Book report 4

Cod: A Biography of the Fish by Mark Kurlansky
My sister, Piglet, read this as part of her Master's in Public History and bought it for me for Christmas.  While you might not expect a great book about a bottom-dwelling fish, it was an engrossing read.  I had no idea how many historical events or symbols in our culture have their origins in cod fishing.  As one of the first foods that could be preserved and shipped, it was instrumental in exploration of the globe, the colonies in North America developing the means for independence, and the modernisation of Iceland.

Sadly, cod, once thought inexhaustible in supply, are staring at extinction thanks to unsustainable fishing practices.  Throughout the book, I just kept being reminded of Eating Animals, the book I read by Jonathan Foer a little over a year ago that converted me to vegetarianism.  Because of artificially low prices achieved by "efficient" yet inhumane factory farming practices, developed countries are consuming astronomically more meat per capita than at any other time in history.  Of course, developing nations, looking to us as an example, see meat consumption as a sign of having made it and are quickly attempting to follow suit.

There are a number of other reasons not to eat meat produced this way, like the substitution of low-paid workers for skilled butchers and farmers (resulting in unhappy workers who abuse animals or make simple errors that result in unnecessary suffering for the animals), up to 20% of slaughtered animals that are inedible due to defects created by the drugs designed to speed their life cycle, the use of land that could produce more value through farming of other food products, and the actual waste products created by the production of so much meat that are difficult to dispose of.  All of this so that we can have meat that costs less than it should.  When I see that a 12-piece bucket of chicken costs $10 at KFC, I want to scream.  Meat produced in sensible, humane ways would cost more, but then we'd consume a reasonable amount and see fewer of the side effects that make eating animals so inefficient.  And maybe we'd see a drop in heart disease  and obesity, too.

A lot of people have asked whether I will remain a vegetarian during my pregnancy.  So far, I've had fish three times, but in fishing towns where I cross my fingers and hope it's local catch, and kangaroo once.  In most rural towns, the choices are chicken, steak, or fish, and salad is just seen as dressing for one of those options.  Kangaroo is about the most environmentally sustainable source of red meat available, so I don't mind indulging in that every once in a while.  Other than that, there are just too many reasons not to eat meat that outweigh the occasional craving for a big ol' cheeseburger.

The Spinoza Problem by Irvin Yalom
My friend, Anna, who is a psychiatrist and fellow non-fiction enthusiast recommended this author.  He is a psychiatrist who writes historical novels on the side; you know, one of those annoying people who manages to do two things well while I have trouble finding two matching socks.  To be fair, his attempts to incorporate the historical facts are sometimes a bit rough, usually through awkward dialogue or "memories", but that seems like a tough thing to do well, particularly with abstract concepts like philosophy.

This book alternates chapters about Spinoza, an excommunicated Jewish philosopher living in Amsterdam in the 1500s, with ones about Rosenberg, the anti-Semitic party philosopher for the Nazis.  Spinoza felt that the only higher power that existed was knowledge of how the natural world operated.  Given that he came along not long after Copernicus and Galileo were ostracised for discussing properties of the natural world, he was pretty ballsy to publish a book deriding religion as superstition and living openly as an atheist.  It was interesting to read about how virtually impossible it was to live as an atheist in a time when all of the laws and structures of society, even in the liberal Netherlands, required putting you into one religious bucket or another.

The tragic Rosenberg spent his life wringing his hands over why Hitler didn't pay more attention to his crazy ass and fretting over how Spinoza could have such genius ideas that had such a major impact on his hero, Goethe, when he was of inferior Jewish descent.  He's probably the only person chosen as a defendant in the Nuremberg Trials who was pleased, just because it meant he was taken seriously for once.  He must have been doubly pleased to be convicted and hanged.  

How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
I can't remember where I read the review that said I had to buy this book right away, but I'm glad I did.  I had never heard of Caitlin Moran, but apparently she's a moderately famous music critic for the BBC.  This book begins with a heavy focus on amusing, but sometimes touching, anecdotes from her coming of age as one of seven siblings growing up very poor and home-schooled in English council housing.  It's like she's trying to hook you before wading in deeper to her feminist views.  I enjoyed both aspects of the book, but then again, I agreed with 90% of what she was saying.  Even when she was working through thoughts I've had myself, she did it in such an engaging way or presented some new facet that made them interesting.  When I finished reading the book, I immediately looked at what else was available by her, which has to be the best endorsement of all.