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Faking It, by Jennifer Crusie
I've been reading (and rereading, most recently Crazy for You and Manhunting) Crusie for a while now. Her themes are consistent, and occasionally, background characters in one book will turn up as central characters in others (Phin from Welcome to Temptation shows up in this latest). Whether because of that, in spite of that, or independent of that, Crusie never fails to amuse. This time, a bunch of lawbreakers who mean to be good citizens meet in deceit and shenanigans ensue. This one has hustlers and art forgers in the place of honor. And as is often the case in a Crusie novel, the apparently upstanding turn out to be quite other, and the seedier the appearance, the higher the likelihood of a white hat being whipped out (possibly with a badge) before the end of the novel. Tons o' fun.
Dream a Little Dream, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Borrowed from a neighbor, I tried to read this one several times and only recently succeeded. I hadn't realized it was part of the Ozarks series (that, in turn, connects up with the Stars books). It's like a whole alternate universe in RomanceLand, instead of science fiction. Overwrought, but readable.
Sanctuary, by Nora Roberts
I soooooo wish Roberts had a sense of humor. Instead, I'm stuck with a roller-coaster and good imagery, and occasionally a good character. Weird gimmick this time, with the wholesome-dude-commits-one-heinous-act theme.
Fat Land, by Greg Critser
Apparently meat and poultry production in the US hit an all time high (didn't help the producers any, of course -- it caused meat prices to the producers to plummet. I personally think this was because the widespread drought meant a lot of producers sent herds to market they'd intended to hang onto for a while, but couldn't when their corn withered in the field, but this is anecdotal speculation.). The increasing prevalence and popularity of books like Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, Nestle's books (Food Politics and Safe Food, for which review see below) and now Critser's thin, polemical volume is oh so appropriate.
Critser has it in for HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) and palm oils. He blames choices made under Nixon in the 1970s for the twin trends of globalization and obesity -- cheap corn syrup and tropical fats made possible the convenience foods dual earner families demanded at prices they could afford -- unfortunately, at empty-calorie levels no one really understood (to get the same taste and texture of a product historically made with sucrose and butter, more calories of HFCS and tropical oils are needed). He notes how the lack of money for broad-based PE programs in schools has ensured we won't ever work off these calories. Of course he analyzes the economics of a lot more food for slightly more money -- including the health consequences. Best of all, he spends a good amount of space on the unequal distribution of obsedity in class and race terms.
Like a number of other activists, Critser's suggestions are primarily aimed at the next generation (help the kiddies slim down and live healthy, and the problem will eventually go away). He is optimistic (I think justifiably so) at the potential to organize parents to pressure schools to get rid of fast food and vending machines on K-12 campuses. He is even optimistic about AYSO's activities to increase access to soccer in the inner city. But while he notes extensively in the book how solutions to obesity that focus on individual will power are more or less doomed to fail outside the relatively well-off, and he even mentions attempts to differentially tax nutritionally unsound food, he doesn't talk about any other approaches: not litigation (currently being explored in the series of McDonald's lawsuits; realize that every time one is thrown out, the judge is giving directions on how to return more successfully), not adult organizations which support healthier living (there are a number of these in various cities focussed on getting black women walking for heart and general health), not regulation. More about that last possibility below.
Safe Food, by Marion Nestle
Nestle is one wonderful woman. She's a wonk, and it shows in her writing, but she's written proof that just because someone spends years struggling within the bureaucracy, doesn't mean she's completely sold out. Quite the contrary. This volume grew out of her earlier work, Food Politics, as the safety chapters would have overwhelmed the other book. She does a lovely job analyzing how producers and regulators, by focussing on science-based risk analysis, have backed the concerned public into a corner where the only way they can object to corporatization and globalization (and genetic pollution) of the food supply is by whinging on about remote health risks.
