What I'm reading at the moment

Changing Eating and Exercise Behaviour: A Handbook for Professionals
by Paula Hunt and Melvyn Hillsdon

"Helping clients to adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle involves not only the ability to give accurate and up to date advice but also the skills to motivate clients to act upon such advice."

This is from the Dietetics reading list and is pretty readable, although written in 1996 and apparently not updated since then. Perhaps the messages remain the same, although it would be nice to know if the theories proposed are actually effective. Maybe I'll have time to look into it further.


How to Talk to a Widower
by Jonathan Tropper

"When Doug Parker married Hailey - beautiful, smart and ten years older - he left his carefree Manhattan life behind to live with her and her teenage son, Russ, in the suburbs. Three years later, Hailey has been dead for a year, and Doug, a widower at 29, just wants to drown himself in self-pity and Jack Daniels."

This was a very quick read, but emotionally draining. Novels that contain difficult themes will usually have a couple of moments where the reader will be reaching for a hankie. It's pitifully easy to make me cry; just thinking about something a little bit sad will do it, and I had the kitchen roll to hand all the way through for this one. I felt rather resentful by the end; it seemed a bit unnecessary to lay it on quite so thick.


The Moonstone
by Wilkie Collins

narrated by Walter Covell et al

"When Rachel Verinder inherits the Moonstone, a huge and priceless diamond, her delight turns to dismay when the gem disappears. But this is no ordinary theft. Sergeant Cuff of Scotland Yard is called in and immediately suspects an intricate plot."

Just started this, my second audio book. What with the course books, audio downloads and ordinary books I've got four or five on the go at the moment, not to mention about 20 podcasts lined up. Bliss!

The Algebraist
I mentioned this book in an earlier post. Mr A bought it when he was stranded and bookless somewhere, and he didn't get beyond the first chapter. I finished it, despite the weight, and the last 50 pages out of 500 were quite exciting. My niece has written a rather good Dr Who story that involves a large number of characters with interesting names and physical characteristics. She might enjoy the complexity of the plot, so I will offer it to her. Not my cup of tea at all.