The Thirteenth Tale and other book-related crap plus some sex-related crap just for good measure

A thank you to Pamela Milkweed for recommending The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It starts slow - the writing is a bit choppy, but then Setterfield gets into the flow of things, and the story starts to pick up. I really enjoyed it. As one of the reviewers on the back of the book said - this is a book for those who love reading. Us nerdy girls who spent our teenage years curled up in our rooms with Pride & Prejudice and the like. Or is it We nerdy girls???

I've just read a couple of mysteries that were fun - quite different from what I normally read. Die Trying by Lee Child and One False Move by Harlan Coben. Die Trying is...think James Bond, but without the "I have to sleep with every female in a fifty-mile radius" mentality. Wonderfully unrealistic fight scenes, quite entertaining, good story. One False Move is full of really lame cliches - lots of bad metaphors - at first I was like, this guy has to be kidding, but then you give in to it and it's a fun ride. Another good story. I read them because Kate Atkinson, whom I love, said those were the two authors whose mysteries she reads.

I have a bunch of requests put in at the library (Snow Flower & the Secret Fan, Baby Catcher, The Book of Fate, and many more), just waiting...waiting...for someone to return their book so I can take a crack! In the meantime I'm reading Keeper of the Keys by Perri O'Shaughnessy, which I have to say is badly written. However, I foolishly read just enough to want to know what happens to the two main characters, so here I am, suffering through bad grammar and lots of complaining about LA traffic.

And I'm just gonna lay it all out there, because eh, why not? I went to the doctor because sex still hurts and unfortunately the report is I am completely healthy & normal. My problem is my estrogen level is so low due to bfing that apparently I am experiencing atrophy "like a little menopausal woman" in the doctor's words. Ha ha He was...kind of funny. And I don't mean that as an insult. But anyway, girls who have not yet begun childbearing, just something to be aware of. I had never heard of atrophy due to low levels of estrogen. I am just going to suck it up. I'm not willing to use an estrogen cream because it would get into my milk. So. I was hoping the doctor would look around down there and say, "Oh yes, I see what the problem is - there's a problem with the (insert obscure body part here)! We'll just (insert simple out-patient procedure here), and you'll be right as rain!" No such luck.

In other personal health topics (but I think some of ya'll'll (<--check that one out!) find this interesting), my testosterone level is really low. This is both bad & good. Bad because it means my sex drive is kind of in the crapper. Good because I hardly ever have to shave now! Ha ha