventually worked it out. It's certainly got it's uses at times.

Love the hidden spoiler feature! I'm tempted to say stupid things and hide them just because I can!

Congrats on figuring out the spoiler feature coding! I can understand the appeal of the 1973 version but I love the flash and bang of more recent adaptations. Besides, the 1993 version fits more with my growing years and the fan crushes I had back when I was a teenager. ;-)

>144 cammykitty:
CONvergence - Warm Body Count 2013: 6,291
Of course we have a bigger budget! We have shuttle buses too! Maybe I should book a room at the hotel that include breakfast???


DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

@152 Diversicon - Warm Body Count - avg 98 - goal - 120 Seriously. They don't want more than 120 people there.

I'm still thinking decor should be like being in charge of stage set for the high school play, but I think I'm in for a lot more polish than that.

@151 Lori, I just had to find the right thread to ask. Looking through the html quick references were giving me a headache! And Milady is bitchalacious

19-20. The Three Musketeers It was a fun read, what it says on the tin. Lots of swashbuckling, a bit of fainting both genders, a few murders. Like Lori said on the group read thread, great escapist fiction. It wasn't a deep read, but it was a fun read and I imagine it serialized as it must have been. I'm sure there were plenty of readers biting their nails while they were waiting for the next installment.

And here's Wishbone as hands down, the cutest D'Artagnan.

Awwww! Yes! I agree 100%. Wishbone is the greatest.

Love the pic of Wishbone! Installments would be a fantastic - and frustrating way for me to read The Three Musketeers. I have no patience with cliff hangers, which is why we always watch shows long after they have already aired. ;-)

@155&156 - I got to admit, I was such a fan of Wishbone when it was on that my brother gave me a Wishbone calendar.

Speaking of dashing young gentlemen, here's Sage. We went to Battle Creek Off-Leash Dog Park today. He had a great time.

#21 in the Spanish Language category is sort of a cheat. It's a children's bilingual picture book. I'll make up for it with a more difficult book later. Magic Dogs of the Volcanoes is a beautiful book by Salvadoran writer Manlio Argueta who also wrote One Day of Life that I read for my Central America section. Very different books, but you can see how they would come from the same author's mind. Although it was a children's book, the tragedies that have faced El Salvador are a subtle subtext. Magic Dogs are born from the volcanoes. They help the people who live by the mountains and everyone loves them, until a powerful family decides they must go. On my 75ers thread, I posted a stained glass that a friend made for the illustrator of the book. It is of one of the illustrations. You can pop over there if you want. In the mean time, here's a different image. This is a page from the actual book.

Dashing in both senses of that word!

Catching up a month's worth of posts here. Have very little to add in the Three Musketeers department (except for that I thought Tim Curry actually made an excellent Cardinal. It might actually have been the first role I saw him in, follwed by a string of other oldish slimos. So to me, the bafflement of seeing him as a sassy hottie in Rocky Horror actually went the other way, so to speak :)

Even if it didn't seem to be entirely your cuppa, I took a major book bullet for Sex trash magic. Sounds like something I could potentially love. The recommendation page for it shows both Kelly Link and Jeff Ford too - a very good sign indeed.

@160 - Thanks Eva

@161 - High Anders! I'm having trouble keeping up with the threads as I'd like to too. I still don't really know what I think about Sex Trash Magic. I just decided to release my copy to the wide world and it was snatched up on BookMooch in less then 24 hours. I really admired how inventive it was, and I liked the earth magic. I loved the poor displaced man from the Carribbean. And Kelly Link better love it! It was published by Small Beer Press, which is her press. She and Gavin Grant started it. So, there's a recommendation for you. Follow anything published by Small Beer. I've liked or loved all but one of the books I've seen published by them. They are definitely all unusual.

& LOL! It does make a difference in what role we see an actor in first. I saw Gerard Depardieu first in Too Beautiful for You and he played a slime ball husband so well that I've never been able to like him, even when he's playing the furrier running around with Cruella DeVille. As for Alan Rickman, thank heavens I saw him in Truly Madly Deeply first. I love him! If I'd seen the movie he'd done for Amnesty International where he plays an evil interrogator all too well, I'd never be able to watch him. I've got Gargoyles coming from netflix (required CONvergence watching) and then I'll get started on the versions of the Musketeers.

