Point of Direction by Rachel Weaver
I don't know how this book was ever characterized as a "psychological thriller" because it was definitely not in my opinion. It was more of a "coming of age" for adults type of book. Anna meets Kyle while hitchhiking in Alaska. She is running from an event in her past, but being with Kyle seems to help. When Kyle wants to sign up to live on a remote lighthouse Anna actually thinks it might be the best thing for her to deal with her past. But, life is harder than they realized it would be and while Anna actually enjoys the challenge it seems to make Kyle edgy and irritated - and they aren't even close to winter yet. Anna also finds out that Kyle has been running from a problem in his past too and it might be closer to them than they realize. Both Anna and Kyle must confront their demons in order to move on whether together or individually.
I was really expected more tension or crazy events, but most of the book was pretty dull. There were a few moments of action, but overall it was more Anna in her head trying to sort things out for herself and realizing some things about Kyle along the way. It was OK and I did want to know what happened at the end, but it wasn't great and I wouldn't really recommend it.
I was really expected more tension or crazy events, but most of the book was pretty dull. There were a few moments of action, but overall it was more Anna in her head trying to sort things out for herself and realizing some things about Kyle along the way. It was OK and I did want to know what happened at the end, but it wasn't great and I wouldn't really recommend it.
Year of No Sugar by Eve Schaub
After Eve Schaub and her husband watched a YouTube video by Dr. Robert Lustig about sugar actually being a poison in our bodies, they make the radical decision for their family to eat NO added sugar for one year. At the time their children are 11 and 6 years old too. They do make a few exceptions - one "real" dessert each month, and each family member can pick one exception item. While I applaud the Schaub family for their experiment, I think the larger point from this book is just how much of our food now has added sugar in it - things that you wouldn't think like condiments, salad dressing, meats, etc. I was also impressed at how well her children did, but they were never eating McDonalds every day to begin with either. This is yet another book that shines a light on how unhealthy processed food is today and how so few people even think about it at all. Food is what fuels us so what is in our food should be priority #1! I also found it interesting that as their experiment went on Eve's taste buds began to change. In her words her mind still craved sugar, but her palate didn't. At the end of the book they do keep many of their diet changes, but they relax a little more and do eat sugar, but they are much more aware of just how much sugar is hidden in everyday food. I would recommend this one to anyone who cares about what is in your food.
Some quotes I really liked:
[From Dr. Lustig's video] "As a society, we all weigh twenty-five pounds more than our counterparts did twenty-five years ago...Even as our total fat consumption has gone down, our obesity has continued to accelerate...Simply drinking one soda per day is worth fifteen pound and a half pounds of fat gain per year...Americans are currently consuming sixty-three pounds per person of high-fructose corn syrup per year..." (p. 8)
"Part of the problem is that as parents and as a society, we are providing too many choices. Did Laura Ingalls refuse to drink her milk if it wasn't chocolate? To eat her cereal if it didn't have Day Glo marshmallows in it? I have to believe that, if your kid is hungry enough, they'll eat. If they're thirsty enough, they'll drink. Are Frosted Flakes and Lucky Charms really the best we can do?" (p. 119)
"What Rhonda's comment made me realize is that it's all well and good to demonize sugar when you're talking about the Big Bad Corporations sneaking high-fructose corn syrup into our ketchup and mayonnaise; it's another thing entirely to go after Grandma's lovingly baked molassas cookies. The problem is, nutritionally, your body can't tell the difference between the 'bad' sugar (from Big Food Inc.) and 'good' sugar (from Grandma). Fructose is fructose. And an excess of fructose consumption, now at its highest levels ever and still climbing, is making our society sick." (p. 140)
[After the experiment] "But, the thing is, we are weird. We were weird before - not eating at McDonald's and avoiding soda. And we're weird now - avoiding juice and crap sugar food (doughnuts, cookies, free lollipops), as well as anything that sweetened when we know it needn't be: dried fruit, chips, crackers, tomato sauces. We had become much, much more selective about the sugar we do consume, and in a culture like ours - which is utterly saturated with sugar, convenience food, and fast food - that's weird." (p. 260)
