false 6 5 4 true 6202139 read 1 true 2104159 currently-reading 0 true 2104158 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18663925 to: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (Hardcover) by Michael Pollan
If you are like most people, it'll make you feel bad about just about everything you enjoy eating. But, he makes some great points, and I think the general concept that corn derived products and processed food is bad, and that we should try to eat whole, local, and organic food when we can is certainly a positive one. But I think we need to not get all neurotic about it - or else you'll end up not really enjoying the food that you are supposed to be enjoying (enjoying your meals is a point he drives home pretty hard in the book). And, if I think about how our family unit (I love that term!) eats, we do a pretty good job - and that's just because we enjoy cooking at home, generally from scratch. And when we go out to dinner, we generally like to eat at places that I think generally uses non-processed ingredients - I hope. At any rate, it's a quick read, but I suggest not reading it on a plane where they only bring you processed snacks with loads of corn syrup and all the other nasties that he rails against...makes for a long and hungry trip. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18663936 to: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (Paperback) by Doris Kearns Goodwin
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18664261 to: Barren Lands : An Epic Search For Diamonds in the North American Artic (Paperback) by Kevin Krajick
Diamonds! Canada! Ice! You would think that this book was about the 1880's and not the 1980's, being a book about a great rush for a really valuable commodity. But, it is about some huge diamond discoveries in Canada in the late 1980's - 1990's. I sort of remember this when I started studying geology (1990), as there were lots of term papers being written about kimberlites (the diamond-bearing rocks)in Canada (I also wrote a short paper on kimberlites (non-Canadian, eh) at the time). But, I don't think I fully understood that what was being found in Canada was significant - like South Africa type significant. Anyway, this book has all the angles - adventure, clashing personalities, geology, evil companies, dangerous helicopter adventures. And if anything, it'll make you appreciate "Ice Road Truckers" all that much more - an unintended benefit I got from this. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18663994 to: Looking for a Ship (Paperback) by John McPhee
Clipper ships. I like clipper ships. Actually, this book has nothing to do with clipper ships, but rather is about John McPhee hanging out with the Merchant Marine on one those big tanker/shipping crate ships. Pretty interesting look at commerce and shipping and travel from a different perspective than most travel novels. The book was written in the 1980's, and I'd be very interested to see how it would be different now with the global economy that has expanded much more since then. Still, makes you think about all that stuff in the grocery stores and target and walmart how they got here. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18663955 The Voyage of the Beagle: Charles Darwin's Journal of Researches (paper) by Charles Darwin
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