02 August 2020

Reading and Cereal

I was reading Linda Castillo's book, Shamed. A murder occurs in an Amish community and the sheriff who was raised Amish and left the community is racing the clock to solve a kidnapping and murder. Good suspense and it kept me engaged. It was book 11 because it was one I randomly grabbed in my library app not wanting to study on what to read. I won't go back in the series but I would read more.

Do you know the term "brought out of the story"? I am pretty easy going about playing along with plots and twists-turns. Grammatical errors and typos always make me pause and think about if the book was published by a big New York firm and that sort of thing. Sometimes something in a story doesn't sound quite true and it will make you stop and think. This is being pulled out of the story instead of staying in the flow. 

While I can highly recommend this book there was one moment that brought me out of the story. The sheriff is talking to the 5 or 6 children under 11 years old. It is late almost bedtime and they are eating cereal. 

I did not grow up Amish but my parents went through some hippie phases. If you want a play on words, they can be a bit granola. In fact, most of my life they have made granola from scratch. We would buy it at times as well as a healthier alternative to processed cereal. I did get to eat cereal from boxes too. It had to be something with some nutrition in my mother's estimation Wheaties or Life Cereal if I begged. I've never had Captain Crunch, still. It was considered sugar and no substance.

I know about home made granola intimately. And we call it granola we don't call it cereal. So this begs the question from me: do Amish communities, or does a conservative Amish family buy cereal? The family in the book is designated as a strict family. Or is there a recipe for cereal that I haven't encountered with my everything made from scratch up bringing?? I find this very interesting. If you happen to know, I'd love to hear. 

It was a silly detail that made me pause in my reading.  I know some Mennonites but they can be very modern so I don't think I'll get my answer there either.

At my house today, I buy my cereal, happily. I mix three varieties including one here in Spain called Chocolic, it is the store brand of the pictured product here which is name brand. Chocolic would not meet my mother's cereal standards, please don't tell her.