Category: NonFiction

Fast Food Nation

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Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2001.

When I first realized Fast Food Nation was on my Lust list I had but one burning question. I wondered if my own personal opinions about fast food establishments would be altered after reading Schlosser’s book. As a rule I don’t eat fast food, so if the answer ending up being yes, how then would my opinions be altered? Was it possible I would turn against my previous dietary sensibilities and try a Big Mac? I will readily admit I am two-faced and biased when it comes to “fast” food. Subway and Chipotles are considered “fast” establishments and yet I don’t put them in the same swamp as McD, BK or Wendy. I guess that’s because you can’t technically drive through Subway or Chipotle. You can’t order and eat without ever getting out of your car the way you can with the clown, the king and the kid.

From the very first chapter of Fast Food Nation I felt as though I had been slapped upside the head with a whole bunch of really disturbing facts about the country in which I reside. Schlosser doesn’t leave a single aspect of the fast food industry untouched or without scrutiny. To use a bad pun, he devours it all and then spits it back out. At us. From the historical humble beginnings of the hot dog cart to the corporate conglomerates of tomorrow Schlosser covers it all. It’s fascinating and yet distracting. Fast food Nation took too long to read because I kept rereading passages out loud to anyone who would listen.

Best thing I learned: Malling is a verb. To mall is to cover this great nation of ours with shopping malls. What’s that Natalie Merchant lyric about sprawling concrete? You get the point.

Wake up moments: “The whole experience if buying fast food has become so routine, so thoroughly unexceptional and mundane, that it is not taken for granted, like brushing your teeth or stopping for a read light” (p 3). Obviously Mr Schlosser hasn’t driven in my neck of the woods. Who stops for a red light?
Another wake up moment from the same page, “A nation’s diet can be more revealing than its art or literature” (p 3).

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Guilt Inducing Books” (p 112). Read in April because April is national food month.

Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy

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Halberstam, David. The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy. New York: Random House, 1968.

In a nutshell, Unfinished Odyssey is the campaign story of Robert Kennedy. Halberstam follows Kennedy’s entire campaign from his beginning reluctance to run to his fateful ending assassination. Along the way Halberstam paints an interesting picture of the attitudes towards the U.S.’s involvement with the Vietnam war. Those in power who felt the U.S. needed to become more involved were the hawks while those in favor of pulling out were the doves. Kennedy was a dove. He delves into the lives of the supporters and the detractors starting with Lyndon Johnson and ending with Herbert Humphrey.

Some issues with Unfinished Odyssey: the chronology is scattered and hard to follow from time to time. Then again, I often find flashbacks in nonfiction are often clunky. Also, I disagreed with Halberstam’s ending. Everyone (myself included) expects a story about Robert Kennedy to include his murder. The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy is no different. Everyone expects it to include the bitter end. Even if the funeral and country’s reaction to Kennedy’s death isn’t part of the story surely the murder would be. Maybe Halberstam was thinking everyone knows the end of the story, so why include it? It is, after all, called the unfinished odyssey.

Favorite line (partial): “…a few eggheads here and there…” (p 10) and “Kennedy was still playing Hamlet on whether or not to run” (p 18).

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “David Halberstam: Too Good To Miss.” (p 113).

John Barleycorn

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London, Jack. John Barleycorn. New York: Greenwood Press, 1968.

This was a hard book to read. How can I explain this? I am not in the midst of turmoil caused by someone who can’t put down the bottle. But rather, I am on the periphery of the damage that the drink is causing. Yes. I know alcoholics and at one time in my life I could have been part of the problem and yet…now it’s none of my business. Now I can walk away guilt and Scott B. free. How convenient. It’s someone I used to know. How odd. At one point in our lives he wrote the line “I never want to not know you” as he was breaking up with me. Now he’s drinking himself to death. It’s not only not my fault but it’s also none of my business. April is alcohol awareness month. I always think of Natalie’s song “Don’t Talk” when she says, “we’ll discuss this in the morning when your head is clear” but for me, morning never came. Clarity is a myth.

