Oprah's Book Club Pick

What? Oprah's book club selection is Freedom by Jonathan Franzen? Isn't this the writer that did not want his book, The Corrections, to be an Oprah Book Club selection? Has something changed? Isn't this the book that President Obama chose to read over the summer? This book purchase or gift caused a minor stir in the media, as so often happens with every breath the President takes.


If you take on the Oprah challenge to read this book, then log in and write in the journal.

I didn't like The Corrections ; it was long and tedious to read so I am not planning to join the rush to read Freedom.

Corrections dealt with dysfunctional family members in the Lambert family. The oldest son Gary was stingy with his money and manipulated by his wife. Chip was the con artist in the family. He was the brilliant and sex obsessed middle son. Denise was the talented and competitive last child; an only daughter who kept falling for older men. The parents Enid and Al were an incompatible and unhappy couple.

Books about Food and Weight-loss

I finished reading Roth's book, Women Food God. I think I understand what she is saying in pages 198 - 201 but I am not sure how it really helps someone who is a compulsive eater, or who is obese to the point of having issues with diabetes, high blood pressure, and other ailments.

Roth outlined the Sufis three journeys to a Spiritual Path: Journey from God, Journey to God, and the Journey in God and related them to using food as a doorway to God.

Journey from God which is equated to the journey from self: We believe we are what we weigh and spend life dieting, bingeing, exercising etc. until this journey ends with disappointment.

Journey to God which is on par with the journey to self: We stop dieting, we keep the weight on and we hold on to the drama of agonizing about the weight until this journey also ends with disappointment.

Journey in God and the discovery that we are one with God: We stop obsessing about food, dieting, and weight and the journey ends with kindness to self, freedom, and peace.

The Eating Guidelines are at the back of the book on page 211 and they sound very much like the point of view in Mireille Guilano's book, French Women Don't Get Fat. If I remember correctly, in that book Guilano pointed out that French women walk more than American women, they enjoy their food more and portion sizes were much smaller than what the average American eats at home and at a restaurant. Weight from her point of view had to do with culture; not God.

Read more from Roth and about Roth on www.oprah.com.

Still reading Women Food God by Roth. I am reading page 175 which seems to be saying to me that the struggle with food can not be controlled with self-discipline because the struggle is really about loving and wanting and having. Roth seems to be saying at one point that the struggle with food is a struggle with love and God.

In the chapter titled, Those Who Have Fun and Those Who Don't, Roth identified two distinct pattern of behaviors of compulsive eaters: the Permitters, for example me, and the Restrictors. The Permitters rebel against following food rules and are suspicious of diets. Permitters need to feel safe and merge with chaos because they feel that there is no point trying to control the uncontrollable. They are the "Oh, what the heck" kind of people. The "jolly fat" folks fit into this category because the "Eat, drink and be merry" attitude prevails. They are really in denial and walk around numbing the pain. The solution is for Permitters to wake up from the numbness and recognize hunger and fullness cues.

Restrictors are, of course, the opposite. They love structure and rules therefore they willingly deprive themselves and follow various diets.

I liked the If Love Could Speak chapter. Roth discovered her workshop group of compulsive eaters rebelled against Eating Guidelines so she framed them as "If Love Could Speak Instructions". If love could speak what would it say to you about food? Roth is confident love would say, Eat what your body wants then stop.

Women Food God

Started reading Geneen Roth's book, Women Food God yesterday. The message of the book is essentially that our body obeys the shape of our beliefs about love; that overweight is not about weight but about deficiency, emptiness and dissatisfaction; and that overweight is based on the story we tell ourselves about where we are supposed to be in life. I am on page 99 and the solutions so far to compulsive eating is acceptance of the moment, paying attention to now, treating the body as a friend rather than something that needs fixing, stop dieting. The message is for emotional eaters.

Tiare

I have been reading Tiare in Bloom, the third book in the trilogy by Celestine Vaite. The other two books were very interesting, Breadfruit and Frangipani. The series is about life and love in Tahiti. The focus in this book was Pito the father of Tamatoa and the grandfather and guardian of Tiare. Pito has evolved into a man worthy of his wife Materena, the backbone of the family. She is a cleaner who became a radio talk show host. The theme in this book is fatherhood. Loved the insight into Tahitian life and the conversational tone of the writing.

