The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Michael Pollan’s treatise on where our food comes from and the ethics involved in what we eat is simultaneously troubling, entertaining, and thought provoking. Twenty pages into the book, it will also have the careful reader considering every bite they put into their mouths. Pollan takes the mundane requirement of daily nourishment and turn it into a spiritual or meditative act with lines like these: “The way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world. Daily, our eating turns nature into culture, transforming the body of the world into our bodies and minds.” And: “What we eat determines to a great extent the use we make of the world—and what is to become of it. To eat with a fuller consciousness of all that is a stake might sound like a burden, but in practice few things in life can afford quite as much satisfaction.”
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Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume I, 1883-1933. In this first volume of her biography on Eleanor Roosevelt, Blanche Wiesen Cook chronicles ER’s childhood, marriage, young adulthood and political activity up until FDR’s election to the presidency. The book is an inspiring and frank account of ER’s remarkable life—including discussion of FDR’s affairs and ER’s relationship with Lorena Hickcock. Some of my favorite lines: “I was not a snob, largely because I never really thought about the question of why you asked people to your house or claimed them as friends. Anyone who came was grist to my mill. . . and I found that almost everyone had something interesting to contribute to my education” (ER on her wide and eclectic group of friends); “Be Somebody. Be Yourself. Be All You Can Be” (ER to her Todhunter students, long before the US Army made that last phrase a cliché); “Most clearly I remember your eyes, with a kind of teasing smile in them, and the feeling of that soft spot just north-east of the corner of your mouth against my lips” (Hickcock in a letter to ER); and finally “Sigmund Freud notwithstanding. . . the ‘north-east corner of your mouth against my lips’ is always the northeast corner” (Wiesen Cook in response to critics who have denied the romantic nature of ER and Hickcock’s relationship).
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling. Enough—already-and-much better—said.
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Tell me Great Whatsit readers: what are your favorite books, recently read?
Blanche Cook is an amazing biographer, isn’t she? I have used some of her old, very 70s lesbian history texts in classes before — articles on women in the Village: Emma Goldman, Crystal Eastman, etc. I’ve read parts of the ER bios, but you remind me I need to go back for more.
My favorite novel of the summer was Michael Cunningham’s Specimen Days, which I’ve never taught but am itching to. Maybe we’ll add it to the Writing New York syllabus next semester.
Speaking of WNY, I wrote about my favorite current read (in progress, and loving every paragraph), over here, on a blog a colleague and I just started relating to our new book project.
p.s. Did you know Cook was once Audre Lorde’s lover?
I became a super obnoxious post-Omnivore’s Dilemma reader, telling most everyone I met that they should read it. I especially liked Pollan’s pointing out of the connection between the left over phosphorous from WWII (used in making ordinance) and the American corn boon (someone suggested giving the phosphorous to farmers to use as fertilizer).
Geez, this is like an abridged version of my really long comment on the other post.
I’ll comment on the books later. For now, apologies that the Recent Comments thingie is again not working.
My favorite recent reads were Assassination Vacation (Sarah Vowell) and Erasure (Percival Everett). I am interested in your take on Specimen Days, Bryan, though with Walt W. as its central character I’d expect you to love it. I loved one of the three stories, and just sorta liked the rest, but teaching it might change that. I am, though, teaching The Hours (with Mrs Dalloway of course, not that that’s not an obvious pairing that many others have done too.)
Did you hear Diane Ackerman waxing whitmaniacally about Leaves of Grass on NPR the other day?
i’ll go listen to it online. thanks for the tip.
as for SD — my favorite story was the last one, least favorite the middle one. the first one took some getting used to, but he was a better writer than i expected him to be. the first walt whitman appearance, though, in the first story, was really moving to me. and you know i’m a sucker for aliens, so the robot/lizard love story was right up my alley. i’ve been thinking about writing something about it here; maybe i’ll finally get my act together.
My favorite in the last few months is Middlesex. I’m only slight embarrassed by this since Oprah put listed it in her stupid book club. But despite that it’s a great read. Witty, good character development, all that jazz…
Another blog?! Bryan, I know you don’t sleep, but seriously, when are you finding the time to write all this? I’m lucky if I can put shoes and socks on and get out the door.
Annie, we are up to our eyeballs in The Omnivore’s Dilemma. The whole campus has adopted it as common reading, with tons of events and class tie-ins. It’s funny that “corn man” has entered the everyday lexicon around here.
I love books on food, agriculure, and agribusiness. Right now I’m grooving on Steve Ettlinger’s Twinkie, Deconstructed, which analyzes snack cakes in absolutely gothic detail. To think I spent my 20’s using Hostess Fruit Pies as a hangover cure…ugh.
Another great food book is Salt by Mark Kurlanski. He traces the political, social and economic changes that have been spurred by human pursuit of salt. Great story.