#22 The Everything Guide to Managing and Reversing Pre-Diabetes I read this because I got a random blood sugar test that I didn't like the looks of. Not conclusive, but if I can scare myself into getting healthier, so much the better. The book is what it says it is, a basic overview and guide for someone who is just too sweet. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but I did try a tomato feta frittata out of its sister cookbook and that was easy and yummy.

I popped over to the other thread to see the stained glass from the illustration. Beautiful!!

Isn't it great, Paulina. It really maintains the feel of the original illustrations, even though it's a completely different medium.

>163 cammykitty: Did you learn anything new from the book?

Drisana can probably answer any questions you have, since she is a diabetes educator.

I saw a recipe yesterday for mini taco which used thin slices of jicama for the taco shell. We should try that.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Jicama! I love it, but it seems to go bad quickly. I like it sprinkled with chili powder. I was thinking of Drisana. I'll be sure to ask if something comes up. I learned lots of new things, and it reminded me of things I already know and haven't been doing - like why processed foods are bad. I learned that insulin resistance is improved with exercise, for one thing. I didn't think exercise would change how well insulin worked. So, walkies??? Wanda? Wake up!

Basically, I highlighted a bunch of things and am going to pick one thing as a goal for each week. Next week, 5 of my lunches are going to follow the "size your plate" plan. This page http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/planning-meals/create-your-plate/ explains what that means.

Oh, we have to make cauliflower pizza crust! Check this one out!

http://www.theluckypennyblog.com/2013/02/the-best-cauliflower-crust-pizza.html

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

That does sound good! I'd eat it without the toppings.

To help convince you to cut out sugar and processed foods, read Sugar, Fat, Salt. I went shopping today and a managed to not buy anything processed except some peanut oil. It's so hars since there is a conspiracy to get us to buy all the stuff that's bad for us.

Thanks Mamzel! I will. I know how hard it is to avoid processed stuff! Years ago, I was strictly on a whole foods diet. I've lost the discipline. I remember after I was away from it for awhile, processed foods tasted nasty! I wish there were more lightly salted things available though. It's hard to go from tons of salt to no salt.

No kidding! First they took my salt, then my sugar, now potassium. You would not believe how few things are left. I posted a list of high potassium foods on the fridge to try and remember what they were. I have to be very inventive these days.

Oh Mamzel! I'm hoping to take care of myself before it becomes a "have to." Yuk. Kidney trouble? Hopefully, we'll both find a bunch of new, healthy foods we like.

Ha processed foods! We went out to Culvers for lunch today because the guy who transferred from New Jersey hadn't even heard of it let alone been there. I had a tiny 'ice cream', chicken tenders and onions rings (of which i took off 99% of the breading) and now I am so TIRED I can hardly keep my eyes open!

A friend of mine told me - There is a thin person inside me. I ate him for a snack the other day. . . - when I told him that my mom found pictures of us when we were younger and thinner.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

LOL! Yup, I ate her for a snack. Culvers sounds soooo good, but you're right. The cost is low energy. Is it worth it?

I've been watching the Gene Kelly Three Musketeers, and will say the fights are pretty and Vincent Price makes a good Richlieu, but dang, I keep thinking the women are wearing 1950s hats with formal gowns. Kitty is wearing a pillbox at one point. ??? And, um, they've cleaned up a bit of the plot. Gene D'artagnan isn't exactly chaste, but he is compared to Dumas' D'artagnan.

#23 Still healthy eating. Finished reading The Prediabetes Diet Plan last week. Just now getting around to telling you what I think. Useful info with lots of menu options, but all that carb counting stuff. Geez! I ain't going to do that. At least it gave another, simpler eating plan as an option.

I'm plugging away at The Lies of Locke Lamora. For being such an action packed book, it sure is slow moving but I'm not going to pearl rule it. I have a theory about who the Grey King is, and if he doesn't prove me right within this first book, I am going to throw it against the wall. Oh. No. I can't. It's an e-book. I must treat my e-reader more gently than that.

I haven't heard of Culvers either, but onion rings (cooked right) are so delicious! And a friend took me through a drive thru the other day to get a $2 chocolate sundae and I have to admit, I have been thinking about going back ever since! Damn those $2 sundaes....