Jack London is the master of denial in John Barleycorn. His drinking takes him on adventures he cannot fully remember. He wakes up with his shoes, jacket, and of course, his money stolen with no memory of how he ended up where he is and yet, it is not his problem. It’s John Barleycorn’s problem. London calls alcohol John Barleycorn as if to personify the alcoholism; allowing Barleycorn to take the blame and London to be absolved of it. Early in the narrative London illustrates his confusion with John Barleycorn, “I am. I was. I am not. I never am. I am never less his friend than when he is with me and when I seem most his friend” (p 4). Sure. In addition to denial London is obsessive. Everything he does is to the extreme. Shoveling coal, studying books, drinking, writing. Whatever he does he attacks it, spending 15 hours a day at it.

One of my favorite lines, “But it is ever the way of John Barleycorn to loosen the tongue and babble the secret thought” (p 52). Here’s another, “Gratitude is inherently human” (p 207).

Author fact: some think London committed suicide. Interesting because John Barleycorn touches on suicide several times.

Book Trivia: Librarians don’t be shocked when I say this, but according to Wikipedia the first reference to being extremely drunk as “seeing pink elephants” came from John Barleycorn. Interesting, if true.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Lost Weekends” (p147).

Egg and I

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MacDonald, Betty. The Egg and I. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1945.

April is humor month so I chose The Egg and Ias the next book to make me laugh. I have to admit I was a little surprised this was even something my library had on its shelves. Go figure.

Betty MacDonald is by all accounts just a housewife. A housewife with a wicked sense of humor and the ability to transfer that humor to paper. In The Egg and I she tells of the time in her life when soon after getting married she follows her new husband from Butte Montana to the Olympia mountains to start up, of all things, an egg farm. From a young age her mother had always drilled it into her head to support her husband’s chosen vocation and while chickens and their subsequent eggs weren’t Betty’s thing she dutifully packs her bags and with great determination tries to become a chicken-farming, egg-picking, hard-working housewife. Hilarity ensues.

I had a hard time limiting my favorite quotes because almost everything Betty blathers on about is hysterical. I could have quoted the whole damn book if I wasn’t careful. When she wasn’t funny she was thought provoking, “I expected to look up some day and see a mountain bare shouldered and grabbing frantically for her trees” (p 101). Can’t you just picture that? Or, “Coffee so strong it snarled…” (p 115). Can’t you just taste that?

Author Fact: Betty MacDonald was born Anne Elizabeth Campbell Bard and died of uterine cancer.

Book Trivia: The Egg and I was a controversial book because Betty, writing about a specific time in her life, based the other characters on the also very real people in her life…like her neighbors. Those very real people decided to sue her for ridicule. Lesson learned. This is yet another reason why I refuse to write a book!

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Tickle Your Funny Bone” (p 217).

April ’12 is…

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April is and will always be my WhatTheFukc month. It’s the last full month of Just ‘Cause training. It’s the month when I think I’m never walking enough despite hours on the treadmill. It’s the last full month of the semester at school. It’s the month when the animals students are doing stupid sh!t like hanging from water pipes and causing a major flood in their dorm. I kid you not. It’s the last truly cold month of the year. At least one can hope. It’s the last month I feel comfortable wearing knee high boots. For reading it’s an even more discombobulated month. April is National Poetry month so between the novels I’ll be reading poetry. It’s like a car stalling. I can’t explain it.

