Conrad's Fate by Diana Wynne Jones

I read this in the furtheration of my goal to re-read all the Chrestomanci books. This is one that I hadn't read before. I liked it, although the ending felt rushed and was also somewhat confusing.

I wish that the series as listed on the author's website was in order of chronology, not when the books were written. Jumping back and forth between Chrestomancis is confusing. But the books are getting longer, and they are also getting better, and those are both happy things. Three and a half stars for Conrad's Fate.

Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss--and the Myths and Realities of Dieting

This is a new book, and I loved it. If you have ever been called fat, you should read this book. If you have ever wondered why some people stay skinny while apparently eating everything in sight and others gain weight eating celery, you should read this book. If you've ever wondered why most diets don't seem to work, read this book. If you're curious about how our bodies know, or why they don't know, when it's time to stop eating, read this book.

This is not a book about how to lose weight. It is more of a history of dieting, with a lot of science stuff in it, both old and new. It talks about where the Gibson Girl came from, an 18th century version of the Atkins diet, leptin-deficient mice, how POWs react to being starved, the argument that overweight people just don't have "willpower," and what happens when you have skinny people try to gain weight on purpose. It does all of this intelligently and with a deep compassion for how "fat" people have been treated at different points in history. If you read this book, you will never think about diets and weight the same way again. Five stars.