Labor-pain reading

Been plowing through the books so fast lately (there are a lot of days I don't even leave the house. Go away snow!) that I think I've probably forgotten about some of them.

I read Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner, on recommendation of my professor from last semester. Faulkner's sentences go round and round and on down the page and I feel so bad that I'm not enjoying this terribly famous writer but, honestly, if you drove the way Faulkner writes, all the side trips and circles around the block and 7-point U-turns would get you to your appointment a week late.

The professor also recommended Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, a collection of short stories that's actually called a novel. It portrays a couple Chippewa families in North Dakota that are poised halfway between life on the Rez and life in the city. Liked it much better than Faulkner, especially the title story.

Through the long night of Mercy's labor, I advanced through Therapy by Jonathan Kellerman. 'Twas a murder mystery, a very serviceable one, though the plot threads got a bit unwieldy towards the end. How do these authors keep all the suspects straight, especially if they have too many? Walls covered with Post-It Notes?

Currently reading American Spy, the memoirs of Howard Hunt, who served in the CIA. Did you know most CIA people are Ivy League graduates? Yep, they do a little para-trooping, a little propagandizing, then become a general or a cabinet secretary or something other important person. You just don't have the connections to get in if you got educated at Wayneville State U or someplace like that. But I'm not bitter. I don't want to be in the CIA. I couldn't take the tension of flying over the Himalayas into strange lands (as the plane coughs and lurches from lack of oxygen), wondering if my contact might murder me and figuring out how to turn Latin Americans against their current dictator.

Besides, I don't think spies get to spend a lot of time playing in the kitchen, which you must know is important to me. To that end, I share with you:  French Onion Pan Rolls

Eat them with soup. Then, when the onion-and-cheese stuff falls off--and it will--the soup catches it and tastes even better. Two rolls = 375 cals.