The Woman They Wanted by Shannon Harris
Shannon Harris didn't grow up in church or the evangelical homeschooling world. Yet she ended up becoming Christian "royalty" by marrying Joshua Harris, the famed author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye and eventual head pastor of Sovereign Grace church. Shannon's story is sad. A friend invited her to church and she really enjoyed the music so she kept visiting. Eventually she got a part time job at the church and that was how she met Josh. Their "courtship"/relationship seemed really odd given how much control CJ Mahaney had over Josh and who he would marry. That the poster boy for purity culture and courtship would marry someone who didn't grow up in church and wasn't a virgin is pretty crazy for that culture. As a new believer she was swept up in the church culture and any red flags she saw could be explained away as someone who didn't grow up going to church - maybe this is how it is and I just don't know. What's most sad is how she was groomed/prepared for being Josh's wife. She wasn't allowed to have her non-Christian friends in the wedding, she was pressured to get rid of a ring that a previous boyfriend had given her, she was explicitly told any dreams or career plans had to be given up so that she could support Josh and the church. I'm still not sure why she went along with all this given her background. Someone who grew up in that culture, sure. I don't know if it was something about her personality or what but she initially bought into everything they were telling her - until she didn't. The memoir is sparely written but she is able to say SO MUCH with so few words. This isn't a tell-all of all the inside bullshit from a toxic church and it's downfall. It's her looking back and seeing her own story in a new light - how she was pressured and shamed into being someone completely different - The Woman They Wanted.
I grew up in the evangelical church so I was familiar with the Christian bestseller, I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris. I never read the book because even as a Christian I didn't agree with the premise of "courting" and not having any physical contact at all during dating. I knew that Harris had recanted (for lack of a better word) his views from that book after there was a huge backlash from (mostly) women who were seriously harmed by those views/theology. So when I heard about his now ex-wife writing a memoir I couldn't wait to read it. I never knew anything much about Josh Harris or Sovereign Grace church that he was a part of and eventually pastored, or the more recent allegations and abuse coverups. The only thing that was missing in my opinion from this book is a little more about her relationship with Josh - did they ever talk about these issues at all? Did he ever feel trapped in his role? etc.
I will say as someone who is still a practicing Christian all the one star reviews of this book that I read were people who don't like that Shannon left the Church/Sovereign Grace/complementarianism/etc. This book never pretended to be a theological exegesis. This is her story. And if you don't think she should get to tell her story then you're helping her make her point. Her voice was silenced and so are MANY other women in complementarian churches. That is NOT Biblical. So, be ware of the one star reviews that aren't about the book at all but are more about disagreement over theology.
Some quotes I liked:
"It was common for a new person to be invited to visit a Care Group. It was a brilliant retention tactic actually, because a person couldn't officially join a Care Group until becoming a member, and they couldn't become a member until they took a ten-week course and agreed in writing to what they had learned...Once you completed the course on the church doctrine, the next step was to go for a new member's interview with a pastor. There you'd need to tell your story, and the pastors had to be satisfied that you were a 'real Christian,' because there were so many counterfeits these days, they said. If you made it this far then you were in, but not until you agreed to do two things: attend a small group regularly and commit to a volunteer team. Oh, and agree to be put under church discipline if necessary." (p. 38) [SO. MANY. RED. FLAGS.]
