While I am still loving to read real books and not textbooks it must be said here and now: what have y’all been reading that’s worthwhile these last two years? I know, I know. You’ve already told me. You’ve already said what you like, but now I’d have to go back in the archives and read comments just to try to remember and I can’t.
Harper Collins has been sending me books on a pretty regular basis lately. Yesterday I got Jessica Seinfeld’s cookbook called “Deceptively Delicious” and read it thoroughly. That’s good for me as I normally just look at the pictures. The premise is that she has some picky eaters in her family and purees fruits and vegetables in everyday recipes to ensure they get proper nutrition. Good on her. I just use sarcasm and hold my children’s noses while I force it down their throats as I straddle them on the kitchen floor. Maybe her way is better.
Truthfully, I don’t have picky eaters, they just all get stuck in a rut of what they like and eat it until they can no longer stand the sight of it. Currently, I’m waiting for them to tire of ramen noodles, but that one is holding out pretty well. Not too long ago Mason came into the kitchen demanding to know what I was cooking. It wasn’t anything homemade, it was a box mix of falafel and I bought Tahini sauce to go with it. He’s been falafeling it ever since.
Other than that, my only trick for getting my children to eat fruits is to actually cut them up and leave them on the counter. If I arrange it on a plate, they are more likely to pick it up and eat it.
You can pre-order the book here, but only if you plan on ceasing that practice of putting your kids in a headlock to get them to eat carrots.
I’ve had a pretty good reading year, thanks to a challenge I joined. And I’ve encountered some really great reads over the last two years. Off the top of my head:
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott
Digging to America by Ann Tyler
Interpreter of Maladies & The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
On Writing Well by William Zinsser
How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
I’m sure there are more, but that’s all I can think of right now. Hope you enjoy some of them, too!
This has been the year of mediocre reading for me. Here are a few that weren’t so bad:
1. The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte
2. East of Eden by John Steinbeck (my all-time favorite book)
3. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Kahled Hosseini
5. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
6. The Time-Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
7. The Vampire Triology: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer(These are young adult books. The writing is mediocre at best, but the story is good. Very quick reads.)
books!! Food!! Here I come back out of the woodwork!
1. The Road, and No Country for Old Men, both by Cormac McCarthy
2. Atonement, by Ian McEwan
3. Charles Frazier is the author, I forget the title, but pretty much anything by him (author of Cold Mountain) is great
4. Yes, I read Harry Potter, and quite enjoyed the final installation
5. Agatha Christies are always faves – so quick, and she always gets me in the end!
6. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
7. The Summer Book by Tove Janssen
These are just a few faves. epicurious dot com is my favorite source for recipes. And Rachel Ray! Of course!
Um. I’ve read:
The Monster at the End of this Book by Grover
The Wonder Weeks
I’ve reread everything by Dorothea Benton Frank
(My tastes aren’t as refined as the others)
i’ve been reading your blog… does that count?
Eat, Pray, Love is on my list. I read the first chapter the other day at the bookstore.
Fford is Ffabulous. Love him.
I read The Time Traveler’s Wife in the Spring and was awed by it. Good lists so far. Thanks!
Books? Real books? Hmmm…well, made it through some easy Robert Parker mysteries this summer. I like the Jesse Stone ones. Currently reading Mr.Darcy’s Diary. And then there are the text books, Residential Appraisal 1,2 and now 3 & 4. Fair Housing and Environmental Issues and lets not forget everyone’s favorite USPAP.
As for food, chocolate is my friend. My kids may have been a little picky as children, but now they are voracious eaters and I have yet to see them turn their nose up at anything. Sushi is a favorite….yuck.
I’ve been hiding the grated zucchini in anything possible lately — even hamburgers. This book might just work for me. do you suppose it’ll convince my husband that we really, really need a good food processor?
Food: I tried to grind up some veggies and include them in pasta sauce. My nephew spotted an orange “floatie” (which is what he calls anything of color he finds in his meat and bread). Now he distrusts me and picks through everything I cook like he’s looking for diamonds. Pfft. Even cookies.
Books: Cottage Living; Better Homes & Gardens; O the Magazine. I’m still having attention-span difficulties… The last REAL book I read was Wicked. Excellent but it took about 5,000 short sittings before I could finish.
I secretly fed my family Hummus by hiding it in a recipe. tee hee! I am the only one who loves the goodness of Hummus. *laughs* I just got a vita-mix blender so maybe I should try the Jessica Seinfeld approach.
My daughter is a HORRIBLY picky eater. Veggies are her biggest challenge.
A thousand splendid suns was fantastic.
I’m going to try to get to Water for Elephants
The pilot’s wife
Light on Snow
Both of those are by anita shreve
And then there’s the school stuff and kids’ books!
How’s school going?
Ooo, I love the sarcasm and nose-holding method. Now that I know there are two of us, I feel much better!
Oh, and Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter … and Harry Potter. Well, I had to, ya know? But your lists have inspired me to resume reading grown-up books too.
Books. I love books…
Jodi Picoult–any thing by her. She is awesome.
