I keep seeing references to Dr. Kessler's book all over the place. One is in the June issue of Women's Health and another is in NY Times. Here's the link to the NY Times article.
Both of these articles hit the mark and the entire 200+ page book is truly reiterated in these short 2-3 page articles.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The Dud Avocado
If there was a book in the 1950s that mirrored Carrie Bradshaw in Sex in the City, it is Elaine Dundy's protagonist, Sally Jay Gorce. This semi-autobiographic book is about Sally Jay- the type of character you love despite her quirks, inconsistencies, and stupid mistakes much like Carrie Bradshaw (Did she really have to leave Aidan? I'm mean...COME ON!). I love Sally Jay because she takes Paris by storm at the age of 23 and loves the city for everything I loved the city for when I was the same age. The book brought fond memories, many of which are romanticized in my head and leave me longing for Paris.
Sally Jay goes through a series of self awareness, sexual revelation, and fumbles as she tries to be independent. She is a dreamer and a constant runaway. Despite these faults, she seems to be always honest with herself and with people around her. Sally Jay does not really hide her faults and I found this refreshing. There's the Spaniard, with which she was a mistress for, Jim, one the she should have married, and Larry, the one she should have really run away from. Through these loves, she knows right from wrong, but still seems to go for wrong. I'm not sure if she truly discovered herself at the end of the book. But, then again, the protagonist is only 23 years old and I personally believe every girl is an idiot in their early twenties.
One complaint of the book that I have is that it does get a little slow. In the middle of the book, the reader tends to wait for something big to happen. And, when the same problems keep confronting Sally Jay, the reader gets a bit tired. Despite this, the book is a fun summer read.
Apparently, the book is Dundy's first attempt at a novel, which created much tension with her then-writer/husband and soon-to-be divorced writer/husband because it was incredibly successful. It made the best seller list when the book debuted. Dundy shared that the story is not totally true to Dundy's experience in Europe, but many of the stories do come from similar experiences- going to a Parsian jail, seeing all the sites, and trying to be the American girl in Paris.
Sally Jay goes through a series of self awareness, sexual revelation, and fumbles as she tries to be independent. She is a dreamer and a constant runaway. Despite these faults, she seems to be always honest with herself and with people around her. Sally Jay does not really hide her faults and I found this refreshing. There's the Spaniard, with which she was a mistress for, Jim, one the she should have married, and Larry, the one she should have really run away from. Through these loves, she knows right from wrong, but still seems to go for wrong. I'm not sure if she truly discovered herself at the end of the book. But, then again, the protagonist is only 23 years old and I personally believe every girl is an idiot in their early twenties.
One complaint of the book that I have is that it does get a little slow. In the middle of the book, the reader tends to wait for something big to happen. And, when the same problems keep confronting Sally Jay, the reader gets a bit tired. Despite this, the book is a fun summer read.
Apparently, the book is Dundy's first attempt at a novel, which created much tension with her then-writer/husband and soon-to-be divorced writer/husband because it was incredibly successful. It made the best seller list when the book debuted. Dundy shared that the story is not totally true to Dundy's experience in Europe, but many of the stories do come from similar experiences- going to a Parsian jail, seeing all the sites, and trying to be the American girl in Paris.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite
Back in college, I never gained the infamous "Freshmen 15." A main reason was because I was training 4-5 hours a day up to six times a week for field hockey. I was a solid rock. My high school jeans became tight not around my waist, but around my quads and butt because I was pumping the weights and gaining muscle.
This year I turned thirty, and I gained what I'll call the "You Gained What?!?!". For the first time in my life, I really gained a lot of weight over the winter. It all started with Thanksgiving and was just a terrible downward spiral from there. Part of my problem was, and still is, a lack of self-control with food. I tend to eat not out of hunger, but because I'm bored, sad, or tired.
I was very interested in reading Dr. David Kessler's book titled The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. Kessler is a doctor and former FDA Commission under Bush and Clinton. At one time, Kessler was also obese. He decided to investigate why America has such a high rate of obesity.
The majority of this book is incredibly repetitive. Most of the information could be summed up into just thirty pages. However, I did learn some very important lessons, which I will explain here.
1) America's food industry is out of control- Starting in the 1980s, the food industry discovered that fat, salt, and sugar sells. As a result, the majority of food today is loaded with all three.