"Modesty is one of those catch-all words that the church loves. It becomes sort of a broom and is used to shoo away all kinds of unwanted behavior according to personal preference. I used to think of clothing mostly when I heard the word modesty, but I realize now it is more all-encompassing that that. Modesty is a state of being. What the church was really asking was for women to diminish themselves in any and every way. This one tiny, soft-sounding word was actually razor sharp. In one fell swoop it cut us down to smaller size saying, Be less. Less visible. Less loud. Less colorful. Less present." (p. 111)
"Being his wife also meant that we were always 'on.' Even our private life was subservient to my husband's career and the church. One Valentine's dinner I wanted to have a glass of wine and Josh asked me not to for fear it would get back to someone higher up. One day I came home to discover my childhood music collection had been thrown away for the very same reason. I had to return the prenatal yoga video I purchased in case someone saw it and thought we were turning Buddhist. Big church brother was watching over us all the time. This became very draining for me. There was no place, public or private, where I could let my hair down and relax." (p. 118)
"The church split and all that came with it devastated me. My whole world just crumbled in an instant. Relationships I'd built my life around just turned to dust in my hands...And the hypocrisy of it all was too much to take. To have heard the words forgiveness and grace in hundreds of sermons, thousands of prayers, in every quote, every song, at every meeting and then to discover that in real life it had no impact on our actual relationships...I had never experienced something so deeply and profoundly disturbing in all my life." (p. 132)
"I remembered something else, too. I remembered that love should feel like love. Whether it is friendship love or God's love or parental love or spousal love it doesn't matter. Love should feel like love. If it feels like something less, then it probably is." (p. 168)
"I assumed the church understood love. I assumed it loved me, a woman. It never occurred to me that misogyny was a reason behind the teaching of submission. Or that shaming those living outside the box of patriarchal norms was really just a way of hiding hatred and fear. This has to be one of the greatest ironies of the church. To proclaim a Creator so loudly, yet disrespect the creation so deeply." (p. 215)
I grew up in the evangelical church so I was familiar with the Christian bestseller, I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris. I never read the book because even as a Christian I didn't agree with the premise of "courting" and not having any physical contact at all during dating. I knew that Harris had recanted (for lack of a better word) his views from that book after there was a huge backlash from (mostly) women who were seriously harmed by those views/theology. So when I heard about his now ex-wife writing a memoir I couldn't wait to read it. I never knew anything much about Josh Harris or Sovereign Grace church that he was a part of and eventually pastored, or the more recent allegations and abuse coverups. The only thing that was missing in my opinion from this book is a little more about her relationship with Josh - did they ever talk about these issues at all? Did he ever feel trapped in his role? etc.
I will say as someone who is still a practicing Christian all the one star reviews of this book that I read were people who don't like that Shannon left the Church/Sovereign Grace/complementarianism/etc. This book never pretended to be a theological exegesis. This is her story. And if you don't think she should get to tell her story then you're helping her make her point. Her voice was silenced and so are MANY other women in complementarian churches. That is NOT Biblical. So, be ware of the one star reviews that aren't about the book at all but are more about disagreement over theology.
Some quotes I liked:
"It was common for a new person to be invited to visit a Care Group. It was a brilliant retention tactic actually, because a person couldn't officially join a Care Group until becoming a member, and they couldn't become a member until they took a ten-week course and agreed in writing to what they had learned...Once you completed the course on the church doctrine, the next step was to go for a new member's interview with a pastor. There you'd need to tell your story, and the pastors had to be satisfied that you were a 'real Christian,' because there were so many counterfeits these days, they said. If you made it this far then you were in, but not until you agreed to do two things: attend a small group regularly and commit to a volunteer team. Oh, and agree to be put under church discipline if necessary." (p. 38) [SO. MANY. RED. FLAGS.]
