It was a beautiful day so I decided to get out of the house at lunchtime. Had to get some books and summer clothes sent out to the grandkids in Green Bay so I noshed on my favorite - turkey breast Subway sandwich. I was so good - I didn't even order the meal deal with the macadamia nut cookies like I often do. I'd like to stop avoiding mirrors so those cookies are off my "okay to eat" list. It was them or white wine, and the wine won out. :-)

I was "bad" and stopped at Half Price Books and came out with three audiobooks for $9.99 a piece. I was so pleased with myself. That is cheaper than my audiobook subscription is each month. Also bought several books on fibromyalgia. I have now past the stage of denial and hit acceptance and decided if I am going to deal with this for the rest of my life I am damn well going to know what I am dealing with! Still want a copy of Fibromyalgia for Dummies, which they didn't have so I'll have to order that from B&N. Was also delighted to see three titles from Fern Michael Sisterhood series on the shelves and snapped those up too. Okay - I admit it - I am a bookaholic. I could think of much worse addictions!

I leave for Greenville in the a.m. and will drive back home on Friday. Look forward to seeing everyone at meetings on Weds. and Thursday. The LS Program is becoming an independent department so we will pig out on desserts after our last departmental meeting with the Instructional Technology faculty. I am on soda and ice detail. Might stop and pick up goodies I can eat as most desserts have some type of dairy in them. And, since I leave tomorrow I cannot make my gooey yummy brownies as they would be crunchy brownies by Thursday - not good!

I am about 1/3 of the way through Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, the 2003 Pulitzer prize winner on CD. Wow! Not only have I learned a great deal about Greek history I have found myself with my mouth open on more than one occasion. This is a tale of a wayward gene that makes it way through the family gene pool, recently brought to life by a brother and sister who decide to pass themselves off as husband and wife when they flee to the U.S. from their rural town in Greece after the Turks ransack the town. Their children carry the gene to the next generation where a baby (girl child by all appearances) is born, but at puberty, instead of developing breasts and hips he/she becomes masculine. Calliope/Cal narrates the tale and it is spellbinding. The couple is now living in Detroit in the middle of Depression and Desdemona is being forced to go to work by her brother/husband and finds herself in the black part of downtown Detroit. Can't wait to find out where this leads. What a humdinger of a book. At this point I would, in no way shape or form, recommend this to teens!

But, I would most certainly recommend Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I kept reading wonderful reviews about this book on YALSA-BK and other listservs, but since it wasn't within arm's reach I hadn't read it yet. While I was in my ECU office the last time I found it and put it on top of my "gotta read" pile and I am so glad I did. What a ride into a catastrophe that seems too plausible. Sure - a meteor could hit the moon and push it out of orbit. And, in doing so, chance the climate and life as we know it on Earth. Seventeen-year-0ld Miranda goes from worrying about dates and prom to worrying about whether or not they will have enough food and wood to last through the winter and which one of them may die first. Will it be their mother who is hobbling around on a sprained ankle, her older brother who isn't eating enough but chopping wood during every waking hour, or her younger brother who dreams of a career as a baseball player? Or, will it be Miranda - she is eating only one meal a day and constantly hungry. No looking in the mirror - she isn't going to like what she sees. Then the flu strikes the household and Miranda makes a trip to the hospital to discover the flu has taken her mother's doctor boyfriend and most of the hospital staff. It is up to her to save her family. Written in diary format, the reader vicariously lives through this horrific time with Miranda as she pours out her feelings into a diary she is not even sure she will live to re-read. This is one of those books that just has to be on the shelf of every YA section and I most certainly plan on booktalking it.

All for today. Need to figure out what I need to pack and finish up responding to student emails before I hit the road in the a.m.