Yes cooked. DQ blizzards is my version of $2 sundaes. Ouch.

Finished book 24-25 The Lies of Locke Lamora. Sad to say it was just a meh book for me. Many people love it, probably for the reason it was just so so for me. It builds a very detailed world, at the expense of pace. I loved many of the details, but I also didn't feel very compelled to pick up the book and read it. That said, I did care about the characters which is why I finished reading it. As for my theory about the Gray King, I figured out about 1/2 way through that he was a more traditional bad guy than I had imagined. My Gray King would have been an interesting plot twist, but it the violence couldn't have gone to the level/style it did in the book without some major explanations and it would've changed the book to a story about ambition rather than one on revenge.

Sorry to see The Lies of Locke Lamora was just an okay read for you. I have that one waiting for me on my TBR bookcase. I am okay with books that build, as you say, a detailed world at the expense of pace, so I will get around to reading it at some point.

That is an awfully long book to stick with when finding it merely "meh."

Lori, it's worth giving it a try. A lot of people love it. Kay, the length alone was one of the things that made it "meh." I was interested enough in the characters to see how it turned out, especially since I'll probably be seeing a lot of the author at CONvergence. If he weren't a guest, the book probably never would've filtered up to the top of my wishlist. I'd pick up another book in this world, but I wouldn't seek it out--if that makes sense. I still want us to make a photo op board of "Chains" with his face cut out so people can pose as the blind, chained priest at the convention.

Thanks for mentioning the Everything Managing and Reversing Pre-Diabetes book. I've been feeling lately like maybe I'm pre-D (there's been a lot of stress eating the last few months), and while I have two physical jobs, I don't think that's enough of a "workout", you know? I'm getting bloodwork done at the end of this month, and I'm nervous for what it might show. Not great. I know I need to make some better choices (and portion control is an issue - especially for popcorn. Yum!), and take a walk when I'm not working, but I'm not that far off of a "normal" diet, I think. I've already gone mostly organic and I make some gluten-free choices, I cook at eat more at home than I used to. It's just such a pain, isn't it?

Oh Laura, yes it is a pain! If only there were more hours in a day, and more inexpensive prepared foods that are actually healthy. Lean Cuisine and Smart Ones aren't healthy! I've lost 9 lbs, and just had my bloodwork done, so I'm waiting to see too. I'll keep my fingers crossed for both of us!

For my own reasons, I've cut way back on carbs (cutting sugar down to a bare minimum). I've limited myself to carbs one meal a day. I have completely cut out any processed foods to cut back on salt, too. My grocery basket is filled with fresh produce and meat. About the only prepared food I buy is bread. It seems to work just fine. The hardest thing I've had to cut back on is cheese. It is keeping my sugar down nicely. If I exercised more I could probably really drop the pounds. Reading Sugar, Fat Salt made this style of shopping much easier. I highly recommend reading it to help justify and support your new better diet. My friends are supporting me my making sure we go out to a place where I can order something guilt free.

Mamzel, Sugar, Fat, Salt isn't at my library! I'm going to have to read that one though. It might be what I need to keep me going on this path. I looked at it online and liked what I saw. Way to go on the lifestyle!

Absolutely, kudos to you, Mamzel! There's a giant wait-list for SSF at my library, so I'll my name to the list and read it when it's my time. Already I almost exclusively shop the perimeter of the grocery store, which was easier than I expected. What's kicking my butt is my erratic work schedule with 2 physical jobs - meal planning and the cooking/shopping that need to happen before that, and then when I do get home, I'm wiped out and tired and just sit down for a break. Plus, it doesn't help that virtually all fast food restaurants that there are in the state are located within a 2 mile radius of my house doesn't help. If I get off of work at 9 PM, it's easier to get 2 or 3 soft tacos at Taco Bell, rather than cooking something at home when all I want to do is lay down and put my feet up. I know it's an excuse, but for me (and for right now, at least) it's a valid one.

Ugh, enough babbling. Time to reheat some chili I made on Friday - nothing bad in there!

Laura! I here ya! I've got a goofy work schedule, with two jobs. One requires a lot of running around. The other one gets physical. It's the meal planning and cooking time that kill me! And sometimes I have stuff to cook, but no energy to do it. Taco Bell doesn't ever call my name, but you can fill in a bunch of other sandwich shops and fast food joints in in place of Taco Bell, and... Yup!

