Books!

26. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
I had this on my library request list forever, as apparently everyone in the world was reading it. It was worth the wait, though. Pollan did not present a lot of new information as he looked at three different ways of getting food (industrial farm, pastoral/organic and hunting and gathering) but his thoughtful look at how we get what we eat and what that means was excellent. I am usually pretty good about thinking about my food. I have been a vegetarian for 12 years, and I am always thinking about why I don't eat meat, and re-assessing that choice and the limits of it. Anyway, I appreciated the way Pollan led me through thinking about the different ways we get our food and what it means on a lot of different levels. For awhile now I have been trying to eat more local food (which was easy in Florida, but harder in NY) but Pollan convinced me that I should really try to eat more organic as well, despite its problems as a big industry. Anyway, I haven't been good at it because the frugal side of me can't stand the prices, but we will see how it goes. I could probably do a whole post just on food, so I'll wrap this up by saying read this book, it is good.

27. The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
A very fun book by Fforde, following Jack Spratt, a detective in charge of investigating crimes involving nursery rhyme characters. This is the author of the Thursday Next books, and I actually thought this one was better than that series, although I enjoyed the other series greatly. This one just seemed more tightly written, and more subtle about inserting the nursery rhyme characters into modern day England as if it was all normal to have a giant egg walking around.

28. Chicken Soup for the Bride's Soul by Jack Canfield
Melinda sent this to me, I am sure as a joke, but I found it soothing bed time reading so I read the entire thing. I learned many warm and fuzzy things about my white dress and princess wedding that I am supposed to want. I was also struck by how many people in the book lived with their parents until they were married, so the wedding was also about being grown up, leaving their parents, etc. Also, one of the contributors has kids named Aprilynn, Evelyn and Madeleine, and another has kids named Kiandra, Kezia and Kaden. Ha!
To sum up, a typical Chicken Soup book and good for puttin' you to sleep at night.