Book 13 - Let the Right One In

Let The Right One In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist. 472 pages. A while ago, I was looking through my library's new book section, trying to find a few books to read. One of the books I picked up was Lindqvist's Handling the Undead. I mean, *undead?* I thought it was about vampires... Read that it was about zombies... and my interest in reading it vanished:/ Somewhere on the book jacket, this book was mentioned, so I picked it up. Now, when I started reading it, I thought it was *really* good... But I am not sure I feel the same way now that I have finished it. It was a good book, but at the very least, the ending stunk:/ The book is about a young boy, and the strange neighbor he meets. When I began the book, I knew I was not going to LOVE it, cause it started out with quite some child molestation / prostitution type situations... And it was not until a ways into the book that I realized why Eli's *father* was with her:/ The book (imo) could have done without some of that icky molestation stuff... Don't think it added to the plot much... Something that is stilll bugging me is the vampire defenition. Oskar asks if Eli is a vampire, and the response is basically *no, and there is a big difference between myself and a vampire...* So Eli is not a vampire? But the book is supposed to be about vampires... And if Eli is not a vampire... then what? It was okay, but jumpy. It took me probably 3/4 of the book to be able to understand who was talking when the storyline jumped to another scene. I am still confused about some of the people. Lots of people... Right after I got this book from the library (but before I read it) I found the movie, Let The Right One In, at a Blockbuster for 3 bucks, so I bought it. Now that I have read it, I am wondering how *like* the book it will be, and If I even want to watch it... I also just saw that they re-made the movie, Let Me In, last year. There are supposed to be some pretty big differences in the two movies, with the second taking a larger leap from the plot of the actual book... We will see...

Book Count : 13
Page Count : 4044

Book 12 - The Midwife's Apprentice

The Midwife's Apprentice. Written by Karen Cushman. 128 pages. From BN.com:

Like Cushman's 1995 Newbery Honor Book, Catherine, Called Birdy, this novel is about a strong young woman in medieval England who finds her own way home. This is a world, like Chaucer's, that's . . . dangerous, primitive and raucous. From the first page you're caught by the spirit of the homeless, nameless waif, somewhere around 12 years old. She gets the village midwife to take her in, befriends a cat, names herself Alyce, and learns something about delivering babies. When she fails, she runs away, but she picks herself up again and returns to work and independence.

I am pretty sure that this in the only book that I have read (so far this year) that has received any sort of award. But I was not super impressed:/ I thought I would like the book, based solely on the title. Some of the word usage was so foreign to me, and I had to re-read several passages to understand what the HECK was going on... Meh... Oh well:/

Book Count : 12
Page Count : 3572

Book 11 - The Gift

The Gift. Written by James Patterson. #2 in the Witch and Wizard Series. 341 pages. Snippet from BN.com:



When Whit & Wisty were imprisoned by the wicked forces of the totalitarian regime known as the New Order, they were barely able to escape with their lives. Now part of a hidden community of teens like themselves, Whit and Wisty have established themselves as leaders of the Resistance, willing to sacrifice anything to save kids kidnapped and brutally imprisoned by the New Order.
But the One has other plans in store for them: He needs Wisty, for she is "The One Who Has the Gift." While trying to figure out what that means, Whit and Wisty's suspenseful adventures through Overworld and Shadowland lead to a jaw-dropping climax and conclusion: the highly-anticipated fulfillment of the heart-pounding opening prologue of book one... The Execution of the Allgoods.

Meh... I am not really sure what I think of this book. I mean, I picked up the first book because the title and cover looked good. And I really only read this one cause I already read the second one, and I was HOPING that this one would be better. IDK... The author has created such an alternate reality, and uses SO many fictitious terms, that I often had a hard time keeping up. I also feel like there is not enough back story. I don't understand alot of why these two kids had NO idea of their powers, or how this organization (the N.O.) came to be in power... I think that might have been helpful to include. This book just left me confused. OF COURSE I will read another book in this series if it comes out, but only cause I just want to know what the heck is going on....

Book Count : 11
Word Count : 3444

Meal Plan : 3/14-20

I love meal planning. I love the organization of making up my little lists and menus... And using CookingTF just makes is sooooo much easier. I still manage to take an hour or so to tweak my weeks plan though...lol:-) I write out what we are having each day, and then make a list of what need to be prepared/defrosted/etc... each morning/evening. The mailer I get includes this info, but since I have different meals on different days, I get to tweak it:) And then the best part... making my pretty menu for the fridge:) Yeah...dorky... but i love it! Check it out:

I know... gorgeous, right? And I just know you are dying to have your very own little toy story magnets...right? Today (monday) is not on the menu because we had leftovers tonight. I love leftovers. And I still have leftovers from last week in the fridge AND the freezer... I suppose I should have planned for a few leftover nights this week, but everything looked so darn good, I could not choose:/ So, like I have mentioned before, I have yet to try a CookingTF recipe that I do not like, so let's see how this week is!

