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2025 Reading List

Welcome to a new year of reading!

I read 28 novels and 26 graphic novels last year. Not bad! This year, I’m putting recent acquisitions and reads at the top. That does not mean READING order, just PILE order.

Burn the Place, Iliana Regan. Yes, I did read this a couple of years ago, but I picked it up again at Ollie’s. Memoir of being a self taught chef, rising to Michelin heights. It’s about being a queer, self taught chef. STILL a great read.

Home, Marilynne Robinson. Pulitzer Prize winning author. This book is one of Oprah’s, so I look forward to reading it. Eh, well, it’s as wordy as you’d suspect for a Pulitzer Prize winning author. It’s slow and ponderous, and feels English to me, despite the author being American. It’s just OK.

Lila, Marilynne Robinson. Same author, same reason for getting it.

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina, Zoraida Córdova. This author does a lot of fan fic and even writes romances under another name. She is from Ecuador but lives in New York. I think this is a fantasy book set in Ecuador. We’ll find out!

Bad Axe County, John Galligan. This author has a long pedigree of novels and mystery series. This book is the first of the Bad Axe County novels, which center on a female sheriff in Wisconsin. I hope it’s good!

Marcella’s Italian Kitchen, Marcella Hazan. This is a cookbook by “the Julia Child of Italy”. Published in 1985, it’s a little dated, but the recipes are interesting and very authentic. She preaches about tomatoes, Reggiano and risotto just like the Italian chefs of today! The book is written from a perspective of Americans not having access to authentic Italian ingredients, which is not a thing in 2025. But some interesting dishes I intend to make! Frittata pasta, is of particular interest.

Food for Thought, Alton Brown. His current memoirs in an essay collection. He’s a conversational writer, which I enjoy. It’s an easy read and a fun book. Get it!

The Piano Tuner, Cheng Naishan. An old novel (1989) by a famous Chinese writer. It’s called New Chinese Fiction.

Road of Bones, Christopher Golden. This guy is known for his horror novels (Snowblind, Dead Ringers) so I hope I like it!

Re-reading Taste, My Life Through Food, by Stanley Tucci. I enjoyed the stories and recipes.

Re-reading On Writing by Steve King. It’s time! Done!

The Revenant, Michael Punke. Yes, the book that the movie is based on. I have a niche like of Westerns set in the great expansion West period. This one is well written – it’s my treadmill book, which means it’ll be finished in Jan 25. FINISHED! It did not end particularly well as far as wrapping shit up, but it is still great for historical semi-fiction (main character is real as are others and the locations). At least the afterword finished the story up. Not sure why he didn’t finish it IN the novel? Anyway, well written.

Bitter in the Mouth, Monique Truong. Got this one for xmess and it is EXEMPLARY. Truong is an excellent writer. This book explores Lexical-gustatory (LG) synesthesia, which is the condition that makes words have tastes. This was my initial interest in the book, but the book is about finding oneself and family. This is Truong’s second novel, the first is The Book of Salt, which I will acquire shortly. I also like that her books all relate to TASTE.

Fuzzy Nation, John Scalzi. SO GOOD! It’s a quick read because it is highly entertaining. The ending was a little blah, but I loved this book! It’s about corporate greed and sentient life. Good stuff!

You Like It Dark, Stephen King short stories. Almost finished. I’m lukewarm on this story collection. I feel as if SK just dusted off some old stuff and published it. A couple are good, but nothing is really jumping out at me as great.

From 2024 list:
Learning to Bow, Bruce Feiler. Subtitled Inside the Heart of Japan. I got this one for the look inside Japanese culture, but this guy writes a lot of Christian crap, so we’ll see how it goes. It seems to be less novel and more guide? I’ll report. Started this as my treadmill book. It is a slightly outdated (1991) look inside Japanese culture. It’s written well and a fairly good read! It is from a teacher’s point of view, so lots of info about Japanese schools, which is fascinating.

Courtney Crumrin, Ted Naifeh. (Things I realised I’d missed!)
Courtney Crumrin Vol 4: Monstrous Holiday
The Crumrin Chronicles Vol 1: The Lost and the Lonely
The Crumrin Chronicles Vol 2: The Charmed and the Cursed
The Crumrin Chronicles Vol 3: The Wild and the Innocent

The Drowning Kind, Jennifer McMahon. This is a mystery/horror story – and a fairly good one. McMahon is a decent writer, but she still falls back on a couple of phrases a bit too much – barking laughs is one. UGH. Death to adverbs!! But it’s a pretty good read nonetheless.

The Woman in the Window, A.J. Finn. “A Netflix film”. Sounds like a derivative of Rear Window to me.

