The List Today

1. God is the Gospel
2. American Gods
3. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
4. Atlas Shrugged
5. Life of Pi
6. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
7. Confessions from an Honest Wife
8. Telegraph Days
9. The Courage to Start
10. Mirror Mirror
11. The Sirens of Titan
12. Gates of Fire
13. Something Happened
14. A Thousand Acres
15. Good Faith
16. Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel
17. No Need for Speed
18. Anna Karenina
19. Get Out of That Pit
20. Jesus, the one and only
21. The Bluest Eye
22. Prodigal Summer
23. The Know-It-All
24. The Witches
25. Fantastic Mr. Fox
26. The Myth of a Christian Nation
27. For Whom the Bell Tolls
28. Out of the Silent Planet
29. The Four Loves
30. The Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde
31. Unspoken
32. Unafraid
33. Finding Stefanie
34. Lies My Teacher Told Me
35. The Executioner's Song
36. Love Beyond Reason
37. Middlesex
38. The Shack
39. The Amazing Adventure of Kavalier & Clay
40. The Joy Luck Club
41. Hinds' Feet on High Places (re-read)
42. Mountains of Spices
43. A Walk in the Woods
44. Fast Food Nation
45. The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing
46. The Maltese Falcon
47. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth
48. The Poisonwood Bible (re-read)
49. Two Rivers
50. It's Not News, It's Fark
51. The Road
52. Persuasion (re-read)
53. The Silver Chair (re-read)
54. Lucky Man
55. Matilda
56. The Adventures of Augie March
57. Possession
58. Everything's Eventual
59. Written By Herself
60. Perelandra
61. That Hideous Strength
62. Memoirs of a Geisha
63. The Time Machine
64. Peculiar Treasures (re-read)
65. On a Whim (re-read)
66. Coming Attractions
67. Last Light
68. Night Light
69. True Light
70. Your Money or Your Life
71. The Perfect Thing
72. Moneyball
73. The Fifth Book of Peace
74. Early Bird
75. An Anthropologist on Mars
76. Exclusion & Embrace
77. A Short History of Nearly Everything
78. Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs
79. Predictably Irrational
80. Finding Battlestar Gallactica
81. Hopes and Impediments
82. The Love Dare
83. Redeeming Love
84. Sappho's Leap
85. High Fidelity
86. Pilgrim's Progress
87. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (re-read)
88. The Pillars of the Earth
89. The Confessions of Nat Turner
90. A Christmas Carol
91. Gulliver's Travels and Other Writings
92. The 158-Pound Marriage
93. The Winged Seed
94. Driving Mr. Albert
95. Notes to Myself (re-read)
96. The Emotions
97. Mel Gibson's Passion and Philosophy
98. How to Win Every Argument
99. The World As I See It
100. Twelve Steps for the Recovering Pharisee

39 Read, 61 Unread (or not yet Re-read)

Fast Food Nation

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is an amazing read. It challenged me so much! Some of the information was mainly things I already knew (and despised) about fast food companies, meatpacking, and slaughterhouses. It sickens and saddens me the way workers in these professions are treated! It is essentially slave labor. I worked at McDonald's, by the way, when I was 15, and it really did kill my soul a little bit.

Although there were things I knew, there were surprises in this book, too. As a parent, I try to limit my kid's intake of sweets to the "most healthy" of them (if that is even possible). Reading this book made me realize that my best efforts at label-reading may be for naught!

Huge Insight #1: "Natural flavors" aren't natural at all! I'm just going to straight-up quote the book now, as Schlosser says it better than I could paraphrase it:

"You'll find 'natural flavor' or 'artificial flavor' in just about every list of ingredients. The similarities between these two broad categories of flavor are far more significant than their differences. Both are man-made additives that give most processed food most of its taste...
"For the past twenty years, food processors have tried hard to use only 'natural flavors' in their products. According to the FDA, these must be derived entirely from natural sources--from herbs, spices, fruits, vegetables, beef, chicken, yeast, bark, roots, etc. Consumers prefer to see natural flavors on a label, out of a belief that they are healthier. The distinction between artificial and natural flavors can be somewhat arbitrary and absurd, based more on how the flavor has been made than on what it actually contains. 'A natural flavor,' says Terry Acree, a professor of food science at Cornell University, 'is a flavor that's been derived with an out-of-date technology.' Natural flavors and artificial flavors sometimes contain exactly the same chemicals, produced through different methods. Amyl acetate, for example, provides the dominant note of banana flavor. When you distill it from bananas with a solvent, amyl acetate is a natural flavor. When you produce it by mixing vinegar with amyl alcohol, adding sulfuric acid as a catalyst, amyl acetate is an artificial flavor. Either way it smells and tastes the same...
"A natural flavor is not necessarily healthier or purer than an artificial one...
"Natural and artificial flavors are now manufactured at the same chemical plants, places that few people would associate with Mother Nature. Calling any of these flavors 'natural' requires a flexible attitude toward the English language and a fair amount of irony." --pp. 120, 126-127, Fast Food Nation