2) Fat, salt, and sugar makes people out of control- For many Americans, there is a food addiction to these evil three. Kessler compares food addiction to cocaine addiction. Through studies, he shows that similar areas of the brain are ignited when fatty/salty/sugary foods are ingested and when there is a cocaine intake. This helps explain why I have no control around food some times...I'm just addicted.
3) The national obesity rate rose sharply around the same time the food industry got out of control- Obesity is the number one killer of Americans because it leads to other deadly diseases, such as heart disease.
4) Just say no- I am one of those people who has no will power with food. As a result, I just need to say no. Kessler mentions that the idea of "I'll just take one bite" does not actually work because it is often a slippery slope. One brownie bite tends to lead to eating the whole pan.
5) Chain restaurants and processed foods are evil- Food needs to be viewed as energy instead of a treat. Chicken wings and chips will probably not give me energy. I also did not know how chain restaurants deceivingly increase calories. For example, most fried foods are fried in the kitchen of the restaurant. However, they are also fried and then flash frozen before reaching the restaurant. This means that ALL fried foods have been double fried, which adds even more calories. Also, the nutritional value of the food is probably weakened by the adding of chemicals. Sometimes food chains pump water into chicken to make it appear healthier.
How have I done since the completion of this book? I don't think I've made huge strides, but I need to take it one day at a time. I food a website that helps people monitoring eating and exercises. It is called the Daily Burn. So far, my husband and my brother are my motivators and can monitor my process through my weight loss. We'll see what comes out of this and, perhaps, I'll have a summer that I can call "Hell Yeah I Lost That Weight!!!"
This year I turned thirty, and I gained what I'll call the "You Gained What?!?!". For the first time in my life, I really gained a lot of weight over the winter. It all started with Thanksgiving and was just a terrible downward spiral from there. Part of my problem was, and still is, a lack of self-control with food. I tend to eat not out of hunger, but because I'm bored, sad, or tired.
I was very interested in reading Dr. David Kessler's book titled The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. Kessler is a doctor and former FDA Commission under Bush and Clinton. At one time, Kessler was also obese. He decided to investigate why America has such a high rate of obesity.
The majority of this book is incredibly repetitive. Most of the information could be summed up into just thirty pages. However, I did learn some very important lessons, which I will explain here.
1) America's food industry is out of control- Starting in the 1980s, the food industry discovered that fat, salt, and sugar sells. As a result, the majority of food today is loaded with all three.
2) Fat, salt, and sugar makes people out of control- For many Americans, there is a food addiction to these evil three. Kessler compares food addiction to cocaine addiction. Through studies, he shows that similar areas of the brain are ignited when fatty/salty/sugary foods are ingested and when there is a cocaine intake. This helps explain why I have no control around food some times...I'm just addicted.
3) The national obesity rate rose sharply around the same time the food industry got out of control- Obesity is the number one killer of Americans because it leads to other deadly diseases, such as heart disease.
4) Just say no- I am one of those people who has no will power with food. As a result, I just need to say no. Kessler mentions that the idea of "I'll just take one bite" does not actually work because it is often a slippery slope. One brownie bite tends to lead to eating the whole pan.
5) Chain restaurants and processed foods are evil- Food needs to be viewed as energy instead of a treat. Chicken wings and chips will probably not give me energy. I also did not know how chain restaurants deceivingly increase calories. For example, most fried foods are fried in the kitchen of the restaurant. However, they are also fried and then flash frozen before reaching the restaurant. This means that ALL fried foods have been double fried, which adds even more calories. Also, the nutritional value of the food is probably weakened by the adding of chemicals. Sometimes food chains pump water into chicken to make it appear healthier.
How have I done since the completion of this book? I don't think I've made huge strides, but I need to take it one day at a time. I food a website that helps people monitoring eating and exercises. It is called the Daily Burn. So far, my husband and my brother are my motivators and can monitor my process through my weight loss. We'll see what comes out of this and, perhaps, I'll have a summer that I can call "Hell Yeah I Lost That Weight!!!"
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
The Poisonwood Bible
This book has been on my "to-read" list ever since college. However, only now did I finally dive into it. I'm glad I waited because I believe it requires a mature and knowledgeable mind. I didn't know much about post-colonial Africa in college- I learned as I taught about Africa to my Freshmen. Through my profession, I've been able to expand my mind and become interested in things that I never explored ten years ago. Thus, The Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, is a kind of book that needs to be for the right time and the right mind in order to truly enjoy it's story and, ultimately, lesson.
