Since my appetite began going wonky I started to keep a log of the foods I was eating and sorted them into two categories. The first category I called "SAFE", and this was made up of items that I had no issues with. The second category I called "REGRETFUL", and consisted of items that made me sick or near sick. The lists are not perfect, as they seem to change occasionally, but most items have stayed pretty consistent.
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Aging, self-absorbed rock star Judas Coyne has a thing for the macabre -- his collection includes sketches from infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy, a trepanned skull from the 16th century, a used hangman's noose, Aleister Crowley's childhood chessboard, etc. -- so when his assistant tells him about a ghost for sale on an online auction site, he immediately puts in a bid and purchases it. The black, heart-shaped box that Coyne receives in the mail not only contains the suit of a dead man but also his vengeance-obsessed spirit. The ghost, it turns out, is the stepfather of a young groupie who committed suicide after the 54-year-old Coyne callously used her up and threw her away. Now, determined to kill Coyne and anyone who aids him, the merciless ghost of Craddock McDermott begins his assault on the rocker's sanity. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~ ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ This was my first encounter with Joe Hill, and I am smitten. He is a great author and weaves together a great story. This book quickly grabbed my attention as it becomes a pretty fast paced story pretty quickly. The one down side I have found with a lot of recent "horror/suspense" stories is that they will spend half the book building up to the climax, and then the pivotal moments of the story are spent in 10-20 pages. That is not the case with Heart-Shaped Box. This story is off and running in the first 20 pages, and keeps on running for 300 more. It wasn't completely predictable, which was refreshing. I give this a 4 out of 5. Not relevant to this review or book at all, but I wanted to mention the Joe Hill is the son of Stephen King, one of my favorite authors. King is the reason I had avoided Hill for as long as I have. I was afraid that he was just going to try and recreate his fathers stories, or try to take his place. I am sorry for how wrong (and ignorant) I was about that. Hill holds his own, and is an excellent author. I have three more of his books on my reading challenge list (NOS4A2, Horns, and The Wraith). I am pleased to have found a new author that I'm sure will become one of my favorites! After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own. Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family . . . Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic Coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, The Graveyard Book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~ ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ I loved the premise of this story. The idea of a toddler being abandoned in a graveyard and beign raised by ghosts is utterly creepy, and awesome sounding. I did go into this story not expecting much because it is a YA story. What I learned from this story was that Gaiman is not a good YA author. He has great prose for an older audience and knows how to bring out the creep factor. With this book you could tell he was holding back, and some great plot lines went untouched to keep the concept as simple as possible. I'm glad I read this one because I love Gaiman's works, but this is not one of his better pieces. I give this a 2 out of 5. This is probably going to get a bit too personal. This is your chance to back out now.
Well, things have been a little weird for me recently. I've had one new medication that has really been screwing with me. I've had some really bad cramping the past two weeks because of it, but it's been pretty manageable. Friday and yesterday that was not the case. Friday the cramping had gotten much worse and I was having troubles standing up. I put a call into my doctor, got a call back from her nurse. I answered some questions for her and she said she'd pass it on to the doctor and one of them would call me back. That call never came, but no big deal because it wasn't the worst thing. I'm thankful for the high pain tolerance I have. On Saturday I woke up screaming in pain at about 6:00 in the morning. I think the cats were pretty terrified, and I'm a little surprised my neighbors weren't woken up. I somehow managed to get out of bed and moved to the couch. I covered myself in a heated blanket hoping that would help with the pain. It didn't. So at about 8:00 AM I called my mother. I guess no matter how old you get you still want to talk to your parents when you feel crummy. After explaining to her what was going on she recommended that I call my doctor's answering service and try to get a message to her. This was not normal. I hung up the phone and debated about calling because of how early it was. The thing that finally convinced me to call was realizing that just like I am on-call occasionally for work if anyone should need help, so is she. I called the answering service, and found myself crying on the phone as I was trying to talk to the lady who answered the phone. I got a call back from a doctor; not my normal one. I explained to her what was going on. She advised me to keep up with the meds until I hear back from my doctor, but said that if the pain gets any worse that I should go to Emergent Care or the ER. She told me to take a lot of over the counter pain meds and to use a heating pad. So, Saturday I spent all day on the couch reading and occasionally crying. If I could hold out I was not going to Emergent Care or the ER. I told myself that if I felt confident enough to get myself there I didn't need to go. So I wake up Sunday and it's like nothing over the past two days had happened. There was no pain, no cramping, nothing. I was normal! My doctor called me back today, okay, it was her nurse who called. But she asked how I was doing. I told her about the weekend, all the pain on Saturday, and nothing on Sunday. The doctor wants me to keep on the meds for two more months. She says it typically takes 3 cycles for a body to adapt to it. She also said my appetite and tastes should return in that time. I just passed the one month mark. Two more to go. Let's see how it turns out. I liked the idea of this recipe. I never actually tried it after making it. About a week ago I told you about how after starting some new medications my appetite and tastes have been all over the place. Well, I'm still dealing with that, and I am finding that certain things will sound good, but then after smelling or tasting them I instantly want to throw up. I wish I was being overly dramatic about that, but I'm not. That's what happened with this recipe. It sounded good, so I made it. The smell of it as it was cooking was a challenge. After about 6 hours of cooking I could really smell the potatoes and eggs, and I wanted to yarf. I never even bothered tasting this one, but a friend did. He said it smelled fine ("I was being too sensitive"). He also said that he liked the way it tasted, but felt it needed more salt and pepper.
This recipe was easy to create. it was pretty much just a waiting game. My friend recommends it, but I'm not sure I'll try it again until I get things figured out with me. This recipe will fill your slow cooker. Ingredients:
Instructions:
It happened like this. I was stolen from an airport. Taken from everything I knew, everything I was used to. Taken to sand and heat, dirt and danger. And he expected me to love him. This is my story. A letter from nowhere. Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back? The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don't exist - almost. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~ ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Overall I loved this book. It is a great story the is written by the main character, Gemma, as she is writing a letter to the man who kidnapped her, Ty. He swiped her from the airport in Bangkok, and brought her back to Australia with him. She tells about the steps and major effort he took to get her there. Gemma talks about the years he spent stalking her. This book flows smoothly, and is extremely creepy. It is not only an interesting look into an obsessive personality disorder, but also the effects of Stockholm Syndrome. It's a great read. If you have read and enjoyed Room by Emma Donoghue, you'll enjoy Stolen: A Letter to My Captor. I give this a 4 out of 5. A graphic narrative describes what happens to a 13-year-old Jewish girl when the Nazis invade Hungary in 1944. Includes a brief chronology of the Holocaust. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ I have read a lot of stories that have come out of the Holocaust. This is probably one of the better stories I've read. Bitton-Jackson tells her story through a very direct, these are the facts, method that conveys well. She recalls events with little emotion, which is difficult considering the subject of the book. She does not shy away from the gory parts, nor does she hide the few good things that happened. A beautiful and scary picture is painted about the last few days of the Holocaust and the things prisoners had to endure before they were rescued; the hell the Nazi's put them through just because they could. Bitton-Jackson doesn't end her story with the rescue, she also talks about trying to find other survivors who were separated from families, learning about the deaths of friends, and how to adapt back into life after this tragic event. I Have Lived a Thousand Years is beautifully written, and very unappreciated. I give this a 4 out of 5. |
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September 2016
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