Huge Insight #2: Tainted meat is everywhere, especially in public schools and home kitchens. The basic gist of the chapters on contaminated meat and food poisoning were that the largest meatpacking companies won't do anything to stop the distribution of tainted meat, and that school cafeterias and grocery stores are the places they sell it to. This means children are the most susceptible to sickness AND/OR DEATH from contaminated beef. Did you read that right? Our kids are in danger because people are greedy. I don't know that this was entirely a new concept to me, but the fact that this greed is so rampant in our culture (yes, the good old U.S. of A.) really makes me want to puke! I'm reassured by the fact that we don't eat much meat. I personally haven't eaten beef in about 8 years. But I know that my daughter will sometimes have ground beef in a meal at her grandmother's house or the babysitter's. As a general rule, though, we don't buy hamburgers.

"Anyone who brings raw ground beef into his or her kitchen today must regard it as a potential biohazard, one that may carry an extremely dangerous microbe, infectious at an extremely low dose...
"The war on foodborne pathogens deserves the sort of national attention and resources that has been devoted to the war on drugs. Far more Americans are severely harmed every year by food poisoning than by illegal drug use. And the harms caused by food poisoning are usually inadvertent and unanticipated. People who smoke crack know the potential dangers; most people who eat hamburgers don't. Eating in the United States should no longer be a form of high-risk behavior." --pp. 221, 264, Fast Food Nation

Huge Insight #3: It's really not that hard to do something about this.

"Nobody in the United States is forced to buy fast food. The first step toward meaningful change is by far the easiest: stop buying it. The executives who run the fast food industry are not bad men. They are businessmen. They will sell free-range, organic, grass-fed hamburgers if you demand it...
"A good boycott, a refusal to buy, can speak much louder than words. Sometimes the most irresistible force is the most mundane." --p. 269, Fast Food Nation

Thank you for the reminder, Schlosser!

I'm giving up Fast Gross Food until something changes in the industry.






View all my reviews

The List as of Today

1. God is the Gospel
2. American Gods
3. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
4. Atlas Shrugged
5. Life of Pi
6. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
7. Confessions from an Honest Wife
8. Telegraph Days
9. The Courage to Start
10. Mirror Mirror
11. The Sirens of Titan
12. Gates of Fire
13. Something Happened
14. A Thousand Acres
15. Good Faith
16. Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel
17. No Need for Speed
18. Anna Karenina
19. Get Out of That Pit
20. Jesus, the one and only
21. The Bluest Eye
22. Prodigal Summer
23. The Know-It-All
24. The Witches
25. Fantastic Mr. Fox
26. The Myth of a Christian Nation
27. For Whom the Bell Tolls
28. Out of the Silent Planet
29. The Four Loves
30. The Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde
31. Unspoken
32. Unafraid
33. Finding Stefanie
34. Lies My Teacher Told Me
35. The Executioner's Song
36. Love Beyond Reason
37. Middlesex
38. The Shack
39. The Amazing Adventure of Kavalier & Clay
40. The Joy Luck Club
41. Hinds' Feet on High Places (re-read)
42. Mountains of Spices
43. A Walk in the Woods
44. Fast Food Nation
45. The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing
46. The Maltese Falcon
47. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth
48. The Poisonwood Bible (re-read)
49. Two Rivers
50. It's Not News, It's Fark
51. The Road
52. Persuasion (re-read)
53. The Silver Chair (re-read)
54. Lucky Man
55. Matilda
56. The Adventures of Augie March
57. Possession
58. Everything's Eventual
59. Written By Herself
60. Perelandra
61. That Hideous Strength
62. Memoirs of a Geisha
63. The Time Machine
64. Peculiar Treasures (re-read)
65. On a Whim (re-read)
66. Coming Attractions
67. Last Light
68. Night Light
69. True Light
70. Your Money or Your Life
71. The Perfect Thing
72. Moneyball
73. The Fifth Book of Peace
74. Early Bird
75. An Anthropologist on Mars
76. Exclusion & Embrace
77. A Short History of Nearly Everything
78. Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs
79. Predictably Irrational
80. Finding Battlestar Gallactica
81. Hopes and Impediments
82. The Love Dare
83. Redeeming Love
84. Sappho's Leap
85. High Fidelity
86. Pilgrim's Progress
87. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (re-read)
88. The Pillars of the Earth
89. The Confessions of Nat Turner
90. A Christmas Carol
91. Gulliver's Travels and Other Writings
92. The 158-Pound Marriage
93. The Winged Seed
94. Driving Mr. Albert
95. Notes to Myself (re-read)
96. The Emotions
97. Mel Gibson's Passion and Philosophy
98. How to Win Every Argument
99. The World As I See It
100. Twelve Steps for the Recovering Pharisee