[from Stephen Schaub] "But what I have learned is that it is the food industry in our country that is really the extreme; eating local, fresh food - not loaded with needless added sugar, preservatives, additives, chemicals, and general crap - is really what should be considered normal. Because it is normal. It was normal for thousands of years." (p. 267)
Some quotes I really liked:
[From Dr. Lustig's video] "As a society, we all weigh twenty-five pounds more than our counterparts did twenty-five years ago...Even as our total fat consumption has gone down, our obesity has continued to accelerate...Simply drinking one soda per day is worth fifteen pound and a half pounds of fat gain per year...Americans are currently consuming sixty-three pounds per person of high-fructose corn syrup per year..." (p. 8)
"Part of the problem is that as parents and as a society, we are providing too many choices. Did Laura Ingalls refuse to drink her milk if it wasn't chocolate? To eat her cereal if it didn't have Day Glo marshmallows in it? I have to believe that, if your kid is hungry enough, they'll eat. If they're thirsty enough, they'll drink. Are Frosted Flakes and Lucky Charms really the best we can do?" (p. 119)
"What Rhonda's comment made me realize is that it's all well and good to demonize sugar when you're talking about the Big Bad Corporations sneaking high-fructose corn syrup into our ketchup and mayonnaise; it's another thing entirely to go after Grandma's lovingly baked molassas cookies. The problem is, nutritionally, your body can't tell the difference between the 'bad' sugar (from Big Food Inc.) and 'good' sugar (from Grandma). Fructose is fructose. And an excess of fructose consumption, now at its highest levels ever and still climbing, is making our society sick." (p. 140)
[After the experiment] "But, the thing is, we are weird. We were weird before - not eating at McDonald's and avoiding soda. And we're weird now - avoiding juice and crap sugar food (doughnuts, cookies, free lollipops), as well as anything that sweetened when we know it needn't be: dried fruit, chips, crackers, tomato sauces. We had become much, much more selective about the sugar we do consume, and in a culture like ours - which is utterly saturated with sugar, convenience food, and fast food - that's weird." (p. 260)
[from Stephen Schaub] "But what I have learned is that it is the food industry in our country that is really the extreme; eating local, fresh food - not loaded with needless added sugar, preservatives, additives, chemicals, and general crap - is really what should be considered normal. Because it is normal. It was normal for thousands of years." (p. 267)
Sea Creatures by Susanna Daniel
After Georgia's business goes under and her husband Graham is fired from his professor position in Illinois, they decide to move back to Georgia's hometown of Miami. One of Graham's friends has gotten him a position working on hurricane research. Their family is dealing with not only the scandal that cost Graham his job in Illinois, but also the fact that their 3-year-old son Frankie has stopped talking. Once in Miami, Georgia finds part time work running errands for an reclusive artist because she can bring Frankie along on the errands. Spending time with the artist helps Georgia begin to see what may be behind her son's speech issues and the best way to help him. As more of Graham and Georgia's story unfolds, Hurricane Andrew is brewing in the Atlantic. When the epic storm hits all hell breaks loose - for Florida, but also in Georgia's life. Once the storm dies down Georgia has to decide how best to move on for herself and for Frankie.
I didn't really have any expectations for this book before I read it, but I was blown away and just could not put it down. The way the author unfolds the plot is unique and I didn't see any of the ending coming ahead of time. I also liked how the book was realistic and everything didn't work out in a cookie-cutter perfect way. This was a very unique book that explored a lot of issues - love, family, sleep disorders, selective mutism, the ocean, loss, and grieving.
I didn't really have any expectations for this book before I read it, but I was blown away and just could not put it down. The way the author unfolds the plot is unique and I didn't see any of the ending coming ahead of time. I also liked how the book was realistic and everything didn't work out in a cookie-cutter perfect way. This was a very unique book that explored a lot of issues - love, family, sleep disorders, selective mutism, the ocean, loss, and grieving.
