summer reading *insert psycho sound effect*

Here is what I and my fellow librarians feel like pretty much all day

The End of Overeating by David Kessler

Have you ever read or heard something that resonated through you like a tuning fork?  I graduated from the University of Montevallo with a B.A. in English and all graduates (as far as I know) had to take a Senior Capstone Seminar in their major.  That is where I had a teacher who spoke of literature and the resonance it can have when the reader REALLY identifies with the material.  It is something that elicits a feeling in your bones, good or bad.  This is what this entire book was for me.  Every page was an aha-moment.

I first learned about this book when I heard Dr. Kessler's interview on NPR.  If you are interested, you can listen here and here.  Many of the comments on the website are negative, saying nothing about this is new.  The FDA and food industry has known about this for years.  People have written about it again and again.  Kessler is behind on his research, blah, blah, blah.  You know what, it's new and exciting and life changing for me.  I have never heard about this.  I don't care if it isn't cutting edge.  I don't care. 

So many times, I have felt like a failure.  I have felt like I have no willpower.  I have felt like I was too weak to resist the things I love.  Kessler's research proposes that what all this comes down to is conditioned hypereating.  Your brain chemistry wires itself to make you respond to food rewards, like a rat in a lab.  Super palative food does make you feel better, your brain remembers that it did, so when you are in a position to see, remember, or smell this food your brain cues up the anticipation of the award.  I know I'm rambling but I am just super excited by everything I read in this book about what pushes conditioned hypereaters to overeat.  The compulsion, the drive to eat is so well explained that I just said, "Aha! That is exactly what I feel like!"

I will be buying a copy of this book for my personal bookshelf ImMeDiAtElY.  I want to make notes and be able to browse through it whenever I want.  If you don't struggle with food, good for you.  But if you do, I firmly believe you should read this.

Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire by Margot Berwin

OMG!  I haven't had this much fun in a while.  This little book, due out June 16th, is the PeRfEcT beach read!  

Hothouse Flower is the story of a young woman in her thirties (it's quite appropriate to call her a bitter divorcee) doing ad work she doesn't particularly care for and working for a super sleazy boss.  Her job is empty, her apartment is empty, her life is empty.  Shouldn't she be doing something better with her life?  Well, Ms. Lila Nova decides to start with one plant.  She finds  a plant stall at the local market owned by a man not like any Lila is acquainted with.  He is tanned and strong and has dirt on his hands and clothes that is more than superficial.  He sells Lila a bird-of-paradise and offers her a whole lot more.  A whole host of surprising things happen for Lila, only the beginning of which is the success she has with the first exotic plant.  Her association with the plant man leads her to actions and places she never could have imagined, and they just may lead her to herself.

I love debut novels!  I love the new ideas, new voices, the sometimes unpolished moments I find in them.  Never be timid to try something completely new, you just might be in for a treat as I was with Hothouse Flower.  The analogy included in my ARC is that Hothouse Flower is Eat, Pray, Love meets The Orchid Thief with a dash of Romancing the Stone on the side.  Yes, yes, yes!  You have some over-the-top characters in some over-the-top situations and I loved every minute of it!  It was fun, exciting, sexy, and thoroughly enjoyable.  Also mentioned in the ARC is that Julia Roberts has bought the film rights and is scheduled to star as Lila.  I will SO watch this movie if/when it makes it to the big screen.

So, if you are ready for some rollicking, rolling, sexy, fun adventure, put this on your summer reading list for sure!

awesomeness of the week, sort of

okay, it was last week, but I WON THE WEEK'S BIGGEST LOSER!!!  I won a stupendous $4 (since only 4 people weighed in) AND *trumpet fanfare* Supreme Dumpster Parking!  It would figure that the week I won the primo parking, the library would be closed for 3 days!  

Oh well, the spot is mine tomorrow and Wednesday then I will graciously hand my dumpster crown to the next lucky contestant.  We've been doing this for maybe 5 or 6 weeks now and I've lost over 15 pounds..not too shabby!  

I'll always be forthcoming about my progress and I have a little My Success sidebar item where I keep tabs on my Monday weighins.  That is where I weigh myself at home, first thing in the morning and um...without apparel.  Anyway, moving on, my weighins at work take place on Wednesdays and I am usually 2-3 pounds heavier having eaten breakfast and having drank (drunk?) at least 32 oz of water by the time I get to work and wearing at least a couple of pounds of clothes.  So, I don't really count that on the BIG CHART I keep at home.

I'm having a great holiday weekend so far.  My petsitting job ended so I get to spend a few days at home until the next one starts on Thursday.  Yesterday I hung out with my mom, aunts, and grandmother.  Mom was cooking steaks but I told her not to get me one and I bought some amberjack instead.  While she was grilling, I threw it in some foil with garlic, onions, olive oil, a bit of lemon juice and a modest pat of butter.  It was the best thing I've had in forevah!  And it felt indulgent so I didn't feel deprived.  At 8.99/lb, it was more expensive than the steaks anyway :-)

Mom filled a 9x13 with quartered red onion, squash she grew in the garden, baby carrots (from the store), and fresh string beans she talked some farmer into letting her pick.  Add some olive oil and sea salt and bake covered for about an hour.  I had myself the most delicious, earthy, sunshine tasting meal yesterday.  That's what I told mom, that I could taste the sunshine in those beans.  I brought some home with me, yay!

