Hello my friends. May so far has been a very busy month that has not involved much reading at all. Don’t get me wrong, I am reading every day, I just haven’t had long stretches of decadent time in which to luxuriate in books. But that is about to change.
Once the coop is done and the Dashwoods moved in this weekend, I will have one major time-sucking project done. Actually the only major time-sucking project. After that it is smooth sailing with just the usual gardening and cycling. These things keep me busy but they have some flexibility to them whereas finishing a house for animals means one cannot mess about. So after this weekend I expect a large swathe of time to be cleared in my schedule.
When I do read I have been reading Cabaret of Plants by Richard Mabey. I actually just finished this last night so a write-up of it is forthcoming. I will say it is a great book for plant geeks. I have also been reading Dark Money by Jane Mayer. I must say that looking at local and national politics through the lens of money makes for some anger-inducing reading as well as explains quite a lot. Things that just didn’t seem to make sense as reported in the press suddenly do. I feel like I am getting to peak behind the curtain into the backroom wheeling and dealing and discovering just what money in politics buys. I am almost 3/4 of the way through the book and looking forward to the end because I am not sure how much more I can take.
I had to put The Portable Veblen aside because I could not bear reading two books about money at the same time (needs more squirrels!). And since I am not yet finished with Dark Money, I have picked up Andrea Wulf’s book The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humbodlt’s New World. I had begun reading this several months ago but it is a big fat book and I had to return it to the library before I was able to finish it. Now my turn has come around again and I have picked up where I left off. With luck I will finish before I have to return it again. Once I am done with Dark Money I will get back to Thorstein Veblen.
I am also reading a book of poetry by Brenda Hillman called Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire. It is the final book in a tetralogy on earth, air, water and fire. I have not read the other three books. I very likely will eventually. I’ll let you know more about the poetry once I am done.
With all my cycling, I have been perusing books on vegan nutrition and sports performance. It turns out it is very much like regular sports nutrition only I have to get my extra protein from plant sources and vegan protein powders. If you are a vegan or even vegetarian athlete, I can highly recommend a great cookbook called Protein Ninja. It is written by one of my favorite cookbook authors, Terry Hope Romero, who came up with the recipes after she started lifting weights and had to find ways to add more protein into her diet. Lots of easy, tasty recipes!
So there it is, my reading at the moment, or lack of reading. The three-day Memorial weekend holiday is not far away and you can bet your britches that I will be spending some big chunks of time catching up on some reading!
Cabaret of Plants sounds interesting. I’m a bit of a plant geek (I probably need to learn more to truly qualify, but I’m getting there!).
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AMB, that’s what books like Cabaret are good for, helping one along the journey to plant geek 🙂
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I’m looking forward to reading about the Cabaret of Plants. Such a great title! Induces lots of entertaining pictures.
I am also interested in Dark Money, I wonder if anyone’s written anything comparable about the UK.
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Helen, it is a great title and it is filled with lots of interesting stories about plants and people. Hmm I don’t know of any titles similar about the UK but I suspect there must be something. Or maybe not since UK libel laws seem to sometimes put a damper on things.
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Oh yes, libel laws. Another thing to be proud of. 😦
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I’m anxious to see the Dashwoods in their new home. Please post video if you can. Money and politics…a match made in Hell for sure.
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Grad, money and politics are definitely not a good combo!
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I always find vegan sources of protein rather limited in variety (OK – a lot of beans, but they don’t vary that much between each other). Does the cookbook expand on this a bit? It’s a great time of year for the salads and grains. I just bought some fantastic radishes as a bunch, leaves an’ all. It’s a question of not falling into my working-class roots by just chopping up everything and putting it on the same plate. That too has its place. But it does homogenise what is a range of colours and textures, rather defeating the object.
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Jeff, the cookbook uses lots of beans of course, but also lentils and she is big on protein powders and adding them to things like pancakes where you wouldn’t necessarily get much protein. Quinoa and nuts also play a big roll. I recommend borrowing the cookbook from you library to try before you buy 🙂 Oh I love radishes! I like them best sliced up on sandwiches for a nice crunch. They are also great sliced up on pizza 🙂
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I am SO looking forward to that long weekend, too. I am even taking Friday off and making it a little longer! Won’t it be a huge relief once the Dashwoods are happily ensconced in their new home?! No, there is no procrastinating when animals are waiting on you. You will feel like you have so much free time when the coop is done. Isn’t Richard Mabey great? One of the Penguin Underground books I read was by him–and I read one of his other nature books a while back too. And I broke down and bought the Andrea Wulf book, too, after I heard her speak. I am looking forward to it–so will look forward to hearing what you think when you finish!