Unlike Critser, Nestle has a number of salient remarks about how to take actions. While she isn't talking about obesity and inactivity, her comments apply equally well. Structurally, we're fucked right now. Regulation of the food industry is dispersed between the USDA, the FDA and the EPA (along with some others), creating a regulatory burden for producers, and a nightmare of policy-making, not to mention enforcement (nor does it help that they tend towards massive underfunding). Her suggestions for activists are substantially more detailed -- and her suggestions for government and industry action even more so.
The next bit is me -- not her, so blame me for inaccuracies in the data. The US is now a country that produces an amount of meat/poultry/fish per capita that exceeds the upper end of the recommendations for consumption in that area by about 30%. The current structure (USDA's mixed mandate to help producers grow their industry and, oh, by the way, protect consumers; FDA's combined mandate to regulate drugs and, oh, by the way, food) got us here, and it will continue to increase production beyond what we can consume. Combined with unfettered advertising, I think we have to expect the result to go straight to our collective waistline, at least those bits that aren't busy clogging our arteries.
This is insane. We're all going to choke to death here if we don't take action, and I don't mean going for a walk, or hiring a personal trainer, or even going on an Atkins' diet so we can eat still more high-on-the-food-chain food products and piss most of the calories down the drain in the form of pyruvenes. The problem is one of government regulation. The solution will be one of changing the way we regulate the food industry. If we are successful, we will all get to live longer, and probably we'll even look better.
Shatterglass, by Tamora Pierce
The last of the Circle Opens quatrology, this time Tris is traveling to a different city with Niko, encountering a student whose ambient magic developed particularly late, with yet another serial murderer who must be stopped despite officials who just get in the way. While I have no doubt that Pierce will continue to write, and I'll like whatever else she does just as well (if not better) than these books, I have to say I'm sorry to see an end to this series, just as I was sorry to see the last of the Circle of Magic. Who knew juvenile fantasy could be so habit-forming?
When I Think of You, by Liz Ireland
It has a favorable Jennifer Crusie quote on the cover, and the secondary characters are actually entertaining, which is a good sign. But I just didn't like the female protagonist. I certainly didn't think she deserved the male protagonist. On the other hand, she clearly deserved her friends, so maybe it all works out in the end. If another one of Ireland's books looks tremendously appealing, I'll give her a second try, but I won't be looking for her.
Plum Girl, by Jill Winters
The mystery wound up being marginally more involving than I initially thought it would be. There were a couple of snicker-out-loud moments. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough for me. Although the date-from-hell bit with the post-breakup dinner with Terry was amusing.
The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, by Joan Jacobs Brumberg
I'm still trying to remember if I've ever read Brumberg's book on anorexia. Hard to say. Brumberg has an interesting thesis, and an innovative approach. The thesis is that over the last century, a lot of protections for girls pre- and post- menarche, but before reaching full legal adulthood (and possibly slightly after), have been removed over the last few decades. Consumer society, as a result, has pressured girls in a variety of probably unhealthy directions (focus on the physical body, rather than the whole self, over-involvement with the opinions of men, inadequate protections against disease and so forth).
I don't like a number of things about this thesis. First, it ignores the fact that boys have never been protected from a lot of things they've been subjected to, and by continuing to focus on girls, and protecting them from that-which-is-outside them, we neglect the other victims of the piece, who tend to be somewhat less sympathetic in that they often become perpetrators, that is, boys who are subjected to (sexualized) violence from an early age. Second, it ignores the fact that the slightly-older females she has in mind to be the protectors in her idealized world aren't the angels she seems to think they are/were/have been. A lot of the latest research on what-makes-an-abuser suggests that boys especially, but in general children brutalized by women are more likely to become abusers than any other group. So what if women are less likely to abuse. When they do, it is that much worse. Further, I'm not convinced they are less likely to abuse -- we're just a whole lot less likely to recognize it as abuse.