Anyway…here’s what I PLAN to read for the month of April. You know as well as I do I probably will stick to only 75% of this…
April is Alcohol Awareness month so I’m reading John Barleycorn by Jack London. April is also food month so I’ll be depressing myself with Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of an All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser. April happens to be National Humor month so I’m buzzing through The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald. The Civil War started in April so I threw Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier on the list. I need to wrap up a couple of series I started in Janurary so The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien and These Happy Golden Yearsby Laura Ingalls Wilder are on the list. Last but not least I finally, finally got an Early Review book from LibraryThing: A Small Fortune by Rosie Dastgir. Oh. And there’s the random poem in between all that…

What else is April all about? Easter with the in-laws to talk about our upcoming trip to Hawaii. My sister’s birthday. It’s a big one. A jaunt to the theater with a good friend. A Red Sox game. Maybe a little cowbell in Vermont? Not sure.

March ’12 was…

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March 2012 was huge for reading. I think that’s because some of the books took me a day or two to read. March was also the first month of training for Just ‘Cause. Whenever I talk about training to walk it sounds stupid. I mean really, who trains to put one foot in front of the other? I guess when you put those steps all together and come up with a total of sixty miles over the course of three days it all adds up. Anyway, training (such as it is) is going great. For the month of March I averaged six miles a day, every day. But, this blog is not about walking miles or not. It’s about books. Here’s the Lust list for March 2012:

  • A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o in honor of African Writers month
  • Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston in honor of Zora
  • Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder in honor of keeping on with the series
  • Up Country by Maxine Kumin (read in one afternoon) in honor of March being poetry month (April is the official one)
  • Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte in honor of Literature month
  • Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose in honor of March having a “Hug a G.I.” day
  • The Fixer by Bernard Malamud in honor of Malamud passing in March
  • Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien in honor of keeping on with the Lord of the Rings series. I will admit I didn’t finish this.
  • The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler in honor of crime month
  • My Antonia by Willa Cather in honor of another classic (this was, by far, my favorite read of the month)
  • Lawless Roads by Graham Green in honor of April being the best time to go to Mexico (obviously I jumped ahead a little)

I started an audio book (as is my tradition with trying to train and read at the same time) but the book I chose, Illumination Night by Alice Hoffman was so scratched I couldn’t get beyond disc one. Bummer. Also, for the third time in a row I didn’t receive the Early Review book I was awarded from LibraryThing. So I didn’t end up reading anything for LibraryThing. I was awarded a fourth book…we’ll see if it actually shows up.

So. There it is. The big list of books. Aside from Band of Brothers and Two Towers every other book was really short and easy to buzz through. I doubt April will be so kind.

Band of Brothers

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Ambrose, Stephen E. Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest.New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

If it seems as if I have been reading a lot of war books lately it’s true. Last month it was a World War II narrative to commemorate the flag raising on Japan’s Iwo Jima. This month, to celebrate “Hug a G.I. Day” on March 4th, I read Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose. It makes sense because it wasn’t like reading someone else’s version of the same account. The men in Band of Brothers were fighting across Europe instead of the Pacific. Same war, a much different story.

If Stephen Ambrose wrote about every event in history I would read it. I wish he had written all my textbooks in high school. No matter the subject Ambrose makes it real, he makes it come alive. It isn’t some dry account that drones on like Charlie Brown’s teacher. He not only makes it interesting, he makes it human. War, on the surface, is about defeating the enemy; doing whatever it takes to win each skirmish in an effort to be the final victor; to win the entire war. Human emotion, especially in the aftermath of it all, gets lost. Ambrose points out the lesser-realized aspects of war – fear, regret, sorrow, but most of all, survivor guilt. This often happens mid-war when soldiers have the opportunity to first realize with shock that they survived that grenade strike and then moments later remember those who didn’t. Comrades who were standing beside them just moments ago.
I think the section that best sums up Band of Brothers is from pages 202-203: “Combat is a topsy-turvy world. Perfect strangers are going to great lengths to kill you; if they succeed, far from being punished for taking life, they will be rewarded, honored, celebrated. In combat men stay underground in daylight and do their work in the dark. Good health is a curse, trench foot, pneumonia, severe uncontrollable diarrhea, a broken leg are priceless gifts.”

