my 'diet to improve mental acquity' have been limited to these lately:

1) The Straits Time
2) TIME (outburst overheard: 'other girls read FEMALE and she reads TIME!!!')
3) The Bonesetter's Daughter (not as good as the Joy Luck Club, unfortunately)
4) blogs blogs blogs and more blogs

not a bad mixture, but i'm getting bored already with those newspaper forums...