I finished reading Fight!: A Practical Guide to the Treatment of Dog-dog Aggression by Jean Donaldson. Poorly written and probably not edited at all, it's still worth reading if you're a true dog geek and work with dogs. It might be worth glancing at the resource guarding section if you've got a pair of dogs that squabble over stuff. I enjoyed it despite the oddly phrased sentence or glossed over parts because it is Jean Donaldson. She has star status in dog circles for her work The Culture Clash. She approaches dog behavior and training as a humane science, and like Temple Grandin says what she means even if it might offend. It also helps me be the mellow, patient voice at the doggy daycare that reminds people that dogs act up because they are freaked out.

I've started reading Salt Sugar Fat. I couldn't find it at my library because I had the ingredients in the wrong order. Anyway, I put it on hold and since the library has 77 copies, I got it pretty quickly. I'm a little past the experiment with the rats and the fruit loops. Poor rats! Last time I had a bowl of fruit loops was in college, and I remember feeling quite "loopy" afterwords. It was a sugar high that was much worse and much more unpleasant than on warm chocolate chip cookie nights. Yup, big cookies! All you can eat. Which makes me think there were some "real" ingredients in the cookies and nothing real at all in fruit loops.

Fruit Loops, Captain Crunch, Frosted Flakes, Frosted Shreddies are all memories from my childhood and I cringe at the thought of how much sugar there is in those cereals. Even when I bake at home I tend to reduce the sugar in most recipes. Yesterday I made oatmeal coconut chocolate chip cookies and the recipe called for 1 and 1/2 cups of packed brown sugar. I think it even asked for 1/2 cup of white sugar.... one of the recipes I looked at wanted both white and brown sugar. With the chocolate chips and the coconut, I used only brown sugar, reducing the sugar by more than half and the cookies still turned out great.

I really do need to check out a copy of Salt Sugar Fat.

Lori, I reduce sugar in cookies too... and to think, they go on and on about reducing sugar changes the browning and texture of food. Well, maybe, if you cut it out completely.

I wasn't a great cereal fan when I was a kid. Captain Crunch's Peanut Butter Balls, but my mother made great crab apple jelly so most mornings were toast (very white bread) and jelly.

>193 cammykitty: - Katie - I was just mentioning over on Lori's thread that I'm going to make jam later this week. It's basically just fruit and sugar which acts as a preservative but there is a ton of it in jam/jelly. I just try to be mindful of how much I use.

We just had guests for the weekend from the States and they commented on how the pastries and desserts are less sweet here. It doesn't mean they're bland, though. Even the peaches, they decided, were less sweet, but more flavorful. I wonder if we've developed a taste for sweet that overrides other flavors and that even fruit growers are having to grow sweeter fruit to suit our tastes.

And because they were only here for a few days, we got dessert a lot.

Betty, at least the jam has real fruit in it! I just finished the chapter that talks about Tang. Remember all that space food? The chewy chocolate sticks that put the "chalk" back in chocolate that we had to try because the astronauts ate them.

Kay, I think you are right! I remember a girl brought a cocoflan cake in from a Mexican bakery and it was awesome! When I asked her about it she said "It's good because in Mexico, we don't use so much sugar in our cakes." And there was something floating around the internet recently, ten observations on the US from a British p.o.v. and one of the observations was all the bread in the US tastes like cake but they don't notice it there because they are used to it. - which makes me think the free market has driven the amounts of sugar up in things because we like it, we eat it more, we get used to it, so we want even more. - But at the same time, Mexico got mentioned in Salt Sugar Fat as one of the countries that liked their sodas super sugary.

So where's my Dairy Queen?

I so remember Tang! Another childhood flashback! Love this thread. ;-)

Sooo.... here is an interesting question: Tang was to orange juice what bouillon cubes were to a meal replacement (seriously, a number of women back in the days thought a cup of bouillon was all they needed as a lunch). So what should we be thinking of all of the Crystal Light drink crystals targeted to the more adult audience? I am rather undecided on the topic, having tried a few of the Crystal Light offerings but I have to say I have a concern when a the contents of one of their flavour packets can actually stain my counter top when the dry crystals impact a drop of water.