Leaving Time, Jodi Picoult. This was a surprisingly good read. A bit uneven in pacing, but it has a nice twist. Bonus: you get to learn A LOT about elephants! It’s YA, I think, since the main character is a teen, but it doesn’t feel like it.

Four Hours of Fury, James M Fenelon. The story of WWII’s largest airborne invasion and the final push into Nazi Germany.

Bunker, Bradley Garrett. Building for the end times. This is a look at prepper communities around the world and how they prepare for the apocalypse. Timely, no?

Thanks A Lot Mr Kibblewhite, Roger Daltrey. His memoir.

Alice Hoffman’s Magic Series
NOT reading these, as two have magically disappeared. I don’t remember loaning them out, so I’ve no idea why they are gone from the read pile. ??? The gremlins apparently do not want me to read them. So be it. I was lukewarm anyway.
(NOT in published order, but in storyline order)
Magic Lessons, Alice Hoffman. Part 1
The Rules of Magic, Alice Hoffman. Part 2
Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman. Part 3
Book of Magic, Alice Hoffman. Part 4

Paper Son, S.J. Rozen. A good start! Finally getting to this one Feb 16, 2025. A good read! It’s a detective novel, first and foremost, but also historical. I learned a lot about Chinese groceries in the Mississippi Delta.

On Gold Mountain, Lisa See. Started 2/24/25. This is actually a memoir of sorts. It is all about See’s family history. She worked years to interview hundreds of family members and assemble this information. The book was published in 1995, so pretty old. She does a great job weaving her storytelling in with the actual info about her family.

Born Standing Up, Steve Martin. His autobiography/memoir. I’ve read some of his fiction – he’s a good writer.

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Looking for VSG/Bariatric info?

Hi there! If you’d like to see ONLY my extensive research on Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy, bariatric diet and managing GERD (reflux), you can filter out all my other posts and see just those by clicking HERE. You can see my vlogs about my VSG journey here.

To see any category (recipes, for instance), use the drop down menu to the right labeled “View Posts by Category” and select the category you’d like. Thanks for stopping by!

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To Be Perfectly Clear

For those who need more clarity about what’s up:

– I am not here to be your personal chef, therefore I do NOT owe you any dinners at any time. If you find this offensive, then leaving my sphere is the best move. I don’t miss you, HS.

– I will not stand for abusive behavior couched in the notion that it was “for the best”. NOPE. Abuse is abuse and I don’t regret ditching you crazy bitches one little bit, CBH & JC. The children have also been damaged and that is unforgivable as well. Don’t miss you in the least.

– I do not care about your widdle fee fees, RC. YOU are a Nazi sympathizer and Felon worshiper. There is no excuse for that level of complete self absorption. I don’t miss you, either.

I will not acquiesce to demands made by crazy self absorbed people any more. I’ve done it for years to keep the peace and I’m done. IDGAF if I have only a few select friends – I’d rather have FEWER of better quality than a bunch that I don’t really have ties with in the first place.

If any of this offends you, you know where the door is. I’m old, cranky and out of time to waste with people who are just out for what they can get for themselves. I want quality over quantity.

That is all.

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Valentine’s Dinner at Trader Vic’s

Trader Vic’s Atlanta did NOT disappoint!

Chef Julio runs a damn fine kitchen! HERE is their site, but it’s pretty awful, and here’s their FB and IG.

We had the Honi Honi Valentine’s menu, which was:
– Tiki Drinks (Can’t remember the names, Nick’s was passion fruit something, mine, as you can see, was ON FIRE! LOL)
– Pork Bao buns (not pictured, we scarfed them too fast)
– Chateaubriand with carmelized onions and demi glace
– Creamed spinach
– Duchess potatoes
– A fancy chocolate and raspberry dessert

Everything was seasoned to perfection (you know how I am about SEASONING) and Chef Julio is very sweet. The manager (Jesus? Maurice?) is also FABulous!


The table starter is crackers with a dolled up peanut butter. It has honey and soy sauce whipped in. The Bao Buns came with spicy fried onion bits and a thick sesame sauce. They were yummy!

Chateaubriand was cooked perfectly to temp (midrare) and served with a strong demi glace and sweet 6 hr carmelized onions. Perfectly executed and delicious. The duchess potatoes and spinach were seasoned appropriately and, again, executed perfectly. The duchess potatoes were light and fluffy (they have egg in them, then they are baked) and the spinach was creamy with a bechamel.

Our server (shoutout: Chryslin!!) was delightful and we had a great time dragging on this couple that came in immediately complaining about time (another server’s section), ordered, THEN SENT THE FOOD BACK because they were in a hurry. ASSHOLES! Look, you hipster fucks, this ain’t McD’s, yanno? God people are fucking FERAL. I’m glad we scooted out before the big rush at 7! We had fun dragging on them with the manager, too. HA!



