Cheating Destiny: Living with Diabetes

Cheating Destiny: Living with Diabetes, America's Biggest Epidemic by James S. Hirsch is a serious sounding title for a serious book. Hirsch's study runs the gamut from a history of the "cures" to control diabetes, to the breakthroughs that still have to come. He chronicles the various folks who have made a difference with the treatment of the disease. And in between, he writes about his own life dealing with Type 1 himself and in his children.

Hirsch is very matter of fact about this disease, and it, quite frankly, really needs that approach. I found his chapter on the development of the Juvenile Diabetes Association and the infighting between the various diabetes organizations, extremely interesting and frightening at the same time. His chapter about how the most of the medical community went from a search for a cure to a search for how to "control" the disease in the "easiest" manner possible - i.e. medication, is personally an eye opener. He is a former writer for the Wall Street Journal and he makes this difficult and murky topic, clear. A must read for anyone suffering from the disease.

The Cranky Inn Owner and Other Hotel Tales

I'm reading a batch of mysteries that have a hotel, motel and inn theme.

Room with a Clue by Kate Kingsbury

This is a part of her Pennyfoot Hotel series. The characters are good, but the mysteries are a bit tame. I'm hoping this series, set in 1908, gets better as the stories go on. Very light.

Murder on a Mystery Tour by Marian Babson

Take a bunch of classic mystery enthusiasts from America, take them to the English countryside - have them at a secluded hotel with some eccentric authors, a storm and some murder. What more could you ask for? She does a nice homage to the classic authors and their wacky fans. A nice bit fun.

Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth by Tamar Myers

Magdalena Yoder, is the not so cheerful owner and manager of a Mennonite Inn in Hernia, Pennsylvania. She will not hesitate to offer her guests the full "authentic experience" package - the one that requires them to clean up their own room and wash their own dishes! She inherited the house from her parents and is making the best of it - even if her sister is just plan wild - (divorced a gentile) and in spite of the fights with her Amish cousins who help out on the farm. But she has a great sense of humor and loves to read. And when she gets guests who insist on getting themselves killed, well - someone has to take charge. The first book was a stitch and I am looking forward to more. Lots of fun.

Hemlock Falls Mystery series

Claudia Bishop has a fun series with the Hemlock Falls mysteries. She has two sisters Meg and Sarah"Quill" Quilliam running an inn in New York state. Meg is the chef and older sister Quill is the manager. They are transplants from New York City and are not considered "locals" by the fellow townsfolk. Their relationship with the town (Quill's boyfriend is the sheriff) and with co-workers and guests seem to dominate the books. The mysteries are solved by both sisters with Quill doing most of the leg work.

The books are fun - character packed, they move fast and the mysteries are not sticky sweet cozies. (Some gruesome deaths in the second book!) I am hoping that they are a little less character packed as the series moves along, because you really need the character list at the beginning of the books to keep everyone straight.

I read the first two in the series A Taste for Murder and A Dash of Death. Both were good reads and I am looking forward to the characters' growth in the series.

Cactus Flower

Alice Duncan's Cactus Flower is a great example of a "fish out of water" western. Eulalie Gibb has come from the big city stages to this small western town to try and make a home for her and her sister. She already has a job at the Opera House as a singer - and only a singer. But her costumes are enough to set the gentlemen of the town on fire. Nick Taggart has a run in with her, and decides she's too prickly and a bit mean. But he finds himself helping her out anyway. She finds the blacksmith a bit of giant but thinks he might make a good bodyguard. She learns to like the dust ridden town and he learns that toughness can hide a lot. But what is she and her sister running from anyway?

Give it a try. Duncan writes great characters with great humor. A fun read.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver (with Stephen L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver) is a book about family: her family, the farming and agricultural family, and the family of men. (And it is written with her family - her daughter provides the recipes and nutrition segments, her husband, the food industry issues.) Can one family of four sustain themselves on locally grown food for a year? That is the question that Kingsolver and her family attempt to solve. It helps that they live on a farm in southwest Virginia, but they "survive" by growing and raising their own food, going to local farmer's markets and seeing where items are grown in their local stores. Her segment on turkey reproduction is very funny and scary. Funny - from her descriptions - scary, when you realize that certain breeds no longer reproduce naturally at all - it is bred out of the birds.