Traditional Foods

  So... for several years now, I have been intrigued by those following a "Traditional Foods" diet. What are "Traditional Foods?" Kerry Ann Foster at CookingTF says this:
So, this is what TF looks like for us (as far as the food is concerned):

Simply put, Traditional Foods are foods consumed in the way our ancestors ate them.  The basis of Traditional Foods is that the food you consume be as nutrient dense and nourishing as possible.  Traditional Foods (TF) goes beyond just avoiding packaged and processed foods.  It is about choosing the best food options available for your budget, individual chemistry & location and consuming it in a way that allows your body to extract the maximum nutrition from that item.  

• buying pastured meat directly from the farmer. We found a semi-local source for beef and poultry (minus ground beef, but we can get grass-fed ground beef from several local health food stores...) We drove up to this farm (Rainbow Ranch Farms, if anyone is interested - they also have a facebook page) and picked up a wholesale order of 20 whole chickens and about 75 lbs. of beef a couple weeks ago. We are so excited to have been able to not only get some good quality meat, but to support a small family farm at the same time. Plus, in order to be able to buy all of this meat, we got to buy a chest freezer-lol! Grass fed beef (also called pastured) is soooo much better for you than the "meat" you will find at your local grocery store... And it is tasty. So very, very tasty! Have you seen Food Inc.? ((shudder))  So now, if it is not grass fed/pastured/organic.... I just can't buy it. For other meat products (bacon, lunch meat, BACON...) we really like Applegate Farms:-)
• Organic Dairy. If we are buying milk to drink (which is a rare occasion, we are not milk drinkers) we get raw milk from Organic Pastures. We have some of their raw butter as well, for spreading on toast and things like that. For cooking/baking with, we use non-homogenized whole milk from Straus Family Creamery, and pastured butter from Organic Valley. Taking the fat out of dairy is so yucky:/ Raw dairy is so much healthier for you, but where I live, it is so expensive:/ Hopefully someday we will live somewhere where we have a local, affordable, raw dairy and cream source... But for now, this is a good setup:)
• We recently completely stopped buying cold cereals, even if they are organic. I have learned to love my oatmeal, pancakes, and eggs:) I am always open to new breakfast ideas though!
• Pastured eggs. I have not found a local (enough) source for free-range eggs that are NOT veggie fed... so for now, I buy Chino Valley eggs.
• not a new one for us, but I try to buy anything that we will be putting into our bodies organic. I should have put this one first, as it pretty much applies to everything. I started out, a while ago, trying to buy produce according to the dirty dozen. As our finances allowed, that slowly changed into us just buying everything organic. Produce, body products, the few snack foods that we might buy, nuts, beans, wheat...

I think I got most of it. I have also found several websites that have been full of useful information:

• The big one, that everyone and their mom will tell you about, is the Weston A. Price Foundation. I, personally found this site to be a *nightmare* to navigate, until someone directed me to their guided tours. There is a lot of information here. Oh, and a wiki rundown of the WAPF.
• The Nourishing Gourmet. This is not one that I have spent a lot of time perusing, but it has come highly recommended by friends.
• The Nourished Kitchen. Again, not one I have spent a ton of time on. But, a while back, I followed some one's link to something on the site called the 28-day real food challenge. It piqued my interest in TF, and is full of great info and recipes.
• Some online forums, like MDC have their own Traditional Foods sub-forum. Forums like this are a great way to learn about TF, and talk to others about it.
• The last one I have, and my absolute favorite- CookingTF (which I linked to earlier) and their very own forum, TFRecipes. This site has the basics laid out for your very nicely on the main page. And also, for recipe-deficient folks like myself, they have a nifty menu-mailer. I signed up a couple of weeks ago, and I love it! I have been in such a rut, meal wise, for a looong time. Add in this new way of eating and preparing meals... I was just lost... There are a few things on the menu that I have looked at. and though "meh... not gonna try that..." mostly things with seafood... or butternut squash ((shudder)) But EVERY single recipe that I have tried so far, has been a hit. Seriously yummy! When there is something on the menu that I just can't handle, I can just pull another recipe of hers out. This week we had Teriyaki Chicken, Beef Kabobs (that I could not Kabob properly...), Bacon, Kale and Tomato Soup, Chicken and Wild Rice, and Chili (for the record, I have NEVER been able to make a good chili from scratch. These recipes rock. They are awesome.

