Wednesday, November 30, 2016

The Devil and Pastor Gus:

The Devil and Pastor Gus By: Roger Bruner
Fiction: Religious, E-book
E-book Count: 23
Book Count: 38

This idea behind this book was quite interesting, a retelling of the basic ideas from the book of Job, in a modern setting.  The story itself was a fun read.  There were a number of issues with the theology and it did have the hitting you over the head with the message problem that many religious fiction works have.  For example pastor Gus's last name has Gospel right in it and another character is  named De Foe.  But besides the times that those issues come to the front of the story it was about what I was expecting of the story with some surprising twists, so unlike all the diet books that I have been picking up, it was what I wanted to read when I got the book.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

How to Customize Your Own Ketogenic Diet Meal Plan:

How to Customize Your Own Ketogenic Diet Meal Plan by: Orlando Scott
Non-fiction: E-book
E-book Count: 22
Book Count: 37

First this book is the sequel to another book on dieting.  Second it is clear that the author besides jumping on the keto bandwagon follows all the main stream dieting advice that most people that follow a keto diet disagree with.  There was a section on how to most exactly determine how many calories you are currently burning, so that you can then calculate how many fewer ones you need to eat to lose at the rate that you want to. There is the suggestion that you should eat many small meals and snacks all day long because otherwise you will be too hungry.   It has almost no actual advice on how to customize a keto diet and the things that it does suggest is crazy.  For example it says to make things easy you can make 6-12 meals ahead (1-2 days) and then just eat the same thing at each meal.   And then it gives samples of what to eat in a day for a 2,000 calorie a day diet for someone at a 20% deficit, These include 1.4 cups of tuna and 3/5 cups of brown rice with 12 tablespoons of olive oil, divided up into your 6 meals for the day, or 12 oz of Pork Loin, 35 teaspoons of canola oil and 9 cups of cauliflower again divided into 6 servings. Yummy!

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Get into Keto!: A 10 Day Rapid Weight Loss Meal Plan

Get into Keto! By: Teresa Gomez
Nonfiction: Diet, E-book
E-book Count: 21
Book Count: 36


As I am going back on my diet, I thought I would look at a few books for reminders, hints, and new recipes. I should have known from the ! in the title that the reviews were not to be trusted.  For one thing a book on this should understand the difference between nutritional ketoses and diabetic ketoacidosis.  And the difference is more then dehydration.  The list of foods has artificial sweeteners as both as something to avoid, eat with caution, and in half the recipes in the book.  Also how many foods are labeled "hot dogs" besides hot dogs?  

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Mantilla: the Veil of the Bride of Christ:

Mantilla: the Veil of the Bride of Christ by: Anna Elissa
Non-fiction: Religion, E-book
E-book Count: 21
Book Count: 35


I once again last month waited to the last minute to pick up my free e-book.  And as it was around the time of the Day of the Dead, from October 29th to November 2nd I wore a cheap Day of the Dead headband with red and black roses on it and black lace going down the back of it. (The one from Clair's.) Which when I wore to church the comments I got were; 1. joking about how we should all wear roses in our hair (in a playful way), 2. asking if I was going to go with a full Spanish mantilla (clearly meaning with the combs under it and yards of lace and not just a modern veil made with Spanish lace,) and 3. thanking me for wearing it including wishing more people would bring back the tradition, (this person was Mexican-American, so there is a slight possibility that they were talking about celebrating the Day of the Dead, but the way that they said it every time they saw me makes me thing that they meant it as they saw me wearing a mantilla and not a costume piece.)  Which lead to two revelations: 1.  apparently, my family has reached the point of being known for being out there/individualistic/weird that people are not fazed by anything we wear, and if we have to ask ourselves is this something we could wear to X thing, the answer is most likely yes.  And 2, when I wear a hat or hair fascinator to church women comment on how cute/nice/pretty it is, when I wear a veil men comment on the tradition/history of the veil as an idea. 

So having just learned that full block the view of the person behind me huge hair piece was an option, I found this book.  After reading the reviews of it I found that it was written for Indonesians originally and didn't see any red flags in the reviews, I thought I would try it.  (American pieces on veiling for church tend to often feature people that think that rules of covering ones hair never was removed from church law, even if it literally is not in the current Code of Cannon Law, and that not doing so is a giant, evil, feminist conspiracy,  or that the Bible clearly states that women must protect themselves from horny angels with a hair fetish, or that covering one's hair is some magical mystical experience that God calls women to on par with becoming a nun or getting married.    So basically all the reasons that a modern faithful Catholic women would give as reasons not to veil, for fear of being lumped in with those people.)   So, I was hoping that this would avoid those things and get to the actual history/traditions/reasons that someone might want to wear a veil.  As that info is hard to find in America and the reason I went from not wearing an actual veil to church to doing so, is because I decided that the "Pre-Vatican II was a magic time when the Church was prefect" people didn't get to take any tradition that they liked and ruin it for everyone else.  

This book for the most part did not disappoint.  It pointed out that the "angels" from that Bible passage might be seen as the priest; who in a society where women's hair was seen as very sexy and was usually covered in public, might get distracted by a female not covering it.  It noted that there are many different head coverings besides lace veils.  It noted that it was a private devotion and so it should not be either required or forbidden by a local parish.  It also had stories of women that decided to follow this devotion and well as some priest's thoughts on the devotion.  It pointed out how the devotion was related to Christ and ways that it can lead to a greater holiness, without implying that it makes one holier then people that don't.  There was only one place where it went a little too far, and that was in a bonus essay in the end and not even in the main part of the book, nor was it directly related to wearing a veil.  

Tuesday, November 01, 2016

All Saints' Secrets:

All Saints' Secrets by: Nicole Loughan
Fiction: mystery, E-book
E-book Count: 20
Book Count: 34

This book is book 2 in the series, and does not work as a stand alone book.  It starts right after, I think, the last book drops off.  And it is not until after a few pages and  the characters enjoy "purse-spiced jambalaya" do you learn the main character's name, gender, or much other background info you need.  But, it does relate to All Saints' Day, and therefore fits with today.  In this book Fanchon is recovering from her adventures from book 1, and they reopen the case about one of her friend's dead.  Also, they are still looking for the bad guy for book 1.