More Non-fiction and More Food Blogging

I've read a couple of additional books this month, slowly adding to my total.  I read Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr which inspired a diet cleanse and more blogging over at Seeking White Space (yes, I probably have too many blogs...but they're all different!). I'm excited to have a new challenge and I hope to use it to get inspired in the kitchen and for blog posts across all of my various writing locations.

I also read:

• Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism by Paul Collins
• Super Freakonomics by Stephen D. Leavitt and Stevin J. Dubner

Trying to get in as much non-fiction as I can, I guess! I suppose I've been drawn in this direction these days, and it doesn't hurt that I get double credit!

Catching Up: What I've Been Reading

I'm hoping for more regular updates soon, but in the meantime, here is what I've been reading:

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
• Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
• Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Essential C-Section Guide by Maureen Connolly and Dana Sullivan
• Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr
• Empty Cradle, Broken Heart by Deborah Davis
• The Agency by Ally O'Brien

I will skip the reviews this time around, but I hope to get back to it now that I'm getting back on track. At this point, I'm well aware that I won't come even close, but I like tracking so I'll keep trying to get as close as I can. 

Catching Up: Books, Dates, Home and Family

There are so many things that I need to update on this list.  While I haven't been actively keeping track, I'm going to try and go through to update whatever I can remember. Here are a few of the categories I've been working on:

Date Nights - We've actually been doing really well on these.  It helps that we have a very liberal definition of date night, but also that we're making an effort to frame even simple nights in with a special home-cooked (or ordered) meal and a movie counts.  Last night, we went to see friends briefly for a farewell party, but then moved on to see Super 8 and eat gyros at the local Greek street fair.  I won't bore you with all the gory details, but we've had at least one night a month, and usually more, that I can fit into this category.

Books Read - Since I got pregnant, reading has been a real challenge.  I'm just too tired at night.  I've gotten some reading in on our travels, partly added by e-books on my commute.  Here are the books I can remember finishing in the past few months:

• The Help by Kathryn Stockett - This was one of the best books I've read in awhile.  It helped get me out of a slump.  It's beautifully written and thoughtful.  I literally laughed out loud, cried and marveled at how well crafted the book was overall.  The movie trailer looks like they may have done a decent job with it and I'm looking forward to it.  I definitely recommend the book first, though, since it was a great reading experience. 
• An Embarassment of Mangoes by Ann Vanderhoof - I picked this book up (after glowing recommendations from my father-in-law who lent me his copy) over the cold winter when I needed to imagine the Caribbean.  This is a beautiful memoir of the cruising life taking a couple from cold Canada through the hurricane season in the Caribbean and back.  While I also recommend this book, make sure you don't have easy access to a sailboat.  You'll be off before you know it.  The book also includes great recipes that I'm dying to try once I can get my hands on conch and can drink good Caribbean rum. 
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - I got this book in hardback when it first came out as a gift or gently used.  It sat around my house in the "To Be Read" pile until just before the movie came out.  I finally decided to knock it out before the movie was released since it's usually the better way to go about it for me.  I enjoyed the book, although there were aspects I didn't love.  The Depression-era circus culture was fascinating and very well written.  The modern day aspect wasn't as exciting for me, although I liked the way Sara Gruen finally brought it all together.  
• A Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory - This wasn't my favorite of the Tudor stories from Philippa Gregory.  I find the back story very interesting and I knew nothing of Queen Katherine except the bits and pieces from the later Boleyn years.  I thought this book made me wonder if Gregory was finally over-fictionalizing since so much of it is assuming private thoughts and actions.  I'll have to do my own research (which is one reason I love these books - I get motivated to get to the bottom of whatever historical information is actually out there) to see where I fall.  I found the book generally overly romantic, but it is about a teenage bride becoming a widow and negotiating her way back onto the throne.  I'm sure it's hard not to be.
• The Billionaire's Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace - I didn't know much about the wine auction world or rare antique collecting before. I can't say that now I do, but I know more and this books presents a fascinating story of wine purported to belong to Thomas Jefferson and sold for an exorbitant price at auction. Definitely a new world for me and a new way to think about these wines. 
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum - I tried to read this book in high school some time, but the minute I saw that things were not like my well loved movie version, I put it aside.  The Gregory Maguire Wicked series peaked my interest again, but I didn't do anything about my interest until I found the series free on Amazon Kindle.  I actually enjoyed the book this time, appreciating the differences from the movie and discovering the aspects of Oz that had previously escaped my notice. I'll certainly work through the series.