Do they make - sure. Is it easy? Not so much, but the tone in which Kingsolver writes just guides you through the seasons. She does not have the stridency of a convert, for she writes about their dilemmas and "must have" items (coffee for the adults, mac and cheese for the kids and their friends) with candidness. But she gives the reader hope that the food environment is changing-back to food grown in healthy ways for both the farmer and pickers and the eaters. And she provides resources and recipes to help the average folk contribute along their path. As someone who grew up with a large vegetable garden and canning, I really liked how she handled the whole topic of raising your own food. I was very impressed by her writing - I think I need to try one of her other writings. A great thoughtful read.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is a book authored by Barbara Ehrenreich. Ehrenreich when railing against polices in the current presidential administration, tells her editor that some one should do a book on the jobs of working class people. He tells her she should write it. And thus began the idea for the book. She puts her regular life on hold and takes various jobs to see if she can live the American Dream for a month on those wages. To vary the experiment she goes to different states - Florida, Maine and Minnesota. She uses her maiden name and does not list that she has a degree on her job application. She has other limitations and personal restrictions, but ends up with these jobs: waitress, an nursing home aide, a cleaning lady, and a retail worker in a Walmart.

Within this book, she points out some interesting things about this working world - the rise of testing - both drug and psychological in the hiring process. How workers are so busy with the struggle of living that they really don't have time or money for anything else. And that most are unaware of the rights they have as workers. She writes of her co-workers with compassion, and a bit of guilt, for she realizes that if it were not for her college education, as a middle aged woman this would probably be her working world.

The hardest part of this book is realizing that for most of us - we are only a few paychecks away from living this kind of daily struggle. Very thought provoking, and makes one appreciate what one has, and it will make you leave a bigger tip at the next restaurant you go to. You may not appreciate her politics, but you will realize that for some, the American dream is far off. A very good book.

All the President's Men - with Friends Like These...

I have been a bit busy lately and have fallen behind in my posting, but not in my reading. And I had to read this title for a current events genre study. Yeah, it is not a "current event" but the ramifications of this political era still resonate throughout our political life.

All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward could be called one of the first political "instant" books. These books are written during or right after a political event. They started the in-depth investigation into the break-ins at the Watergate building, and proceed to bring the rest of the media and in some circles, the country, with them. It really is a great study of investigative journalism that still has meaning today. The question, for me is - would they have been able to publish this information in the Washington Post today? Would they have been forced to put this in a blog? What would be different if they had today's technology? Half the book is devoted to finding out who are the players and how they are connected - would this have been faster or not? Consider the current administrations' block on information flow - how hard would it be now?

As they take you through the story, one of the most interesting things to me is the loss of political innocence. The people who finally cooperate with Bernstein and Woodward - really love their country and the presidential office and they can not believe the lies and liars that are surrounding Nixon. You can tell these people got involved in public service because they believed that they were helping their country. And that they were let down, and in some cases, betrayed by a paranoid president.

Whether you are a Nixon fan or not, (some of us did not have well formed political views at that time, and wished all those talking men behind the curtained tables would stop blocking our summer television programs!), this is a great study of how power corrupts and how the American public gained their cynicism for their political leaders. It is greatly detailed book - I admit I needed a timeline cheat sheet to keep everything straight - but it reads like a thriller as the authors try to uncover the truth. A great read.

Sugar Cookie Murder

Looking for something fast and fun in a mystery? Try Joanne Fluke's Sugar Cookie Murder. It really is a novella, with a lot of recipes. When you're community is planning a local cookbook, and you are having a food tasting in the community center, and it happens to be during a Minnesota blizzard and then there is a murder - well - Hannah has a lot on her hands, and we have this fun story. Hannah enlists her family and friends into solving the case before the police do and they have good food along the way.

Don't read this if you are hungry - it will make it worse. And the recipes look good too. Enjoy.

Agnes and the Hitman

What do you when people with guns break into your kitchen? If you're a cook like Agnes, hitting them over the head with a frying pan seems kinda natural. Agnes is having a really bad week. She is trying to finish her cooking column for the newspaper, get her fiance to move into their new house, organize her god daughter's wedding at her house, and trying to avoid these home invaders. Just what do they want anyway? When she tells her buddy Joey - he sends his nephew Shane. But what does this guy really do for a living? Does this have anything to do with the fact this house used to belong to mob guy?