Cheapskate Next Door

Frugality is the new black so this is a book I'd like to read, The Cheapskate Next Door : the Surprising Secrets of Americans living happily below their means, by Jeff Yeager. However, even a tightwad like me would never ever eat food off strangers' plates at a restaurant. This apparently is what one man interviewed by Yeager does.

Writers visiting the troops

I saw an interesting article in Georgia Times Union newspaper about writer Steve Berry who left his position as a County Commissioner in St. Mary's, Georgia after ten years to focus on his writing. Also mentioned in the article was this upcoming visit to the troops by writers including Steve Berry (“The Paris Vendetta”) such as; David Morrell (“First Blood”), Douglas Preston (“Relic”), James Rollins (“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”) and Andy Harp (“A Northern Thunder”).

Steve Berry and Andy Harp have been mentioned in my posts in the past because they have been to "Meet the Author" events in Waycross, Georgia. Steve Berry was in fact the first and only author we have had as a guest at our bookclub. He spoke about his first book and our book club selection, The Amber Room. I will always remember how his book draft was turned down over 80 times before it was finally accepted. I was also present when he was at the Okefenokee Public Library talking about yet another book. Just look at him now. He is a full time writer.

Mary Roach: Science and Humor

Here is an interesting interview with Mary Roach on oprah.com. Mary's books have interesting titles: Stiff, Spook, Bonk and now Packing for Mars: the Curious Science of Life in the Void. I have read articles by Mary Roach in Reader's Digest. They are usually scientific and humorous.

Handle with Care by Jodie Picoult

I am now on page 193 of Handle with Care. Charlotte, one of the characters, is a mother in conflict. She wants to sue for wrongful birth. This means that she wants to sue based on the fact that the doctor did not alert her from the first scan that the baby would be born with OI, a genetic disease, that causes the baby's bones to be broken easily even from within the womb.

Here is why Charlotte is in conflict. The doctor is her best friend of some 8 years. Their older daughters are best friends. Charlotte's husband thinks the lawsuit is dishonest since they would have to say they would have aborted had they known from the first scan that something was wrong. The book is written from the point of view of several characters and most of it is written as if it were directed to the now five year old with OI.

Another drama is unfolding. The lawyer Marin is searching for her birth mother. Picoult introduces the supernatural in this book like she has done with at least one other of her books that I have read. Marin has been assured by a Psychic that her answers will come from certain key people. One by one these key people are coming into Marin's life to give her answers.

So far the most tragic figure is not Willow the sick child but Charlotte's older daughter Amelia who feels disconnected, like an outsider, in the family and at school. I read My Sister's Keeper. I'll really be upset if it turns out that Amelia, the well child, ends up dying.

The Recession as a theme for Novelists

This is an interesting article about writers using the financial crisis as a theme or setting for their novels. This is figuratively taking lemons and making lemonade; good for these novelists.

I like the title, Recessionistas , the chick-lit written by Alexandra Lebenthal who is featured in the USA Today article. In case you did not know, the suffix "-ista" is a common one in spanish that we have been borrowing to coin new English words such as frugalista. In spanish the suffix has to do with one's profession such as dentista and periodista (journalist).

Eat Pray Love movie

Eat Pray Love will open in theaters August 13 starring Julia Roberts. See more on Oprah's website.

I liked the book, I especially liked the lessons Elizabeth Gilbert, the writer, learned about prayer, destiny and controlling one's thoughts.

She posed a very potent question on page 177 in relation to deliberate and specific prayer, "If I want transformation but can't even be bothered to articulate what, exactly I'm aiming for, how will it ever occur?"

I liked the cultural tidbits about the different countries Italy, India, Idonesia. In Bali, for example, we learnt that most people gave their children only four names: Wayan, Made, Nyoman and Ketut meaning First, Second, Third and Fourth; the names connote birth order.