>195 RidgewayGirl: Well I've never been to the States but I know, for example, 'Harry's bread' has a sugary taste that french white bread don't have, it tastes more like cake than bread. As for pastries, the one that they sell at Starbuck are way too full of sugar to be remotely tasty ...

Hi Katie! Caught up for now.

Love all the Musketeer talk. I like the 1993 version the best but I love Keifer Sutherland and Charlie Sheen was hilarious back then. I did see the 2011 version and I loved all the detail. Matthew Macfadyen was awesome but the rest were just so so for me.

I loved Lies of Locke Lamora but it was very slow in world building. I like you thought I knew who the Gray King was and was hoping it would be a major betrayal but it wasn't. I do love the family that they built and that sold it for me.

I need to read the Salt Sugar Fat books. I am slowly gaining weight by stress eating. I miss eating whole foods but it has been some time since I dedicated my time to doing so.

Lori - boullion for lunch!!! The salt in that would be like drinking sea water while stranded in a life boat! Slightly better is the Lipton's Cup of Soup. When I worked at AT&T's Technical Education Center, they had those in the break room. I've eaten way too many of them. As for Crystal Light, as far as I know, no one thinks they are anything more than artificial flavoring for water. Salt Sugar Fat talks about them briefly, but only because of the "diabetic market." I think the jury is still out on whether or not most sugar substitutes are harmful. Colorings that could also be used to dye your clothes and redecorate your kitchen though? Hmmm... I think I'll keep Crystal Light in my category of drink only if it's offered/never pay for.

electrice - Whoa, Starbucks! Yup, they might be a little richer (fattier) than most American pastries, but as far as sweetness goes, they are about the norm here. Do they sell Raspberry White Chocolate Scones where you are? That's the epitome of what Americans can do to "foreign" baking. When the Scone first came to the US from England, it was a slightly creamier biscuit. Now you can't find a plain one here. They all have cinnamon chips, chocolate chips or fruit added. I think it's real fruit.

Hi Roberta! I still haven't finished my Musketeer viewing. Di needs to bring that 1993 version over to my house! We've been getting sidetracked by other things, like trips to United Noodle to by ginger oil and greens and things to make stir fry. Stress eating! I hear you. That's probably what most of mine is. That, and I'm on a medication that I think blew out my sense of when I'm full. Or I like eating so much that I ignore my sense of full. I'm enjoying Salt Sugar Fat but it is more a book on the history of processed food marketing than a nutrition book. No surprises so far - the evils of overuse of sugar is on the doorstep of cereal and soda manufacturers. I had already taken those things mostly out of my diet. It is interesting reading anyway, and it also helps keep me away from that Dairy Queen that's been calling me for days - simply because it poses sugar as the enemy and a force of nature that can even make rats overeat.

>200 cammykitty: No I didn't dare to eat something else there after they achieve to destroy even the muffins :( I had wonderful scones while I was in Edinburgh last year, though :)

Electrice - yum! Real scones!

Revelation from Salt Sugar Fat for the day: They took the cheese out of Cheez Whiz.

& Lori, Sorry about the Peanut Buster Parfait craving. Cravings are contagious.

Okay, after working both jobs today and taking Sage to a tricks class (his best trick is catching popcorn that is thrown at him), Sage and I had this conversation:

Sage: Mommy, your triglycerides are all off?
Me: Yes, Sage. That's why Mommy has been trying to eat healthy and your pills have been hidden in chicken instead of hotdogs lately.
Sage: So that means you're supposed to eat less yummy stuff?
Me: Well, sort of, well, yes.
Sage: So I'll help you Mommy. I'll get rid of that whip cream on your DQ for you.

Dang, Tricks Class is making him too smart.

Found you!

Beautiful dogs! I have a Boxer and a Chocolate Lab, and they too generously offer to take delicious food off my hands. In fact, I rarely eat anything without four eyes watching every move, ready to leap into action.

I was unaware that Eddie Izzard had been in a version of the Musketeers. Need to see it! I saw the 1973 version not long ago and really liked it. I think "rollicking" is the word. But then I adore Oliver Reed.

Yeah Jennifer, I'm thinking Eddie Izzard was made for the Musketeers. Still haven't seen it yet.

A boxer & a lab! I'll bet they keep your house hopping! Play play play!

