Don't have more police, just give out pies

#86 Complete A-Z reading challenge - authors

Eisler, Barry "Choke point"

About an assassin and his latest mission. Includes an old girlfriend, a new country, an old friend, a new enemy and a new girlfriend.

What did I think?
This I think is number three in the series. Easy to read although squeamish readers may not enjoy the fight and kill descriptions. (Plus if he is a smart assassin why does he make so many mistakes after deriding them in others? Perhaps because he's human?) One of the issues bought up in the books is the challenge soldiers face when they come back home. They are taught to kill and to fight and to stay alive. They see terrible terrible things. When they get home we expect them to just integrate back into society without any problems. This make the character a bit more 'real'. Two comments - One. [hearsay from the 60s] there are high rates of spousal abuse in marriages where the husband is trained for war but doesn't go- he has no way to release the tension built up inside or to prove that he has learnt the lesson. Two. Soldiers who have been to war years ago will still not talk about what they have seen due to trauma. Have we any reason to believe that today's soldiers will get any different treatment? (Actually three comments.) Three. I have heard of someone's grandfather who will not talk about the war. He didn't go to war. He was a conscientious objector in WWII. What must he have experienced in that era of intense patriotism that he still will not talk about it? (Okay. Four comments.) Four. It's not just the soldiers who suffer.



#87 Complete A-Z reading challenge - titles

"Fat" by Rob Grant
A cast of characters all dealing with eating and body size issues. Best characters - sad wasting little Hayleigh and furious Grenville. Worst character - exposition girl who's name I can't be bothered looking up. (She's the myth de-bunker of the novel.)

What did I think?
Fantastic. A book that takes the mystic of dieting, shakes it by neck until it's dead and then chows down. Yes. There are unhealthy fat and thin people out there. Yes. School uniform sizes are going up. So yes. There is a problem. The main 'fact' that annoys me so much it practically makes me froth at the mouth - The BMI. Based on calculations from an insurance company. Goal posts shifted some years ago so that a previously healthy individual was now a overweight individual. No allowance for ethnic background. No allowance for an individual who lifts weights regularly. No allowance for All Blacks. It drives me CRAZY when I see magazine articles still touting this as an essential tool in your body diagnosis. There are much more appropriate measures out there. e.g. waist measure vrs hip measure; waist measure vrs height measure; do your jeans still fit? *froth* * froth* This is discussed in the novel. If nothing else it will make you question what you think you know about health and other weighty issues. (Except for the smoking thing...I haven't quite got my head around that one.)



Reading is going to be postponed on the list for a bit. I've started "Night Watch" by Sergei Lukyanenko. Can't put it down, I'm finding it that interesting. I'm surprised because I don't usually enjoy translated material. It always feels as if there's something missing. A gap between what was meant and what is written. There is a movie based on the book which is where it came to my attention.

#8 Make fudge
Made it. Tastes great. Looks like dirt. Not marking off until it's successful. My sister used to make this when she was 8. How hard can it be?

#100 Send Power company the key to the house.
I received the receipt from the power company today. Hurrah!