The Meat Racket: the Secret Takeover of America's Food Business by Christopher Leonard
The Meat Racket explores the modern, industrial meat industry through the lens of one of the major companies - Tyson Foods. Christopher Leonard explores the rise of the industrial chicken industry that John and Don Tyson created and how that business model shaped all other industrial meat industries. I've read a lot about this topic and was very familiar with CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), but had no idea that Tyson basically created the first CAFOs for chickens and the other meat industries followed suit because there was no other way to compete with Tyson without CAFOs. This book also reiterates the illusion of choice that consumers have with industrial meat - there are only a handful of companies that control almost all the consumer meat. There may be various company names on packages of meat at the grocery store, but almost all of those companies are fronts for the illusion of choice and are owned by one of the few meat giants like Tyson. Leonard also explores some of the most unscrupulous practices of Tyson and how terribly they treat their farmers. Basically the fastest way to work yourself to death and end up bankrupt is to become an industrial chicken farmer. Some of the stories from the ruined farmers are heartbreaking. This is a really great overview of the industrial meat industry by examining one of the biggest players and leaders in this horrific industry. Definitely an eye-opening book!
Some of the many quotes I really enjoyed:
"Just a handful of companies produce nearly all the meat consumed in the United States, and Tyson is the king among them. The company sits atop a powerful oligarchy of corporations that determines how animals are raised, how much farmers get paid, and how meat is processed, all while reaping massive profits and remaining almost entirely opaque to the consumer...[this is]a system that keeps farmers in a state of indebted servitude, living like modern-day sharecroppers on the ragged edge of bankruptcy." (p. 3)
"Tyson could roughly predict which chicks would be healthy based on the age of the hens that laid the eggs. Older hens produced weaker chicks, while younger hens laid more vigorous broods. Edwards noticed that some farmers were consistently receiving chicks produced by the healthiest, youngest hens. Whoever was setting up the deliveries in the Broiler Office was giving these farmers the cream off the top. And he noticed something else: Other farmers were consistently getting the batches of culls. As Perry Edwards pored over the shipping logs, he saw that the pattern was the same. When there were bad batches of birds, they went to the same group of farms. And the healthiest birds also went to a select group of farms that, not coincidentally, always ranked as the highest paid farms in the network." (p. 37)
"Cash-basis accounting is simple. A company records its expenses only when it pays out the actual cash for them. And it only books income when the actual cash comes in the door. By contrast, companies using accrual accounting methods record their expenses when they sign a contract to pay someone, even if the cash hasn't actually left their account yet. Farmers were allowed to use cash-basis accounting because it was simpler, and Congress didn't think small farms had the money to hire accountants for complicated recordkeeping...By 1985, Tyson's Foods had avoided paying $26.5 million in annual taxes through the cash-basis loophole, according to a report written by two economists with the U.S. General Accounting Office. The morality of the ploy didn't seem to be a matter of much debate inside Tyson. When the company saw a loophole and a chance to make a profit, Tyson took it, a strategy that became part of the company's culture for decades to come...In 1986 Tyson was forced to quit using the scheme when the Tax Reform Act closed the loophole for farms with more than $25 million a year in gross recipts." (p. 72-4)
"At the end of any given week, a series of letters is mailed out from the Tyson complex in downtown Waldron...The letters are several pages long and packed with complicated financial figures. The farmers call them settlement sheets. The one critical piece of information the settlement sheets contain is the going price of chicken, or, more accurately, the price that Tyson deems appropriate to pay. Each farmer receives his own price, determined by the tournament system that ranks each farmer against his neighbor. At the end of each week, Tyson makes a competitive pool out of all the farms that have delivered chickens to the plant. The company has far more data about the farms than their owners; the company can compare how much feed each farm consumed compared to its neighbors, how many birds died and how much weight gained overall...All this information is fed into an equation that spits