Strange example of hope: Lieutenant Welsh carried his reserve parachute throughout Normandy in the hope of sending back to his best girl, Kitty so that she could make a wedding dress out of it. Kudos for Welsh for having the optimism to think he was going to survive the bloody campaign but double kudos for Kitty if she actually made a thing of beauty out of something that symbolized such violence.

Probably my favorite “character” of the entire book was Captain/Major Richard Winters. Throughout the entire war he remained true to his men and true to himself. An example: “Winters stayed in Albourne to rest, reflect, and write letters to parents of men killed or wounded” (p 109). A seven day pass entitled him to go sight seeing or carousing to blow off steam. Instead he chose to reflect on the events of the war…my kind of man.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “World War II Nonfiction” (p 253).

Little Town on the Prairie

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Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little Town on the Prairie. New York: Harper Trophy, 1971.

At this point in the “Little House” series Ma, Pa and the four daughters, Mary, Laura, Carrie and Grace, have moved to town so that Pa can finish the homestead. This is their second year in De Smet and the little homestead is growing. Pa’s farming abilities are increasing with the addition of chickens, corn, and a bigger garden. The town is growing as well. A church has been built and the community is getting together for Friday Literary nights at the school where games like spelling bees, charades and debates are held. At this time Mary is sent away to a college for the blind and Laura is nearly sixteen years old. She is on her way to becoming a school teacher. Her focus is on studying hard so that she will be ready for the career when she turns sixteen. Another step towards adulthood is the growing, albeit confused, attraction to Almanzo Wilder. His courtship is odd to her because she thinks of him as “old” and more of a friend of her father’s than hers.

Interesting quote: “A grown-up person must never let feelings be shown by voice or manner” (p 228).

When I was little I thought it would be amazing to live like Laura Ingalls. There was something so simple and so pure about her era. Although life during that time was harder, less convenient, there was more emphasis placed on doing the right thing, using resources to their fullest, not wasting a single thing. Another aspect of the time was the fashion. Everything was so structured around age! Carrie had to wear her hair in braids down her back (which caught on the buttons running down the back of her dress) while Laura, approaching adulthood could wear her braids on top of her head. She was proud of the weight on her head.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “The Great Plains (the Dakotas)” (p 107).

Flags of Our Fathers

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Bradley, James. Flags of Our Fathers. New York: Bantam, 2000.

The reading of Flags of Our Fathers was very timely. February 19th marked the anniversary of the famous flag raising on Iwo Jima, Japan. The first word that comes to mind when I think about Flags of our Fathers is respect. This was a book written with the utmost respect, not only for the author’s own father, but for the other five men responsible for raising the flag on Japan’s Iwo Jima. Everyone knows the photograph born of that historical event but not many can name the six men involved. In fact, even fewer would guess there were six men there. Unless you scrutinize the photograph, at first glance, there are only four. James Bradley, with the help of Ron Powers, brings to life all six men. He  brings them out of historical obscurity and into present-day focus.

Favorite lines (if there can be such things in a book about war): “The fatigued boys knew what lay in store when the winter sun rose again” (p 177). I liked this line for it’s sense of foreboding.
“And then the heroes of the day began literally stand up and be counted” (p 183). This sentence sounds so benign, so harmless on its own.
“On this night, the madman in the haunted house unleashed all his ghouls” (p 191). Again, such a simple sentence but the horror behind it is unimaginable.

Book Trivia: Clint Eastwood directed the movie version of Flags of Our Fathers in 2006.

Author Fact: James Bradley traveled to Iwo Jima with his mother and siblings to the very spot where his father helped raise the American flag.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter simply called “World War II Nonfiction” (p 254).

March ’12 is…

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What is March 2012 all about? Hard to say . Or as they say on Monhegan, hard tellin’ not knowin’. Fitting I suppose for a reading project still in limbo. I’m still reading books off my own shelves and borrowing books from my own library. To those not in the know that sounds strange, but there you have it.