35 Read, 65 Unread (or not yet Re-read)

Books Read in 2011

1. Room, Emma Donoghue
2. Stuck in the Middle, Virginia Smith
3. Early-Start Potty Training, Linda Sonna
4. Nanny Returns, Emma McLaughlin
5. Age Before Beauty, Virginia Smith
6. Amanda, Debra White Smith
7. Choosing to SEE, Mary Beth Chapman
8. Third Time's a Charm, Virginia Smith
9. Lucky Man, Michael J. Fox
10. Lucky Girl, Mei-Ling Hopgood
11. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
12. The Help, Kathryn Stockett
13. No Impact Man, Colin Beavan
14. Dune Road, Jane Green
15. Departures, Robin Jones Gunn
16. Where Do I Go, Neta Jackson
17. Who Do I Talk To, Neta Jackson
18. In a Heartbeat, Leigh Anne Touhy
19. Cinderella Ate My Daughter, Peggy Orenstein
20. Harry Bentley's Second Chance, Dave Jackson
21. Who Do I Lean On, Neta Jackson
22. Harry Bentley's Second Sight, Dave Jackson
23. The Yada Yada Prayer Group, Neta Jackson
24. The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Down, Neta Jackson
25. Steady Days, Jamie C. Martin
26. The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Real, Neta Jackson
27. The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Tough, Neta Jackson
28. The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Caught, Neta Jackson
29. The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Rolling, Neta Jackson
30. The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Decked Out, Neta Jackson
31. Who Is My Shelter, Neta Jackson
32. The Complete Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
33. The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin
34. Radical, David Platt
35. Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
36. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Mo Willems
37. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Amy Chua
38. Committed, Elizabeth Gilbert
39. Misconception, Paul Morrell
40. Down Came the Rain, Brooke Shields
41. Inconceivable, Carolyn Savage
42. God is the Gospel, John Piper
43. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
44. Multiple Blessings, Kate Gosselin
45. Here If You Need Me, Kate Braestrup
46. Bent Road, Lori Roy
47. Going Rogue, Sarah Palin
48. Julie and Julia, Julie Powell
49. The Price of Privilege, Madeline Levine
50. It's Not News It's Fark, Drew Curtis
51. Surrogacy Was the Way, Zara Griswold
52. Delivering Hope, Pamela MacPhee
53. Inconceivable, Julia Indichova
54. Stories I Only Tell My Friends, Rob Lowe
55. The Facts of Life and other Lessons My Father Taught Me, Lisa Whelchel
56. Permission Slips, Sherri Shepherd
57. The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan
58. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller
59. Through Gates of Splendor, Elisabeth Elliot
60. Bossypants, Tina Fey
61. Morning Glory, Diana Peterfreund
62. Origins, Annie Murphy Paul
63. State of Wonder, Ann Patchett
64. The Reading Promise, Alice Ozma
65. Skipping Christmas, John Grisham
66. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
67. Taking Care of the Me in Mommy, Lisa Whelchel
68. Life of Pi, Yann Martel
69. Sisterhood Everlasting, Ann Brashares
70. Happily Ever After, Susan May Warren
71. Too Small To Ignore, Wess Stafford
72. Craving God, Lisa TerKeurst
73. Happy Accidents, Jane Lynch

Life of Pi

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Life of Pi has been on my list of "to read" books for years now. I began reading and wasn't feeling it for almost the entire first part. I honestly think that first part could have been skipped entirely (the writing or the reading of it). But I knew, even as I read it, that it was setting us up for something. The background itself isn't very important, but the declarations of faith, and the other philosophical parts of it, are needed before introducing the main conflict of the story.
Part two, the story of life on the Pacific, the story of survival, was so intriguing I didn't want to put the book down. Pi's taming of the tiger is what kept me into it, I think. I knew he eventually made it to land, but I still just kept reading, not knowing how or when. The end of part one assured me that "the story has a happy ending." I just wasn't sure. I am still not.
The book does indeed keep you pondering. It has been entertaining me all morning, and I finished reading the book last night.



View all my reviews

Surrogacy Was The Way

Surrogacy Was the Way: Twenty Intended Mothers Tell Their Stories by Zara Griswold

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Absolutely essential reading for anyone embarking on the journey of surrogacy!
As a potential Gestional Surrogate (GS) I found each story (from the Intended Mother's point of view) to be informational and educational. This journey is emotional beyond imagining, and the best we can each do is try to understand where we are both coming from.
I think this book also highlights one major aspect of surrogacy--matching. The right match, much like a marriage, must not be entered into hastily or lightly. Just because logistics work out, doesn't mean the match is right. There must be a "good vibe" between the surrogate and the intended parents, before making the match official.




View all my reviews

American Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book is so weird! I enjoyed it but there were parts of it that I just couldn't get on board with... it was fun learning about all the different legends/myths and gods. Also freaky at times. And depressing.
Overall I just tried to get through it as quickly as possible.
But I really cared for the main character. The periphery characters were just that, too much on the sidelines, and I really didn't care about any of them. Even the disappearing teenager... I had totally forgotten about that story arc for a while, so I had to be reminded that I should care about her.
The way that gods are explained was lacking. Can they die? Are they real? Most of them have physical bodies but some don't. Why? What is the difference exactly between a god and a culture hero? There were just too many loose ends in this vein for me to fully enjoy the book.



View all my reviews