Finally, as Critser ably points out, a lot of efforts to encourage healthy body weight have been deflected by people who are paranoid about anorexia and other eating disorders. Brumberg doesn't make much, if any, effort to distinguish between dieting to attain a healthy weight and other dieting goals, nor does she distinguish between controlling one's portions and food choices to avoid the excessive intake fostered by our consumer society and dieting to reduce.
Frankly, I found this book kinda creepy. I'm not sure why. I do think that focussing on the physical appearance, to the exclusion of intellectual, spiritual, familial etc. pursuits is a bad idea. However, I don't think that girls in general do that. And I think that when Brumberg (and a number of other commentators) portray them as doing so, they do a massive disservice to the demographic as a whole. I think that girls correctly recognize that their appearance is one of their most valuable commodities, and a lot of them leverage that appearance to make progress to other goals (getting a job, friends, lovers, allies, attention in the family, at school, etc.). If we don't like that as a society, the correct solution isn't further controls on the girls. We should change how we respond to these tactics.
Jezebel's Sister, by Emily Carmichael
Not particularly good. Not hideously bad, either, which is a little surprising, all things considered. Hard to know what to say beyond that. The secondary characters are far more appealing and interesting than the protagonists, which is rarely a good sign.
The Lion's Shadow, by Marthe Arends
Surprisingly detailed historical romance about a suffragette, her romance, her friendship with the hero's sister, her (the sister-in-law-to-be) romance with the heroine's childhood friend, and a complex interlocking bit of intrigue involving the militant wing of the suffrage organization and some people who have it in for the hero. Involving, if a bit slow getting started; funny, but for me, not laugh-out-loud. I'll probably loan it out and see what others think; it may merit rereading.
The several days of hunger strike and force feeding are well-drawn, and, by the time they show up, fit fairly well with the character. But it is definitely jarring. I hugely approved of the sheer tough physicality of the heroine, getting knocked about, climbing up and down walls and beating up assorted ne'er-do-wells.
The Trouble with Mary, by Millie Criswell
The trouble with this book is, the non-stop ethnic stereotyping. I'm stunned that this doesn't seem to bother more readers reviewing this book online. Hardly the only issue, but definitely the stand-out-head-and-shoulders issue for this book. Good-bye.
Getting Lucky, by Susan Andersen
Like Head Over Heels. A lot like. In fact, it's shaping up to be a trilogy, and I'm now quite curious to read the steamier scenes with the Rocket in the third book. People on Amazon are sniping about plot holes, as if that had anything to do with why we're reading these books. Andersen has honed her ability to depict what it feels like to be massively turned on by someone that you aren't sure things will work out with and maybe don't care just as long as you can get some along the way. Inappropriate thoughts, images, and sensations intruding randomly into the day so heartstoppingly real it is impossible to go about business as usual. She could write a (short story) about someone looking up a phone number in the white pages and with this stuff interjected, I'd be enthralled. Go Susan. More like it. Yum. Secondary characters okay okay but not great. I did like the way the makeover of Jessica was handled. Lily doesn't barge in and say do this and this and that. She says, look, you've got great taste, it's just a matter of applying it to yourself, and not just your domestic space and artwork. That plus a little emotional support, and Jessica is depicted as working the rest out almost entirely on her own. Wow. I love Lily.
Hemlock Bay
The Cove, by Catharine Coulter
I read some of her romances before, and got a mild kick out of her sense of humor. I think it works better in her romantic suspense novels, tho. These are two entries in her FBI series. The latter is the first (I think) and introduces Dillon Savich, who also appears in the former (the most recent, or nearly the most recent). The unifying threads include unfounded accusations of insanity (backed by gaslighting, drugging, and unwanted medical attention) against an attractive young thing, married to a bad dude who is fronting for one or more other even worse dudes. Enter agent, who is sent to investigate a crime involving one or more of these characters, antics ensue. Coulter appears to be drawing inspiration from/paying homage to/parodying some popular suspense/thriller/horror motifs. In the former, a vaguely supernatural phenomenon is ultimately not-quite-explained-away in psi terms. In the latter, an unimaginable conspiracy rendered more horrific (or funny, depending on your perspective) by its orchestrated charade of appealing innocuousness. Somehow, The Cove reminded me of the Ludlum Road books. A lot. I borrowed the first from my condo's library. It was enough fun to go out and pick up the rest of the series used.
