♥ a teaspoon of LIFE

I deleted my old Cook Read Run blog account, since I had imported all the posts, comments and history over to this site when I started it last year. (I was tired of still getting spam notifications on it!)
I guess I copied everything but the pictures?? LOL. It looks like any posts/pages with pictures that were imported over had only linked the pictures to the CookRead site.
SO! All of my old recipes no longer have any images!

At first I was super bummed, but now I think maybe it’s a good thing!
I get to test-kitchen my own recipes, take better photographs, and ensure the directions make sense. Some of my old recipes could probably use a little extra spice as well.

Since I can’t eat right now, I’ll start my re-makes on things I don’t actually need to eat to confirm yum-ness. I guess I’ll just give the food to my friends afterward? Haha. Lucky friends!

More book reviews!
I am happy to say I haven’t read a book that I didn’t like in a while. PHEW!

I stopped my Columbine book-on-tape. While I wanted to finish it, I just could not. It’s a really good book, with tons of information, and it clears up the trench coat mafia rumors, and explains how they began. And so many other rumors, like that the boys were bullies our outcasts. But it makes it scarier to know that they WEREN’T bullied, and that they were just normal boys who lost it.
So much of it was SO interesting. But it was too long and I couldn’t be immersed in that sadness any longer. It’s heart break and tragedy on an epic level, and the hardest part is that it’s real.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow.
This book is SO well written. The Author writes from Alice’s perspective, but manages to fill in the gaps when they arise. You completely get in her head.

The beginning of the book describes Alice not being able to find a word on the tip of her tongue, and forgetting her BlackBerry at a restaurant. Genova specifically gives us a sharp character so we can follow along better. To any other person, not being able to find the word, or forgetting something is just something that happens sometimes.
You really feel the impact of the illness by having a character who was so intelligent and articulate.
The beginning of the book is obviously narrated by someone of intellect. It makes her story more valid, and it makes her decline more evident. This probably sounds redundant but it’s important and it’s why the book is so good.

It hurts when Alice says she’d rather die than lose her mind. When she says John loves her for her mind, you feel her concern. How will he love her when that’s gone? Or will he just love the memories?

The fact that John fought so hard against her diagnosis is also hard to read. You know he’s fighting it because he’s devastated and desperate, and you know that his unwillingness to accept it is making it harder for Alice.
She compared her treatments against the disease to using squirt guns to put out a raging fire. Nobody gets out alive.
It also freaks me out when she talks about suicide. Probably because it’s so matter of fact, and because it’s so fleeting each time. Not long, dramatic and drawn out, She just throws it in there.

I like that the author’s writing style changes with Alice’s cognitive capabilities. You can really feel it. In the start, she’s still well-spoken and sharp.
Genova keeps her tone as Alice starts to see symptoms, but every once-in-a-while, repeats a sentence or two. She never acknowledges it. She just keeps moving on.
It makes is so real. You can understand Alice’s side and the side of those watching all at once.
Then Alice(the Narrator) describes seeing something. She knows how it will look, feel, smell and taste. She knows everything about it except what it’s name is. You can feel the frustration when you’re reading it. And you can understand how only PARTS of memory are lost.
Then she starts replacing words with “thing” and “thingy”.
And by the end, it’s a bit rambling and a lot confused.

The book was was really mostly factual. I could have read a book on Alzheimer’s and learned exactly the same things. But I wouldn’t have blown through 3/4 of the book in one night. It’s so much easier to grasp a concept when you can relate in some way.
I’ve never paid much attention to the disease, but I found this all so fascinating.

I also appreciate that she has Alice running and doing yoga through most of the book. It’s an important piece of the puzzle. She was fit as a fiddle and it’s important to understand that Alzheimer’s ONLY affects the mind. Everything else comes as a side effect of that.

The ending was just an ending. Anti-climactic.
At first I was a little pissed, but I think you’re supposed to decide how you wanted it to end. I think the whole point of the book is to make you think, reconsider, re-evaluate. You’d probably have felt happy about any number of endings. So why should she dictate which on is for you? You understand the patients, and you understand the families and the choices and sacrifices made on both ends.
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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

From the very first paragraph, where humans were describe as ape descended beings, so primitive that they still think digital watches are a neat idea, I was laughing.

This book is ABSURD!
It’s very conversationally written. Sarcasm. Satire. Irony.

I was so intrigued (this book is written in the late 70′s)at the description of Ford’s Hitchhiker’s Guide. It was described as a magical library, that held 3 rooms of books all in one box, and you can randomly go to any page you want in any of those books by pushing a button…..
AHEM- Kindle?? LOL. Did Douglas Adams invent the Kindle in 1970-something?

I liked that Ford and Author switch places a bit. On Earth, Ford is super chillaxed and Aurthor is high strung. Then, out in the Galaxy, Ford becomes the one who’s always anxious, and Aurthor becomes the relaxed voice of reason.
I love how much gibberish they made up and then counted it as legitimate facts- A nothingth of a second, is a measure of time.
I peed my pants approximately 47 times during this book. I peed during the missile impact scene, I peed about 42, I peed about the bulldozer irony, I peed that the footnote describing Ford Prefect’s childhood was 2 pages long, I peed about teasers, and I did NOT know the internet translation site I used to cheat on my Spanish homework was named Babelfish because of this book!
I LOVED when Ford points out that humans have a really bad habit of pointing out the obvious. Such as- It’s dark in here. It’s cold out there. It’s raining…..
I feel dumb. I’m actively trying not to do that anymore! Haha

Anyway, I will read this book again, more than once.
I also think it could be a very fun book for children, and an easy read for those who have just learned. And it’s not violent, or vulgar, just tons of silly.
I would recommend this book to anyone who can handle a little nonsense humor. It’s just so silly. It’ll brighten your day
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What have you been reading lately?
Send your recommendations my way! I can’t resist a good book!