Dream away with Patricia A. McKillip

Now that I'm done with Jack, I've gone back to Patricia A. McKillip. I was re-reading one of her books before the Jack teen books and now I'm starting on a new one of hers called The Bards of Bone Plain.
What I like about McKillip's books is the feeling of being lost in her fantastical worlds which is like being lost in a dream. I dream a lot and wake up sometimes feeling as if I haven't slept at all; the dreams are so active. Her dreamlike worlds always involve a huge aspect of nature which really appeals to me. Like in Winter Rose or The Book of Atrix Wolfe - upon meeting the Queen of the Wood with a crown of antlers and eyes that you stare into and see nothing or nature scenes, you try to talk or scream and leaves come out of your own mouth. So magical, lyrical. And I like the fact that these woodland people look like animals in disguise and they don't care anything about the mortal world. They're quite indifferent to it. At least, the Queen is. And yet, sometimes they mate with humans and produce offspring that carry the magic that pulls them to discover the realm they don't know about. Interesting...

Jack's got a hold on me...

After my delve into green smoothies and raw food, I started trying to read a couple of travel books. My sister recommended I See by My Outfit by Peter S. Beagle (author of The Last Unicorn). The "special" banter between Beagle and his best friend was annoying and a total turn-off. I consider myself a hippie at heart (at least when it comes to music), but this hippie road trip just wasn't doing it for me. So I tried a recommendation from my supervisor at work called Ghost Train to the Eastern Star by Paul Theroux, after a short discussion of her train trip across Russia to Vladivostok peaked my interest. The places he visited were interesting, as were his comments, but his at times snooty academic tone turned me off enough to just set aside all 496 pages of this ramblings. Guess I just wasn't in travel log mode... I finally settled on re-reading The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia A. McKillip (which is sitting on my shelf). I was enjoying it quite a bit when a bunch of books I'd put a hold on came in. And here I am again reading about Repairman Jack, except this time he's a teenager.

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I read the first teen Jack book last year and now I'm reading Jack: Secret Circles. Although I'm well beyond my teens, I'm enjoying the easy flow of the story. It's like the books I read in my late childhood/early teens. The author's voice is believable as a teen. The characters are familiar yet new because it's a different time in their life. I'm halfway through, then comes Jack: Secret Vengeance and then I'll be officially done with Jack.

Green Smoothie Revolution!!

I guess I'm on a health kick for the new year... I signed up for a 6 month unlimited yoga pass at my yoga studio 17 days ago and I've been going 4 to 5 times out of the 6 times I can go in a week. I've gotten a routine down where I do vinyasa 3 alternating days a week with a stretch class 2 days a week and a hatha class on Sunday. If I was going all 6 days a week, this is how my schedule would work out. So naturally as I get back into an exercise routine, I'm starting to really look at my diet again.

Ever since I came across the Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen blog, I've been more open to whole food related blog and Facebook posts. For example, someone posted a green pineapple smoothie recipe on my friend's wall and it caught my eye and I found a cilantro green smoothie recipe on Meghan Telpner's blog through her Making Love in the Kitchen Facebook page. I still want to try the Winter Green Smoothie recipe from Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen but haven't gotten around to making it yet...


Recently I've been reading books by Victoria Boutenko that I picked up at TPL. I recently finished
Green Smoothie Revolution and now I'm reading Green for Life. Next I'll look at 12 Steps to Raw Foods just out of interest and Raw Family Signature Dishes, cuz I'm always on the look out for easy recipes. Her writing style is not particularly good, but she mixes in scientific research with her observations, experiences, and the experience of others to make a very convincing argument for getting more greens into your diet. I wasn't crazy about the recipes in Green Smoothie Revolution (some of them had way too many ingredients). I'm hoping the ones in other books will be more interesting.