Brooke, most of my friends disagreed with me, but I absolutely LOVED Middlesex!!! It reminded me of Midnight’s Children or 100 Years of Solitude, only so much more enjoyable!!! Is that blasphemy?
if you’re into kurlansky, don’t forget his HISTORY ON THE HALF SHELL — the history of NYC from the perspective of the oyster. it’s a fun retelling of a lot of familiar stuff, and a lot of fun stuff i didn’t know before too.
rach: what i like about blogging (and writing longer stuff here, too, which isn’t quite blogging) is that it keeps me active: keeps me doing fun things (so i can write about them), keeps me writing (so i don’t just stagnate while i’m working on a long research project), etc. so far, the habit makes me more productive in my other work.
Wow! Thanks for all these great suggestions for other books and fun insights on ones I know. One of the great joys of post-residency life has been catching up a bit on reading. I had a post on some recent medicine stuff planned for today, but it just didn’t hang right. I realized I wanted to say something about other writers who have been enriching my life rather than generating more prose of my own.
BW: I loved your comments about Blanche Weisen Cook, especially the great detail about Audre Lorde. I hadn’t know that. There are many, many references to early 20th century feminists and lesbians in the ER book, as these people were in ER’s circle long before Hickcock. Certain chapters of the biography almost act as small histories of the suffrage and women’s rights movements. Additionally, one of the great pleasures of the book is seeing how Cook tells the story–both how she turns the minutia of day to day life in to an overarching narrative and how she does this by crafting very fine sentences. Really admirable writing.
Scotty, Rachel: The Omnivore’s Dilemma has gotten so much press I almost felt cliched in writing about it, but it really worked for me on so many levels: intellectual, spiritual nourishment that prompted me to eat better and more joyfully, too. Can a book really do all that?
Salt, the Ettinger book, Specimen Days, Middlesex… These are all great additions to my fall reading list. And, could any of you offer me advice in getting more pleasure from reading short fiction. Something I could never admit when I was teaching is that I have never quite been able to make the short-story genre work for me. Am I missing a short-fiction appreciation gene? Need a new perspective?
BW: I enjoyed your piece on the other blog, BTW, and wish I was back at NYU and could take your class. (Damn scrambled life chronologies). No offense to the great teachers I had at NYU, but nothing that cool was going on when I was there.
I read Vollmann’s Europe Central last summer but it keeps coming back to me in so much of what I listen to or read.
Bruce Chatwin’s Viceroy of Ouidah and the book on the exploitation of the Congo, King Leopold’s Ghost, were both very good too.
Short fiction-you may want to give Mary Gaitskill a try.
I’m on a Larkin kick lately-a bio, his poems, but especially the letters.
We’re on a 4-6 month Netflix lag so excuse my movie rec’s likely being something everyone has already seen but we just saw Black Book and liked it.
Bryan, as a John Hughes fan(atic?) I’d like to hear more about your family viewing of Sixteen Candles.
I just got my kids into Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, they’re a little young but it makes my nerd heart grow to hear them ask me about Darth Vader.
wait until one of them makes the connection that darth vader and simba’s dad have the same voice, which anna did when she was a couple years old.
i may write about the john hughes thing in a couple weeks once i’ve processed it.
I devoured books over the summer, and now that summer’s over, I’m having a hard time recalling what I read. I got through all but the most recent book of Geroge R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire; I remember that. I didn’t read Harry Potter because I was too engrossed in that, and now that I’m reading textbooks, I haven’t had time to borrow someone’s copy– lke I’ve done with all the other books– and plow through it. I suppose some part of me is pulling out the awe of Rowling for as long as possible. I haven’t read any spoilers yet, surprisingly enough. Harry Potter has taught even the least word-prolific to be considerate.
My textbooks, though, have also been enjoyable.They include a biography on the second half of Darwin’s life by Janet Browne, The Best American Poetry of 2007, The Boilerplate Rhino by David Quammen, and A Country Year by Sue Hubbell. And, just for fun, I’m reading (slowly) The Tree by Colin Tudge. And strangely enough,though this happens every semester, my seperate classes all coincide with each other on topic and material.
Here’s my favorite ER quotes:
Betrayal- If someone betrays you once, it’s his fault; if he betrays you twice, it’s your fault.
Challenges- You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
Criticism-Destructive criticism is always valueless and anyone with common sense soon becomes completely indifferent to it. It may, of course, be cruel at times.
Friendship- Friendship with oneself is all important because without it, one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.
Gossip- Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, and small minds discuss people.
Leadership- A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and in all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world all of us need both love and charity.
And, while I’m on quotes, here’s one from Lao Tsu:
Accept what is in front of you without wanting the situation to be other than what it is. Figure out how to work with rather than against, because the more we try to change what “is”, the more resistance occurs.
