Paint It Black

By: Janet Fitch 4/5

I didn't even know that Janet Fitch wrote another book, and was delighted to receive this book from Kat M. as a present. I had loved White Oleander and there are parts of that book that will forever be imprinted in my mind.

Paint It Black was very different. It was about the same length as White Oleander but I thought that book dragged at times. The book is about the death of Micheal and the repercussions that happen after a death, who it hurts and who it affects, the social ladders of family structures as well as hidden secrets.

I had no idea what to expect, but of course Janet Fitch takes you on a path of darkness, and deep cold emotions. The story was about Micheal and the devastation he created through his pretending. He pretended to his mother, and his girl friend. After the death, Josie (GF) and Merideth (Mother) form a insane bond of needing to know the truth. I don't know if the truth comes out in the book in the end and I believe it leaves it as a cliff hanger. Did Micheal really love Josie? What was he looking for?

SPOILER ALERT

I don't think I have a full understanding of Micheal and what he was after. Was he the painter, the non sportif, the non driver, the virgin that was a hippie at heart trying to save the world, the true world? Or was he the educated Harvard Boy that played tennis, was a fantastic skier and could speak more languages than a linguistic student? I think he was a fake, a wanna be that took poor Josies real emotions for a ride. I also think that he did care about her, and was trying to leave but felt bad to leave this girl. I don't think he was ever cut out for his life he pretended. Why did he kill himself? He knew it would come out that he was a fake... he was a fake in both worlds and couldn't bring those two worlds together, maybe he had some mental issues and concerns. I don't know if Merideth would have slept with her son... there is no way, but I think there was a love beyond the motherly love, and it was because of Merideth's own fantasies.

I guess thinking about this book more and discussing it with myself makes me realize I might have enjoyed it more than I expected.

Completely Different

So... I don't have people following me... BUT I am totally coping the Julie & Julia idea....KINDA.

I have been cooking for a while, since I was little when my mother forced in the kitchen with her, and I hated every single minute of it.  But now I am 27 and it feels like the only one my age that cooks or learned anything about cooking. My friends still use the box of macaroni and take out food. Once in a while when I have the chance between working out, going to work, walking my dog and taking him to the vet, I like to cook.


My specialties have always been Chocolate Rum Meringue Cake and Pork Tenderloin in wine with potatoes. I also make stuff peppers and more recently becoming an expert in Curry Keema recipe which I fell in love with at Yak and Yeti.

I have always been pretty traditional and cooked mostly Romanian food that my to be husband is actually pretty accepting to, including polenta, saramura, and even more. But recently a dear friend of mine, Amy, who loves food has changed my tasting to many new things which brought me to Yak and Yeti.  Anyways... I have explored more with food and realized that all those times that I hated in the kitchen I have learned one or two things, and I have a mini talent for cooking.

I am going to start the first set of food play... which is very sexy with my dish I cooked tonight. Totally what was in the fridge. I had frozen Sea Bass that was given to me and I make Pan Seared Thyme Sea Bass over a Peppered sauce and Steam Asparagus. Well... the sauce tasted like heaven.

To make the sauce, you take a yellow pepper, orange pepper, 1 onion and you put them in a pan with olive oil, and cook them lightly with some vinegar and sweet wine which makes a great sauce.  You cook them and when you get impatient you cook them some more until you know the peppers are bendy.

 


Then you put in blender... and blend.. you make sauce.


When you pan sear, apparently the trick is you don't put a lot of olive oil in the pan and you cook it on high heat and fast. When preparing the Bass, you cut it and salt and put the thyme in there, and cook first on the Thyme side and then flip, it gives it better taste after i rubberized the first set of Sea Bass. The Bass should flake and not be hard, thats how you know you cooked it well.

Anyways... plate how you want but the sauce was amazing with the Sea Bass. We drank a white wine  St. Michelle something or other and it was good. Lyndt chocolates for dessert. 

On a sad note, the reason for all the cooking is the husband to be is leaving for a while and I want to him to remember what is home.

Food Blogging copy cat.

Reading Now

So reading has been a little slow to say the least, between a new position and new staff, I have barely had a free moment to think. While I rushed through The Secret Life of Bees, I plan on trying to get into the my new book, "Paint it Black" by Janet Fitch. So far so good, but again I just started it so I am maybe on Chapter 4. I have heard that it is not as good as her previous book, White Oleander, but I am willing to try it. I received this book from a friend a while ago and finally getting the chance to get to it. I hope that I can tell her whether I liked it or not soon. I am however, getting discouraged about the probability of finishing my Challenge List, which I still need to post.

The Secret Life of Bees

By: Sue Monk Kidd 4/5

Unfortunately I did not get the chance to read this book like I wanted to read it. I had to put it down a bunch of times due to a new work schedule and being tired all the time.  So while the book was a beautiful story of females and their endurances, I feel like a lot must have escaped me.

I am sure there is a lot to be said about symbolism of bees in the main characters bedroom and then her ending up at the pink house. The characters where well written, and the story line of a child missing her mother is of course heart wrenching.  My favorite character was Rosaleen and her naiveté’s towards the world.