Home and Projects - I've kept up on trying to declutter and keep everything tidy around the house.  It's been harder with a less energetic me and a less-often-home Austin.  But I'm moving forward.  I've also made progress on one of my embroidery projects.  It's a big crib cover for the baby's room which is taking me forever even when I am working on it.  I can't count it anywhere near done, but I'm making progress. 

Family and Friends - I started on my birthday cards this year.  I have to get through 10 to get credit, but  I do have plenty of birthdays coming up to get me there.  Hopefully focusing on this one more closely will help set up a good habit.

I do have more areas - loads of Netflix (my one constant) watched and maybe some others, but this gets me up to date on some of the ones that I was procrastinating.  More to come....

Catching up on Reading

I've also been reading in the background and while I wanted to write these up individually, life gets in the way.  I've got a post in the works for one of the books since that is part of a bigger portion of the project (stay tuned!) and the book I'm reading for my October non-fiction will definitely get its own writeup with more exciting things to come from that as well.

• Peony in Love by Lisa See
• Triumph by Carolyn Jessop
• Black Boy by Richard Wright (separate post coming)

Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

I finished this book much earlier in the month and have a lot to say, but time has sort of faded the rush of things I wanted to share about this book.  Bear with me as I give it a shot.

Adrian Nicole LeBlanc went to court to report on the trial of a drug dealer from the Bronx.  That trip turned into a detailed book looking at the lives of a handful of women, their children and some of the men surrounding them trying to get by both in the Bronx and Troy, New York.  First, she follows Jessica, one of the drug dealers girlfriends, and sets up the neighborhood and the cast of characters.  Her brother Cesar meets a young girl, Coco, who falls for him and ends up with two kids by him as well as others.

The author has incredible detail and insight as she combed through court documents, personal letters and even went to live with the women she was writing about for this book.  She reports on their lives without judgment, tying together the stories of mothers, grandmothers and children repeating each other's patterns in their desperate attempts to change and start down a new road.

I found this book fascinating and bewildering and, at times, depressing.  I definitely think this book is worth digging into and discovering.

Diary of a Anorexic GIrl by Morgan Menzie

So, I really am stretching it by calling this one non-fiction.  I generally include memoirs even though that's usually a completely different genre.  This time, I chose a based-on-a-true-story diary which means that it is a lot embellished or fictionalized and certainly crafted more than a chronicle. But since I had to read three  this month to catch up, I say it counts.  For August, I'll step it back up a notch.

As the title suggests, this book is the diary of a girl throughout middle school and high school dealing with your typical teen angst issues - fitting in, finding a boyfriend and trying to figure out who you are - as well as her process pretty much from start to finish of dealing with anorexia.  The diary certainly hit the nail on the head when it comes to that self-aware intelligent teen with a flare for the dramatic writing for herself.  I'm fairly certain if I went back to my diaries, I'd find a very similar style and even the sporadic letters to the future and side commentary to the reader.

Because the character was so familiar, it was easy to get absorbed in Blythe's world and even start to believe her worldview made just a little bit of sense.  This leaves you a little bit shocked when all of a sudden the outside world breaks in and you realize just how unhealthy Blythe has gotten.  This book was heartfelt and honest and an interesting way to present the issue.

It looks like it is in a series of religious teen help books which I didn't realize when I picked it up.  Blythe's school is a Christian private school and she does write about her issues with faith throughout her worries about boys, friends and clothes, but it doesn't overwhelm the book.   There are some very very brief guides in the back about how to get help if you have an eating disorder and how to help a friend with one.  My jury is still out on whether this book would help someone who was struggling themselves, but it might give a bit of insight to someone worried about a friend or child.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book to just anyone.  I don't think it was ground-breaking or so provocative that it should make it onto people's lists.  But there is a right time and a place for everything. It might be educational in certain situations and then I would say it's worth a read.

Escape by Carolyn Jessop

I am fascinated by the FLDS culture - both non-fiction and fictionalized.  I've read a handful of books and articles and of course watch Big Love.  This is the first real account that I've come across and it was fascinating.  Carolyn Jessop escaped the Colorado City FLDS community in her early thirties with eight children (including one with serious medical needs and a preemie) and managed to secure her freedom from one of the most powerful men in the FLDS community run by Warren Jeffs.

Warren Jeffs is the one that most of us heard about in the last couple of years, on the run and capture in Vegas with wigs and a stash of cash.  Carolyn spent enough time in the Colorado City community to be able to reflect on the changes over thirty years from a seemingly more open and liberal society to the fanatical conservative compound that Warren Jeffs created in Texas.  Her awakening and realizations about the ways religion was corrupted by greedy men as mind control are captivating.

