Janet's Book Nook

Most of my friends are in full training mode right now for different marathons. Most of them are even in training for the Disney World marathons that are coming up starting in October and running through the beginning of the year. I am in training also. My training is to make sure I am healthy enough to make it through 9 days of WDW with my family. I have had a tough summer with dieting and exercise and I realized yesterday that I felt something like a blueberry waiting to be juiced, Jabba the Hut on a bad day, the Goodyear blimp at full capacity. I decided it was time to start getting back in to the swing of things with my health and wellness.

The first place I went was to read a bunch of diet pill reviews because I have no will power and I am lazy. There I said it! I have issues with doing the work it takes to get and stay healthy. As a matter of fact if I could just take a pill whenever I was hungry instead of eating…I would! Then I thought about it and I realized that diet pills are not the answer to getting healthy or losing weight. They are a tool to be used to aid in your quest to get healthy and lose weight. They have to be combined with exercise and a change in eating habits or they won’t work either.

Now that I have resigned myself to the fact that I am not going to go to sleep tonight and wake up 40 pounds lighter tomorrow I have to create a plan. I am a planner, you guys know this, and it works for me. If I write it down then I am 90% assured I will achieve it. So, today is going to be dedicated to figuring out my plan for getting healthy. What do you guys do? What works and what doesn’t? One stipulation is that I KNOW I need to avoid artificial sweeteners, processed foods as much as possible and preservatives. I also happen to live in Louisiana where the devil often visits and finds unbearably hot and humid. Walking or exercising outdoors at this time of year could end in an untimely death! Wish me luck! Leave me comments to spur me on! Tell me to put down the pop tarts! Thanks!

I am once again a James Patterson fan! I just finished this book last night and I have to say that I really loved it. It only took me 2 days to finish and I had a hard time putting it down.

Trial is truly a departure for James Patterson. I almost felt like I was reading a John Grisham book. This book is not about Alex Cross at all! He isn’t even in this book. It is told as a retelling of a story told by his ancestors and passed down in his family. This is the story of  Alex Cross’s family in the early 1900′s.

The main character of the book is a white lawyer who is sent back from Washington to his childhood home of Eudora, Mississippi at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt has outlawed lynchings and yet he keeps getting reports that they are still happening in large numbers in the small cities of the south. The lawyer, Ben Corbett is sent to document these reports as fact or fiction so that Roosevelt can act on the information.

This book details in uncensored ways the cruelties and discrimination that colored people were experiencing in that time period. It gives you a bird’s eye view of their lives and the utter desperation they felt at not being able to do anything right. If they did something they were lynched, if they didn’t do anything they were lynched, if they were in the wrong place and the wrong time they were lynched. I also like that the author is not merely trying to make a statement about the evil nature of white people. He showed that many of their decisions were not actually based on hate but on fear. They feared that they would lose all that they had to the colored people who had only recently been freed. Most importantly they feared a loss of income by colored men who now would take their jobs. Excusable? Absolutely not! However, it does show another side and doesn’t just assume that people are evil and do bad things because of the hatred in their heart. Another interesting point of view is that of the Ku Klux Klan members in this book. He asserts that they were not merely haters of colored people but of ALL people who they felt had caused harm to them. There is a graphic description of a lynching of a Jewish man who they believe has jilted some of the wealthy women out of money in an attempt to sell them undeeded land in Louisiana.

The biggest part of this that I found interesting and frustrating at the same time is the justice system as depicted in this story. There was no justice for people of color in those days. If you were arrested you were going to jail. They would allow you a trial but it would look nothing like a fair trial and it would end in nothing that even remotely resembles justice. The frustrating part is that it is not so hard to see that this is more truth than fiction. The courts really were partial and they really did dole out their own form of justice.

I have to tell you that there is an unbridled use of an offensive word in this book so if you are easily offended by it’s use then you should avoid this book. I think that it was completely necessary to use it in order to tell this story with any sort of accuracy. I think it was used as it was always used in reality. I think it was not used as a creative word to make the book more interesting or for entertainment shock value. It was merely a fact that had to be included.

