I’d definitely classify myself as a snacker. I like eating too much to only do it three times a day and I opt for the mini-meal approach to eating (5 – 6 mini-meals a day)… but sometimes I seem to just graze the day away!
That appears to be what is happening today.
I snacked when writer’s block hit…
(Uncle Sam strawberry cereal)
I snacked when I finally finished my article…
(Two clementines, plus tons of unpictured granola…)
I snacked when I got up to let Sadie out…
(Cheese + jelly bagelwich)
And by the time lunchtime rolled around, I was just finishing my bagelwich (I guess that was lunch?) and wasn’t all that hungry.
I grabbed some leftover Brussels sprouts and sautéed onions from the weekend to get some kind of veggies into my diet and am just waiting for the next snack attack to hit me.
It’s a snacky kind of day! Anyone else experiencing a never-ending snack attack today? I’m doing my best to keep my snacks mostly healthy, which is often quite difficult when a snack attack hits.
January Book Club
It’s time to vote on the book we’ll be reading for the PBF Book Club in January! As always, I selected three books from the recommendations you guys made on the PBF Facebook page at the end of December.
Please vote on the book you would most like to read below and I will announce the winning book tomorrow. On Wednesday, February 1, I will post my review of the book and discussion questions for everyone to participate in through the comments section.
Blogger Link Up Alert: Additionally, a clever blogger, Mattie, emailed me with a great idea! If you participate in the book club this month and let me know that you posted a review of the selected book on your blog or website sometime during the month of January or (ideally) on February 1, I’ll be sure to include a link to your review at the bottom of my post. This way we can all “blog hop” and see what others had to say about the book of the month! Fun, huh?
Time to vote!
Here are the options:
- The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years.
Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits.
Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?
Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.
- Little Bee by Chris Cleave
Little Bee is a Nigerian girl who has learned to talk like the Queen. She’s a refuge who has been detained in an immigration detention center forty miles east of London for two years.
Little Bee’s life is entangled, by accident, with the life of another woman, Sarah, a white British magazine editor who lives in Kingston-upon-Thames. Sarah has just had something terrible happen to her, and she can’t figure out how to feel. Sarah and Little Bee knew each other briefly in other terrible circumstances. Sarah was on vacation. Little Bee was in the middle of her real life. Now she’s in the middle of Sarah’s real life. Sarah has a young son who always wears a Batman costume, so he’s always ready to fight baddies. There are a husband and a lover in the mix. Little Bee is in Britain illegally. Sarah’s life has lost its meaning. Cleave works his magic throughout: the two women learn how to help each other. Their relationship feels perfectly natural.
Don’t forget to vote! 
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I’m definitely a snacker too! On my days off, full meals are rare. I just snack all day long!
I have been extra snacky recently. Bad news.
I want to read Night Circus so badly! You know the WSJ named it the next Harry Potter?!
no way! that’s awesome!
All the book ideas sound great!
I haven’t been too snacky today….but this post made me all of a sudden want some clementines 😉
I read the second two books this summer! Loved The Immortal Life, Little Bees…not so much. Never heard of the first, but it sounds interesting!
Sometimes I find that I snack all day long when I don’t give in to a snack craving and just have a cookie or something. If I try to satisfy my snack craving with something healthy, I just want more. I assume because my body still wants what i didnt give it? who knows!
aaand on that note, i’m currently eating chocolate-covered peanuts. 🙂
Love to be snacky but hard at work! I brought blueberries today 🙂 Granola and peanuts get me in trouble unless I make snack sized portions to limit myself 😉
I am SUCH a snacker too! Usually it’s nuts that are my snack weapon of choice.
Cool idea with the blog link up! I think I’ll do a review! I’m hoping it’s The Night Circus, but they all sound interesting.
I love your book clubs!!! 🙂
Oh, I’m also a huge snacker. Always hungry!
I read Henrietta Lacks this summer as it was the common book assigned to all incoming first year UCLA students this year (I teach there) and it was fantastic!! It got such good reviews from the students, too. Really good, really interesting, really informative and just fascinating!!
it was the most commonly recommended book by people on the pbf facebook page! apparently it’s amazing!
I recently finished The Night Circus – It was a great book but all I could do the whole time was imagine it as a movie!
I want to read all the books for this month!! Great choices!
The author of the Night Circus grew up in the town next where I grew up so I might be biased when voting. Go South Shore, Massachusetts!
Voted for my first book club book! Exciting 🙂 looking forward to more reading and sharing. Thanks for creating this.
I read the Night Circus when it came out. I had been waiting for it for months! It was one of my favorite books of the year. I wouldnt call it the next HP (you cant really compare them…) but it was a great read.
Little Bee was beautifully written but horribly depressing. I was sooo sad at the end of the book.
I read Little Bee last year, and I really didn’t like it at all. The other two sound great though!
These all sounds like great books — you keep picking winners!! I just started reading Violets of March (I had to finish The Hunger Games series first haha), so I missed the book discussion, but I’m already sucked in! I love your idea for blog linkups too — one of my goals for 2012 is to read at least one book a month, so I’m going to do reviews to keep me on track!
In the middle of Little Bee right now…it’s pretty intense!