"Modesty is one of those catch-all words that the church loves. It becomes sort of a broom and is used to shoo away all kinds of unwanted behavior according to personal preference. I used to think of clothing mostly when I heard the word modesty, but I realize now it is more all-encompassing that that. Modesty is a state of being. What the church was really asking was for women to diminish themselves in any and every way. This one tiny, soft-sounding word was actually razor sharp. In one fell swoop it cut us down to smaller size saying, Be less. Less visible. Less loud. Less colorful. Less present." (p. 111)
"Being his wife also meant that we were always 'on.' Even our private life was subservient to my husband's career and the church. One Valentine's dinner I wanted to have a glass of wine and Josh asked me not to for fear it would get back to someone higher up. One day I came home to discover my childhood music collection had been thrown away for the very same reason. I had to return the prenatal yoga video I purchased in case someone saw it and thought we were turning Buddhist. Big church brother was watching over us all the time. This became very draining for me. There was no place, public or private, where I could let my hair down and relax." (p. 118)
"The church split and all that came with it devastated me. My whole world just crumbled in an instant. Relationships I'd built my life around just turned to dust in my hands...And the hypocrisy of it all was too much to take. To have heard the words forgiveness and grace in hundreds of sermons, thousands of prayers, in every quote, every song, at every meeting and then to discover that in real life it had no impact on our actual relationships...I had never experienced something so deeply and profoundly disturbing in all my life." (p. 132)
"I remembered something else, too. I remembered that love should feel like love. Whether it is friendship love or God's love or parental love or spousal love it doesn't matter. Love should feel like love. If it feels like something less, then it probably is." (p. 168)
"I assumed the church understood love. I assumed it loved me, a woman. It never occurred to me that misogyny was a reason behind the teaching of submission. Or that shaming those living outside the box of patriarchal norms was really just a way of hiding hatred and fear. This has to be one of the greatest ironies of the church. To proclaim a Creator so loudly, yet disrespect the creation so deeply." (p. 215)
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Books & Banter, re-read)
Bill Furlong is living a quiet, unremarkable life in Ireland in 1985. While times are tough with factories and businesses closing down, Furlong is still doing fine delivering coal and wood to locals. Winter is his busiest time and while delivering coal to the local Catholic church Furlong uncovers a distressing "open secret" relating to the local Magdalene laundry. This discovery causes Furlong to think about his own origins more and just how good his own family has things now. But, instead of minding his own business, Furlong decides to do something that will definitely have repercussions for his family and the troubled young woman he helps.
This novella is beautifully written in a quiet, sparse way. Bill Furlong is a wonderful character and I'd love to see a follow up novel set a few years after this one to see what happens to everyone. I felt like it was kind of a twist or remake of the Nativity story in some ways. I had heard of the Magdalene laundries, but after reading this book I read more about it and it is certainly appalling. I appreciate the way the author drew attention to this issue is a unique way through this novel. While not a traditional "happy" Christmas book definitely a good book to read around the holidays. Hopefully my book club will enjoy it as our holiday read this year.
Notes on re-reading 12/5/23:
I was almost able to read this book in one sitting. Somehow it seemed shorter reading it a second time. I liked it equally as much as when I read it the first time. I do really like how the author did such a good job of exploring a very complicated issue with so few words. Very sparely written but powerful. Bill Furlong is a wonderful character and I'd love to see a sequel one day with an update about Sarah.
A quote I liked:
"As they carried on along and met more people Furlong did and did not know, he found himself asking was there any point in being alive without helping one another? Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror?" (p. 113)
This novella is beautifully written in a quiet, sparse way. Bill Furlong is a wonderful character and I'd love to see a follow up novel set a few years after this one to see what happens to everyone. I felt like it was kind of a twist or remake of the Nativity story in some ways. I had heard of the Magdalene laundries, but after reading this book I read more about it and it is certainly appalling. I appreciate the way the author drew attention to this issue is a unique way through this novel. While not a traditional "happy" Christmas book definitely a good book to read around the holidays. Hopefully my book club will enjoy it as our holiday read this year.
Notes on re-reading 12/5/23:
I was almost able to read this book in one sitting. Somehow it seemed shorter reading it a second time. I liked it equally as much as when I read it the first time. I do really like how the author did such a good job of exploring a very complicated issue with so few words. Very sparely written but powerful. Bill Furlong is a wonderful character and I'd love to see a sequel one day with an update about Sarah.
A quote I liked:
"As they carried on along and met more people Furlong did and did not know, he found himself asking was there any point in being alive without helping one another? Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror?" (p. 113)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (Evening Edition, re-read)
Harry Potter is famous among the wizarding world, but he doesn't even know he's a wizard. All he knows is that his parents died when he was a baby and he's been living with his awful Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and cousin Dudley for the past 10 years. As his 11th birthday approaches odd things start happening around him. On his birthday he finds out that his parents were actually wizards and were killed by Voldemort, a powerful wizard who chose the dark side. But when he tried to kill Harry something happened that seems to have (at least partially) destroyed Voldemort and his powers. Now that he's 11, Harry is going to be enrolled in Hogwarts Wizard school. Hogwarts changes everything for Harry - he's popular already, he makes friends, excels in school, and finally feels like he has somewhere he belongs. However, it appears Voldemort may be trying to make a comeback and Harry feels like he must try to fight back against this dark magic that threatens the world he's only just come to know. Harry along with his trusty friends Ron and Hermione fall into a wild ride of magical adventures in this first book of the Harry Potter series.