For the first time in a long time, I really feel like I can do this.  I can have a different life AND enjoy it.  I can be the person I feel like on the inside.  It'll take awhile, but I'll get there and I truly believe that this time I won't let it slip away again.  I've done that so many times in the past and I am a better person than that.  I am a stronger person than that, I guess I just needed the reminder that I am not weak and I am not a failure, that I am just fighting against a terribly strong enemy....that would be my own foolish brain!  That reminder, for me, was the book I just finished, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David Kessler!  That's all you get for now as I'll be reviewing it shortly for my 100+ Reading Challenge.

still here!

I've been doing tons of petsitting w/ no computer and have been SlAmMeD at work with no time to blog...I'll be back in business in a few days!  

Every have an ab fab Memorial Day!

1601, and Is Shakespeare Dead? by Mark Twain

So, 1601 is touted to be Twain's dabbling in the pornographic essay.  Um..not so much but it WAS probably quite naughty back in the day.  Unfortunately it is so hard to read, in the Oxford Twain edition anyway, because it is set in this convoluted fake Middle English-looking font.  The entire original title is 1601, or Conversation As It Was By the Social Fireside in the Time of the Tudors.  What you have is Queen Elizabeth, some of her ladies-in-waiting, Ben Johnson, William Shakespeare, and Sir Walter Raleigh in conversation about farting and sex, and they are being eavesdropped on by her cupbearer.  It is just a few pages long and it was more corny (to me) than anything but I can only imagine what kind of impression it made in the early 1900's :-)

Is Shakespeare Dead? was much more interesting to me.  In this short work, Twain lays out the reasons why he does not believe William Shakespeare authored all the works attributed to him.  I'm afraid I'm in the camp which Twain scorns, but he does give you alot to think about in terms of where and when Shakepeare may have acquired his knowledge of the variety of social levels and occupations which he writes about considering he came from a fairly illiterate household.  Twain votes for Ben Johnson to be the author of the works attributed to William Shakespeare...I guess anything is possible.  The literary criticism I've read about this all talks about Twain exploring his own fame by talking about Shakespeare's.  I thought it sounded a bit whiney at times (i.e. Shakespeare died alone and in obscurity but look at ME!  I'm popular and well known and I'm not even dead yet!) but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it.

What is Man? by Mark Twain

Mark Twain's philosophical essay, What is Man? is a sort of Socratic conversation between an Old Man and a Young Man. OM's argument is that we are machines driven by one thing and one thing only, contentment of spirit. I don't really care for his fiction too much but I'm on a second book of his essays and love how he thinks. What is Man? was written near the end of his life, while he was a more bitter and tragic figure than I ever knew Twain could be and it is very apparent in the OM's bitter rant. Bitter, but uncomfortably reasonable. Definitely worth a read if you have time and it's only about 140 pages.

fish in the sea

and books on the shelf

I just received the following phone call:

Me: _____ ______ Library, this is Holley.

Patron: Yes, I'm calling for ____ ____.  She wants you to get a few books for her and she'll pick them up this afternoon.

Me: Certainly.  What are the titles?

Patron: Well, I don't know.

Me: .......weeeellll.....

Patron:  She just wants you to set aside some books for her.

Me: Well, what does she like to read?  I need at least a few details.

Patron: Well, hold on just a minute.

***muffled yelling***

Patron: She says you have her on file.

Me:  *giving up*  Okay, I'll get something together.

Patron: thanks!

________________________________

Now, I think our collection numbers well over 100,000 items in every genre you can imagine.   Let me put it in perspective for you.  I need you to go to Wal-mart and pick a few things up for me.  What are those items, you may ask?  You pick.

Frustrate.

walked AND kicked my @$$

M and I snuck into the library's meeting room and worked out to this exercise DVD...I wish we had a shower here!

in non book related news

I'm still going strong with the new life plan!  Exercising every day, eating lots of fruits and veggies, drinking lots of water.  I'm feeling strong!  Maybe I can win the dumpster parking before the contest is over!  Doesn't that sound thrilling?

So yesterday I saw Wolverine again with L (her first time to see it) and then, when she had to go to work, I went to see Star Trek.  I totally LOVED it!  I watched the tv series occasionally when I was a kid but the memories of that did not have any impact on what I enjoyed in the theater.  If any of my friends out there want to see it (or see it again!), I'll be glad to tag along!  

I have compiled my list of summer must-see movies and put it on a calendar at home.  It is 36 movies at the moment but I'm sure that will change as more things come to light, like the most intriguing District 9, which I saw the preview for before Wolverine.  Check it out!

What are you excited about seeing this summer?  I will post my movie calendar ASAP and we can compare notes!