I do recommend this book to others and my apologies for not being able to write more about bees, about the culture and the meaning of them in this book or about the Black Madonna. Good story though. What keeps me for giving it a 5/5 is that sometimes it was slow, and that might have been because of my mood.

Firefly Lane

By: Kristin Hannah 4/5

   The story of friendship. I had picked out this book to read with my best friend. I wanted us to reconnect over a good novel long distance through email. Unfortunately we have not connected as we both have been super busy.

       This is a 479 page book, and I managed to not be able to put it down. This fiction of two girlfriends that in the 1970s are in different social worlds come together in unlikely circumstances. They of course swear to be BFFs forever and ever, and manage to follow each other all the way through college. Like many BFF novels, you know what the issues are going to be between girlfriends, and those are of course boys! The cool sexy one, gets what she wants, unloved and left by her mother Tully is always the center of attention and the life of the party. Kate, coming from a loving supporting catholic family, finds her time during college dating many guys but her main love was books. Then real life starts and one finds true love and they go on through the trails of friendship and life. The ending is surprising and the reader should be prepared for tissues.

     This is a fast read, that many women and girls could identify with a character. Whether you are Ms. Popularity, Tully, or Wallflower Kate, or a grandmother, or a struggling teen, there is a heroine personality in all of the female characters. I though I first I identified with Tully, as her past and her emotions, though I find myself identifying with Kate and her struggles with her friendship of her BFF. I find her same battles and feeling wronged by someone who is very introverted. In the end, maturity takes over and love is the winner!

The Moonstone

By: Wilkie Collins 2.5/5

The Short Version:

First I was disappointed by this book for many reasons. First and foremost it was long, so long, especially after having read “The Woman in White”.  I also had this book as an audio book  and it was downloaded off of librivox.org which is a non-profit with many readers. One reader didn’t speak English so she couldn’t read and kept stumbling on the words, another reader, possibly the same one, had cars and horns in the background recording. Having this in the background is very distracting considering the book was taking place in 1848!

The book dragged on and on and for a change of pace, dragged on some more. There where a thousand different characters. This is how I characterize them:

-Beteridge – Grumpy self concerned old man, that looks down on women as silly and frivolous. He is the narrator for the better part of the story.

-Ms. Cluck who apparently is a hag, ugly, and only concerned with her crazy notions of religion, which is what she preoccupies herself and her time with. She is so unwilling to back down she forces religion and her religion down the throats of main characters.

-Rosanna is apparently homely conniving thief, who can’t get it in her head where her place in the house is…. She is crestfallen to the point of obsession over a man who could car more for a paint brush than her as a human being.

-Franklin Blake is obsessed with Rachel, the Miss of the house, and would do anything like a puppy dog in love for her.

-Rachel, the Miss of the house who always gets her way no matter what, isn’t amazingly pretty but dresses well so it gives her status. She can’t seem to know what it is she wants and has the “fickle mind” that Beteridge accuses women of.

-Gottfried Applewhite is a smooth talker, and a pimp who is  pretender of philanthropic needs. He is the pimp of today that weasels his way into matters of importance.

-Sgt. Cuff the main policeman is self absorbed and knows he is a legend.  

And the list goes on with many many characters that are added and their histories and lives talked about for what purpose. The story is the story of an object, the Moonstone, and its travel. Who stole it and how? It is sad to say you won’t find out until the antepenultimate chapter when you have been taken up and down with pages and pages of narrative from all these different characters. Mr. Collins could have made the book more fun had he got to the point. There was too much going on. Maybe being in the 21^st Century, I wouldn’t understand a book like this, whose suspense is built throughout weeks as the story is published a few pages at a time. I am a person who likes immediate satisfaction.  Though my biggest grudge against this book is why its considered A CLASSIC?!?!  Does have to be written a bajillion years ago to make it be important? And conclusively what was so important about this book? The building of characters… no thanks. I prefer our good adventure novels of today’s time! 
 

Three Cups of Tea

By: Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin    5/5++++

   I don’t even know how to start my review on this magnificent book! It was so nice and pleasant to read such great book where it shows grassroots organizations are the way to go!
   Who would have thought such a change can be made by one man, who found compassion from people all around the world? Who would have thought that compassion can be found in the most horrifying situations and shows that human nature will always care for its children? I loved this story of Greg Mortenson and his journey to change the way we fight terrorism. The book took you on a wonderful journey into the lives or ordinary village life in rural Pakistan and then Afghanistan, where people speak different, look different but in the end have the same compassion for youth and children as it exists anywhere!
  I think this book makes you understand a culture from a different angel, other than all Muslims are terrorists, you can sympathize with those people. Like every religion, everyone has fundamentalists and anything that is way over the top, like religion, a craze, a fashion, isn’t going to be good. Those we are afraid of, like those in the villages Dr. Greg visited, are the same people we are all afraid of. They are beyond normalcy or beyond any thoughts of decent human behavior! We can not as Americans class everyone into those people. Like people in other parts of the world classify Americans as heartless, arrogant, bastards and that is not true of all of us.
  I do think that everyone needs to read this book. You get such a deep understanding of the needs of these people, their culture and their fundamental way of life that it would be silly not to take these into account when dealing with them.

If you want to help you can reach Greg Mortensen via Facebook, Twitter, http://www.ikat.org/ .