I'm really interested in how feasible it would be to live on a raw food diet. I'm all for not having to cook my food. I bet once you're on it and try to eat cooked food again you feel like crap. I used to eat a lot of greens and raw veggies when I was younger but no one in my family was really into eating that way. Boutenko reiterates the importance of having family support in being able to stick to their raw food diet. I've been concerned about blending non-organic produce, which is what we usually buy because it's more affordable. We buy some organic foods, such as sugars, flowers, nuts and seeds and other products. My sister recently told me to buy some organic produce to try the smoothies. If they like it, it might be easier to make the transition to more organic foods. I'm really looking forward to the spring and being able to grow greens to make smoothies myself.

I really want to buy a Vitamix blender, which these authors I mention boast to be the best blender for making green smoothies. I have an older blender that I've never used so I should probably try that first. I also want a food dehydrator cuz I figure it's probably more affordable to dehydrate your own fruits.

Why does being healthy have to be so expensive!

A new year with Whole Life Nutrition

Raw Energy Balls, Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen

 Raw Energy Balls I made - yum!

I came across the Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen blog in November or December last year, probably while looking up recipes for soups (I usually go to Allrecipes.com). What I liked best about the recipes on the blog are that they are based on whole foods; the same cannot be said for all of the recipes on Allrecipes.com. I also like the fact that most of the recipes are easy because I don't really like to cook :). I stick to the recipes that don't call for gluten-free flours or other weird things like xanthan gum, however if I had celiac disease and needed alternative flours and such, Whole Life Nutrition would be a valuable resource. I was lucky that TPL  had just ordered the book so I put a hold on it and got it relatively quickly.

Image from Whole Life Nutrition

This is a great book! It was laid out very well, with background chapters on such topics as the basics of eating a whole foods diet and your diet in relation to global warming. I really liked the introductory chapter on stocking your pantry - all the different types of gluten-free flours, sugars, and grains; nuts, seeds, beans - what a list! The only disappointment was the lack of pictures, which was what drew me from the blog to the book.

Grinding the almonds for the Raw Energy Balls in my food processor created quite a racket (I'm surprised the blade and bowl survived based on the amount of noise it made) and I was surprised to find that all the ingredients came together in a way that nothing was left back in the food processor except oils from the ingredients. Clean up was a breeze. I had to grind a whole cardamom pod because I didn't have ground cardamom (I had ground cinnamon though) and this accounted for an initially overwhelming cardamomy taste. Everyone got used to it though and my family loved them. I'll be making them again. I'm looking forward to making some of the soups, nettle tea, and the Winter Green Smoothie.

The Verdict...

Girl with the Dragon Tatoo
It was just OK. The story was interesting despite the complicated family tree The ending was anti-climactic and disappointing. I did like the characters Blomkvist and Salander, but I'm not that interested in reading the rest of the series. Too much hype. I would like to see the movie, but that's mostly because I think Daniel Craig is hot.

A Dance with Dragons
It was good. I particularly liked the adventures Tyrion went on and the surprising new character he discovered while at sea. Actually that boat scene where he comes to befriend everyone was pretty good. It was funny and I felt the camaraderie. I liked seeing what happened to Theon since I had completely forgotten him and I was glad to see Asha come back. Although Daenerys' storyline is getting really tired (nothing's really happening with her!), I was really moved by the scene in the colosseum pit where she is trying to get some control over Drogon (I think it was Drogon). I felt like I was right there, either as Daenerys or as myself watching her. I could hear the crowds screaming in the background and people running about in a frenzy; I could see Drogon flapping his black wings, the dust rising from the pit as a result, and I could feel the heat and see the heatwaves when he opened his mouth to release flames. It was so vivid! 

Look out old Jackie is back!

Another Repairman Jack novel is out - The Dark at the End. And I'm reading it, just like I've read almost every one of F. Paul Wilson's novels. I have been reading his books for years, ever since I picked up Legacies at the Gerrard Ashdale branch of the TPL many years ago. I've read every Repairman Jack book to date, except the one I'm currently reading and the two new teen fiction novels (Secret Circles and Secret Vengeance; Secret Histories was pretty good!). I've read The Adversary Cycle. I've read Sims, Virgin, and Black Wind. I even read Implant and tried, but failed, to read Midnight Mass (vampires? Boring...) while I was waiting for the next Repairman Jack novel to be released. I think I've read more books by Wilson than any other author! Wow!