Here are the books I *think* I’ll be reading in March:

  • A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (baptized James Ngugi) ~ in honor of March being African Writers Month
  • Little Town in the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder ~ in honor of the Dakotas (series was started in January)
  • Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101 Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen Ambrose ~ in honor of March 4th being “Hug a GI Day.” Since I don’t have a GI to hug, I’ll hug a book about World War II.
  • Lord of the Rings: Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien ~ in honor of New Years (series was started in January)
  • Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte ~ in honor of March being National Literature month.

For the Early Review program for LibraryThing – I never got the February book so we’ll see if it comes in March…Incidentally, I just checked the LibraryThing website and I was awarded a March book as well. Now the race is on to see which book makes it here first.

Personal History

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Graham, Katharine. A Personal History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

Even though I categorized this as an autobiography it is not a traditional “my life” story. Instead, it is Katharine Graham’s personal history with The Washington Post first and foremost. She begins with a brief overview of how her parents met, when and where she was born, and her college years. This sets the stage for her increased involvement with the paper. From the time she was 16 years old, when her father bought the failing Washington Post at auction, until the end of her role as chairman of the board in 1991, 58 years of Graham’s life was immersed in making the paper a success. Raised without a strong mother-figure or adolescent role models Katharine Graham was a trendsetter for women in business. For her era, her rise to power was nothing short of remarkable. But, in addition what makes Personal History such a fascinating read is Graham’s unflinching view of her world. She does not hide the fact she had a strained and difficult relationship with her absentee mother. Her voice drips with contempt when she recounts her mother’s failed attempts at guidance in life. Graham addresses her husband’s mental illness and subsequent suicide in a matter of fact manner. She does not sugar coat the difficulties she faced being a woman of influence in a world traditionally reserved for the man of the house. Despite being born into privilege Graham exemplified the meaning of hard work and perseverance.

Favorite quote (but only because you can just hear the disdain in Graham’s voice as she describes her mother), “…she could often be found reclining with a book in her hand” (p 31).

Book Trivia: Personal History won a Pulitzer Prize in 1998.

Author Fact: Katharine Graham died in 2001 and is buried in one of my favorite cemeteries, Oak Hill, in Washington D.C.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “The Fourth Estate” (p 92).

Mornings on Horseback

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McCullough, David. Mornings on Horseback: the Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt. Narrated by Edward Hermann. New York: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2003.

I am really, really glad I chose this as an audio book. I don’t think I would have had the patience for an out and out page turning book. Don’t get me wrong. The writing is amazing. David McCullough can hold your attention like no other. The story in itself is extremely detailed and reads like a pool liner breaking – slow and trickling at first but by the end gushing out of control. It follows the lives of not just Theodore Roosevelt (the man we think of as President) but also the lives of his parents, siblings, and other important figures in his life. Indeed, the building up of Theodore Roosevelt’s childhood with his family is meticulous and yet his adult, political years and presidency are hardly touched upon with the same amount of detail. Those years are mentioned almost as an afterthought in the wrap-up.
What Mornings on Horseback is really good at is describing a culture; what it means to born into privilege. It is also really good at painting the complete picture of the Roosevelt clan from a genealogical perspective. The reader is immersed in the lives of everyone and not just the future president of the United States. From a listener standpoint I enjoyed every word.

Shocking moments: Theodore Roosevelt could be a violent man. According to McCullough Roosevelt once shot and killed a dog running beside his horse. Another shocking moment – learning TR lost his dear mother on Valentine’s Day and later that same day his wife (all of 22 years old) died as well. So sad!

I think the title of this book is misleading. Theodore Roosevelt was born Theodore Roosevelt so he didn’t become his namesake. I think it would have been more appropriate to say “…the unique child who became president.” Yes, Theodore had many nicknames (Teedee as a child) but he didn’t become Theodore Roosevelt.

Book Trivia: Mornings on Horseback won a National Book Award in 1982.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Presidential Biographies” (p 192), and again in “What a (Natural) Disaster (p 242). Note: There are no substantial natural disasters in Mornings on Horseback.

