What Are You Reading Right Now? The IAC Book Thread

[RussellK]

"Stop Prediabets Now. The Ultimate Plan to Lose Weight and Prevent Diabetes" It's an epidemic and I'm a participant. Apparently we should all return to our childhood paper eating habits. But seriously a lot of books from this genre are confusing. This one is not which makes it work.

[satchmo]

"Stop Prediabets Now. The Ultimate Plan to Lose Weight and Prevent Diabetes" It's an epidemic and I'm a participant. Apparently we should all return to our childhood paper eating habits. But seriously a lot of books from this genre are confusing. This one is not which makes it work.

Paper eating? Not gonna happen. At least not for most of us

I haven't read the book. In fact, because I'm a preventive medicine doc, I rarely read any popular self-help books on medical issues. Maybe you could write a little summary of the main point (or, as a colleague once said to me, 'you could synopsize it').

Tim

[glasseye]

Yep...Morgan Freeman is quite miscast. He is past milking the movie system, and I can think of several others. We need term limits on actors...him, Tori Spelling, Susan Sarandon, Vince Vaughn, Meryl Streep...I could do very well not seeing any further appearances. Let's give some new blood some opportunity.

Not sure why that post is here in the books section, but I'm driven to open my yap in any case. (what else is new?)

Morgan Freeman is an exceptionally refined human being and a joy to both watch and listen to. Far from "milking the movie system", he sustains and improves it.

Meryl Streep is the finest actor of our generation.

[whc03grady]

The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways by Earl Swift.

[Sylvester]

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time is a book by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. I bought the book when I first got to Afghanistan and now that I am about to leave, I still have not finished it. I will be reading it on the way out of here.

[RussellK]

"Stop Prediabets Now. The Ultimate Plan to Lose Weight and Prevent Diabetes" It's an epidemic and I'm a participant. Apparently we should all return to our childhood paper eating habits. But seriously a lot of books from this genre are confusing. This one is not which makes it work.

Paper eating? Not gonna happen. At least not for most of us

I haven't read the book. In fact, because I'm a preventive medicine doc, I rarely read any popular self-help books on medical issues. Maybe you could write a little summary of the main point (or, as a colleague once said to me, 'you could synopsize it').

Tim

I finally finished the book. I'm sorry to report it would have made a great magazine article but misses a smudge as a book. The beginning moves quickly giving statistics on obesity and how we as a nation got fat. It explains the part the food industry is playing in this growing (I couldn't resist) epidemic. It explains in easy non medical language how overly processed food is physiologically a huge culprit in the piling on of weight. I liked that while the subject of calories was addressed there wasn't an undue amount attention applied. There are plenty of other books that tackle calories. The gist of this books plan is if you want to maintain a healthy body eat fresh food get good protein and less of everything else. I got the book from our public library and the beginning of the book is interesting enough I'll check it out again just to reread the beginning. Unfortunately halfway through the book my interest began to wane due to a variety of little missing details like Chickpeas, the main ingredient in hummus, are good but don't eat hummus without explaining why. The section on how to read labels and buy groceries was tedious although in fairness that may be because I've already been in the practice of reading labels. There was a chapter on how to eat out in restaurants. Their suggestion you should engage in a conversation about ingredients with your server and then request fresh substitutions when eating out seems unrealistic. The kid at Applebee's likely won't know, won't care and there isn't anything fresh in the kitchen anyway. If you are eating where they do know and care what's in your food you probably haven't much to worry about anyway. So stay out of Applebee's. But they didn't make that suggestion. It just seemed like the tail of the book was being stretched just to fill pages. All that aside the positive result of my reading this book is an increased awareness of what I eat. For example with just a little effort I discovered I can get a healthier meal at Burger King than at Panera. Think about that the next time you put a Chicken Frontega in your mouth.

note: edited for grammar

[Cindy]

The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America. By David Stockman.

[Amskeptic]

The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America. By David Stockman.

He should know!

Just finished reading Gilead, by Marilynn Robinson, I started "missing it already" as the end neared. A lovely book.
Thank-you, Cindy, you have done more for my literary development than anyone else in my life.
Colin

[Cindy]

There have been only two books in all of my life that made me suddenly cry. Grapes of Wrath was the first and Gilead was the second. (I almost choked on my instant tears when I read the preacher's recollection of fishing with Boughton--sneaking in through the window to wake him when they were both little boys. It made life and time and death look so painfully beautiful.)

In my new house, I have a small library. I can't tell you how happy it makes me.

Cindy

[Bleyseng]

Picked up "The Affair" a Jack Reacher novel which is a fun read as Reacher solves another unsolvable crime falling in love along the way plus kicking ass in a small southern town.
I like the Reacher novels as they are well written but the movie with Tom Cruise destroyed my mental image of Reacher...
Now if only Reacher just drove around the US in a old VW bus, worn a wife beater T shirt.....

[Boxcar]

Happy to find the Reading Thread!

Have TE Lawrence Seven Pillars of Wisdom on deck AND phone kindle app.
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness of recent kindling (free).

Also low cost was Crossing The Darien Gap..the author a Canadian was ok, like 19 or 20. A great adventure.

[Sylvester]

The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675. Pretty brutal and heartbreaking, there was a huge difference between the 1700's and the 1600's we never heard about. These weren't the Pilgrims, Pilgrim!

[TrollFromDownBelow]

Detroit - An American Autopsy, by Charlie Leduff. Fairly easy read - bought it at the airport and between 3 hours of airtime and 5 hours of layover and flight delays finished it. He is a journalist that grew up in Detroit, worked for the New York Times, and then moved back as Kwami Kilpatrick was going through his sexting case. Very riveting.

[Jivermo]

Just concluded "Red Gold" by Alan Furst, and am now 1/2 into "True North" by Jim Harrison. In depth glances and paragraphs from "I and Thou" by Martin Buber.

[glasseye]

"The Dog Stars" by Peter Heller
http://www.amazon.ca/Dog-Stars-Peter-He ... +dog+stars

Nearly everybody in the world has died from a form of influenza. The hero lives in the foothills of CO with his ex SEAL buddy, an ageing Cessna and his dog. Survival is the game and they play it well.

Unusual writing style takes some getting used to. Not for the faint of heart. Gripping story, fascinating insights.