Author: alyssa

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Title: The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Author: Michael Pollan
# Pages: 450
Published: 2006
Rating: 3 1/2 stars 

I read this one for another book club. Actually, it’s more accurate to say that I listened to this book for a family book club. I’m glad I listened to it–I don’t know if I would’ve gotten through the first bit if I hadn’t been stuck in a car with only this book to listen to. I was even driving through Nebraska while listening to the section on corn, which seemed like fortuitous timing. 

Pollan describes the journey our food takes before it is consumed. He splits the book into three main sections: industrial, pastoral, and personal. In the industrial section, Pollan takes the reader on a journey centered around corn. He visits the corn fields in Nebraska, a cattle ranch, and a feedlot in Kansas. He talks about why farmers get subsidized for their crops, and how our country got in the position where farmers don’t get paid what their crops are worth. To finish off this section, Pollan discusses how corn has permeated the diet of the average American. 

The second section, pastoral, focuses on organic food. Pollan talks about the influence of grass-fed proteins and how the push for organic food is not as effective as it was meant to be. What began as a desire to avoid pesticides and other harmful chemicals, and likely an effort to support local farmers, turned into shipping organic food thousands of miles in refrigerated trucks, compounding the energy needed to get one’s food. Pollan visits a chicken farm that is supposed to be “cage-free” and “free-range,” but the results of his visit will surprise you. He then visits another free-range animal farm and learns from the farmer there what really goes into raising animals that are free-range and who the typical customers of that type of farm are. 

In the third section, personal, Pollan regales the reader with tales of his experience as a hunter-gatherer. It becomes clear that this is no longer a realistic way to try to live or eat for most Americans. Pollan emphasizes that it is important for people to think about what they are eating and to consider all of the costs involved in a meal: financial, ethical, political, environmental. 

Favorite Quotes:

“The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world.”

“Were the walls of our meat industry to become transparent, literally or even figuratively, we would not long continue to raise, kill, and eat animals the way we do.” 

Everything I Never Told You

Everything I Never Told You

Title: Everything I Never Told You
Author: Celeste Ng
# Pages: 298
Published: June 2014
Rating: 4 stars

This is another book I read for a book club that I may not have chosen to read on my own. That’s why book clubs are great, right? I’ll tell you right now that there are no dramatic story or character arcs, no surprise ending, no story-altering revelation: this is simply the story of a normal 1970s family and their daily lives and relationships, hopes and dreams, fears and weaknesses. It pulled me in in a way I wouldn’t have expected for a story about every-day life. 

Celeste Ng tells the story of a Midwestern Chinese family as they deal with the loss of their daughter. When Lydia is found dead in a nearby lake, each member of the family has to come to terms with her death, the hole she left in their lives, and the role they played in her demise. 

The reader sees inside the minds of a mother, desperate for a daughter to share in her own dreams and aspirations; a father, disgusted by the piece of himself that he sees in his son; a brother, determined to protect his sister from the pain that he endures. As you delve into the story, you see inside relationships that are all too common in a family dynamic and see yourself in the disappointments and occasional successes of the characters. 

Why and how did Lydia die? What brought about the death of a brilliant, successful, popular girl? This subtle commentary on a 1970s family shows not only the importance of communication in relationships–it also shows the brilliance of Celeste Ng as a writer. 

Favorite Quotes:

The things that go unsaid are often the things that eat at you–whether because you didn’t get to have your say, or because the other person never got to hear you and really wanted to. 

You loved so hard and hopes so much and then you ended up with nothing. Children who no longer needed you. A husband who no longer wanted you. Nothing left but you, alone, and empty space.

How had it begun? Like everything: with mothers and fathers. Because of Lydia’s mother and father, because of her mother’s and father’s mothers and fathers. 

A Game for All the Family

A Game for All the Family: A Novel

Title: A Game for All the Family
Author: Sophie Hannah
# Pages: 433 
Published: 2015 in the U.K., 2017 in the U.S. 
Rating: 3 1/2 stars 

This is the first novel by Sophie Hannah that I’ve read, and to be honest, I only read it because it was chosen for one of my book clubs. Hannah is master of the psychological thriller, and she has earned numerous awards for her works. Her books have been published in 49 countries, which allows readers all over the world to enter her slightly twisted narratives.