The Maze
The Edge
The Target
Riptide, by Catharine Coulter
Canada's First Century, Donald Creighton
I've labelled this kind of book Life is Too Short to Read. . . on other occasions. The Canadian historical establishment is maybe a decade ahead of Australia's in terms of overcoming its unquestioning dominance by conservative white men. I just couldn't tolerate Creighton's description of Riel, so I went looking for better and am still looking for better. Yuck.
The Restless Northwest, by Hill Williams
Such a nice man, living in my hometown. Thin books, smack up to date, about the geology of the Pacific Northwest, aimed at a firmly non-technical audience. I anticipate several rereads before I'll be able to retain all the details. At least this time I understand what's going on. I'll be reading a bit more on this subject shortly. As ignorant as I feel about flora and fauna, I find geology and geography even more mystifying, and if I'm going to be tromping about in the PNW outdoors with people from around the world, I figure I ought to have some understanding before I start spouting a bunch of answers to their questions.
Williams works hard to provide analogies that make sense of tectonic plate movements, hot spots, glaciation and how those forces have created and sculpted the Pacific Northwest. While this isn't a trip oriented book, he does note where some of the phenomena he talks about are visible from major highways. Rather than presenting the information as handed-down-from-on-high-unchanging-and-certain, he describes feuds, either in the past, or ongoing now, between scientists, and how our understanding of geology has changed over time. While avoiding an overly technical presentation, he does describe in some detail what information scientists collected to develop and support their theories -- from deep water submarines exploring vents on the ocean floor, to geologists hiking the hills and valleys searching for dramatic differences in rock patterns, to analysis of dead trees in Lake Washington to stories passed down by Native Americans, mocked by white settlers and eventually understood to accurately represent the past.
Best of all Williams presents all this wonderful, clear information, concluding with a paragraph or three on what might happen in the future, without descending into a bunch of fear-mongering-we're-all-gonna-die-in-the Big-One. Nice job.
High and Mighty: SUVS: The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way, by Keither Bradsher
You know that guy at the New York Times who has been writing devastating articles about SUVS, marketing strategies and those who buy them for several years now? Well, he wrote enough to justify assimilating the results into a (thick) book, and it's even more entertaining in this form. In addition to the tale of the separating tire tread, Bradsher explores such fascinating topics as differential premiums for liability auto insurance (and how SUV owners have successfully pressured state insurance commissioners to make this real hard to do), the UAW's role in many, many hotly contested presidential elections, and what's about to happen as the used SUV market expands and starts to attract drunk and/or youthful drivers. Good stuff. Read it, then write a letter to your state's insurance commissioner saying, let those insurance companies change the rates -- rebates to the autos and stick it to the SUV owners. We're tired of subsidizing their murderous vehicles.
And I finally finished France in the New Century: Portrait of a Changing Society by John Ardagh.
A bit of a slog to get through this thick, detailed and not-narrative non-fiction tome describing France in the last few decades. Everything from the rise of hypermarkets, the decline of music, the questionable state of French cinema, the transition from minitel to the Internet, women's rights, the role of the church, marriage, children, education, unemployment, Club Med -- the list really does go on -- to the World Cup and more mundane politics. All covered in at times mind-numbing (but laudable and highly valued) detail, judiciously and while not without bias, never offensively so. I'll be reading his book on Germany next. I bought the France book in Amsterdam, in an effort to make some sense of what I perceived as a disturbing level of bigotry.
