What are you reading in 2023?

[LDAHL]

The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression

Amity Schlaes is terrific. I really liked her Coolidge biography.

[Tradd]

Amity Schlaes is terrific. I really liked her Coolidge biography.

I will have to look that up over the winter when I’m feeling the need for something new.

[LDAHL]

I will have to look that up over the winter when I’m feeling the need for something new.

Her new history of the Great Society is on my list for the near future.

[catherine]

Ultra-Processed People about all the processed crap we are eating and how it is creating disease - especially the meteoric rise of gut ailments and diabetes. Written by a medical doctor and microbiologist. I became a crazy label reader after realizing that all the inorganic phosphates added to cat food most definitely contributed to his and many older cat's kidney disease. Guess what? The same krap is in Cheerios and a host of other cereals and snack foods. A very interesting read that might make you re-think what you are eating.

I believe that many of the industrial food practices have sabotaged our health. I am not a scientist or a microbiologist, but I have done quite a bit of reading and reflecting on the question, why have the rates of obesity skyrocketed since the second half of the last century? Why are we LESS healthy now than we were before? The processed foods not only mess with the gut biota but also with insulin resistance and other systems in the body.

I also enjoy Food Babe who many mainstream "experts" pan as a charlatan, but who has been successful in her activism to ban chemicals from many foodstuffs. Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma was the first book that turned me on to how messed up industrial food production is , and he definitely changed the way I eat as a result.

(Here is where I miss Jane's perspective)

[pinkytoe]

I may be just as opinionated as Jane about food. There is another book about processed food called Eat Everything: How to Ditch Additives and Emulsifiers that explains their effects. I tried to buy cream cheese today and every brand was loaded with gums. Ice cream too.

[frugal-one]

I keep seeing on packages “bioengineered …”. I put those back the shelf. No wonder we are all sick… FAKE FOOD!

[ApatheticNoMore]

Also in the genre which I've read: "The Dorrito Effect" and "The End of Craving: Recovering the Lost Wisdom of Eating Well" by Mark Schatzker. The 2nd of those books talks about fake fats, which are apparently in foods hiding under names like "milk protein" and 'whey protein". It also blames obesity on fortified flour, um ok, well it's an interesting hypothesis (I am not terribly convinced).

[Rogar]

I'm about half through with Stephen King's "Holly". For me, the King page turners are always good and it's just a matter of degree. I'd say an average King (so far). Some of the online criticisms are around his political comments, which I didn't find significant. Some light Trump bashing.

[Yppej]

How to Say Babylon by a woman raised a Rastafarian who left the sect, non-fiction

[Tradd]

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yannos. Very well reviewed and I finished it quickly. Downloaded the Kindle version late yesterday afternoon, read all evening, and finished it this afternoon. It’s fantasy with dragons! It is very violent, with explicit sex and much foul language. Someone on a Dragonriders of Pern/Anne McCaffrey fan group on FB recommended it yesterday. She commented that Pern is a nicer place to live than the world in Fourth Wing, which made me laugh. Pern isn’t an easy place to live, except during the intervals between Thread falling. Another comment is that Anne McCaffrey spoiled us with her dragons. Boy, did she. But this book is very different, but it grabs you. The second book in the series comes out Tuesday, Iron Flame. I’ve already downloaded it.