Have you seen the new Musketeers series on USA? Yummy!

!!!? Mamzel, no! I haven't. I don't have cable, and honestly don't watch tv. I wait for everything to come out on DVD or for a friend to record and "force" me to watch something. I've seen quite a few Penguins of Madagascar that way.

> My floors are covered in squeaky toys. My boxer is ten now and the lab will be too in a few months, but they both love getting a new toy and playing keep-away with it.

Yup! Keep away is a favorite here too. And it doesn't matter if there is an identical toy right next to the one they are "fighting" over.

And here's Wanda's new favorite:

Oops! You mean Wanda's former favorite! We had a greyhound that could dismember any toy in record time -- except for an inexpensive stuffed bear we got from Milkbone. It had a squeaker and it would not die.

>209 cammykitty: great action shot!
My lab loves a fuzzy toy with a squeaky in it. She immediately tries to rip it apart and looks so proud of herself when she does it in 30 seconds. We've bought them some heavy-duty toys from West Paw, I think it's called, out of Montana. They're thick and she's yet to rip any of them apart.

My dad has two new dogs, both rescues. One is a very young male that looks a lot like a Corgi with the short legs, turned out paws, and erect bat ears. I nicknamed him Shiva the Destroyer since he had an affinity for my shoes. The other is a young female with some Shar Pei. She had had a litter before being picked up. For Larry (Shiva) we found one of those rope toys so he wouldn't keep dragging in the coconuts he found outside.

>203 cammykitty:
I love Sage!!

Kay, Wanda seems to be dismembering the gorilla slowly. It is missing the left arm and leg so far. Still squeaks.

Jennifer, West Paw!!! I must try them!!!

Mamzel - I've called Wanda Shiva a few times too! Sounds like they are quite a pair!

Eva - Glad Sage is making some human friends!!! He is much braver than he used to be, but still needs more human friends.

#27 Finished Salt Sugar Fat. Some of it was very interesting, but after awhile I was thinking, I get it, lots and lots of marketing. Free market punishes health initiatives. So I skimmed some of the stuff. The brain/taste research mentioned was very interesting. The wiles of the food giants, I've worked in marketing communications. One of my bosses was an ex-Pillsbury exec. I wasn't too shocked there, and the main villains - sodas and soft drinks, breakfast cereals, cheese (whimper) and red meat, pretzels and snack foods - were no surprise. Some of the book was very well worth reading, other parts didn't hold my interest. As for added incentive to eat healthier, oh yes, it helped a lot - except for the day I hit the first chapter on salt. I know salt is bad for me, I know you get used to less, but reading about it still made me crave it. The Dairy Queen, not so much. The last DQ run was accompanied by a 3 lb gain on the scale that took a week to go away. That helped keep those cravings at bay!

Noooo.... say it isn't so. Cheese, and meat, are villains of the food chain?! *joins in whimpering*

We still consume some salt because the body does require some salt. The homemade bread I made still contains sugar and salt because the sugar is needed to 'feed' the yeast and the salt does something that I have forgotten. For cooking I have learned how to use herbs and spices to remove salt from the meal but some things - like salted butter - are mainstays, IMO. I can do without most of the other stuff but just don't try and take away my chocolate covered almonds. ;-)

Even though I have SSF checked out, I'm too lazy right now to go and get it and thumb through myself - is ALL cheese bad, or just mass-market processed stuff? I buy and eat plenty of cheese, but it's all from small, local dairies. That can't be bad, right? Say it isn't so!

Lori, I think that's the real truth. Everything in moderation, but the average U.S. diet isn't at all about moderation. I think I'm going to invite myself over to your house for dinner. ;)

Laura, I'd thumb through but wouldn't read everything. All cheese has saturated fat which on the whole we have way too much of in our diet. Small, local dairies is the way to go but alas you can still over do it. I won't give up cheese, but I'll eat less and I'm definitely more willing to pay the higher price to get GOOD cheese now. I didn't realize they were doing sooooo much to commercial cheese to get the price down.

Hello Katie -- thanks for coming over and visting my thread. I'm new to the 75ers this years, so I've beenslowly getting acquainted with everyone. So glad you stopped by and I've a chance to meet you.

Was awarded Salt Sugar Fat through the LT ER giveaway, but, alas, it never appeared. Very unhappy to have missed out.