out a simple ranking: the most efficient farms on top, the least efficient at the bottom...But there are critical pieces of information that Tyson keeps secret. The company doesn't tell the farmer whom he competed against in a given tournament...If a farmer ranks near the top, he might earn 5 cents a pound for his labor. If he ranks in the middle, he would get paid 4.5 cents. Close to the bottom, he would make 4.1 cents...When a farmer gets hammered in the tournament, it might seem prudent for him to approach his neighbors and ask what they were doing differently. This is tough to do, and not just because the names on the tournament ranking are left blank. Each page is clearly marked with the warning: 'Confidential and Proprietary Information of Tyson Foods, Inc.' If farmers were to meet and compare their settlement sheets, or show them to a journalist or lawyer, Tyson can sue them for leaking confidential information." (p. 115-117)
"The tournament system is kept afloat by an obscure federal organization called the Farm Service Agency. The FSA spends hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to make sure that there will always be cheap loans for a new chicken farm when an older one is put out of business...While the agency was limited in how much money it could loan directly to farmers, it had far more leeway in the size of the loan it could guarantee. Under the guaranteed loan program, the FSA would pay back the bank more than 90 percent of the loan value if a farmer defaulted...Between 1999 and 2009, the Arkansas FSA office alone guaranteed more than $797 million in new loans, leaving taxpayers on the hook if the farms failed...It's difficult to determine how much money taxpayers spend every year to support Tyson's system of contract farmers. Clearly, billions of dollars underpin the construction of new chicken farms in the United States. This steady flow of easy credit allows Tyson and its competitors to cast off farmers without worrying that banks will hesitate to lend money to the next chicken grower in line." (p. 139-143)
"The free market had very little to do with the U.S. food market anymore. The USDA, for example, centrally controlled how many acres of corn were planted each year. This wasn't as completely Sovietesque as it sounds: The production controls weren't mandatory. Farmers could plant as many acres of corn or wheat as they wanted. But if they didn't comply with the USDA's state production levels, the farmers got cut out of government subsidies. In essence, the USDA bribed farmers to go along with its central planning regime. And it worked remarkably well...In 1996, Congress ended the farm subsidy program with a new farm bill called the Freedom to Farm Act. Strangely enough, Freedom to Farm only enlarged the farm subsidy program and made it much more expensive...In 1998 taxpayers handed over $12.4 billion to farmers, and in 1999 they paid $21.5 billion, nearly triple what they paid before Freedom to Farm was passed. While it didn't end subsidies, Freedom to Farm made one critical change that benefited Tyson Foods. The law disbanded production controls. Farmers got their government checks, and they could grow whatever they wanted. When the production controls went away, farmers did what they do best: They massively overproduced. The world was glutted with corn, wheat, and soybeans. Prices plummeted, farmers bemoaned the low prices, and taxpayers subsidies grew rapidly to cover farmers' losses. This cycle led to a remarkable gift for meat producers. Feed grains were the biggest cost that Tyson Foods had to pay to raise animals. If feed grains got too expensive, the company's profits could quickly vanish. Freedom to Farm didn't just make grains cheaper for Tyson. The federal program went so far as to produce an upside-down food economy, where corn was actually cheaper to buy than it was to grow....For industrial hog producers alone, Freedom to Farm delivered about $947 million a year in savings, according to one study." (p.165-6)
"On the meatpacking side, there are now just four companies that buy 85 percent of the cattle sold in the country. Tyson is the biggest, followed by Cargill, JBS Swift, and National Beef. As meatpackers have become bigger, feedlots have tried to keep pace, expanding to meet the needs of their corporate buyers...What has evolved is a kind of de facto vertical integration, with whole networks of feedlots tied to meatpackers under contract. The cattle market is technically an open one, but no one behaves that way, and it's an open secret that they don't. There is ample evidence that the big four meatpackers have chosen to divvy up the market, picking territories where they can buy all the cattle from a feedlot without facing a competing bid." (p. 208-9)
