Two Steps Forward, Seven Steps Back (and two book reviews)

Just when I think I'm going to have a good health day, WHAM!, I hit the wall.  All was well and good yesterday and so I had a little snack of cheese and crackers.  This is my go-to snack and 9.5 times out of 10 will sit well.  No sir, not yesterday.  Within a matter of minutes I was bloated and felt like crap.  Said crapiness continued on to the morning and is now finally gone.  Almost 24 hours of not feeling well...sigh.

Sadly, this is something all us Crohnies go through.  Sometimes we eat something that makes us feel great only to eat it again and have it almost kill us.  And the weirdest part is that the same food will always have a different reaction in our guts and will affect each of us differently.  Dairy (anything with lactose) is a big no-no for me and for many Crohn's and Colitis sufferers.  Ice cream, whole milk, cream cheese, and sour cream will pretty much always do me in.  But cheese has always been my friend.  Well, not always.  Lesson learned?  No.  I'll give cheese another chance and hopefully we'll get along next time.  Anyone else go through this?  What are your food triggers?

On another note, I did manage to finish two books this past weekend.  Camilla Lackberg "The Ice Princess" and Caroline Preston "The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures". 

"The Ice Princess" is the first novel of Ms. Lackberg's to be translated into English from her native Swedish  and is yet another entry into the uber-popular Swedish Murder Mystery genre.  Our main character, Erika, has just discovered her former best friend murdered in their tiny hometown of Fjallbacka.  An investigation begins, along with a romance between Erika and the detective, Patrik Hedstrom.  And so on and so forth.  A few twists but no surprises.  Unfortunately, this doesn't hold a candle to what is already out there.  This mystery is translated by the same gentleman that did "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" but he seems to drop the ball here.  There were many extraneous words, point-of-view shifts, and unnecessary characters.  Whether this is due to a poor translation or just a poor original manuscript, I don't know.  There are more books that include Patrik Hedstrom but for now he'll have to wait before I come back to him.

I absolutely love, love, love "The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt" and everyone must be required to read it.  If that isn't enough to convince you then read it for the beautiful pictures and scrapbook memorabilia that is on every single page of this book.  It's 1920 and Frankie Pratt wants to be a writer but ends up staying home to take care of her widowed mother after graduating from high school.  But Mother has other plans and quickly sends Frankie to Vassar after a failed romance.  From there Frankie goes on to New York City, then Paris, then back home.  On every page you fall deeper into Frankie's life and before you know it, you're with her in New York City and on the boat to Paris.  By the end of the book you feel like she's a member of the family and you just want to hear her stories over and over.  Ms. Preston nailed it on the head when she decided to make this a "novel in pictures".  This is definitely a book that will be re-read over the years and will just get better each and every time. 

And with that I bid you all a great day, good reading and writing, but most of all, great health.  Cheers!