Finally, we had the VERY fancy dessert which was a chocolate enrobed trifle of sorts. It had dense chocolate cake on the bottom, then a cream gel (think panacotta) with luxardo cherries, then chocolate mousse, all set inside a milk chocolate shell. It is topped with chocolate mousse covered in raspberry powder and cryo frozen raspberries. All the fancy pieces – even the doily – were edible! It was delightful.

Overall, this was a really nice dining experience! I HIGHLY recommend following their socials for the Luaus and other events they do over the year. The next one is a tasting dinner with Chef Julio, which I’m sure will be OUTSTANDING.

Five stars FOR SURE for Trader Vic’s!

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The Things We’ve Lost

I woke up with this post almost fully realised in my head this morning. This is a good sign! I hope to get back to writing more this year.

I was thinking about the things we’ve lost to corporate greed. It’s a long list and I believe that these things that have been monetized to the hilt are part of the reason so many of us are depressed and bored. Here we go.

MUSIC & TV
Not only have we GenXers had to go from records to cassettes to CDs then back to records, we’ve lost radio to subscriptions. I’m happy that radio is rebounding a little here in ATL. 99x is back on the air and there are a couple of other stations still hanging on. But since the advent of the internet, the monetization of music has pretty much torpedoed free over the air radio. I have my curated list on my phone, but I have to consciously go forth and search for new music. This contraction is why TayTay RULES pop music and there are so few artists getting traction. I’ll also touch on the advent of AutoTune, which has absolutely devastated TALENT in music. That rant is for another day, but AutoTune has contributed significantly to the decline of talent being necessary to make it in music.

TV is the same: cable ruined over the air, but it *is* still available if an HD antenna will work for you (won’t for me). I’ve not had live TV in years. I’ve given up watching horse racing, ice skating and NFL amongst other things and it sucks. I’ve got Netflix, Disco+, AppleTV, PBS and free Peacock and still cannot enjoy the few things I like. NO JOY.

INTERNET
Back in the day, mid 90s, when all of us tech minded GENXers were CREATING THE DAMN INTERNET, things were pretty wild and wooly. Content was everywhere, socials were not clogging up things yet. You had to know how to create a search term (over on DogPile, REPRESENT) to find anything while using your Netscape Gold (which we called Nutscrape because reasons). Then Google happened: YAY! better searching! Then the socials started to show up. I remember a kid talking about FaceBook in the early aughts, and I thought it sounded stupid. Everyone had a MySpace page, complete with annoying music. Tripod was a place you could put together a website without hand coding! Miracle! Websites were hand coded, then DreamWeaver changed everything for us nerds who were into websites. THEN the corporations started to form around Google and the socials. The tech bros wondered if these sites with tons of users could be worth anything? By the 2010s, FB had gobbled up everything and the rest is history. I also remember Twitter and the awesome thing it WAS before bots and Felon Tusk. Now AI will continue to ruin all that is (was) good about the internet. And it makes me sad. Further reading about the enshittification of TECH by Edward Zitron: Never Forgive Them NOTE: This guy is young (b 1987), so he does not remember the Olden Days™, therefore I take a grain of salt with his writings. He is also a tech bro, which I don’t care for. The article is still worth your time, however.

SHOPPING
Back in the Olden Days™ (1900s!), Walmart was all about American Made. Most of their products had this proudly emblazoned on the labels. Then the old man died and the money grubbing children took over. In an effort to remain the cheapest place to shop (in consumer minds, it really is NOT, LOSS LEADERS, look it up), they decided that all their vendors needed to manufacture in China to bring down the cost of their products. Now I’ll tangent a little to tell you a story about a lady I met at some random job, whose company was forced to manufacture in China if they wanted to sell at Walmart, so they did. Then the Chinese booted them from their factory and the country and STOLE IT ALL. Walmart said ‘too bad, so sad’ and dropped them. This is why I have a bad attitude about the Chinese and their complete lack of integrity when it comes to copyrights and fair treatment. THIS story is why I will not shop at Walmart and I do my best to find American made products if possible. 99.9% of the time, it is not. Thanks Walmart for nuking manufacturing in America.

Then, of course, there is Amazon. The other elephant in the room that stomped out small business across the land and killed bookstores outright. I also do not shop at Amazon very much, I try to find things on eBay, which is the last bastion of small businesses online. You’ve got to be careful to avoid the Chinese on eBay, they proliferate. And even if you filter to N America only, they’ll still get you. I ordered some compression gloves from “Kentucky” which took 2.5 weeks to arrive. They were from China and repackaged no doubt.