At the beginning of A Game for All the Family, Janice Merrison has just fled London with her family in search of a calmer, relaxed life. She had nearly gone crazy in a high-paced, high-stress career, and she is looking forward to doing as little as possible each day. The Merrison’s now live in a beautiful country manor in Devon. It seems perfect in every way. 

One day, Janice gets a call that changes everything. Someone who seems to know her says she and her family need to leave the house immediately. Ellen, Janice’s daughter, is suddenly completely different. Ellen starts talking about a friend the school adamantly states doesn’t exist, and she is writing detailed stories about a murder that took place in the Merrison’s new home. Janice’s languid days full of nothing turn into days of frantic research and discovery as Janice does everything she can to save her family.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I’m glad it was chosen by my book club so I could be exposed to Sophie Hannah and her twisted imagination. I couldn’t put it down, and though I did guess some of the turns the story would take, there were many I never saw coming. The ending took me completely by surprise, and I found myself sitting there for several minutes thinking “what in the world just happened.” That’s how you always want to feel after a psychological thriller, right?

Favorite Quotes

If there’s an aspect of your life that’s making you unhappy and you can escape from it, why wait?

Worries are pack animals as well as cowards: too flimsy and insubstantial to do much damage alone, they signal for backup. Pretty soon there’s a whole gang of them circling you and you can’t push your way out.

Little Women

Little Women (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (Penguin Threads) by Alcott, Louisa May De Luxe edition (2012)

Title: Little Women
Author: Louisa May Alcott
# Pages: 491
Published: 1868 (Good Wives, or Part 2, in 1869)
Rating: 5 stars

Little Women is one of my all time favorite books and has held its place at the top of my chart for 20+ years. I know, I know, it seems like every little girl grew up loving the March sisters. How unoriginal of me. But you know what I say to those who view this “unoriginality” with disdain? GOOD RIDDANCE! If you don’t like Little Women, that probably means you haven’t read it. 

Louisa May Alcott was tasked with writing a book for girls, so she drew from the experiences of the only group of girls she enjoyed: her sisters. Alcott’s tales of day-to-day life in 19th century America are equal parts uplifting and heartbreaking, joyful and painful. Alcott draws in her readers with her simple writing style and well-developed characters, and she keeps them interested by laying out journeys for those characters that are easy for readers of any age to identify with. 

Jo March is the heroine of Alcott’s novel, and while the story is told by a third-person narrator, it primarily follows Jo’s life and shows her experience and point of view. Her journey begins as a stubborn, independent teenager who yearns for the freedom to study, travel, and write–freedoms that weren’t readily available for women of her time. As she grows up, she learns when she needs to acquiesce to society’s expectations for her, and when she can assert her stubbornness to get the freedoms she desperately wants. 

As Alcott’s auto-biographical character, Jo gives the reader an insight into how Alcott viewed her world. Repressed by society because of her gender, Alcott, like Jo, rebelled against societal norms and delighted in writing things of a more macabre nature. She agreed to write Little Women and its sequels only to benefit her family, and inserted her small rebellions into the work to maintain her own ideals while giving in to society’s pressures (like refusing to allow Jo to marry Laurie). 

If you’re looking for a well-written novel that will pull on your heartstrings and lift your spirits, Little Women is the book for you. 

Favorite quotes:

I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail my ship. (pg. 457)
****
I want to do something splendid before I go into my castle,–something heoric, or wonderful,–that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead. I don’t know what, but I’m on the watch for it, and mean to astonish you all, some day. (pg. 143)
****
I like good, strong words, that mean something. (pg. 36)
****
Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. (pg. 118)

I was lucky enough to visit Orchard House in 2017. This was the Alcott’s family home, and the setting for Little Women. You can read more about that incredible trip, the Alcotts, and Little Women here.