"While Tyson has been the architect of this system, the driving force behind it has been the American consumer. Americans have decided that meat must be cheap and plentiful. It must be consistent in its attributes and predictable in its taste. It takes factory farms to raise meat like that. It takes companies like Tyson. It takes networks of chicken farmers integrated tightly with big slaughterhouses like the one in Waldron. It takes a steady flow of genetically selected pigs from the nursery in Holdenville, Oklahoma, that are shipped to contract farms in Iowa for raising. It requires massive feedlots, controlled by contracts, that can guarantee a nonstop supply of cattle. The system also requires the rules that Tyson has imposed. This is what delivers the cheap pork chop, the Zilmax-infused hamburger patty, and the ever-ready supply of chicken McNuggets." (p. 226-7)
"Industrial food lobbyists know it's smart to stick together. A regulation over one of them could open the door to regulation over others. By pooling their money and time, they present a united wall against any legislation that might change the power structure of American agribusiness. They fight together, and they profit together. Meat lobbyists hold regular conference calls, sharing tips and news and planning future campaigns." (p. 251-2)
"The biggest meat companies - Tyson Foods, ConAgra Foods, Cargill, Smithfield, and JBS - spent a combined $5.94 million on lobbying during 2010 alone, according to an analysis of disclosure reports. Tyson had the biggest lobbying operation by far, spending $2.59 million." (p. 286)
"In 68 percent of the counties where Tyson operates, per-capita income has grown more slowly than the state average over the last forty years. Tyson counties, in other words, were worse off in terms of income growth than their neighbors, even as Tyson's profits increased...But the data suggests that Tyson is a suffocating economic force on the communities from which it derives its wealth. Without question, the company provides thousands of jobs and steady paychecks. But its cost-cutting ethos and the lack of competition restrains income growth in rural America. The company has expanded in economically marginal areas, and it has kept those areas economically marginal. Tyson Foods is feeding off the lowly economic position of rural America, not improving it." (p. 315-6)
Some of the many quotes I really enjoyed:
"Just a handful of companies produce nearly all the meat consumed in the United States, and Tyson is the king among them. The company sits atop a powerful oligarchy of corporations that determines how animals are raised, how much farmers get paid, and how meat is processed, all while reaping massive profits and remaining almost entirely opaque to the consumer...[this is]a system that keeps farmers in a state of indebted servitude, living like modern-day sharecroppers on the ragged edge of bankruptcy." (p. 3)
"Tyson could roughly predict which chicks would be healthy based on the age of the hens that laid the eggs. Older hens produced weaker chicks, while younger hens laid more vigorous broods. Edwards noticed that some farmers were consistently receiving chicks produced by the healthiest, youngest hens. Whoever was setting up the deliveries in the Broiler Office was giving these farmers the cream off the top. And he noticed something else: Other farmers were consistently getting the batches of culls. As Perry Edwards pored over the shipping logs, he saw that the pattern was the same. When there were bad batches of birds, they went to the same group of farms. And the healthiest birds also went to a select group of farms that, not coincidentally, always ranked as the highest paid farms in the network." (p. 37)
"Cash-basis accounting is simple. A company records its expenses only when it pays out the actual cash for them. And it only books income when the actual cash comes in the door. By contrast, companies using accrual accounting methods record their expenses when they sign a contract to pay someone, even if the cash hasn't actually left their account yet. Farmers were allowed to use cash-basis accounting because it was simpler, and Congress didn't think small farms had the money to hire accountants for complicated recordkeeping...By 1985, Tyson's Foods had avoided paying $26.5 million in annual taxes through the cash-basis loophole, according to a report written by two economists with the U.S. General Accounting Office. The morality of the ploy didn't seem to be a matter of much debate inside Tyson. When the company saw a loophole and a chance to make a profit, Tyson took it, a strategy that became part of the company's culture for decades to come...In 1986 Tyson was forced to quit using the scheme when the Tax Reform Act closed the loophole for farms with more than $25 million a year in gross recipts." (p. 72-4)
