Kindle Sample Review: Clare Beams's "We Show What We Have Learned: and Other Stories"

"Never judge a book by its cover." It's as much a rule about prejudice against people as it is about reading. Some books are only redeemed by their covers, for they lack in quality. That does not apply to Clare Beams's We Show What We Have Learned: and Other Stories. The nice thing about reviewing a Kindle sample for a short story collection is that the sample contains one, full story, so it won't be like a sample for a novel that only gives you the first chapter. The first story in the collection We Show... is "Hourglass." It orignally appeared in Willow Springs Magazine, a publication that's published the works of Aimee Bender and Marilynne Robinson - if you, reader, are familiar with these writers, that may give you some insight into what kind of story "Hourglass" is. The most I knew about the collection, and the reason I chose to sample it was that The New York Times Book Review began its review by saying "Several of the stories in Clare Beams’s debut collection are infused with a subtle form of magical realism," and I swear I read nothing more, not wanting to have anything influencing me beyond the writing.

"Hourglass" with it's concentration on a warped education, reminds me of Caitlin Horrocks This is Not Your City, specifically the short story "Zero Conditional." Beams tells the story of Melody, whom is a new student at the Gilchrist School. The Gilchrist School is marketed as a place that provides a "transformational education," and beyond the language of the beginning, "Hourglass" seems to be one of the stories that does not include magical realism. It is literary fiction in that Melody is a fan of "mysteries" and most of the scenes take place in Miss Caper's English class where Melody and her classmates are reading poems like Sun Tung P'o's  "On a Painting by Wang the Clerk of Yeng Ling." Miss Caper reads the poem to the class and says with a sigh, "There is a deep, modest kind of beauty in the poem I have just read, girls. A beauty that stems from rendering a thing precisely and quie
tly in words." "Hourglass" achieves the same effect, for in quiet words, so much of Melody's transformation is not something intellectual, but superficial, as seen in the climax of the story; thus showing what she has learned, since all she learned is about fashion and beauty.

I assume from the title and "Hourglass" that a number of Beams's stories are about learning and transformation. Beams, a Pittsburgh writer, is a writer I think I will consider myself a fan of as soon as I read more of her work, so long as they are similar to "Hourglass" in their fanciful use of language and exhbit the same reverence for literature as "Hourglass."

Lifestyle: Poor Girl Diet Tips

It's easy to lose weight when you can't really afford to eat. By the same token, the common misconception is that anyone who is starving is underweight. Many people can't understand how someone living on food stamps can be morbidly obese, and it comes from the fact that it is more expensive to eat healthy.

Everything has its poisonous qualities: canned foods have BPAs, but the jury is still out on whether or not BPAs are the new aspartame or saturated fats - dangerous but ubiquitous.

The following tips are when you want to be better nourished on a low budget.

• Tip 1: you will save money by snacking less
• Invest in filling meals so that you don't become hungry
• Tip 2: drink more water
• Every diet says this, but in the time that I have increased the amount of water I drink daily, I've lowered my A1C, lost weight, and I'm hungry less. 
• Tip 3: supplements
• Omega-3 is important to combat when one indulges in sugar. Fish oil isn't tasty, but it gives you all the benefits of eating fish without having to buy fish. It also helps with anxiety; the by-product of having to wondering "how am I going to eat today and still be able to eat tomorrow?"
• Tip 4: frozen vegetables
• If you're worried about BPAs, invest in frozen vegetables. They're a bit more expensive than canned vegetables, but there's more variety in frozen vegetables, and the gamma radiation compliments the freezer burn. 

If you have a stove; check out Poor Girl Eats Well!

Food Review: Banquet

Banquet's pot pies are the cheapest product offerred by Banquet. They come in beef, turkey, and chicken in Walmart and Dollar Tree.

No matter what type of pot pie you are eating, you're going to want it to get golden brown, microwaving it for 5 minutes, otherwise the crust will be mushy and similar to wet paper. You may not get as many servings as compared to other cheap foods (Ramen), but unlike those foods, there is actual nutritional value: potassium, dietary fiber, protein, vitamins. Ramen, specifically Nissin Top Ramen, “has 380 calories, 14 grams of fat and 1,820 mg of sodium condensed into the whole brick of the brand’s Chicken Flavor” (Huffington Post). That means that a brick of Top Ramen has even more calories than one pot pie. While a pot pie not low sodium, a brick of Top Ramen has twice as much sodium as a pot pie.

It is ideal to not have to eat microwavable meals all the time, and to be able to have healthy meals, but when you only have $20 to get you through two weeks, you have to economize and sacrifice. Unfortunately, you have to sacrifice your health in order to eat at all.

Food Review: Mrs. Freshley's

Of the array of choices one has when choosing a brand of mini donuts to devour when you want a quick breakfast. Mrs. Freshley's mini frosted donuts are capable of inhaled and are better than, say, Hostess's brand of frosted mini donuts or Tastykake's brand, because those brands aren't often put in campus vending machines, so one cannot get easy access.

There's something to a six-donut sleeve of Mrs. Freshley's mini frosted donuts from the vending machine. The best types of vending machines to buy Mrs. Freshley's from is an old vending machine without air conditioning. The constant light within an old vending machine makes the donuts warm and the chocolate frosting slightly melted that makes it an extra comforting comfort food. It doesn't have as rich of a taste as Hostess or TastyKake, making it easier to eat. That being said, the only downside to these donuts is that, like the good ol' days, they're gone before you know it.

When you, for whatever reason, are on a vending machine diet, and if you strike the luck of coming upon Mrs. Freshley's frosted mini donuts, you might as well get these. Kit Kats aren't that filling, and the chocolate the frosting can give you the joy and feeling of love that life has refused you.

*Health Tip* If you are going to have high caloric intake in one meal do it in the morning, you'll work it off. The donuts have 4 grams of protein which is better than something that is all sugar and no protein.

Read about the "Best Cheap Doughnuts"