Due to Certain Health Issues, I have embarked on a lactose-free, low-caffeine diet. This is very difficult for this milky-tea and Diet Coke devotee. I allow myself one cup of glorious caffeinated coffee every morning, but it's not any fun having to put soy milk in it. Oy. I have also been googling lactose-free rice pudding and custard recipes because I refuse to give up my comfort food. You say there's caffeine in chocolate? La la la la .. I cannot hear you! (You'd be forgiven for thinking I was Catholic as I have also given up buying wool)

I'm about two-thirds through Junot Diaz's The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao. I'm torn between absolutely loving it and finding it woefully uneven. Perhaps it's just that one of the narrative voices is so compelling that whenever he disappears from the book, I become very impatient. I'll probably finish it tonight or tomorrow and then need to mull over my reaction to it. I like it when a book demands a proper response.