The novel is about a preacher's family from the south that moves to the Congo in the 1950s for a religious mission. Unfortunately, the mission is only the father's and the rest of the family must endure the father's almost insanely fervent religious goals. The story is told mostly through the voices of the preacher's four daughters as the characters are initially introduced as children and the reader grows with them into adulthood. This novel is extremely complicated as demonstrated by the immense amount of research completed by the author. The author researched post colonial history of the Congo, continuously read the King James Bible, documented sounds/images/smells of Western Africa by traveling constantly and meeting locals, and Kingsolver even studied the language of females in the 1950s in order to give the daughters' voices authenticity. The creation of this novel was no small feat: the author took three years to accomplish a story that had been in her heart for over thirty.
I believe the success of this book comes from Kingsolvers passion about Africa. In an interview, she says a beautiful quote about the need to expose America's role in Cold War politics and how it affected nations around the world and even more remote villages that have nothing in common with Western politics.
"I live in a country that has done awful things, all over the world, in my name. You can't miss that. I didn't make those decisions, but I have benefited from them materially. I live in a society that grew prosperous from exploiting others. England has a strong tradition of postcolonial literature but here in the U.S., we can hardly even say the word "postcolonial." We like to think we're the good guys. So we persist in our denial, and live with a legacy of exploitation and racial arrogance that continues to tear people apart, in a million large and small ways. As long as I have been a writer I've wanted to address this, to try to find a way to own our terrible history honestly and construct some kind of redemption."
Kingsolver's analysis of US politics then is also a reflection of now. Her novel is only fiction, but a historical fiction also sheds a lot of light on good and bad decisions that affect us today.
The novel is about a preacher's family from the south that moves to the Congo in the 1950s for a religious mission. Unfortunately, the mission is only the father's and the rest of the family must endure the father's almost insanely fervent religious goals. The story is told mostly through the voices of the preacher's four daughters as the characters are initially introduced as children and the reader grows with them into adulthood. This novel is extremely complicated as demonstrated by the immense amount of research completed by the author. The author researched post colonial history of the Congo, continuously read the King James Bible, documented sounds/images/smells of Western Africa by traveling constantly and meeting locals, and Kingsolver even studied the language of females in the 1950s in order to give the daughters' voices authenticity. The creation of this novel was no small feat: the author took three years to accomplish a story that had been in her heart for over thirty.
I believe the success of this book comes from Kingsolvers passion about Africa. In an interview, she says a beautiful quote about the need to expose America's role in Cold War politics and how it affected nations around the world and even more remote villages that have nothing in common with Western politics.
"I live in a country that has done awful things, all over the world, in my name. You can't miss that. I didn't make those decisions, but I have benefited from them materially. I live in a society that grew prosperous from exploiting others. England has a strong tradition of postcolonial literature but here in the U.S., we can hardly even say the word "postcolonial." We like to think we're the good guys. So we persist in our denial, and live with a legacy of exploitation and racial arrogance that continues to tear people apart, in a million large and small ways. As long as I have been a writer I've wanted to address this, to try to find a way to own our terrible history honestly and construct some kind of redemption."
Kingsolver's analysis of US politics then is also a reflection of now. Her novel is only fiction, but a historical fiction also sheds a lot of light on good and bad decisions that affect us today.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
ASIAN BOOKS- American Born Chinese
A while ago, I read a book by a Korean author, Chang-Rae Lee, titled Native Speaker. Although it is not one of my all time favorite books, this book stood out to me for the sole purpose of the main character being Korean. I could identify with the character on some level- the culture, thoughts, and senses of being Asian.
It seems that there are more cultural novels as our society becomes more pluralistic; I intend to read everything I can. I stumbled upon this great graphic novel titled American Born Chinese by Gene Yang. I finally found comfort in a book- I could relate to the character’s troubles growing up Asian in a predominantly white area. Actually, I kept thinking about my brother’s childhood because the character, Jin, is a boy.
