Pimp: My Life as a Pimp by Iceberg Slim

Wow!!.

First, I began the audio version of this book because I couldn’t locate a hard copy or ebook.  My first notes read that every other sentence started with the word ‘bitch”!   I never finished it, but eventually I got an e-book version from the library.

This is the true tale of Iceberg Slim (Robert Beck), who became a pimp, turned his life around and then became a successful author.  If he can turn his life around, anyone can. 

This is such an old-school book that it took me a while to read it.  There is a glossary in the back of the book that lists words such as hogs, georgiaed, grand, bang, square, vines, jib, okee doke, etc.  I had to read the glossary before I started!

The author had an IQ of 175 when he was tested as a teenager.  What in the world would possess him to want to be a pimp?  This is a man who attended Tuskegee University. 

All-in-all, I like the story and his writing, but most especially that he redeemed himself and realized that he could do better with his life.

Radical Chic by Tom Wolfe

Yes, this definitely got my attention in the opening chapter.  Leonard Bernstein has a vision of a black person rising from behind his piano while he is conducting and he decides to host a fundraiser on behalf of the Black Panthers.

“Radical Chic” is the term used for those (highly fortunate, rich, well-off) willing to hold meetings to raise funds on behalf of those who cannot help themselves.  Some of these groups were grape workers who urged a boycott against California grape growers. Another such group was the Panther 21.  These struggles mostly dealt with lower classes of people and may or not involve racial profiling. 

Unfortunately not everyone was in agreement with all this “help”. An interesting peep into the upper echelons of society who try to help the lower echelons and the backlash they receive from other upper echelons.

Six Years by Harlan Coben

A friend recommended this book after she was intrigued by the synopsis.  Jake attended his ex-girlfriends wedding six years ago and now he reads an obituary about her husband.  When he attends the funeral, the widow is not his ex.  Where did she go?

This was the very first novel that I read of Harlan Coben and I thought it was so good that over the past three years I read all of his books (except the Myron Bolitar series).

Oddly enough, I posted blogs on all the other books and for some reason never posted this one. In the words of another famous author, “The first shall be last”.

Women Food and God by Geneen Roth

I read this book because I bought a coloring book of the same title and discovered the author wrote a corresponding book and the coloring book came after.  Naturally I needed to read the book and see what it was about.

The author equates our relationship with food to something that we are not dealing with. It could be something from your childhood, etc etc…  I think she is right. She holds seminars to help women deal with this issue.

There was only one small chapter referencing God.  The book really is only about dealing with the reason women eat the way they do – when it becomes unhealthy and the yo-yo dieting, etc, etc.

An insightful book with ideas that you can use for not only food, but any habit you form.

Food is comforting.  What I’ve noticed with myself is that I have to have something to eat every time I read and I read a lot. I should look into this!

The Omni Diet by Tana Amen, B.S.N., R.N.

I like the husbands’ (Daniel Amen) forward comment – nutrition is the centerpiece of healing.

I also like the fact that the author created this diet out of her own personal health experiences.  I don’t see this as a fly-by night situation.  It has been proven through her lifestyle and experiences.  That alone makes it more willing to try.

The downside that I find (my personal opinion) is that this plan calls for 70% plant and 30% protein.  The protein they are referring to is to come from animal meat.  I think animal meat (red meat) is the cause of some of our health issues.  But I am not a doctor and Mrs. Amen has the medical credentials. 

My bullet point notes:

-         Food can be healing as a medication and it can also be as toxic as a poison.

 -         Some genes predispose you to certain health conditions, but outside factors can influence whether those genes actually turn on to trigger disease. 

 -         The nutrients we consume determine if the “bad” gene turns on.

 -         Epigenetics is the study of genes.  The environment that you expose your genes to determines if disease develops or not. What people may not realize is that because your genetic make-up transfers to your offspring – you may pass on disease through conception.

 

 -         We can affect how are genes are expressed on a daily basis.

 -         Genes turn off and on based on environment, food, drugs and supplements.

 -        The food we eat influences six neurotransmitters in our brain: serotonin, dopamine, acetylcholine (learning/memory), GABA, glutamate and aspartate.

 -       Complex carbohydrates (found in vegetables and unprocessed plant food) provide energy more quickly than simple carbs (sugar, bread, pasta, potato, white rice).

 

-         Complex carbs contain fiber, enzymes and nutrients that don’t spike blood sugar.

 -       Calorie restriction is not the only way to lose weight.  Changing lifestyle factors

 

-        Corn is a breeding ground for twenty-two different fungi.  It is high in aspergillus, a type of mold.  Corn gluten is used as a herbicide to kill certain seeds and herbs.  The pollen from corn kills monarch butterflies and caterpillars.  Corn was my all-time favorite vegetable!!  I loved creamed corn!!  Who knew!

 -       Aspartame was approved as an artificial sweetener by the FDA in 1981.  There is an ongoing debate about whether it causes cancer.  Consider this – when aspartame is heated at 89°F during cooking it breaks down into methanol (aka wood alcohol) which is a neurotoxin.  Neurotoxins cause kidney damage. Aspartamic acid is associated with brain tumors, alzheimers, birth defects, diabetes – just to name a few. Also, if it turns to methanol at 89°F, what do you think happens when it is in our bodies whose temperature is at 98.6°????

-         Just because something is labeled as “fat free” doesn’t mean that it is better for you.  To make up for the fat being removed, more sugar is added and more artificial flavoring to make up for the loss of taste.  Read the labels.  You are better off with the regular version.

Another point that I struggle with is that the author says the meat you eat should be naturally raised from organic, grass-fed, hormone-free, antibiotic-free animals.  Where, in the average neighborhood (aka the ghetto, perhaps), is a person supposed to find such meat? And will it fit within their budget? 

The Omni diet provides a way to have a long healthspan – live long in a healthy way feeling your best and having the greatest possible resistance to disease.

An interesting book to read with great information to taking charge of your health.

The Art of Fiction by David Lodge

This book contains 50 articles about various parts of fiction and gives tips, etc..

I am glad that I read it after a completed a non-fiction writing class in school.  The book made more sense to me because we went over similar literature terminologies in class.

The author makes comments about different parts of fiction – ending, weather, repetition, telling in different voices, implication, irony, surrealism, imagining the future, title, ideas, interior monologue, metafiction, beginning, etc…

It seems that the only thing I took away from this book is that the beginning of a novel should draw us in and he mentions 3 books that I feel I need to read: Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Radical Chic and The Turn of the Screw.