Library Log #1- The Adult Shelf

My all time favorite simple pleasure is reading.  Fiction, non-fiction, young adult, mystery, I’m pretty much open to it all.  I see nothing wrong with sitting for hours and getting lost in a book (not that I get to do it very often with two little ones running around), in fact if I could take a week off from everything and just live in a library or book store I would be one happy woman.  But since that isn’t going to happen, I do the best that I can and quickly scan and grab a book or two from the library shelf while my kids are playing in the children’s section.
Sometimes I can get through two books in two weeks, more often I end up renewing and renewing again until I can finish.
I have found the GoodReads app (for iPhone) to be most helpful lately as I can quickly scan books at the bookstore or library to add to my “to-read” list and then access it when I need to remember what that book was that I wanted to read.
My library system has a digital media catalog that I can use to download available titles to my Kindle or iPad.  I sometimes find that books I cannot find physically at the library are available digitally.  One benefit is that you can request a title and when it is available you receive an email and link to download.  Unfortunately the titles are non-renewable and only able to be “taken out” for 14 days.  Although more often than not I have found this to be a huge motivator to finish the book!

And so, similar to my original Library Log post I will share here with you my good library finds (and maybe some not so good ones), but for adults.

My reads this week:

VB6 by Mark Bittman:  My husband and I just finished a 4 day cleanse.  We felt great afterwards.  We know that we can’t eat like that all the time but we also know that our regular eating habits could be changed for the better.  This book couldn’t have come to me at a better time.  It was an eye opening read because it led me to understand how my eating doesn’t have to be “eat this-not that (ever)” and that I don’t have to feel guilty when I do indulge a bit.  Essentially, author Mark Bittman visits his doctor and is told that he is overweight and pre-diabetic and is given a mandate to begin a vegan diet.  Being a food writer, his life literally revolved around eating, yet he didn’t want to be resigned to a lifelong pill regimen.  So he created a flexible”flexitarian” vegan diet plan to fit his own needs.  Six years later he has lost 40 or so pounds (and kept them off) and he is no longer pre-diabetic.  The plan essentially prescribes that you eat Vegan Before 6:00 (at night, or dinner time) and for dinner and later you are welcome to eat anything.  No rules, calorie counting or restrictions.
Bittman spends the first few chapters of the book describing in very simple to understand language how the body processes what we put into it and how that translates into health (or lack thereof).  The last chapter is full of recipes that are fairly simple and broken into categories of breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinner.  While I don’t intend to follow the plan exactly, it has helped inform how I make my own dietary choices.
There is also a great interview of Mark Bittman and his book on WBUR’s On Point.

Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson:  Interesting story set in Nazi occupied Poland and current day Chicago.  A young German boy, Otto, is generously taken in by a Jewish family prior to the Nazi occupation.  Through the years the boy becomes part of his new family, bonded with his new siblings, Ben and Rebecca.  When the Nazi’s come to invade their town, Otto is visited by his biological parents and faces the decision to stay with his Jewish family and face many challenges or to listen to his parents and go to work for the Germans.  In current day Chicago, Ben has enlisted a lawyer to persecute a well-loved philanthropist who he accuses of actually being Otto, who as a Nazi had committed terrible crimes against Ben’s family.
The author uses Ben’s voice to retell a beautiful and tragic story that I didn’t want to put down.

I hope you might pick up one of these great books and enjoy for yourself!

Health and Happiness,
Cerissa