Carolyn Jessop's personal story is at once fascinating and terrifying.  The book itself could use some serious editing, but it strings you along nonetheless.  The tales of abuse are intense and the relationships between the Jessop family members alone are incredible.  Carolyn's struggles to protect herself and her children are inspiring.

There are too many more adjectives I could bring out to describe this reading experience.  The mind boggles, as they say.  I highly recommend this one.

This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin

 I haven't been keeping up with my non-fiction reading this year, but that's because this book took me the last two months to read.  Partly I wasn't giving enough time to it, but also this book is fairly technical and in-depth, so it was slow going.

Overall, I found the book interesting - I think a lot more research has to be done, but reading about some of the theories and studies was engaging.  My main complaint is that it sells itself as the answer to some very intriguing questions like why a song gets stuck in your head and plays over and over.  In the end, that was one part of one page and I wasn't really satisfied.

Red, White and Drunk All Over by Natalie MacLean

It seems I have a tendency to finish each month's non-fiction book in the month after I start it, but I get it done nonetheless! 

This book was actually a really interesting and information-packed exploration of wine, literally (as the longer title suggests) from grape to glass.  Natalie MacLean is a wine writer from Canada who fell into wine writing and has taken her journey across the US and Europe to compile great stories about the growing of pinot noir and Champagne, as well as the processes behind wine making, wine tasting and wine selling (with some wine collecting in there to boot).

The style of the book is approachable and informative and I found I wished I was reading with a highlighter and pencil to retain more of the information.  Since Natalie packages this information as a memoir of her discoveries as well, it is not overwhelming or overly thick.  I will definitely keep this one on the shelf and revisit it in the future as a resource.  

47 & 48. Read 202 books/1 non-fiction per month

SICKENED THE MEMOIR OF A MUNCHAUSEN BY PROXY CHILDHOOD

So I'm back on track with my non-fiction reading.  In this case, Sickened is a memoir about a girl who lived for over twenty years being poisoned and manipulated by her mother, only discovering the truth when she started to pick up the pieces of her life on her own.  She was taking an abnormal psychology class and heard about Munchausen by Proxy (MBP) and had an awakening.

Julie Gregory tells her frightening and fascinating tale through her memories and if it's possible to believe, the MBP experience is only one of the horrors she experiences.  She also remembers the charming moments of her childhood, those that may still seem frightening to the outsider but those that warmed her and shaped her.  There were good days too.

I was looking to learn more substantive information about MBP when I read this, since it has come up in a few different articles and things that I've read recently.  This isn't a reference book, but it is a really well written memoir that gives some insight into the experience of a child affected by MBP.  I definitely want to keep learning about this amazing disorder and am very glad that Julie Gregory put together such an interesting perspective on her life.

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47 & 48 - Read 202 books and at least 1 non-fiction book per month.

Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success

I fell behind in my non-fiction reading for February, but I'm on a roll this month and plan to catch up.  This book was a gift from a family member to help me think outside-the-box about what it is I want to do in life other than my 101 things (amazing to think there might be even more than that!).  This is an interesting approach to defining and creating yourself as a brand and learning how to market yourself accordingly.

The methods suggested in this book are very Web 2.0 - using the internet and its latest social networking capabilities to establish yourself and your brand and open doors.  I am just a bit too old to be Gen Y (defined as starting at 1982), but I feel like I am savvy enough to have learned a lot and to be able to implement some of these techniques as I go forward in building my career. 

For those who already have a sense of a personal brand or a strong set of goals, the book can be extremely helpful.  I'd say it's a bit light on finding that brand if you're starting from zero, but there are some exercises that will yield results and start the thinking process.  All around a very interesting read and a useful new perspective on careers and technology.

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The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz

The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City

David Lebovitz

David Lebovitz has compiled dozens of witty and insightful tales about his life adjusting to life as an American in Paris.  He reminds the reader often that his adjustment was eased along by his job as a patissier.  His love of food clearly informs his life in Paris and each anecdote is punctuated with lovely recipes that will definitely be incorporated into my new recipe challenge.  Some that I will be trying as soon as I can include the Bacon and Blue Cheese Bread, Oven-Roasted Figs, Chicken Mole, Chocolate-Coconut Marshmallows, Dulce de Leche Brownies and a Fromage Blanc Souffle, to name just a small selection.  It was a wonderful read and very inspiring and imaginative and fun.  I'll be dreaming and eating Paris for awhile after this book.

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