"At the end of any given week, a series of letters is mailed out from the Tyson complex in downtown Waldron...The letters are several pages long and packed with complicated financial figures. The farmers call them settlement sheets. The one critical piece of information the settlement sheets contain is the going price of chicken, or, more accurately, the price that Tyson deems appropriate to pay. Each farmer receives his own price, determined by the tournament system that ranks each farmer against his neighbor. At the end of each week, Tyson makes a competitive pool out of all the farms that have delivered chickens to the plant. The company has far more data about the farms than their owners; the company can compare how much feed each farm consumed compared to its neighbors, how many birds died and how much weight gained overall...All this information is fed into an equation that spits out a simple ranking: the most efficient farms on top, the least efficient at the bottom...But there are critical pieces of information that Tyson keeps secret. The company doesn't tell the farmer whom he competed against in a given tournament...If a farmer ranks near the top, he might earn 5 cents a pound for his labor. If he ranks in the middle, he would get paid 4.5 cents. Close to the bottom, he would make 4.1 cents...When a farmer gets hammered in the tournament, it might seem prudent for him to approach his neighbors and ask what they were doing differently. This is tough to do, and not just because the names on the tournament ranking are left blank. Each page is clearly marked with the warning: 'Confidential and Proprietary Information of Tyson Foods, Inc.' If farmers were to meet and compare their settlement sheets, or show them to a journalist or lawyer, Tyson can sue them for leaking confidential information." (p. 115-117)
"The tournament system is kept afloat by an obscure federal organization called the Farm Service Agency. The FSA spends hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to make sure that there will always be cheap loans for a new chicken farm when an older one is put out of business...While the agency was limited in how much money it could loan directly to farmers, it had far more leeway in the size of the loan it could guarantee. Under the guaranteed loan program, the FSA would pay back the bank more than 90 percent of the loan value if a farmer defaulted...Between 1999 and 2009, the Arkansas FSA office alone guaranteed more than $797 million in new loans, leaving taxpayers on the hook if the farms failed...It's difficult to determine how much money taxpayers spend every year to support Tyson's system of contract farmers. Clearly, billions of dollars underpin the construction of new chicken farms in the United States. This steady flow of easy credit allows Tyson and its competitors to cast off farmers without worrying that banks will hesitate to lend money to the next chicken grower in line." (p. 139-143)
"The free market had very little to do with the U.S. food market anymore. The USDA, for example, centrally controlled how many acres of corn were planted each year. This wasn't as completely Sovietesque as it sounds: The production controls weren't mandatory. Farmers could plant as many acres of corn or wheat as they wanted. But if they didn't comply with the USDA's state production levels, the farmers got cut out of government subsidies. In essence, the USDA bribed farmers to go along with its central planning regime. And it worked remarkably well...In 1996, Congress ended the farm subsidy program with a new farm bill called the Freedom to Farm Act. Strangely enough, Freedom to Farm only enlarged the farm subsidy program and made it much more expensive...In 1998 taxpayers handed over $12.4 billion to farmers, and in 1999 they paid $21.5 billion, nearly triple what they paid before Freedom to Farm was passed. While it didn't end subsidies, Freedom to Farm made one critical change that benefited Tyson Foods. The law disbanded production controls. Farmers got their government checks, and they could grow whatever they wanted. When the production controls went away, farmers did what they do best: They massively overproduced. The world was glutted with corn, wheat, and soybeans. Prices plummeted, farmers bemoaned the low prices, and taxpayers subsidies grew rapidly to cover farmers' losses. This cycle led to a remarkable gift for meat producers. Feed grains were the biggest cost that Tyson Foods had to pay to raise animals. If feed grains got too expensive, the company's profits could quickly vanish. Freedom to Farm didn't just make grains cheaper for Tyson. The federal program went so far as to produce an upside-down food economy, where corn was actually cheaper to buy than it was to grow....For industrial hog producers alone, Freedom to Farm delivered about $947 million a year in savings, according to one study." (p.165-6)
