I Hate It When Exercise is the Answer By Emily Watts

As usual, Emily Watts is entertaining as she talks about mother/womanhood issues. This book is designed as a chapter/thought for the day.

Titles include FatBoys: an Exercise in Understanding Men, Motherguilt an Exercise in Letting Go, Late Again an Exercise in Suspending Judgement.

Altogether there are 31 Chapters or "Exercises". Each chapter is just a few pages that can be read in 5-10 minutes.

I like to mark up my books, and this one is no exception. However, if I still lived in Salt Lake County, I would just check it out from the library. Instead I will just pass it along to my friends and read it again down the road.

The Diet Selector By Judith Rodriguez

This is a nifty book. I picked it up at Smiths (Kroger). I feel it was well worth the money.

The purpose of this book to to review the diets out there. Nearly every diet is in this from "3 Apple-a-Day " to "You, On A Diet".

So in the beginning the author, Dr. Rodriguez talks about diet myths and about dieting today and how portions sizes have double and even tripled. Sound advice that pertains to any diet is given.

The bulk of this book an overview of diets which includes:

• The origin/history


• Diet claims and how it works


• At a glance ratings which include long term plan, flexibility, being family friendly, cost, strength of science.


• A sample menu to provide some ideas of what following the diet means in terms of everyday eating.


• Useful resources for further info


• Lists "treats" and "forbidden foods"


• My favorite: the Pro's and Con's

There is also a section on diets for disease management such as DASH, GI, Gluten Free, Mayo etc.

A very good book to have as a reference.

Message In a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks

This book seemed really long to me. It took nearly a month for me to read. It was a lot like Nights in Rodanthe.

If you are a single woman, divorced, or in some way looking for that true love, Nicholas' books will knock you out of the water. If you are happily married, he brings a reverence to the love you have.

But with saying that, I am not a mushy romance novel addict. So enough is enough. The ending to this book is a real downer (for me). Honestly, I am reading Dear John (because the movie is coming out) and then calling it quits for a while with Mr. Sparks literature.

I rented the movie for this weekend while Lovie is at scout winter camp. just in case it's a cryfest.

A Walk to Remember is still my #1

Braggs Healthy Lifestyle By Paul C. and Patricia Bragg

I think this book is one of the first to start the raw diet movement. While I learned several new things, I don't agree with the Braggs philosophy on all subjects.

It did inspire me to do a 66 hour fast of raw apple juice and raw apple cider vinegar only. (At 66 hours I had 1/2 of an avocado, but went on to 72 hours). I have been trying to detox forever and just decided to bite the bullet; Since fasting is one of the fastest ways to detox.

One piece of advice if doing a fast: Raw apple cider vinegar (not the stuff you get at Walmart, like Heinz. Raw organic, like Braggs) really helps with the hunger pains and over all sense of well being. The recipe is all over the bottle. but is 1tsp. RAW honey, 2 t. ACV and a cup of water. Can be taken three times a day. This cocktail is good for a variety of ills. My sister in law suggested it and I have been drinking it for three weeks now. Apparently it was the original Gatorade, I can believe it.

I made Patricia's popcorn recipe: air popped of course. with olive oil, brewer's yeast and Braggs sprinkle seasoning and it was really good. Matter of fact my kids ate it all and I plan on making more today.

My favorite part of the book was the "Chinese tongue Chart". The tongue is the magic mirror of the stomach and entire mucus membrane system, so if it's coated in a particular area, that's where the toxins are.

My review of this book is questionable. I learned from it, but the tone of the book is arrogant-calling people who eat unhealthily "living dead" and "walking piles of manure".The information rendered becomes redundant. The book could easily be less than 50 pages instead of 132.

If you are considering the raw food or vegan diet, you will like it, but I'm not to that point. I like my cheese and meat to much.

Paul Bragg has a slew of accomplishments such as opening the first health food store in America and was the first to introduce juicing. Even Jack LaLanne is one of his students (we hear about that every few pages).

The Lightning Thief By Rick Riordan

My daughter and I are reading the Percy Jackson series together.

I liked this book and would feel very comfortable reading it to any child.

While similar to Harry Potter, it did not leave me feeling uncomfortable with the subject matter as did Harry Potter (call me a prude, the kidlets tease me all the time).

Instead of witches and wizards, this book is about the gods of mythology. We all learn about them sometime in school. My daughter actually learned about them in second grade. I think I was in high school.

Percy is a Half Blood. Find out Who's his Daddy, what Mt. Olympus/Zeus is like and how about Tartarus/ Hades. Of course there is a quest involved.

I read through this book pronto-speedy because, yes, it was fun and the plot entertaining but also because I have not only one stack, but several stacks of books I am going to read this year (and five of them are Percy Jackson).

Now if she would just finish book two. I want to read as many as possible before the movie comes out next month

ISBN: 978-078685629-9