Marleyfan, thanks! Love those quotes. And Reuben, too, for the Mary Gaitskill rec. And good luck in school to Kate.
annie:
regarding your Q about the short story. i fell in love with the form under the influence of darrell spencer, who had us read all sorts of folks in the early 90s: amy hempel, amy bloom, mark richard, donald barthelme, pam houston (you would really like pam houston), lorrie moore, ray carver, ron carlson. [i'm sure i'm leaving out some really important darrell names but others will have to weigh in.] most of the folks we read were united in being driven by sentence-level prose and quirky details and general tension rather than by plot.
once i moved to grad school my short-story tastes ran farther back — melville, a little poe, james, hawthorne, etc. And I lost track of contemporary short story writers for the most part. A couple years ago farrell got me to read george saunders’s story “sea oak” in the anchor anthology of new short stories, which sort of rekindled my interest in the form as it plays out today. the same book turned me onto amy bender, whose stories are marvels. some students had me read junot diaz’s _drown_, which is a fantastic collection. (anyone read his new, finally published novel?)
what i love about short fiction is the compression — and the shorter the better, in my book, tthough “flash fiction” became annoying real fast. give it something like 6-10 pages to simmer, 16 if you’re really good. tension, character quirks, nice sentences. as another teacher said, they’re like popping gyoza in your mouth one after another. and yet i’d argue they stay with you longer, and not in a heartburn sort of way.
do other people have short fiction recommendations and justifications?
Hey,
While we’re on reviews, we just got back from the Of Montrel show which was unexpectedly electrifying. Thanks to Bryan to turning us on a few years ago, this is the first live show we’ve seen, but Jesus Christ, it was awsome. You know it’s going to be a good show when you overhear this in the women’s bathroom after the opening act “hey, you guys got any drugs?” “sorry, we took them all. We all had a hit of acid and then split two 8 balls. And it was really good stuff.” It made our martinis and pinot seem laughable. Understandably, the audience was insane. And Of Montreal playing their songs live transform them into dance punk gems. Who knew that the kids still crowd surf. And the band: three costume changes, a bearded white bootsy collins guitarist wearing victoria’s secret-sized black wings, a disco-lit cat-walk, a male trumpeter wearing pantys, and dirty cartoon videos playing in the background. It was totally anything-goes. First time I haven’t felt old at a live show in a while. And Pandora, your long lost twin/doppleganger is playing keyboards in that band–and looks awsome. Come one, come all. Get thee to an Of Montreal show. Preferably with an eight ball hors-dourve.
ps. credit to jeremy for turniing *me* onto the george saunder’s story. the gift that keeps on giving. thanks to everyone for such great reading recommendations here. i’ve only read specimen days which (thanks bry) i liked a lot. and also liked pollan’s previous book “The botany of desire.” did anyone else think philip roth’s “everyman” was overhyped? Does anyone recommend the junot diaz book?
i’m so glad to hear you are having tome to read again! isn’t life after residency so much better?
i would love to say i am reading something more highbrow but i have just read almost everything by chrisopher moore…totally pulp, but good entertainment in the few minutes i get before bed to read.
i often read multiple books at once and also going are the collected works of sandra boynton (hey, i have a five month old)
oh, i think i used to be cool…and smart…i have no idea where that girl went :>
but seriously, i do have adult books on my nightstand…ok, not, ahem, “adult” books, but books for grown-ups, that i am currently reading.
anne sexton: a self portrait in letters
paulo coelho: the witch of portobello
michael gruber: the book of air and shadows
ps aw call me!
oh and for short fiction, one of my all-time favorites is alan lightman’s einstein’s dreams.
amazing book.
Strangely enough, I’ve been on some sort of an unintentional lesbian-lit kick lately as well. Among the gems uncovered: Jane Harris’ The Observations and Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith . I suppose that the title of the last one should have given me a clue, but where the US version of Amazon clearly labels the book “engrossing lesbian Victoriana“, the English bookstore here merely described it as an “ingenious tale of fraud, insanity and secrets“. I suppose the difference in sales techniques is due to European vs. US moral whimsy, but I was actually quite surprised to see how prominently Amazon portrayed what was, to me, an unimportant facet of a good read. I’m not quite sure how to label The Observations. It’s either a masterful turn of the post-modern screw, or poorly written tosh. I’ll need to re-read it when I get a chance.
As a cyberpunk counter to the Victoriana, I’ve devoured all of the Stephenson I’ve been able to grab.
Oh, and the last Harry Potter as well.
This may be a double post. If so, please accept apologies and blame it on Monday morning.
Strangely enough, I’ve been on some sort of an unintentional lesbian-lit kick lately as well. Among the gems uncovered: Jane Harris’ The Observations and Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith . I suppose that the title of the last one should have given me a clue, but where the US version of Amazon clearly labels the book “engrossing lesbian Victoriana“, the English bookstore here merely described it as an “ingenious tale of fraud, insanity and secrets“. I suppose the difference in sales techniques is due to European vs. US moral whimsy, but I was actually quite surprised to see how prominently Amazon portrayed what was, to me, an unimportant facet of a good read. I’m not quite sure how to label The Observations. It’s either a masterful turn of the post-modern screw, or poorly written tosh. I’ll need to re-read it when I get a chance.
As a cyberpunk counter to the Victoriana, I’ve devoured all of the Stephenson I’ve been able to grab.
Oh, and the last Harry Potter as well.
the first one just didn’t go through automatically because of the links. sometimes the spam filter holds messages until they get approved. and this thread isn’t popping up on the “recent comments” list for some reason we still haven’t determined.