"On the meatpacking side, there are now just four companies that buy 85 percent of the cattle sold in the country. Tyson is the biggest, followed by Cargill, JBS Swift, and National Beef. As meatpackers have become bigger, feedlots have tried to keep pace, expanding to meet the needs of their corporate buyers...What has evolved is a kind of de facto vertical integration, with whole networks of feedlots tied to meatpackers under contract. The cattle market is technically an open one, but no one behaves that way, and it's an open secret that they don't. There is ample evidence that the big four meatpackers have chosen to divvy up the market, picking territories where they can buy all the cattle from a feedlot without facing a competing bid." (p. 208-9)
"While Tyson has been the architect of this system, the driving force behind it has been the American consumer. Americans have decided that meat must be cheap and plentiful. It must be consistent in its attributes and predictable in its taste. It takes factory farms to raise meat like that. It takes companies like Tyson. It takes networks of chicken farmers integrated tightly with big slaughterhouses like the one in Waldron. It takes a steady flow of genetically selected pigs from the nursery in Holdenville, Oklahoma, that are shipped to contract farms in Iowa for raising. It requires massive feedlots, controlled by contracts, that can guarantee a nonstop supply of cattle. The system also requires the rules that Tyson has imposed. This is what delivers the cheap pork chop, the Zilmax-infused hamburger patty, and the ever-ready supply of chicken McNuggets." (p. 226-7)
"Industrial food lobbyists know it's smart to stick together. A regulation over one of them could open the door to regulation over others. By pooling their money and time, they present a united wall against any legislation that might change the power structure of American agribusiness. They fight together, and they profit together. Meat lobbyists hold regular conference calls, sharing tips and news and planning future campaigns." (p. 251-2)
"The biggest meat companies - Tyson Foods, ConAgra Foods, Cargill, Smithfield, and JBS - spent a combined $5.94 million on lobbying during 2010 alone, according to an analysis of disclosure reports. Tyson had the biggest lobbying operation by far, spending $2.59 million." (p. 286)
"In 68 percent of the counties where Tyson operates, per-capita income has grown more slowly than the state average over the last forty years. Tyson counties, in other words, were worse off in terms of income growth than their neighbors, even as Tyson's profits increased...But the data suggests that Tyson is a suffocating economic force on the communities from which it derives its wealth. Without question, the company provides thousands of jobs and steady paychecks. But its cost-cutting ethos and the lack of competition restrains income growth in rural America. The company has expanded in economically marginal areas, and it has kept those areas economically marginal. Tyson Foods is feeding off the lowly economic position of rural America, not improving it." (p. 315-6)
Lies You Wanted to Hear by James Whitfield Thomson
This was a really interesting book. When Lucy and Matt meet it's love at first sight for him, but Lucy is still hung up on her on-again, off-again jerk ex-boyfriend Griffin. Matt is perfect on paper, but she knows she'll never love him like he loves her. But, when she finds out she's pregnant she decides to make a go of it with Matt. But, a few years later Griffin comes back on the scene and Lucy just can't resist him. I don't want to give anything away, but both Matt and Lucy have to deal with the consequences of their relationship and how that affects their children. When Matt does something drastic, Lucy realizes just how much she loves her kids and the lengths she would go for them. Overall it was a really interesting book that really makes you think about how every act has long-term consequences even when you think you're doing the "right" thing. I did think the ending was a little too vague and that's why I didn't give this one more stars. The story definitely kept me going wanting to know what would happen next, but I don't like vague endings.
Yin, Yang, Yogini by Kathryn Livingston
Kathryn Livingston was always a worrier, but it's gotten worse for her since her mother died. Her mother was a worrier too and they worried about everything together. When one of her sons signs up for a month-long class in Europe she really starts to freak out about him being on the plane and so far from home for a month. She starts seeing a therapist to deal with her anxieties and they suggest she try yoga before going on medication to calm down. The book chronicles her first 2 years of practicing yoga. In the second year she is diagnosed with breast cancer and that's when she really sees the changes that yoga has brought in her life. She learns to stop being afraid of everything and dwelling in the past. Yoga teaches her to enjoy the moment and not worry about the past or the future, but just to be in the moment.