I hear you about moderation. Sadly, my early training and membership in the Clean Plate Club has had some unfortunate long term effects. I try hard though -- I've a chunk of Double Gloucester cheese (my favorite) which I've managed to parcel out in small nibbles for three weeks now.

Ugh! My grandmother was the membership director of the local Clean Plate Club. Even though my mother told stories about not understanding why eating her lima beans helped "the poor starving children in India" I still somehow was forced to join.

I was another member of that club. I can remember absolutely hating eggs and having to sit at the kitchen table staring at them, alone, as it gradually became dark. It was a long time until I was able to enjoy eggs. I never made my kids clean their plates but I did insist they at least sample everything.

Ah, yes!! "The starving children of XXX" I know *that* refrain well. *sad sigh*

Mamzel - I was a big egg hater too, but even my grandma new not to even try! & Marianne, I don't know how that ever got to be such a popular refrain because every toddler in the 70s knew the postal service couldn't deliver dinner to "XXX" before it went bad.

HA! Good one! Although don't let our favorite mail carrier Mark (msf59) hear this!

Well, maybe Mark could.

HA! I bet you're right!

#28 in the Lambda awards category Slow River. Wow. Science fiction novel set in near future about sexual exploitation, corporate greed and family politics. Premise is a young heiress of a water purification family is kidnapped, falls into the criminal world and then... It's hard to talk about this book without spoilers. The characterization is excellent. Lore, our heiress, is victimized often but never plays the victim. She doesn't allow herself more than a few moments of self-pity, and as for the bad things she does? There are several of them, but she doesn't try to justify them either. The novel felt emotionally and scientifically feasible to me, and there were also a few surprises. Griffith managed to avoid several tropes and stereotypes. At times an uncomfortable read, but well worth it in the end. My only quibble is the last chapter felt rushed. A few emotional and plot elements needed a little more attention than they got in the last few pages.

Now you need to read Grain Brain so you can tell me what you think. No need to give up cheese, just grains . . . and reduce the amounts of fruits & carrots etc.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Pretty soon water will be the only thing and then "they" will find something wrong with that.

Ohhhh, but I love sweet brown rice! I bough black sweet brown rice this weekend. I totally agree that refined grains should be kept to a minimum, but whole grains?

Betty, yup water. I think we can all agree on water being good, but then we get to argue about the virtues of tap vs Dasani vs Perrier.

I think that the 'real' problem is that we have been eating "too much of a good thing" and we no longer know how much we should be eating, and so a regular serving is too much, and we don't know when to stop. . . even the choosemyplate.gov website says that women should only have 5-6 servings of grains a day (1/2 cup cooked rice is a serving.)

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Serving size! My SO still doesn't believe that a serving of meat is the size of a deck of cards.

Deck of cards? Deck of *tarot* cards maybe! ;-D

Oh Kay - I almost spit coffee out my nose! My husband is the same way. When I mention that, he rolls his eyes at me like I'm nuts. Of course he has a great metabolism - which annoys me sooooo much!

DS - you're so right. No one understands serving size any more.

Di, I think you hit it on the head on both counts. 1. Serving size is insane, especially in the US. 2. We don't know when to stop, and if you read Salt Sugar Fat, it becomes clear that the food manufacturers know how to get past our "I've had enough" mechanism.

LOL, my dad would've thought even a deck of tarot cards was too small. He was meat & potatoes! He complained that the health people were taking the salt out of his salt.

Betty - Oh so jealous of that efficient metabolism, but if we ever get stuck in the Andes together, you and I are the ones that will survive!

Popping through to wish you a wonderful weekend of reading.

Heading off to a Girl's Weekend, where we will decidedly overeat, overdrink and oversalt. While I'll pay for it on Monday, it will be fun.

Oooo! Sounds like a great way to spend a weekend! Have fun!

