Somusing

This is one of the most fascinating books I've ever read. The author tracks four meals from production to table: one from McDonald's, one purchased at Whole Foods Market, one from a sustainable farm in Virginia, and one he hunted and gathered himself. The writing is delightful, sometimes funny, always interesting. I felt like I read much of the book with my mouth hanging open in astonishment, even when it was about processing corn.

Pollan's travels and studies revealed that there's an organic "industry" nowadays, which I suppose shouldn't have surprised me, but it kind of did. He's not preachy about his findings and doesn't insist that everyone become vegetarian or vegan (in fact, after visiting feed lots, killing chickens at a farm in Virginia, and having his first-ever hunting experience, he continues to eat meat). He does encourage us to think about where our food comes from and what it really costs, in terms of our environment, health, etc.

I want to go on and on, but I have a feeling I'm being very boring, so I'll just mention some of the other stuff that crops up in this book: mushroom and pig hunting; the statistic that 1 in 3 American children eat fast food every day (how can that be?); government regulations that are screwed up at best; an entertaining Italian guy; good cooking; and happy chickens. (By the way, did you know that "free-range chickens" turn out to be not so free range? Oh, they have access to a door to the outside. For two weeks at the end of their seven week existence, and even then, they don't usually use it.)

Highly recommended.

Books read recently:

• Chocolat by Joanne Harris (all religious people are stupid and mean, did you know?)
• Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealey (Lucy Grealey was a poet whose face was disfigured as a child; interesting but somewhat disturbing)
• Truth and Beauty by Anne Patchett (about her friendship with Lucy Grealey; further reveals Grealey's amazing self-centeredness)
• Skeletons on the Zahara by Dean King (true story of a captain and his crew who were shipwrecked off the coast of West Africa in the early 1800s; they survive slavery with desert nomads. Fascinating!)
• The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom (true story of a Dutch family who hid Jewish people from the Nazis during World War II. Inspirational; probably everyone should read this)
• In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner (okay)
• Playing for the Ashes by Elizabeth George (a better-than-average mystery, but in general I'm not a big fan of mysteries)
• How Can I Help? by Lowell Bennion (Bennion has such an interesting grasp of how we should live; I really enjoyed this)
• The Shipping News by Annie Proulx (very good; made me want to learn more about Newfoundland)
• Almost French by Sarah Turnbull (the writing in this got on my nerves sometimes, but overall, I really enjoyed it)
• Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg (enjoyable, but not important)
• Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (second reading: I loved this the first time, but it didn't hold up as well as I thought it would to a second reading)
• Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle (this kind of blew my mind--about an environmentalist, yuppie couple in California and a Mexican couple illegally camping and working near their home; definitely worth reading)
• A Separate Peace by John Knowles (second or maybe third reading; a classic, about boys at a boarding school during World War II)

This book was entertaining and somehow pertinent. I kept thinking of ways it applied to my life. Now if I could find the tipping point for getting my kids to clean the house, it would be worth its weight in gold. Or more.

I've read Candide before, but I thought I might get more out of it this time around. I don't know if I did, though. Voltaire is brilliantly funny, of course. And I think I understood the historical context a little better this time. From what I've read recently about Candide, it wasn't so much Leibniz's philosophy ("this is the best of all possible worlds") he was making fun of as it was the general understanding of that philosophy. And one follower of Leibniz in particular, Christian Wolff, simplified his philosophy excessively, and this is what Voltaire was responding to. That's just what I've read recently.

So I got more of the historical stuff this time, but not that much more. I wish I had an annotated edition that would just tell me what he's referring to. Like the part where he said someone committed a murder, not like the murder of May of 1610, but like that of December 1594. What is he talking about? I don't know, and my five minutes of research on the internet did not supply the answer to this. And I'm not willing to put in more time than that.

I do love the ending, though, and Candide's conclusion: "il faut cultiver notre jardin". We must work in our garden. And maybe even better: "'We must work without arguing,' said Martin; 'that is the only way to make life bearable.'" Now if I could just get the kids to follow that advice.

I read a Lorna Landvik novel every now and then just for fun. It's fun while the book lasts, and then I pretty much forget it. This one I read in just over 24 hours. I don't know what's wrong with me. Why do I think I can spend so much time reading while the house falls apart around me? Well, at least everyone got fed.

At first I wondered if I was going to finish this one, since the characters are fairly mean to each other. But I liked the 11-year-old daughter character (the story is told by five different narrators, which I enjoyed), so I kept going. And it did get better. I guess it was okay. I think Reading Group Discussion Guides, found at the end of many books these days, are pretentious and annoying, though, and this one had one. I can't quite keep myself from reading them, though.

Jon thinks the cover is one of the worst he's ever seen (although the cover of Orson Scott Card's new one, Magic Street, is much worse, in my opinion. And the book is horrible, too.)

I finished it! All 980 pages of it. And I enjoyed it. I guess I've been out of escape fiction mode for a while now, so it took me some time to get into it. Over 200 pages, I think. Originally I thought that her most recent books just needed better editing, and maybe they do, but now I think the problem is also that I've forgotten how to read that kind of immersive, detailed writing. It can be a really fun way to read, if you want to escape into another time and/or place. I guess that's why I call it escape fiction. But these days it seems cumbersome and sometimes cliched to me.

Don't get me wrong! I still want to escape sometimes, but I guess I've learned that it doesn't really work: after reading for 8 hours, all the kids and housework are still there and in worse shape than before. So instead of doing the marathon reading thing I used to do, I took my time finishing this one.

One thing I thought was odd: a couple of scenes that were like The Three Stooges or something, where everyone's bumping heads and dropping food on the floor and slipping on banana peels. Okay, nobody slipped on a banana peel, but it conveys the right image. Seemed strange in the Jamie and Claire context.

This is the sixth in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I loved the first four. The fifth (The Fiery Cross) was way too long and badly in need of editing, which was really too bad, since it was the first one that I bought in hardcover the day it came out. Now I'm trying this one, because I heard that it's much better than the fifth, and I kind of want to know what will happen to Jamie and Claire.

But I don't know. I've given it 120 pages so far, and I don't want to read every character's every move. You know, the brushing back of the hair, the cocked eyebrow, the scratching of a belly. (I don't think anyone has actually scratched a belly yet, but Claire has tied off someone's hemorrhoids, with the intended result being that they fall off. Yuck.) Also, not much has happened yet. I have confidence that there is some great action coming up, but I'm not sure I can stick it out.

On the other hand, it's kind of a guilty pleasure to read this kind of escape fiction, even if it's not as good as the earlier ones (and they are very good for escape fiction). And all the other stuff I can think of reading right now seems too serious or something. So I haven't decided whether I will continue or not.

I'd been reading the Book of Mormon because of President Hinckley's challenge, but I was woefully behind schedule on Monday, the day after Christmas. I was planning to give up, but Jon encouraged me to finish, so I did. It was interesting to read it so quickly. Well, relatively quickly. It's not exactly a quick read. The various patterns of war and peace (mostly war), righteousness and wickedness, are much more obvious.

I was very interested in Teancum this time around. He was obviously a motivated guy, sneaking into the Lamanite camp twice to kill their leader. I thought it was interesting that Mormon doesn't pass judgment on him, really. He just reports his actions, saying that Teancum was angry with Ammonihah (?) and his brother, figuring they were responsible for all the bloodshed. So he went in and killed them, and was killed the second time. And everyone who knew him was sad, he was a good man. But I don't get the feeling that Mormon thought his vigilante justice was necessarily the best thing.