I didn’t eat lunch so now I am hungry! Egg sandwich sounds divine right about now!
after i graduated college and lived at home before starting work, i snacked SO often! but, i also had major flexability/time to work out, so it balanced out i suppose 😉
What a great idea from Mattie. I’m trying to start up a blog for fun, so at least this would be something to write about. 🙂
I heard great things about Little Bee so I read it last year and did not like it at all! It is a fairly short and quick read though- just not for me! It seems like everyone is reading Night Circus right now- it sounds good but I’m worried it will be too similar to Water for Elephants?? Haven’t heard of the other book- must look into it! Happy reading!
I read the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks about a year ago, and it’s an INCREDIBLE story. Even though it’s non-fiction and a lot of scientific information, it’s an extremely gripping book. Even if it doesn’t end up getting chosen for the book club this month, I’d highly recommend it! 🙂
I’m about halfway through the Immortal Life book, and I had to return my nook to the school library so I didn’t get to finish it! gah! I voted for Night Circus though, I didn’t realize that was what it was about, it looks good!!
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is on my reading list. I am a graduate student in science so this is right up my alley!
Good choices!! I’m not familliar with Night Circus, but I’ve had Henrietta Lacks & Little Bee on my ‘to read’ list for way too long 🙂
Little Bee is fantastic! Not a light read, but sometimes it’s nice to have a book that really makes you think.
I just read The Night Circus and it was phenomenal! It is such a visual book and I’ve heard that they are already planning on making it a movie. I highly recommend it, even if it doesn’t get picked!
I recommend The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, well on the recommendation of some friends. I got it for Christmas from one of them and would love to read it soon so I can review it when you do 🙂
Little Bee really is a heavy read, but it may be a nice change of pace from last month’s book which was a bit of a lighter/easier read…
It was especially scary for me because my fiance’s family is Nigerian. He was born in the US, but he has family who still live there, and he has visited a few times. I almost had to stop reading in the beginning because I was so scared while I was reading it, and it was upsetting me!
I read the Night Circus this fall when it first came out! I was obsessed! It’s really awesome!
I read Little Bee at my previous bookclub–I wouldn’t recommend it because, as mentioned by others here, it’s really intense. I couldn’t finish the book it was so sad.
I may be in the minority, but I was disappointed in Little Bee..but I usually am when there is a lot of “hype” about a book. I thought it was “ok”, but certainly not a ‘must read” imo.
I notice the exact same when I work from home! Plus I set my office up in the kitchen, o… haha
I’ve read Little Bee and it was amazing.
I *tried* to read the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and got bored. So I voteThe Night circuis 😉
Haha, girl, I’m totally with you on the snacking wagon. I’m studying for the MCATs, and since classes aren’t in session, all I do is snack away! And Cereal is definitely one of my go-to snacks too — no prep involved!
I just read The Night Circus over Christmas and really enjoyed it!
uhh i have been snacky because im at home on break! i need to go back to school!! haha
I’ve been wanting to read the Little Bee! Looks so good 🙂
I loved the Immortal Life and Little Bee is pretty dark… but good, I’ve heard nothing but good things about the Night Circus though!
Working at home can terrible when it comes to snacking! Some days all I want to do is eat and then there are other days I get so involved in work I forget to eat!
Henrietta Lacks was one of the most amazing, inspiring books I’ve ever read. Her life is something that should be taught in school..as her cells have changed science forever. I don’t typically rave about non-fiction, but you will not be sorry you read this book
Little Bee is awesome, I read it last year!
& try the clementine’s with cinnamon. sounds weird but tastes good 🙂
I’ve been hungry ALLLLL day long! Little Bee was good, but then the ending was just awful. I don’t expect fantastical, Disney endings, but it was just bleh. The 2nd book sounds great!
OMG I’m a big snacker LOL! This tends to be hard when I’m at work though b/c I have to remind myself to take snacks. Also I have read Little Bee by Chris Cleeve and let me tell you it will leave you spell bound! I love this book! So I guess I can’t vote for a book I’ve already read LOL! Hmmm… 🙂
My mom is reading Little Bee and agreed that it’s really sad. I’m excited to get in on the book club this month though!
I’ve heard great things about the Night Circus. I have read Henrietta Lacks and Little Bee. Both really great books. Henrietta Lacks covers everything from research, ethics, science, poverty, etc.
Little Bee was a story that took my breath away.
I look forward to joining your book club in order to complete my goal of 50 Books in 2012!! http://wp.me/P263ht-10
I’m definitely a snacker. Trail mixes and nuts are my go to snacks.
All 3 choices look great! I’m up for any.
Julie–right now I am in exactly the same boat, as I am in grad school and working on my thesis, but am at home on winter break with the computer right next to the kitchen! Plus then you are sitting on your bum-oley all day working at the computer (or online shopping, depending), and you feel so bleh. When I tell people I go to the gym every day, they are like Whoa, that’s alot. But they don’t seem to realize that the entire rest of the day is spent inside and on my bum! I don’t think I could work from home in the future, I need the separation!
Plus my family keeps a ton of trail mix and cereal and stuff that I don’t keep in my cupboard at school, so it’s a reallllll let loose here!
I’m definitely a snacker…….I have been known to just grab random leftovers out of the fridge and much without heating them up! 😛 Love the link-up idea for the book club!
I’m such a snacker too! At least yours are all on the healthy side 🙂
The Immortal Cell of Henrietta Lacks was a phenomenal – and true – book and should definitely be the chosen one! *Everyone* will learn something from it… I think it should be required reading in high schools