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Danielle, the long weekend can’t come fast enough but you know it will seem like forever before it gets here. The Dashwoods are in their new home and adjusting to the new experience. Mabey is fantastic. He is definitely on my list now of favorite nature writers. The Wulf book is good. But that’s no surprise 🙂
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Tis the season! I cannot seem to get any reading done! Sometimes I am ill,other times attending weddings out of state and yet other times, I have friends coming over! yeeesshhhh…..need some peace to get on!
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You still seem to be getting quite a lot of reading done. That book about Von Humboldt sounds really interesting. What does it tell us about human nature that for every book about this extraordinary figure there must be a hundred on Adolf Hitler!
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Ian, the Humboldt book is great, well written and interesting and intended for the general reader so not quite a full-on biography. I am amazed at all the the groundbreaking work he did. And yeah, says quite a lot that there are more books about Hitler than about someone as amazing as Humbodlt. However, there are more places and things named after Humbodlt than Hitler so that’s something 🙂
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cirtnecce, glad I am not the only one having trouble fitting in reading! As long as we are enjoying the things that are taking us away from out books that’s what counts! 🙂
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Yes, Stefanie, the books keep piling up and the holds are about to start coming in, and I just can’t seem to cobble together enough time to make much progress! I think I need a “digital sabbath” on one or two days a week to maybe find some time to devote to reading. (I heard that term on Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook feed – she got it from her friend Rob Bell.)
Anyway, I am glad you’ll soon have more time to devote to reading!
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Laila, maybe it’s just the time of year? So many goings on and all that. I do more or less have a weekly sort of “digital sabbath” from Fridays after work through Saturday. I might check my email Saturday afternoons sometime if I am expecting a reply from someone but for the most part I manage to stay offline. It’s a really nice break!
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Interesting spread of books! I was re-reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for a Good Reads review, but had to put it on the back-burner again because my interlibrary loan of The Elements of Eloquence camein! I also picked up a couple of poetry books from my mother: a nonfiction called Reading Poetry (Milett) and a book of poetry from John Milton…so many books, so little time! I’ve also been looking into higher vegan protein sources, so I’ll see if I can put the cookbook on hold at the library. Thanks for the tips!
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bikurgurl, those library books, especially interlibrary loan tend to throw things off, don’t they? But generally in a good way. Sounds like you got some good books! I didn’t realize you were vegan! The cookbook employs protein powder of various sorts for many of the recipes but not all of them. At first I was down about resorting to protein powder but I feel like it has really helped in terms of my ability to recover from hard workouts.
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🙂 I was vegan until I had difficulty recovering from my surgery last year {I had turned into a junk food vegan!}. I’m working back to being vegan, but am really vegan-esk 😉 I have found wild caught salmon and eggs to be my saving grace and I’m not sure I’ll be giving it up 😉 I also have used vegan protein powders {I have a wicked dairy allergy, whey is my enemy!} in the past as well and they can certainly help! I think the biggest thing I’ve learned from going from vegetarian, to omnivore, vegan, and now to picky eater again 😉 I have taken some vegan cooking classes and a small horde of vegan cookbooks {some of my favs featured here: https://bikurgurl.com/2016/02/24/100-word-wednesday-meals-my-house/ }. If you follow my Instagram feed, I’m eating an egg a day for breakfast most days I’m not eating oatmeal. Cutting back sugar is my main eating goal now 😉
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Ooh, I don;t know those cookbooks! I will have to check for them at my library. My husband does all the cooking but I am the one who loves to read cookbooks 🙂 Vegan-esk! That made me laugh 🙂 Good luck cutting back on sugar!
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Thanks! Carbs and sugar have become my downfall. I don’t know what happened, but now I’m swimming in them. Change is a-comin’ 😉
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Wow, I completely forgot that next weekend is a long weekend! I got really excited for it just now, and then remembered also that I don’t get Memorial Day off work. Bother. No long weekend for me. Just a regular-length weekend. It’s fine, I guess.
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Jenny, oh that’s a bummer you don’t get the holiday! I hope you get some other holiday another time like President’s Day or something that I never get 🙂
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I’m having a May like that too, Stefanie, though I’m not sure the reasons are quite so productive. A holiday away comes to mind as one! Anyhow, I look forward to seeing the Dashwoods in their new home. And, as Ian says, you still seem to manage a decent amount of reading!
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whisperinggums, the reading gets squeezed in these days instead of everything else being squeezed in around reading. But I make do 🙂 Ah yes, that holiday, those get in the way of reading too but they are generally a good thing to have now and then 🙂
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They are great, but they’d be better if I could fit more reading in too!
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I think a reading holiday might be in order sometime 🙂
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Me too! I might manage a semi-one in July I think a> we are going away to a warmer place for a Ulek and staying put for 7 days.
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