I have tried a handful of different *diets* with my family. From your standard american diet (SAD, and it really is sad:/), to one trying to buy more organic products but not really being able to, to going wheat/dairy/egg free along with trying to make everything from scratch, to a week of veganism... None of these felt right for our family, and there was not one where every person in the family actually felt great and enjoyed the food I made. I really feel like I have discovered the way we were meant to eat with TF:-) kinda cheesy sounding, but oh well...

Book 10 - How To Ride a Dragon's Storm

Woo-hoo! I actually went a whole month without posting. Or reading much (for that matter...) On to the book:

How to Ride a Dragon's Storm, by Cressida Cowell. 254 pages. From BN:

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, everyone's favorite reluctant Viking hero, has three months, five days and six hours to discover America, get back to Berk, save his father, battle Polarserpents and win the annual Inter-Tribal Friendly Swimming Race. Can he do it?

The reason it took me soo long to read the next book in this series, was cause I don't own it! And apparently everyone and their uncle's cousin is putting this very book on hold at my local library... But I digress... Having not read much of anything for the past month, this was a nice little dip back into reading. Like the others in the series, this book was just fun to read. I am *into* the series now, and am kinda bummed that I have reached the last one that has been released *in the US* so far:/ Oh well. I've already got another book ready to read! It is The Gift. You know, the sequel to Witch and Wizard, which I read in January. Woohoo! And I think sometime after that (assuming I do not find something that I just MUST read) I will re-read the Sookie Stackhouse Books. Actually, they are called The Southern Vampire Series... OMG they are good! Anyways... off to bed!

Book Count : 10
Page Count : 3103

Book 9 - Shattered Dreams

Shattered Dreams, written by Irene Spencer. 406 pages. Synopsis from BN.com:

Just as A Mormon Mother is the standout memoir of a 19th-century polygamous woman's life, this autobiography offers the compelling voice of a contemporary plural wife's experiences. Daughter of a second wife, Spencer was raised strictly in "the Principle" as it was lived secretly and illegally by fringe communities of Mormon "fundamentalists"-groups that split off from the LDS Church when it abandoned polygamy more than a century ago. In spite of her mother's warnings and the devotion of a boyfriend with monogamist intentions, Spencer followed her religious convictions-that living in polygamy was essential for eternal salvation-and became a second wife herself at the age of 16 in 1953. It's hard to tell which is more devastating in this memoir: the strains of husband-sharing with-ultimately-nine other wives, or the unremitting poverty that came with maintaining so many households and 56 children. Spencer's writing is lively and full of engaging dialogue, and her life is nothing short of astonishing. After 28 years of polygamous marriage, Spencer has lived the last 19 years in monogamy. Her story will be emotional and shocking, but many readers will resonate with the universal question the memoir raises: how to reconcile inherited religious beliefs when they grate against social norms and the deepest desires of the heart. (Aug. 22)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

It was very interesting to read another book, written by someone in the same family. Last week I finished Favorite Wife, written by the 6th wife of Verlan LeBaron. Shattered Dreams was written by the same man's 2nd wife. So, interesting to see two different perspectives. What I found the most interesting, was that from the very beginning, Irene was a rebelious little thing, never fully onboard with polygamy. She sought a divorce several times during her marriage to Verlan, and was constantly making her own decsions. Decisions that blantatly went against not only her husbands wishes, but the rules of her religion. Another eye opener if you want to really see how these women live - in complete poverty, not even seeing their husbands but a few times a month - if that...

Book Count : 9

Word Count : 2849

Book 8 - Favorite Wife

Favorite Wife, written by Susan Ray Schmidt. 406 pages. This book (like many others that I have read) was about this womans experience growing up, marrying, living and escaping from a polygamous community. Of course, I enjoyed it:) Here is a summary from BN.com:

A RIVETING MEMOIR OF LIFE INSIDE ONE OF NORTH AMERICA’S
MOST NOTORIOUS POLYGAMOUS CULTS She had no choice in the matter—none of the girls did. Her mission was to give birth to and raise many children in devoted service to a shared husband. Susan was fifteen years old when she became the sixth wife of Verlan LeBaron, one of the leaders of a rogue Mormon cult, who was engaged in a blood feud with his brother that from 1972 to 1988 claimed up to two dozen lives.

In this gripping and eloquent book, Susan Ray Schmidt tells the story of growing up on the inside and of her ultimate escape with her children from an oppressive and violent life. Delving more deeply into this mysterious underworld than any previous work, Favorite Wife is a powerful account of the affairs of the heart, coming of age under exceptional circumstances, and the tough choices that are sometimes painfully necessary to preserve human dignity.