Jin is a young boy who’s family moves out of Chinatown, San Francisco to a predominantly white suburb. Growing up in this area, Jin faces a lot of racist remarks and isolation. He tries to find his way in life- sometimes he gives up his Chinese heritage and sometimes he embraces it. For example, Jin tries to change his image to be more attractive to the blond girl in his class.
Woven through this story is the fable told by his mother about the Monkey King in China. In the end of t
he novel, both Jin’s life and the Monkey King’s life weave together. The ending is a bit abrupt, but I loved everything else about this novel. The author, Gene Yang, has made several other graphic novels under the name of “Humble Comics.” In addition, he is a proponent of using graphic novels in education. Here’s the link to Comics in Education. It’s given me some thoughts of teaching ESL 2 next year. Wouldn’t it be great to get students engaged in reading, regardless of the kind of reading?I love all my cultural books. However, I am still waiting to find a fiction book or graphic novel of an Asian girl who kicks ass. Anyone have suggestions?
Monday, April 13, 2009
Breaking Dawn- Twilight Series Ends
It is a sad day because there is no more Edward & Bella, but also one of joy because of a happy ending. I finally finished the Twilight series by reading the fourth and last book, Breaking Dawn. This was by far, the longest book of the bunch. Perhaps Stephanie Meyer wanted to condense two books into one. I'm not sure if I enjoyed this one the most because of the story or because I knew it is the last and final book. Regardless, I have enjoyed the ride.
I can't discuss this book in length because there would be too many spoiler alerts. However, I will say that Bella comes into her own and, in typical Meyer style, there is definitely a surprise or two in this book. Again, the writing is not good, even the ending is mediocre, but there is just something addicting about this book!
This is the first time in a while that I don't have another book immediately lined up. Perhaps it's because there is no fifth Twilight book to look forward to- now I can just take my time to pick another book. P Gregory may be beckoning me...
I can't discuss this book in length because there would be too many spoiler alerts. However, I will say that Bella comes into her own and, in typical Meyer style, there is definitely a surprise or two in this book. Again, the writing is not good, even the ending is mediocre, but there is just something addicting about this book!
This is the first time in a while that I don't have another book immediately lined up. Perhaps it's because there is no fifth Twilight book to look forward to- now I can just take my time to pick another book. P Gregory may be beckoning me...
Monday, April 6, 2009
The Other Boleyn Girl
I must admit that I am a sucker for fictional stories based on royal families of the past. There's something very dramatic about the royal court, schemes, and romances. I have had The Other Boleyn Girl in my mind for quite a while, but the opportunity presented itself in audiobook form when I went to drive 6 hours to meet Kelly and Lanaya in Iowa. It was the quickest 12 hours of driving I've ever had because the story is...well it is just so dramatically good. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find the kind of fix that the Twilight series gives me. Now, I understand that I have nothing to worry about because the author, Philippa Gregory, already has at least six novels about this time period.
This novel has everything to make for a good story. It has everything dramatic- selfish motives, death, power. At the same time, it has the beauty of life, love, and trust. I almost wish they made this into a television show series because it is an unending story of the life of aristocracy in 1500s England under King Henry's court. Whenever I explained King Henry VIII to my students in my World History class, I compared it to a soap opera in Days of Our Lives. Well, this is a well-written soap opera that is enjoyable to read.
It is no surprise that this novel was picked up to become a screenplay and eventual movie. The two A-List actresses in it who represent Mary Boleyn, the protagonist, and her sister and eventual Queen Anne are Scarlett Johannsen and Natalie Portman. I just watched the movie, The Duchess, another time period piece with Keira Knightley. I guess I am just into these time period pieces and can't get enough of them in movie or novel form!
This novel has everything to make for a good story. It has everything dramatic- selfish motives, death, power. At the same time, it has the beauty of life, love, and trust. I almost wish they made this into a television show series because it is an unending story of the life of aristocracy in 1500s England under King Henry's court. Whenever I explained King Henry VIII to my students in my World History class, I compared it to a soap opera in Days of Our Lives. Well, this is a well-written soap opera that is enjoyable to read.
It is no surprise that this novel was picked up to become a screenplay and eventual movie. The two A-List actresses in it who represent Mary Boleyn, the protagonist, and her sister and eventual Queen Anne are Scarlett Johannsen and Natalie Portman. I just watched the movie, The Duchess, another time period piece with Keira Knightley. I guess I am just into these time period pieces and can't get enough of them in movie or novel form!
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