Reading Log for September, 2011

Definitely not going to make 100 this year, but I think that is okay.  Life has gotten very busy, and it is taking me longer to finish anything!  Plus I am finding that I have started and not finished a lot of books this year.  Life is too short to read bad books, I always say!

SEPTEMBER


56. Stronger Than Dirt – 4 – Kimberly Schyae and Christopher Losee – story of an urban couple who buys a piece of land in upstate New York in the 90s and starts a farm, selling veggies and mainly fresh cut flowers in the New York City farmers’ markets. Very enjoyable “fish-out-of-water” story.

57. Bunnicula – 3 – is the new pet bunny a vampire? The cat says yes, the dog says let’s see….cute, short chapter book, read aloud to my 7 and 8 year old boys.

58. One Thousand Gifts -2 - Ann Voskamp – I guess I just didn’t get it. I loved parts of it, but parts of it went on and on and on…..perhaps I don’t have a poets’ soul. I had a hard time following the circles that her mind went in. Everyone else I’ve talked to loved it, so I guess it is just me!

59. A Trick of the Light – 5 – Louise Penny – Inspector Gamache returns. I just love these people.

60. Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers – 5 – Ralph Moody – excellent coming of age story, set in Colorado in the early 1900s. Described as a “Little House on the Prairie for boys”. Grittier than LHOTP, though. Excellent boys’ book, read aloud to my 11 and 13 year old sons. We will probably read some of the other books that follow this one.


61. Devil’s Food Cake Murders: A Hannah Swensen Mystery With Recipes – 2.5 – Joanne Fluke – dumb. Figured this one out right away. The mysteries in these books are getting lamer (more lame?) with each book, but the characters keep me coming back. Hannah needs to ditch both these guys and move to Florida or something.

62. My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business: A Memoir – 4 – Dick Van Dyke – Good story, but disappointing. Yes, he wants to only do family-friendly projects and he succeeds in that, yes he is kind and generous and supports lots of community service and peace projects. But he is still lost – all paths lead to God, as long as we love. Manages to excuse his adultery, his children living with people, their divorces, etc. and puts a happy face on it. And he is a left-wing liberal. The sad part is, that he is lost. He thinks he is being a good person and earning his way to Heaven because God is all love. Entertaining story, but in the end – pretty meaningless.

63.  The No-Fad Diet - 5 - The American Heart Association - extremely helpful book.  Those who know me, know I've done Weight Watchers, tried Sparkpeople, etc., all with some degree of success.  Especially WW, where I lost 25 pounds a few years ago.  Then the menopause hit, and it all came back, with a vengeance.  I love this book, though.  It goes through what is healthy, normal eating and exercise and discusses calories.  It all boils down to more energy being expended than calories coming in.  No only eating certain foods, or any of those trends- just good, common sense for establishing good habits.  It has you figure how many calories a day you need to eat to maintain your current weight at your age, weight and activity level, and then if you eat 500 calories a day less than that, you can lose 1/2-1 pound a week.  Gradual, maintainable.  I hope so, anyway!  So far, so good.  The week that I followed it I lost 1.6 lbs, the week that I didn't I gained a pound back.  So, we will see how it goes.  I am really tired of obsessing about my weight and trying to learn to accept "the new me" - but I need motivation to continue to eat well and get exercise.


And so...What did YOU read this month?