Welcome to Agnes and the Hitman, a wonderful adventure and romance written by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. They take you on a whirlwind trek, that involves dogs, missing millions, a wedding that might not happen, covert operations, betrayals, a neurotic grandmother of the bride, settling old scores and flamingos. And through it all, Agnes is trying to hold it together. And you think your life was stressful. Come join the fun, and trust them to take you along on one hell a good story.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to me! I now have over 100 posts on my blog. Yeah, it took awhile, but I have kept up with the books and the blog. Well here's to another hundred! ;-)
Monique

A Year Without "Made in China"

A Year Without "Made in China": One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy by Sara Bongiorni is the story of how a simple concept that started as a New Year's resolution grew into a family journey and book. The author, an avid label reader, was struck by the amount of items under the Christmas tree that were made in China. As a journalist, she had read some of the upcoming articles of China's economic machine, but it had never struck so close to home. She decided with her husband (who she starts out calling "the weakest link"), to try a family resolution of not purchasing anything new that was "made in China."

Their decision brings up all sorts of issues. What if they get a gift that is Chinese made? Are there items the Chinese have a monopoly on? (Apparently seasonal decorations, cheap sunglasses and reasonably priced children's shoes and toys.) Would they be able to replace their coffee maker at all? What about the components that are made in China? Does that count? Bongiorni finds that it is a struggle and can be - depending on the item you're searching for - take a lot of time and energy.

She does a great job of telling of the little struggles that her family has. What to do about birthday gifts for small children? (Some Legos) And what about her kids? Are they suffering with the loss of these goods? (No) She finds out that it probably is easier to do this now when her kids are small, and to her surprise, that her husband offers her some good support, and that they are saving some money from not buying or replacing their doodads and junk.

This is a fun and easily accessible book about one's consumer dollar. Bongiorni makes it an entertaining family story and allows the armchair reader to wonder "what if..." A great fast read.

Whiskey Sour

J.A. Konrath's book Whiskey Sour, features a Chicago policewoman named Jack Daniels. Lt. Daniels (she got stuck with her name when she married and didn't change it after the divorce) works very hard for her violent crimes unit, and has an appalling lack of a social life. This police procedural features the case of a serial killer who mutilates his victims. But in the midst of the case, Daniels is an appealing character - a bit of a cynic, but someone you want to root for especially after the killer finds her fascinating as well.

I really enjoyed the book in spite of the fact that this is something I would not normally pick up at first glance. I am reading it for a book discussion. It is a bit too gory (for me) in places - but perhaps I just have a vivid visual imagination when I read. But there is something always interesting in taking a chance on a new author or new genre that is a bit more than your used to. If you don't like it - the result can be agonizing- to have wasted your reading time and energy on something you really dislike. Or it can be a pleasant surprise and a new discovery. Try something new, you might like it. Or in my case, I found a new mystery series to watch for. Don't know if I will read every page of the gruesome details, but I really like this character and want to see her go places.

Jane's World - Everything You Wanted to Know About Jane Austen's Books But Were Too Busy to Ask

Are you a Janite? Do Jane Austen's novels rock your world? Can't get enough of Mr. Darcy and Anne Elliot? I have the book for you. Deirdre Le Faye's book Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels is a great study of Austen's works. And she goes in depth and manages to be entertaining in the process.

Even if you only have one favorite Austen novel, you can go into this book and see the detail about the time period of the book, where it might have been set - what were the styles of houses, clothes and people during that time. It gives the average reader an peak into Jane's influences while writing and what references her readers of her time would have caught and appreciated. And Le Faye does this all in an engaging but serious style.

This may not be for everyone - she does go into enormous detail, book by book, but it is a must for the Austen fan. A great compact book to add to your literary reference shelf. I'm going to have to get this keeper.

Janet Evanovich's Hot Stuff

Janet Evanovich is a busy woman. Not only is she writing her mystery series, she is co-authoring several other books as well. Hot Stuff is a book she co-wrote with Leanne Banks. And as usual there are some great characters.

So what you do when your roommate, Marty, is a cross-dressing lounge singer with a lot of out of town shows? Well, you water his plants and you wonder why scary people keep coming around asking when he will be back. But then he has a 120 pound dog delivered to the building as a guard dog. Who has time to take care of this Beast? Cate, the bartender/college student is getting a little bit weirded out. Especially when the cute guy at the bar who was trying to pick her up, keeps asking questions about Marty. The cute guy happens to be an ex-cop. He's on a job for his private investigation firm, but he still realizes that Cate is a keeper - even if she isn't aware of it yet. She's too busy for a relationship and trying to get rid of the last guy her family set her up with.

This one is light and fluffy but has a lot of funny scenes and quirky characters that just make you laugh. And the dog is a piece of work himself. A fun fast read.