Tra itibaren Chyrowa, Polonya itibaren Chyrowa, Polonya

Re-read after finishing a book of essays on why we read Jane Austen (A Truth Universally Acknowledged; edited by Susannah Carson). Yep, the book of essays really did add to my enjoyment and enrich my thinking while reading.

After reading the Mercy Thompson Series, I just couldn't help myself....so here I go and start with this series.....let me just say-for a short story, this was excellant. I sit here and ponder why I like these so much, I've decided that is because it is first of all my favorite genre, has romance (love that), and I think that I like the idea of the dominant male -but good guy (we all know that I am the dominant male at my house-tee hee)- very quick read....great book!

Oh wait. A book about kids. In a school for sorcery. Man how unoriginal is that, Suzy. Ripping off Harry Potter 30 years before it was published. The shondel. P.S. For the sarcasmically challenged, that was indeed sarcasm.

Bailey, Blake. CHEEVER: a life. (2009). ****. I always wonder when I encounter a massive biography like this one as to who is the intended audience. Although well written and meticulously researched and documented, I often suspect that major parts of this near-700-page volume are speed-read by the majority of readers (like me). I suspect that when you really get down to it, I prefer the length of Plutarch’s Lives to something really massive like this. Cheever had a bad childhood. His father was an ultimate failure in business. His mother was a harridan of a woman. His only solace was his older brother. He did not do well in school. He managed to find parts of himself at Yaddo in Saratoga and was fortunate to submit his early stories to Malcolm Cowley at the New Republic. This gave him his first break, although it took him a long time to really find his voice. What molded his writings most was the relationship he developed with the editors at The New Yorker, especially William Maxwell. Cheever was not very good with women, probably because he was bisexual and never got full satisfaction from either sex at any one time. He also began to drink early on in his life, which further exacerbated his negative feelings towards his fellow man. I think Cheever was one of the greatest writers of post-war America. I’m not sure that this work will drive readers to read his works, but maybe it will. The final analysis of writer is what he writes. Recommended.

This book didn't do it for me and I actually read very little of it. I guess I already think fast food is pretty disgusting (although I love a good french fry), so I wasn't particularly interested in its origins or how bad it is for us. I did try - just not that hard. What I did read was a small section on 'natural flavors' that has sparked a little intrigue. If grocery store foods aren't 'low carb' they are 'natural'. What does that mean anyway? I spent a week checking out which of my usual foods had this mysterious 'natural flavor' (aka artificial flavor of the past) in them. I don't drink a Diet Coke under the guise that there is any health benefit at all, but when I eat my beloved natural granola I like to think that all those oats are pretty good for me. It is quite disappointing to think that so much "healthy" stuff we eat is manufactured in a chemical lab off the NJ parkway.