Food.Faith.Femme.: My Saturday and...juice

I spent the majority of my Saturday in bed. Reading. It’s been a while since I’ve done that. The lucky book was Lover Reborn, the latest in J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series. It falls in the “paranormal romance” genre, I think. It was excellent. I’ve read three out of the eleven books that make up this series—the three most recently published ones. I really enjoyed the first two I read (books 9 and 10) but this last one (book 11) is the only one so far that I’d describe as “excellent.” According to a friend who also enjoys this series, the first three are supposedly the best so I am planning to go back and read the entire series starting with the first book. I will let you know if she is right. It’s an incredibly strange series haha. I just tried to write a synopsis of it for you and failed. Google if you’re curious!

I have to say at first I found J.R Ward and this series (let’s count how many times I’ve said “series” so far) quite annoying—I couldn’t STAND the way she wrote (for example instead of saying sneakers her characters describe shoes as “shitkickers.” That might be cool once but they don’t just do it once. Shoes are never shoes in her books they are always “shitkickers.” How many times can you use that word before it gets old? Once! And her books are always at least 400 pages long—this last one was 572 pages—that’s a lot of opportunity to say “shitkickers.” I bet you’re already annoyed just having to have read that word three times). I also found the main gender ideas promoted in her book a little questionable. But her style grew on me— overall she writes in a way that is unlike anything I’ve ever read, SO completely her own and I now kinda love it. And I realized that her gender angle wasn’t so cut and dry—she presents an interesting combo of ~~macho caveman mentality~~ traditionalism and progressiveness.

Once I stopped being annoyed I could appreciate the humor of her writing style as well as admire the uniqueness of it and the boldness it takes to be that kind of unique. Ultimately I got pulled into her very strange world and the stories taking place in it. After that first book Lover Mine(actually the 9th one in the series) I picked up the next one, Lover Unleashed, and then the next--the one I read today ( yes, the titles are all "Lover something," no the books are not as corny as that trend suggests) . Something Ward does extremely well is tell multiple stories at once. Even though each book focuses on a specific character there are always other stories going on in the periphery that come to fruition in the following books. And because of this I am anxiously awaiting the next book in this series (which should be out by the time I finish reading books 1-7 and the insider’s guide, yay)! It will finally focus on and bring resolution to one of those peripheral stories in which I’ve become deeply invested!

Anyway I’m not particularly recommending the book or the series (although I really enjoy it!) but now you know a little more about me and about my Saturday!

Now lets switch gears to my fave topic—food! My diet lately has been a combination of poor and stellar. Swedish fish and mustard greens-spinach-banana-strawberry smoothies. Sugar jacked “chocolate” wafers and raw kale salads (so freaking good!). “Crazy cake” custard and gluten free oatmeal with raisins and chia seeds. Entire bars of dark chocolate and plastic snack baggies of carrots and apples. I’ve been eating 3 bananas and at least 3 handfuls of raw cashews a day. I know, what the eff right? My body is saying the same thing. I need consistency and I have a new plan to get it. It starts tomorrow (Sunday) and I will share it with you then! In the meantime check out this uber healthy juice I made a few days back. Don’t gag. It’s impolite.