HEALTHCARE
Not much to add about this, everyone knows how fucked up healthcare is in the US. Corporations (insurance) run it and they are out for money, fuck you and your health. Bravo to the shooter, I giggled with glee. I DGAF about that CEO – just like he didn’t give a fuck about how many people HE KILLED with his company. Fuck them all.

GROCERIES
Of course, we can all understand that the pandemic fucked up the food supply lines and things were pricey AF simply because it was so hard to get items moved from one place to another. BUT. Then the corporations who own the food supplies just left the prices where they were. Are we shocked? NO WE ARE NOT. These corporations are out for MONEY. Fuck you and your groceries. Food is up about 25% across the board – if not by price, then by shrinkflation, which is the method of reducing the size of the item but keeping the price the same. This has been going on for years – a “pound” of coffee has been 12oz forever. But now it’s in just about everything. This is earning the corporations 25% any way you slice it.

HOUSING
Not much to add about this, either, it’s well covered by many. The outrageous cost of buying or renting has been fueled by corporations buying up all the starter homes and rentals in the 08 crash. Corporations should not be allowed to own private residences, period. When corporations own all the property and control all the prices, this is what you get.

The bottom line is that allowing corporations to run wild is what is fueling this plethora of oligopolies that are controlling massive swaths of our economy (and our lives). For an explanation of OLIGOPOLY, I give you the first honest cable ad:




Link to the youtube video if iframe is not working HERE.

Corporate greed is the root of why there is no joy in ANYTHING any more. Listening to music, reading a book, going shopping, going out to eat, hell, even movies are foul now. Corporations have brought this country to its knees economically and beaten its citizens into two groups: one is just TIRED and SAD; the other is too stupid to see that there’s a problem. The next four years will be tough, my peeps. As corporations continue to aggregate power (a fucking rich fuck OWNS the goddam president FFS) and the rich continue to get richer, the rest of us will continue to barely hang on. I don’t want a civil war, but I think it could happen. What I do totally support is uprising against these rich fuckers and their corporations. We, as a nation, need to decide that we are not going to allow corporations to rule this country. We need to take back our nation and provide for EVERYONE, not just rich fucks. I’m fine with any method we choose to do that. Take that as you will.

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Here We Are

It’s now 2025 and we await whatever fresh hell will be rained upon us.

First thing out the gate: a crazed ex-military whackjob murdered 15 people and injured 30 more in New Orleans. He was promptly dispatched by the police. Of course, the wacky right media claimed he was an illegal immigrant. NOPE, SORRY, he was one of YOURS. (A MAGAt informed me that I should include that this guy was “radicalized by ISIS”, which is true, but honey, let me tell you: HE WAS ONE OF YOURS, MAGAts, and that is a FACT. So, sure, he was influenced by ISIS, but the guns and the killing of civilians is ALL MAGA. Accept your part in this fucking mess. Asshole.)

Then Cybertrucks start exploding. One blew up in front of Trump hotel in Vegas, killing the driver. I did think it was genius that it blew up THERE, tho. Then, here in GA, a Cybertruck caught fire and burned up on the dealer lot in Decatur. If I had one of those monstrosities, I’d not park it near my house.

We watched Amy Adams in Nightbitch last night. What an odd movie! It is very weird but basically a meditation on what women go through when deciding to have kids and the resentment caused when women give up THEIR lives to be SAH moms. The movie displays these feelings in VERY strange ways. It’s basically a vehicle for Amy Adams to show her amazing acting chops. She slays.

The movie confirms why I never had any interest in breeding. It also confirms what I sensed my whole life from my mother: RESENTMENT. She hated being a SAH mom and I knew it my whole life. I couldn’t verbalise it as a child, but I knew my mother was not a happy housewife. She hated cooking especially, which is why her food was gross.

So, yeah, welcome to 2025. We have plans to get ourselves out of CC debt and start actually LIVING our lives. We are being brave and doing what needs to be done to sever this anchor of debt dragging us down since Nick’s three years at Minuteman working a low paying job. We are getting rid of the debt and starting fresh. NOT a bankruptcy, but we’re draining our investment account. Once the CC debt is gone, we will be able to actually use the money we make to move forward rather than simply tread water like we have for five years.

We want to reconnect with people who matter to us and we want a fucking vacation this year. It’s been over a decade since we’ve gone anywhere. That is just SAD.

So, cutting loose the negatives and setting a course to better ourselves. I hope this country doesn’t collapse or whatever. It will derail our plans and piss me off royally. I hope the infighting of the Shitgibbon brigade will render them ineffective and they’ll piss away their four years. Then we can get the country back on track. Hopefully.

It’s a new year. Let’s get on it.