#29 In the Central/South America category Our Lady of Assassins by Fernando Vallejo Columbia. It took me awhile to realize what I was reading, a dark comedy with an unreliable narrator. Just how unreliable, I didn't know until the end. Now that I'm done reading it, it reminds me a little bit of an interview I saw with an IRA member. The member insisted that he didn't murder a particular mailman, but the longer the interview went on, the more you knew he did it but didn't consider it murder. Our Lady of Assassins is set in Medellin, which at one time was the drug capital of the world. At the time of this novel, its drug trade is slipping. The chief employer of hit men is in jail, which gives our narrator, a sort of South American Humbert Humbert, an opportunity to help out a young unemployed hit man. Our narrator is sound sensitive and especially hates taxi drivers who refuse to turn down their vallenatos. I didn't know what a vallenato was before I read this, but serendipity, I've been going through the Latin Grammy nominations and had just gotten to the Cumbia/Vallenato award. Here's a link to a Vallenato by one of Columbia's most respected artists, Jorge Onate, who also is a politician. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xySOyLO7j8 I would hate love to see what our narrator would say about Jorge Onate. I don't want to say too much more in fear of going into spoilerland. I'll just say that Our Lady of the Assassins is an amusing and biting commentary on the violence that plagues Columbia.

#30 The Ice Owl was written by Carolyn Ives Gilman, the Guest of Honor at the upcoming Diversicon. Sadly, I liked the story but didn't love it mainly because I know all too well what she was basing her story on. I'm a middle school paraprofessional, and have helped teach the Holocaust during at least 5 school years. This would be an awesome read for YAs, but for me the genocide was based too much on the Holocaust and wasn't fleshed out enough with details that made it seem like history repeating itself on a different planet.

The Ice Owl has an interesting world, one where religion separates class and a tone like music from the spheres separates the day. Teen-age Thorn has lived over 100 years, but not really. That's her planet-hopping age. When persecution shuts down her school, she finds a new teacher and that new teacher is somehow linked to her past on a planet during a genocide. The teacher's characterization, the description of lost artwork, Thorn's relationship with her mother and her Gminta Hunter (think Nazi Hunter) boyfriend are great. I just wish she'd gone the extra mile to flesh out Till's story more.

>227 cammykitty: This one seems really interesting, thanks for the review :)

Electrice, it is. I hope you get to read it some time. I know how everyone's WL's are.

Berly and I are doing a team read of Cat's Cradle so I just started that today. Weird weird weird book, but it starts out sort of reasonable? So I had to go to wikipedia to make sure there really was no Dr. Hoenikker, although I was pretty sure there wasn't a midget dancer who said she was 23 when she was really 42.

I had to set aside Pawprints of History. DS gave it to me and I totally intend to finish it. It's a great read, mostly light for history, about events that never would have come about without dogs. Well, it's mostly about that. I think we still would've got Waterloo if Josephine's pug hadn't bitten Boney on his wedding night.

>242 cammykitty:
Cat's Cradle is on my wishlist - looking forward to hearing what you think about it once you're done.

Hi Eva! Cat's Cradle has gotten pushed off for a little because Berly can't get to it right now. If you can pick it up soon, you're welcome to join us.

I'm reading my ER novel Marina at the moment instead. I got 5 chapters read at the Doctor's office today. Yeah, you know what that says about my appointment.

I'm also at Diversicon this weekend! Having fun, and I'm finding out that some of the people I know from there are on LT too.

Book #31 was a present from DS. Thanks Di!!! alias Bruce_Krafft.The Pawprints of History by Stanley Coren is a really fun read. Coren includes some of the not-so-good moments in history such as the conquistadors' use of dogs and Custer's Last Stand, but on the whole he focuses on the relationship between people and dogs rather than the historical use of dogs. He is looking for moments in time where a dog has made a difference in a person's life that has influenced history. The perfect example of this is Alexander Graham Bell's use of a dog to explore ways to teach deaf people how to talk. Coren doesn't include many of the naughty dogs, but the ones he does include steal the show. I'm dying to tell you, but won't. All I'll say is Napoleon and Pope Clement VII weren't big hits with the pooches.

> 244 I received Marina as well. I'm saving it for the August GeoCAT.

Cool Kelly. I'll be interested to see what you think.

>244 cammykitty: & >245 VioletBramble:
I just finished Marina and I think I can promise you won't be disappointed!

!!!! I haven't had much time to read Marina. I took a break at the con and read a few chapters. I have my theories about what is going on.

I started a new thread off with my Diversicon book haul and comments on Marina. I'm always paranoid that people won't find my new thread and I'll be looo oooo ooon leee. So please continue on to the new thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/178449