I've been practicing yoga for about 6 months now and I love it. I thought I would love this book, but it just wasn't great. While you do see Livingston change and grow through yoga I didn't like the tone of the book - it almost seemed complaining even when she was talking about good things. It also seemed very repetitive and wordy. Overall, I would recommend going to yoga instead of reading this book about Livingston's experience with yoga.
I've been practicing yoga for about 6 months now and I love it. I thought I would love this book, but it just wasn't great. While you do see Livingston change and grow through yoga I didn't like the tone of the book - it almost seemed complaining even when she was talking about good things. It also seemed very repetitive and wordy. Overall, I would recommend going to yoga instead of reading this book about Livingston's experience with yoga.
The Sisters Weiss by Naomi Ragen
Rose and Pearl were not only sisters, but best friends when they were children. Growing up in an ultra-orthodox Jewish house Rose had a lot of responsibilities from a young age, including helping care for her younger sister Pearl. When Rose innocently borrows a book from her friend her parents freak out because the book has "indecent" pictures in it and banish Rose to a new school and living with her grandmother. From that time on Rose realizes that she will never have a say in her own life if she stays with her family. On the eve of her arranged marriage she runs away and never looks back. Pearl is heartbroken after her sister leaves and Rose's decision to run away also has a huge impact on Pearl's life. 40 years later Rose and Pearl finally interact again, but not because of something good. Pearl's youngest daughter Rivka has run away from home and show's up at Rose's daughter Hannah's house. Rivka's decision to run away stirs up a lot of memories and feelings for Rose. It also is what finally brings the two sisters back together after 40 years apart. An interesting look at the orthodox Jewish life from two perspectives - Pearl who stayed and Rose who left. Through Rose and Rivka's stories you also see that even when you run away from your past and family - it never really leaves you.
I thought the ending felt kind of rushed and crazy, but overall I really liked the book. I do wish there had been more of Rose's back story of her life when she ran away - there is some, but not enough. Overall, I really liked it and it explores a unique segment of our society.
I thought the ending felt kind of rushed and crazy, but overall I really liked the book. I do wish there had been more of Rose's back story of her life when she ran away - there is some, but not enough. Overall, I really liked it and it explores a unique segment of our society.
Chickens in the Road by Suzanne McMinn
After Suzanne McMinn's divorce she decides she wants to live somewhere with "chickens in the road" and decides to move to West Virginia where her father's family is from. Suzanne grew up spending time in West Virginia, but has never actually lived or worked on a farm. She and her 3 children move to a very small community and she begins working on her farm. Once in WV she meets the man she calls "52" and they decide to buy land and build a house and farm. It's VERY obvious from the very beginning that 52 is an asshole and their relationship won't last, but Suzanne tries because she loves the farm so much. Finally she begins to realize that she CAN support herself and live her own dream without someone like 52 in it making her life miserable. While a lot of the book is about her tumultuous relationship with 52 there is a lot of great stuff about the farm and Suzanne trying to live more self-sufficiently on the farm. The end of the books has a lot of recipes and craft projects too. After reading the reviews of this book I wasn't sure how much I was going to like it, but I liked it more than I thought I would. I definitely want to try out some of her recipes too!
My Wish List by Gregoire Delacourt
This is a very odd little book. It was so short I finished it over the course of one day. The story follows Jo, who lives an average life with her husband and almost grown children. She owns a fabric shop and is mostly content with her life. When two of her friends convince her to play the lottery she wins 18 million euros! But, Jo doesn't tell anyone that she won. She is worried that the money will change things between her and her husband. But, then he betrays her in a terrible way. He seemed like a terrible husband, so I'm not sure why she wanted to keep their life the same. The end of the book is very odd and doesn't really explain everything clearly. It was a very odd book with a not great ending, so I wouldn't recommend it. The only redeeming part was that it definitely makes the point that money can't buy happiness.