I love history and I love crime dramas. This book gave me both. I love that as predictable as I thought it was going to be it still gave me a twist at the very end that I just didn’t expect. I am renewed in my appreciation of James Patterson and his ability to tell a story. This is a must read for Patterson fans and those who have been disheartened by his recent attempts. Enjoy!

I realized today that we are getting so close to our October 1st Disney trip. With less than 70 days left and school starting I thought I should spend today getting things wrapped up so that I don’t end up with a travel emergency and then end up running around at the last minute trying to find the things I need. I am a planner to the nth degree and so being 70 days out might seem like a long time to most people but it is short in comparison for me. I started planning this trip over a year ago. There are so many things left to do. I have been making dresses for the girls to wear while we are there and I need to make a few more. I also need to find some plain colored leggings to wear under them. I need to order plain colored t-shirts for my son to wear. I also need to get my touring plans in order. I have to pay off the trip on 8/15. I also have to finish ordering all of my gift cards and cashing out my rewards at my online earning sites. All of this needs to be done while also getting everyone ready and back in to school. Finally, I need to start exercising. Disney is such an exhausting vacation that if I don’t work out I will surely not be able to keep up with the kids. I think I will use today to make a list and start working on it. What type of things do you guys do to prepare for vacation?

I decided last week to go ahead and join Bookswim. I had heard so many great things about it and I needed new books to read but hated the thought of paying a fortune to get them. So, I went for it.

The sign up process was very simple and easy. I went through Sunshine Rewards and got 25% off of my first month. I figured that I would at least try it for the first month. I chose the option to have three books at a time. I can’t read more than that anyway so it seemed like a good deal. I can read as many as I want, 3 at a time, for less than the cost of one hardcover book a month.

I had a tough time at first choosing which books I wanted because I hadn’t read a lot of books this summer. In the end I chose an Ann Rice book and two James Patterson books. A couple of days later I spent more time browsing and now I have 15 books in my pool waiting to read. I probably would have rather read some of the ones in my pool before the ones I ordered first but I am okay with my choices.

It only took a few days to get my books and it was over the weekend so I would think they would arrive quicker if it were done over the weekdays. The books are in very good shape and marked clearly as Bookswim books so I won’t wonder if it is mine or not.

They send you a nice big plastic envelope and shipping label to return the books in. The shipping back is free so you just drop the books (2 at a time) in the bag and then put the label on it and drop in the mailbox. I like fast and easy and I pass a mailbox every week when I am at the bank so I won’t forget to return the books.

Book lovers will find this to be an amazing deal, especially if you are a fast reader because you could easily read a lot of books for your monthly charge. It all hinges on how fast you read them and return them so they can send you the next ones on your list. Definitely a must try for you guys who love to read!!

As the mother of 3 kids I find that sometimes things happen in life that just make you laugh. It is these things that I often find myself writing down to remember when the kids are older.

We were shopping the other day and my middle child loves to play Frogger on my Blackberry. She was walking around the store playing the game while I shopped. We found some items to try on and went to the dressing room. I took my phone back but I didn’t realize that I had an unlocked phone keyboard. So when I put it in my handbag and set it down it accidental redialed my last call. It happened to by my husband who then proceeded to hear a 30 minute conversation between my daughter and I about the outfits I was trying to buy her. This is his "angel" who he thinks does no wrong and he never believes me when I tell him she has been mouthy or sassy because she just doesn’t act that way in front of him. Well, he got the whole 30 minutes of mouth this time. When he got home and told her had heard everything she said and he was disappointed in how sassy she had been I thought she would turn on the tears. Instead she said, "You weren’t supposed to hear that!" BUSTED!!!

I hate the sassiness but I swear I love the little things that they do everyday that make me realize they will be teenagers and adults in no time. I cherish these moments because they will be gone before I know it!