There was a HUGE difference between this book, and the others that I have read about real life polygamy. The books I have read in the past were about the FLDS, the large polygamous community that we all know about up in the US. The group whose *prophey* was/is Warren Jeffs. This book, was about a different group, in Mexico. This groups prophet was Joel LeBaron, and was called the Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times. From the very beginning, I was shocked by the (apparant) differences between the two groups. This group allowed women to wear pants, and relatively modern clothing (the book was set in the late 60's-mid 70's.) The author did not touch on abuse, so I assume is was not a HUGE problem, as it is in the FLDS. And the big one (for me at least,) is that, for the most part, the women choose who they want to marry... Of course, there are exceptions, like when someone pushed a girl to get married to a certain person - but this was not (to my understanding) the accepted norm. Susan had a dream, and chose (at age 15) to marry, and become the 6th wife of Verlan LeBaron. From the very beggining of her marriage, she realized that her life was not going to be all that she thought it would be... In the end, when she did leave, there did not appear to be any crazy fight for her return or anything. It seems like the people in this group do have alot more freedom than in the FLDS. They are still under some pretty freaky indoctrination... but still... I have another book here, titled Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife which is written by Susan's ex-sister wife, the 2nd wife of Verlan LeBaron. Should be another interesting read... It never really occured to me that there were more polygamous groups than just the FLDS...

Book Count : 8

Word Count : 2443

Book 7 - Matched

Matched, by Ally Condie. 384 pages. All I can say, is that there had BETTER be a sequel to this book... Synopsis from BN.com:

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.
The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow

Okay, first things first, there WILL be a sequel. I think this is supposed to be a three-part series??? Anyways... I loved this book. Read it in less than a day. It reminded me slightly of the Uglies series. Every decision is made for the people in this book. Right down to who you are to marry. I loved this book, it was definately a page turner. I could not put it down, and was really enjoying the plot, up until the ending. It just stops. Thank goodness there is, in fact, going to be a sequel - or the ending would have totally ruined the book...

Book Count : 7

Word Count : 2037

Book 6 - Stolen Innocence

Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall. 438 pages. Here is a summary from BN.com:

In September 2007, a packed courtroom in St. George, Utah, sat hushed as Elissa Wall, the star witness against polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs, gave captivating testimony of how Jeffs forced her to marry her first cousin at age fourteen. This harrowing and vivid account proved to be the most compelling evidence against Jeffs, showing the harsh realities of this closed community and the lengths that Jeffs went to in order to control the women in it. Now, in this courageous memoir, Elissa Wall tells her incredible and inspirational story of her time in the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), detailing how she emerged from its confines to help bring one of America's most notorious criminals to justice.

In case you did not know (I did not,) Elissa Wall was the main witness in the 2007 trial that ended with Warren Jeffs (FLDS prophet) with two 5yrs -life sentences for being an accomplice to rape. Nearly 3 years later, this ruling was overturned by the Utah Supreme Court... This book was long, but very very good. In it, Elissa talks about her childhood, and how her family was constantly being torn apart. At the age of 14, she was forced to marry her first cousin - aged 19. Because I have read so many books/ watched shows, etc. on the subject of polygamy, most everything that I read in this book was not new news to me. On thing that stood our to me as shocking (but not that shocking, I mean, look who we are talking about here...) was how once Rulon Jeffs (Warren's father, and prophet up until the time of his death) was basically being controlled by his son. He had suffered a stroke (or two, not sure,) and as a result, his son started saying that he was speaking for his father, the prophet. I am sure he was, much of the time. But there are several accounts in the book that describe other people witnessing the father saying one thing, and the son saying something else, and then proclaiming that it came from the prophet... Yuck:/ Eliss'a story is a sad story, but I am thrilled that she retained enough of *herself* to continue to question things, even after being married at the age of 14. It is evident that her stubborness is what has led her to where she is today. It is truly amazing that she was able to get out of the FLDS when she did. Had she had children with this man, it could have gotten much harder, and been more difficult for her to leave. I don't really know the right word to use here, but this book (as opposed to Carolyn Jessop's stories,) had more of an effect on me... I could relate more... somthing like that, but not quite... because the author is several months younger than me! I read through the book, able to think of what was going on in *my* life at the time these things were happening to this young girl... Makes me feel very very VERY blessed to have been born into the family that I was born into, and not into the FLDS, which is not all that far from where we live to begin with...Before reading this book and Jessop's book, I was really pretty unaware of the current FLDS situation. It makes me so sad to think of all the people still living in these conditions...

Book Count : 6

Word Count : 1653