Reading and Eating
Ah, I finished such a good book! I mentioned it last week. The main character, Jake, finds a portal that takes him back in time to 1958, and he has a plan to prevent the assassination of JFK, which would obviously alter history for the better. OR WOULD IT? This book was so engaging. Will Jake actually be able to prevent the assassination? (As it turns out, the past doesn’t want to be changed.) If he does succeed, what then? Will he go back to his “present day” (2011)? And just how will the future look then- because as we know, if you change one thing, everything changes. My only complaint about this book is- without giving anything away- the ending made me sad. But my sister said she wasn’t sad when she read it- just fascinated at how the story played out. Highly recommend! It’s hard to finish a long book that was so absorbing. I felt like I needed to read something light and easy after that. I looked through my books… Iris Murdoch, no…. Nevil Shute, not quite right either…. Oh, I know! This book wasn’t initially easy, because it’s translated from Japanese, which meant all the characters had- obviously!- Japanese names. In spite of a cast of characters list in the beginning, it was hard to keep them straight (my son happens to be reading a sci fi book translated from Chinese right now, and he has the same problem- we agreed that when these books are translated they should translate the names as well. “Fuginuma Issei” could just be “Joe.”) In spite of that minor stumbling block, I really enjoyed this book! It was eerie, suspenseful, and had a great twist at the end. I ONLY recommend it if you’re a fan of the “locked room” mystery genre though. I liked it so much, I got another book by the same author out of the library. In eating news, I discovered a brilliant new way to cut up watermelon from Diane! Easy to hold, easy to eat, and you don’t get the sides of your mouth all sticky from gnawing on the usual wedge-shape piece of watermelon. Next up, a question: WHY is it impossible to find organic corn on the cob? I mean, literally impossible, not even at Whole Foods or Sprouts. I can buy frozen, organic corn kernels, which presumably came from… a cob? So where’s the organic corn on the cob? Hrumph. Lastly, I did make a pretty good dinner! “Cincinnati Chili” from Brand New Vegan. I made a couple changes to the recipe- used tempeh instead of bulgar, and to my son’s, added Impossible meat. This was possibly the most flavorful chili I’ve ever tasted. I initially questioned the ingredients- allspice? Cloves? But it all worked. The only thing I did cut back a bit was the liquid, because it seemed like a LOT. But my son said he thought it was a little dry- so next time I’ll make the recipe as written. So good! Have you ever had Cincinnati Chili? What are you reading right now? Top photo by Syd Wachs on Unsplash