Memory Keepers’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Body Surfing by Anita Shreve
How to be Lost by Amanda Woodward…
The list of books I am reading for school…long
Food…my toddler loves avocados, strawberries, chicken, hummus, etc. but now he wants to dip everything in ketchup…
#1 Red River by Lalita Tademy. It’s about the famous massacre in Colfax Louisiana after the Civil War. This is really her family history, and it’s extremely fascinating, including the aftermath and former slaves trying to put their lives back together in a time when the South is still reluctant to accept the end of slavery.
And of course, Harry Potter. They’re addictive and I think I read all of them one after another. I don’t even have kids, but people kept telling me to read them and I finally did. I’m glad I listened.
I’m so happy that you haven’t given up on veggies with your kids. Do you have a garden? Growing them is an excellent motivation to eat them.
My favorite reading picks so far this year
Fun: Harry Potter
Guilty pleasure: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Serious: Riding with Dead People by Monica Holloway
Inspiring & Worrisome: Infidel by Ayann Hirsi Ali
Just a tip with the hiding thing. Avocados in pancakes, not a big hit. Chocolate in pancakes good? What? It’s a bean, I count it as a vegetable.
i have a two-year-old which basically means i don’t have time to read anything outside of books for the toddler set, but some of my old faves include:
sugar by bernice mcfadden
river woman a novel by donna hemans
more like wrestling by danyel smith
resurrecting mingus by jenoyne adams
gotham diaries by tonya lewis lee
soledad by angie cruz
cane river by lalita tademy
push by sapphire
the prisoner’s wife by asha bandele
and if you wanna just laugh out loud:
the broke diaries by angela nissel
I can always stop the world to read Harry Potter. However, the kid is always FORCED to read- and it’s a chore. But she really got into this book called “Twilight.” It’s probably in the school library.
Not to sound like a totally snarky bitch, but would this woman even HAVE a book deal if she wasn’t married to someone famous? It just makes me cranky that to be famous, you have to start famous…sigh.
Here are some recent books that I have enjoyed:
The Tale of Despereaux- Kate DiCamillo
Another Country-James Baldwin
The Higher Power of Lucky- Susan Patron
Just stopping by to say hello. Been gone from blog land for a while, finally back.
I agree with the kids and fruit thing. Even when I have the fruit displayed on the counter with a nice fruit basket they won’t eat it unless it is pre cut and on the counter for them. When I do that though – they will eat the fruit instead of grabbing a bag of chips.
I only have to hold the nose of and shove vegetables down the throat of one of my kids. The other one would never eat anything BUT fruit if I let him. Vegetables will do as a second choice. And I’m not bragging — the kid weighs like 6 pounds at 4-years-old, we are ALWAYS begging him to eat some meat, potatoes, cheese… ANYTHING that has more than 5 calories.
Right now I’m reading a novel that is a true story BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA by Dorothy Allison. Very well written and highly disturbing.
One of my favorite cookbooks is INTERCOURSES: AN APHRODISIAC COOKBOOK. It has glorious pictures (rated pg), interesting facts about the history of food, and every recipe I’ve tried from it has been delicious.
Okay…. fruit and veg in this house are no issue. The kids are eating us out of house and home. We are NOT complaining. I am complaining that like Dawn….. it has to be covered in icky tomato sauce (ketchup). Then they complain that it taste horrible. And I am forced to not drown them in sarcasm when I drawl “REALLY?” with my eyebrows in my hairline and my shocked face on “I could have sworn I told you that BEFORE YOU DROWNED IT IN SAUCE”. I am the bitch of the world when I make them sit and eat it. You drown… you eat… simple really.
Getting them to eat meats is nearly impossible though like Mommy With Attitude. I could use some advice on sneaking meats into their diets
Bread, cheese, milk, yoghurt is no issue either. Neither is chocolate (whoops).
Books
Ummmmmmm
Harry Potter- cause I HAD to know how it ended (my excuse and I’m sticking to it)
The Heritage Of Shannara (complete series) by Terry Brooks
The Jerle Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Assorted titles written by Mary Higgins Clark
The Playground Mafia by Sarah Tucker (a good quickie that made me giggle)
And whatever else I have managed to convince my mother to lend me as I have no money to feed my book addiction and the library has the CRAPPIEST selection of the books I like. Bad point of living in a retirement area. Old folks don’t seem to read fantasy or blood and gore
Yvonne xoxoxoxo
Right now, I’m not reading any books (OMG that sounds such an awful statement) however, what I mean is I’m not reading any books for leisure. It seems my current course at Uni requires copious amounts of reading and that’s about enough for me for now.
However I did have a moment of express joy when I was given the new book by Nigella Lawson ‘Nigella Express’ (note the clever use of the word express… NOT) and although I could have spent time reading her quirky notes about her scrumptious recipes I found it much more interesting just to flick through the glossy pictures going ‘omg that looks wonderful, I must try cooking that…’ as each page turned. No doubt at some point I will indeed read the pages properly and cook the items, but for now glossy picture viewing is enough.
I was so lucky that my kids immediately took to veggies. I had a friend, however, who has two boys the exact same age as my son and daughter. The youngest hated vegetables with a passion. I mean he hated them so much that when Mom told him there were veggies on the menu, he would ACTUALLY breakdown and cry! She often teased “Matt, were having your favorites, tonight”, and he’d go ballistic.
I wish that I had a reading list. I mostly enjoy Tom Clancy-type novels, but I haven’t, as yet, delved into one lately. Peace.