Category Archives: Blog

Sweet Iced Tea vs Unsweetened Iced Tea

In Northern Maine I’m use to sweet hot tea. It’s drunk year round. Not until I was in the deep South did sweet iced tea cross my lips. My first reaction was OH MY GOSH WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN MY ENTIRE LIFE? Well something like that anyway. My boyfriend, now husband, had brought me to a fast food place by the name of Hardee’s that served sweet iced tea. This amazing yet simple drink is like ambrosia to me. It is drunk all the time by my family.

One day however I heard someone order unsweetened iced tea in the booth behind us. It made me pause.  Could this also be an amazing drink just waiting for me to learn about? Soon I ordered the same thing. Taking one sip I immediately spit it back into the cup and looked around me to see if that had been noticed. What I had before me was brown water and that was it. There was no taste, nothing to hint to anyone that it was anything but water. So why is this ordered repeatedly just confused me to all limits of confusion. What am I missing? Well obviously the sugar and honey but what would possess anyone to order this drink? There is no taste as far as I am concern. This will be a question that will not be answered I suspect as I go on drinking glasses and glasses of sweet iced tea.

Everyone has different taste, style and opinions. But this is one I just honestly do not get.

The Books We Read

I stated earlier this year that I run a book club in my area. A list of what we had read since the group started in the Spring of 2009 was created so there would be no duplications. We have had books from a variety of genres, age groups and topics. It has been a great experience for me personally to share the love of reading with others. Looking at the list I’m amazed and proud of the group.

Here is the list.

1-The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter- Carson McCullers

2-Graceling- Kristin Cashore

3-Illustrated Man- Ray Bradbury

4-The Art Of Racing in the Rain- Garth Stein

5-Bloodwork- Michael Connelly

6-The Physick Book Of Deliverance Dane-Katherine Howe

7-The Memory Keeper’s Daughter- Kim Edwards

8-Slam-Nick Hornby

9-Lacemakers of Glenmara- Heather Barbieri

10-The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman-Bruce Robinson

11-Bastard out of North Carolina-Dorothy Allison

12-The World According to Garp-John Irving

13-My Melancholy Whore-Gabriel Garcia Marquez

14-Good Omen-Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

15-Dog on It-Spencer Quinn

16-Wicked-Gregory Maguire

17-The Thirteenth Tale-Diane Setterfield

18-Life of Pi-Yann Martel

19-American Gods-Neil Gaiman

20-A Million Little Pieces-James Frey

21-The Reader-Bernard Schlink

22-To Kill A Mockingbird-Harper Lee

23-Memoirs of a Geisha-Arthur Golden

24-The House on Mango Street-Sandra Cisneros

25-The Road-Cormac McCarthy

26-Fried Green Tomatoes-Fannie Flagg

27-Lovely Bones-Alice Sebold

28-Mother Road-Dorothy Garlock

29-The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo-Stieg Larrson

30- Holes-Louis Sachar

31-The Last Lecture-Randy Pausch

32-Grand Delusion-Matt Witten

33- One For The Money- Janet Evanovich

34- Run For Your Life-James Patterson

Books vs eReaders

The Headquarter Library had a book sale recently. They have these roughly 3-4 times a year. We go a good portion of the time for the books are not more then a buck. It gives me a great opportunity to try books I would never even think of picking up to read. I can go wild with any genre I want and know that I did not waste precious money. The beauty of this also is I can place the books on the paperbackswap.com website to exchange the books with others and so share the love. It is a win win and win.

Now eReaders are the latest thing to hit books. They are portable, affordable and compact. You can place numerous books on the tablet compared to the space that a bookshelf takes. But for this avid reader it is just not the same. While I get the pros of a eReader I will have to pass on it for now. If I get one as a gift I would thank the person with a smile and honestly mean it. But a book in my hand is a simple pleasure I am not willing to give up. The smell and feel of a book just gives me a chill from head to toe. Turning the pages literally is something I still enjoy. My house is bursting with books as my husband and I are avid readers and have been since childhood. Yet we still go to used book stores, thrift shops and the sales at the library to find potential books that need a new home. I feel like a hypocrite in the sense as a budding writer I have been looking at placing my stories for ebook consumption. Yet if I had a choice print would be my preference. Snuggling up on my couch, bed or a chair on my porch is how I prefer it. You will always find a book by my bed, couch, purse and in my car. Any opportunity where I have some free time the book comes out. I guess the people who would understand this are avid readers like myself who treasure what a book means. There is so little things in life lately that are free so until all books are virtually gone I won’t give them up.