Lost City of Z by David Grann

I love reading about really smart people who get themselves into really stupid situations, whatever that says about me. Like putting together a million-dollar Mount Everest climb and forgetting to take gloves, or in the case of Lost City of Z, by David Grann, numerous expeditions down the Amazon without enough food. Lost City of Z was obviously fastidiously researched, and was well written and interesting enough, but less engaging than River of Doubt, by Candice Millard, which offered the added glamour of Teddy Roosevelt who ventured down the Amazon in 1912 to lick his wounds after he was licked in his third-party attempt to be president again.

So if you want to read about copious insects, festering sores, and starvation in 110 degree heat and 120% humidity, read River of Doubt, not Lost City of Z. Or, if like me you never tire of stories about masochistic wackos doing their thing in exotic places, read both.

Candy Girl by Diablo Cody

Books are like Mexican food. What taste good to one person just doesn't cut it for another. We have all these romantic memories and points of reference, needs, prejudices, bad days, and sometimes just bad taste that dictate what we like or don't. And just because a book is on all the bestseller lists, that doesn't mean it is good. For example, The Shack, which was so infuriating and insulting that I am embarrassed to even mention in this blog. So book (movie, food) reviews can be rather meaningless, but that doesn't stop me from reading them, nor writing them.

Afterbirth for Dinner and Spanx for Men!

Every now and then I come across something so funny or crazy that I just have to share it with someone.

Afterbirth for Dinner: In this weeks Time magazine Joel Stein penned an article about his wife, saying, "There is so much you can't know about your spouse when you get married, like that one day she will want to eat her placenta."

Honor Among Cowboys (Just something I wrote)

"It ain’t natural, all those chickens and no rooster! Besides, the hens will be more content and lay better with a man around," her tall, ruggedly-handsome Texas cowboy announced.

"He stays, end of discussion." Jack turned and headed out the door whipping his blue Jean’s leg with a well-seasoned cowboy hat, sending a puff of dust back to the ranch where it belonged.

Words of The Day - Prophylaxis and Palliation

The words of the day are prophylaxis and palliation. I came across these two words while reading Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder, which is a lovely book about Dr. Paul Farmer, a quiet hero/physician to Haiti's poor. Dr. Farmer quotes his mentor, German polymath, Rudolf Virchow (another fascinating character), saying "My politics are those of prophylaxis, my opponents preferred those of palliation."