The Lady's Tutor, by Robin Schone
Something about the Altoids trick showing up in Gabriel's Woman was perhaps the first major crack in my liking Schone (the whole sexuality-intermingled-with-child-abuse thing was creepy, but I can cope with author's who pick a theme and stick with it). True, reading The Lady's Tutor after The Lover and Gabriel's Woman is yet another instance of breaking the read-them-forward rule for romance authors. Nevertheless, I doubt I'll be picking up copies of any more Schone (unless I trip over them cheap at a used book store). Said's Orientalism sensitized me in a way that make almost every paragraph of this novel irritating, almost nauseating.
I don't think this is connected to the other two novels. The major themes are, however, present. "Older" woman who is nonetheless at least somewhat virginal but increasingly overwhelmed by her own sexual desires, seeks a man who can help her find satisfaction. This time, she's married with two kids, and a political husband who has had the absolute minimum sex possible with her. Needless to say, he turns out to be Evil. Finally, I really think one cannot avoid the conclusion that Schone is homophobic. This time out, the Dangerous Man Whom She Must Not Know (still the guy all the married society chicks are nailing) is half Arab, half English, the result of a kidnap and rape. Because mom was subsequently rescued by another Arab whom she liked, both mom's home and son's are laden with carpets, contain "Turkish" baths, and they drink their coffee gritty. While in some respects these details are managed well, overall, Schone painfully reproduces all the stereotypes.
The Hungry Gene: The Science of Fat and the Future of Thin, by Ellen Ruppel Shell
I loved Nestle's books, and Critser, Schlosser, Fraser slightly less so. The first time I saw this one, I figured, yay, another it's-all-in-the-genes bit of foolishness. Then I read some reviews, and realized I'd made some bad assumptions.
The book starts explaining the discovery of leptin, a personality drama involving scientists, physicians and public health officials, set in the larger context of bariatrics, one of the more disreputable branches of medical science. Shell touches on early dieters and engages in the usual speculation about the evolutionary benefits associated with hanging onto every calorie possible. All well and good. The real story, however, lies in her discussion of how genes are expressed (or not expressed) and the influential environment of the womb, nutrition shortly after birth and, to a lesser degree, nutrition in childhood, adolescence and throughout adult life. That discussion is bang on target: we've made it terminally easy to consume too much bad food, and hard to engage in much if any physical activity, and the results are not going to be cured by popping a pill. We're built to eat, and disrupting that is going to require modifications to our environment. Most of her suggestions are well-understood ground. Require prominent nutritional content labels at fast-food restaurants. Get the pop and junk food out of the school system, regulate food advertising, especially that aimed at children, get employers actively involved in making better food choices available to their employees, and reinstitute regular meals and meal times. Fund a massive PSA campaign, prime time, focussing on the connection between obesity, junk food and inactivity. Take nutrition advice out of the USDA entirely, and put it somewhere more reasonable (she suggests the CDC).
I am so the choir here. I did appreciate, by the end, the time she had taken to describe in such detail the development of the science of appetite regulation, fat storage, metabolism and so forth. She thoroughly depicted how motivated and predisposed most scientists, doctors and corporations are to think in terms of finding a simple solution, a pill, whatever, to deal with this problem. She also thoroughly explained why That Ain't Gonna Happen -- but no large corporation having anything to do with food or drug production or distribution is going to tell us that. Too much money is being made selling us more food than our bodies can tolerate. Only collective political action, like that undertaken against the tobacco industry, can save us from our ancient, voracious appetite.
Fires, Faults and Floods: A Road & Trail Guide Exploring the Origins of the Columbia River Basin, by Marge and Ted Mueller
The exposition isn't as good as Williams above, but who cares. It has driving and hiking directions. I've already been out to the Palouse once already. So far, their directions are easily understandable, and their explanation of what you are looking at as you drive or walk along are easy to make sense of. I'm overjoyed that someone has finally made that desert over there seem interesting to me. I'm quite surprised, also, given how much of a mountains-trees-water junkie I am at heart.
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Copyright Rebecca Allen, 2004.
Created: March 12, 2003 Modified: January 8, 2004