Books-pageturners or doorstoppers?

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Obsessed: America's Food Addiction --and My Own by Mika Brzezinski offers some insights into how hard it can be eat healthy foods with busy schedules, the ease of access to processed foods over healthy foods and the inner turmoil that someone can be enduring while dealing with food issues.

Interesting information about the liver organ we have in our bodies-there is an enzyme for glucose that shuts down processing when sufficient glucose for the body is received. However, the enzyme for fructose does not shut down and keeps processing it. If more fructose is delivered than needed, liver fat is created. Some liver fat can escape into the bloodstream and create artery issues!

Pop is often sweetened with fructose syrup (if the pop is not a sugar-free variety or sugar only variety) and it's one of the items singled out for contributing to obesity problems in the US. New York City has introduced a limit to pop cups not to exceed 16oz serving sizes for theatres and restaurants. However, the city has had legal action taken against it for enacting the size limitation.

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Avec Eric by Eric Ripert is a 12-chapter cookbook with themed menus. Ever wonder how the Grand Cayman Cookout event with chefs came about? Read chapter 12 about the origins of the event and see a menu highlighting dishes. See what chestnuts look like in their protective husks off the tree-there are three nuts inside one prickly husk! Sample Italian, French and seafood menus with recipes.

Chef Eric Ripert works in New York City's Le Bernardin restaurant and owns three other US restaurants in other cities. He is also a friend of Anthony Bourdain, more familiar to many as the author of Kitchen Confidential and the host of Travel Channel's No Reservations show.

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Elvis is Titanic: Classroom Tales from Iraqi Kurdistan by Ian Klaus, gives a rare insight into Kurdish university students about their place in the world and how they viewed US interventions in Iraq that led to Saddam Hussein's fall from power. The book is based on 2005, so the stories can help outsiders understand some of the issues and tensions that still remain present-day hot topics.

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Recommended warm weather reading to help everyone work on their "mentally strong" mindset when in situations that can lead to social rejection: Rejection Proof by Jia Jiang. The author decided to become an entrepreneur and when an investing setback put his spirits low, he redirected efforts into becoming rejection proof. Something to learn for everyone, including an insight on your body's response to pain (physical or social) that is real.

Let this be YOUR year to be more confident in social scenarios and not get knocked down as hard. In fact, you might still be able to make something out any rejections.

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Guy Delisle's Jerusalem graphic novel was on the shelf at the library and I could finally read his take on the ancient city and its peoples and its history. There is content that might puzzle readers: did you know that passports get stickered with a number denoting the security risk you represent? Civilians cannot linger by the massive walls around Jewish settlements (usually on hilltops) on the roads running by the walls? There are different versions of history presented by tour guides depending on their point of view.

Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem. The City itself has a West and East side.

I have found Delisle's previous novels to be like insider guides to cities. Think of them like the history/travel guides that have the tips to getting around that you won't easily find online without knowing where to find them. Also, the comic style conveys emotions very well: those of the author, his family, and the people he meets.

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Two books on soccer were part of my week's reading: Eight World Cups by George Vecsey and Home and Away: In Search of Dreams at the Homeless World Cup of Soccer.

The reporter who started covering soccer with minimal knowledge of the sport has a very telling passage regarding the 1990 World Cup in Italy:

"Signora," one shoplady said, after sussing out that I was a journalist, "you tell your husband that nobody spends money on this World Cup. They come for the match, and they go home."
It was true. Germans drove down the autobahn, maybe bought a beer or two, and then drove bacak at 150 kilometers per hours, to be at work the next day.
This exposed the great myths of the World Cups and Olympics. Organizers always mooch government subsidies for stadiums and security and infrastructure on the premise that the events will be a boon for business. The fact is, sports fans are not good tourists. They do not bring money, or curiosity, or conumer taste. They come to see a games, have some beers, cheer loudly, get sick in the street, and go home. Better to schedule a convention of accountants.

The author mentions the efforts of Danny Jourdaan in getting South Africa's 201 World Cup together. This past week, Mr. Jourdaan made news again in being named as being under investigation in relation to $10M that is alleged to have been provided to Jack Warner, who was one of two principal people in CONCANAF.

The second book covers the importance the homeless players on Canada's team place on being able to see Australia and be away from their daily survival concerns. The sport of soccer lets the players forget their worries. However, the agency staffers have to scramble to arrange players' passports given the need to have paperwork/ID all in advance, plus get funding for the airfares. Worthwhile reading about an important outreach program for homeless people in Canada. There's an organization called Street Soccer Canada that accepts donations for this cause.

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DK Eyewitness Travel Top 10 books focus on major cities in the world and provide top 10 eateries, attractions, shopping sites, and things to do lists. A Street Smart chapter at the end of the books provides basic currency, legal and safety tips for the traveller visiting the feature city. The narrow softcover books are easy to hold in hand and can fit into a purse or long pant pocket. The pages are on glossy paper and there are fold out maps at each end of the book.

To date, the Sydney, Munich, Stockholm and Frankfurt books have been read. Let's say that it helps to have money as some eateries or outings do have some high prices. There are budget tips but you really don't want to be broke while visiting especially if you want to take transportation outside of the major cities to places just outside or farther afield.

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Financial literacy gains another title for readers to read about differing money styles that crop up in relationships. Author Gail Vaz-Oxlade's Money Talks presents various scenarios that she has encountered with folks who talk to her about money but not with their spouses/partners/friends. The author presents some discussion points and provides some of her own experiences to encourage readers to know their money habits.

The book is available in hardcover and in e-book formats.

Since tax season is gearing up in Canada, this book will help families look at their own situations and perhaps start conversations with offspring about budgeting for needs versus wants.

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Brazillionaires by Alex Cuadros is your crash course into the current state of business and government relations in Brazil.
Meet some of the key industrial players and their access to infrastructure contracts. Government provides low cost loans
to the builders despite the government having to pay high interest rates to borrow said money.

Find out why residents bang pots and pans and protest in the streets these past two years. Money for
public schools and healthcare seems to evaporate.

Favelas are neighbourhoods with no or limited services. No sanitation pickup? Objects might
hold pools of water in which mosquitoes breed. Zika virus. Piped water can stop and start at
a whim, so many residents in the neighbourhoods have rooftop water tanks as backup supplies.
Actually, this section made me think of other world cities with Zika virus-are they tackling standing
water pools as well in their efforts to control the spread of the virus?

Wait until you read what the Manaus stadium's suggested post World Cup use was!

One impactful quote (paraphrased) that explains the mindset of the charming Brazilian businessperson: "For my friends, I do anything. For my enemies, the law."

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Valentine's Day is next Tuesday in North America. I read the e-book edition of Dinner with Edward by Isabel Vincent last night and I consider the book to be a gift to single adults. Why? The book involves food (culinary aspect-you may find yourself searching for some recipes featured in the menus but hardly detailed), confidence building (sharing of life experiences/perspectives), and wit/insight (when the two main persons really let themselves tell some stories that impacted their own lives to the other person). There is hopefulness imbued in the pages of the story of the author and her friend's father and his dinners. Thought I should share this aspect with readers cynical of making any effort at all with people in their lives.

I totally related to Edward's daughter Laura expressing concern that her elderly father left a lit candle unattended on a table with papers.