Overall, I really enjoyed The Adversary Cycle. I loved The Keep (the opening scared the hell out of me); I found Reborn a little too much like Rosemary's Baby (an opinion I've seen posted elsewhere), although I read it so long ago I remember very little, and The Touch dragged on a bit; Reprisal had some painfully disturbing parts (bone-chilling, creepy) while other parts just dragged on a bit too long... The original Nightworld was amazing. Absolutely satisfying story. I purchased the revised version from Borderlands Press last year, even though I really wanted the original, and I was disappointed at the heavy Jack-focus. Wilson had written Nightworld long before the many Repairman Jack books (except The Tomb which is part of the Adversary Cycle and introduced Jack). I think I'm just a bit irritated with and a little tired of Jack now. I think I agree with a review I'd seen on Amazon where the reviewer said that Repairman Jack was much more interesting when the stories didn't tie so heavily into the Secret History of the World; when they stood alone and didn't involve the Dormentalists, The Kickers (I wish I could kick them), and The One. They were just creepy because of some otherness that couldn't be pinned down. I already know how it ends. I must be feeling a bit like Wilson himself, who says in the prologue of The Dark at the End "I need to move on". But he's writing two other prequels that show us how he came to meet Julio and Abe and become the Jack that we know because the fans have asked for it.

Perhaps I'm also a little tired of all the focus on the Jack because I really like the other characters of The Adversary Cycle, particularly Father Bill, and Glaeken. The way they all came together in the original Nightworld was just great. Each character is unique and interesting in their own way, not just Jack. That being said, I'm still going to read all the remaining Repairman Jack novels just so I can say I've read them all. I don't actually own any Repairman Jack novels (I own Virgin, Sims and Nightworld) which I plan to rectify this holiday season. I think I'll buy Conspiracies.

Images from www.repairmanjack.com/ (You don't know Jack!)

Reviews... helpful or hurtful?

Image from Goodreads

I'm currently reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I usually don't like to read books that I know everyone else is reading. The fact that something is on the Oprah's Book Club list is a bit of a turn off (although I did read What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day and I enjoyed it - it was different from what I usually read). I don't want to be told what to read by mass media. But sometimes your curiosity can't help but be peaked.

A crime drama, a 30 year old mystery, a social outcast with a gift... I think it was probably images of the movie, particularly Lisbeth Salander, on TV that made me decide I wanted to check it out. Also it takes place in Sweden, not North America. A friend of a friend married a Swedish guy, they have a great social system I hear, other than that I know nothing about the place. I'm also at a point in my reading where I don't have anything I'm waiting on from the library. I was recently thinking that it's only really gotten interesting just before page 200, which makes me wonder why I didn't put it down beforehand. Is it really that interesting or am I swayed by its mass appeal and the fact that it's been made into a movie. I made the mistake of reading some Amazon reviews and the first paragraph of Wikipedia's entry, and damn if they didn't give away stuff that I didn't need to know! Ugh, I hate that! Do reviews really ever help?

Image from Goodreads

I loved the first part of the story which took place in Afghanistan. I remember being caught up in the authors description of the beauty of his surroundings before Russia invaded. I was so mesmerized; it was dreamlike. I thought the characters were interesting, particularly the Hazaras with their Asian eyes from their Mongolian ancestors (cool!). I was really into the story and I cared about the characters. Somewhere along the line I made the mistake of reading an Amazon review while I was still reading it. It made some mention of the second part of the book and how it was written as if the story was meant to be made into a movie. I can't remember exact details (thankfully) but I went into the second part of the story with that in mind and it totally ruined it for me. I still enjoyed the book but I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't tainted by that review. Would I have come to that same conclusion as that reviewer? Probably not.

I do find myself moved by reviews. Good reviews, bad reviews, spoilers. I think it's better to save them for when I finish the book, at which point it doesn't really matter.