February ’12 is…

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I feel like I should be singing that diet song that Jennifer Hudson sings – you know the one about it being a new day, a new dawn or a new whatever? Every February I see a chance to refresh, renew, in other words start the fukc over. Think New Years resolutions only a month late. But. But! But, I have my reasons. I was born in the month of February so to me, this month IS my new year. I shouldn’t be here so every year that I am is like starting over. But, enough about all that. Here are the books:

  • Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban in honor of Hoban’s birth month. I plan to read this on a smoke break. LOL
  • Personal History by Katharine Graham in honor of February being Journalism month.
  • Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer in honor of February being a big month for history.
  • Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien to continue the Lord of the Rings series that I started with The Hobbit last month.

I did get notification that I got an Early Review book from LibraryThing. That’s cool. What’s even cooler is that it’s a book about the Coast Guard. Having just come from an very, very classy veteran’s (air force) funeral for my uncle I am interested to explore the history of my father’s military branch.

Edited to make a correction: I misspelled Mrs. Graham’s first name as Katherine. My apologies.

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

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Max, Tucker. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. New York: Kensington, 2009.

If there really is a Hell down? there, those fated to that destination will have this book to read, over and over again. Seriously. How can I describe this thing? Honestly, in one sentence, it’s the escapades of a guy in his early 20s. Big deal. That’s it. Only this guy happens to be an alcoholic womanizer with money to burn and a posse like-minded friends to have tag along. The book is nothing more than a series of drunk-to-excess adventures hooking up with ditzy, drunk, trashy women. Sex described in minute detail. Reading it is like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, only each story gets progressively worse and worse. Every misadventure is more and more exaggerated until you start to question the author’s grip on reality. Drink to the point of puking. Have outrageous sex with big chested blondes. Repeat. The most stupefying thing about this book is that not only was it born out of conquest-written blogs, but it was so popular that it was made into a movie. People love it (the blog, the book, the movie). Women (supposedly) throw themselves at Max and his crew at every chance they get. The more vile he is the more people adore him. His biggest dilemma used to be ‘which woman do I fukc?’ until he realized it didn’t matter. Both would have him.
I admit, there were parts of the book I giggled about. There were certain lines I had to reread because they were funny. Max does have a sense of humor. But, he can’t write. I spent more time cringing at the grammatical errors and implausible situations than anything else. Then, there is that repetition I mentioned before. I ended up skimming or even completely skipping parts if I thought they sounded too familiar (which ended up being half the book). The best thing about I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell is that I will be selling it back to the bookstore and getting my money back.

Zimmerman Telegram

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Tuchman, W. Barbara. The Zimmerman Telegram. New York: Viking Press, 1958.

I can only imagine how popular this book must have been in its day. The First Great War was not a distant memory at the time of its publication. In fact, the events of World War I were probably still fresh in everyone’s mind having just survived the Second World War. I know The Zimmerman Telegram was required reading for at least one political science course at my college.

Probably the most compelling thing about Tuchman’s writing is her ability to make even well-known history as compelling whodunnit mystery. Written as smoothly as a novel The Zimmerman Telegram recounts the events leading up to the United State’s involvement in World War I starting with a telegraph written by Arthur Zimmerman to Imperial German Minister in Mexico Von Eckhardt. This telegram was  proposing a partnership between Germany, Mexico and Japan to form an allegiance against the U.S. Intercepted by the British, it is important to point out that the U.S. was reluctant to join the war until provoked by this telegram.

The line that summed it all up for me (and was ironically enough on the first page),”Mute and passive on the paper, they gave forth no hint that a key to the war’s deadlock lay concealed in their irregular jumble” (p 3).

Disclaimer: I wasn’t supposed to read this until 2013 but I felt so bad about abandoning A Distant Mirror that I wanted to read something else by Tuchman before the month was over.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Barbara Tuchman: Too Good To Miss” (p 225).