I read this book for the first time in the early 2000's (before Goodreads) and loved it. I went on to read the whole series and watch all the movies (which do a great job capturing the books as well). Rowling does such a good job with the whole Hogwarts/wizarding world, as well as the characters. Harry is a perfect underdog you want to cheer on and see succeed. The friendships and characters only get stronger and better as the series goes on. One of my book clubs selected this for our "classic" book this year. I'll be curious to see what they think of this one if they haven't read it before. There has already been a little debate about whether or not it should be considered a "classic." I personally think Rowling is an amazing author and the Harry Potter books will stand the test of time and definitely deserve the "classic" label.
A quote I liked:
"You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all - the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them." (p. 297)
I read this book for the first time in the early 2000's (before Goodreads) and loved it. I went on to read the whole series and watch all the movies (which do a great job capturing the books as well). Rowling does such a good job with the whole Hogwarts/wizarding world, as well as the characters. Harry is a perfect underdog you want to cheer on and see succeed. The friendships and characters only get stronger and better as the series goes on. One of my book clubs selected this for our "classic" book this year. I'll be curious to see what they think of this one if they haven't read it before. There has already been a little debate about whether or not it should be considered a "classic." I personally think Rowling is an amazing author and the Harry Potter books will stand the test of time and definitely deserve the "classic" label.
A quote I liked:
"You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all - the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them." (p. 297)
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
I absolutely LOVED Evicted and was excited when I heard that Matthew Desmond had a new book coming out. But, I was disappointed with Poverty, By America. Evicted was that perfect kind of non-fiction book that draws you in immediately and you just can't put it down. It read like a story even though there were still plenty of facts and statistics. Poverty reads like a PhD dissertation - tons of facts and stats and very little personal stories. With a topic like this you need the personal stories to draw you in and feel the impact - that was what was so well done in Evicted. Plus, poverty is such a broad topic that it's hard to narrow down the causes and potential solutions in one short book (only 189 pages). Desmond points out some obvious issues around poverty, but he didn't have much in the way of solutions. I agreed with many of his points but I just don't know that poverty could ever be totally eradicated - there are just way too many variables at play. One thing kept running through my mind (and also did while I was reading Evicted) is the Bible verse 1 Timothy 6:10 "For the love of money is the root of all evil..." Money isn't inherently wrong, wealth isn't inherently wrong - but the LOVE of money and the willingness to do anything to anyone all the time to keep lining your pockets is what's behind a lot of the poverty issues. From payday loans, rent hikes, low wages, the gig economy, etc. are all ways that people or companies can keep more of the profits for themselves instead of just offering a fair service. But, again this is so complex I just don't think trying to be "poverty abolitionist" is going to fix everything. This was a disappointing read for me. Definitely NOT another Evicted.
Some quotes I liked:
[On the rise and reliance on contract workers in all spheres] "Of the roughly 750,000 workers around the globe who help make and sell Apple products, only around 63,000 work directly for Apple." (p. 53)
[On the exorbitant interest on payday loans] "The APR for a two-week $300 loan can reach 664 percent in Texas, 516 percent in Wisconsin, and 460 percent in California...Except that when the loan comes due, you usually still happen to be broke. So you ask for an extension, which will cost you. If you took out a two-week $400 loan with a $60 fee ($15 per $100), the loan officer might allow an extension if you pay the $60 fee when the original loan comes due. Then he will issue another fee, say for an additional $60. Just like that, you are charged $120 for borrowing $400, and that's if you as for only a single extension...The average borrower stays indebted for five months, paying $520 in fees to borrow $375. Keeping people indebted is, of course, the ideal outcome for the payday lender. It's how they turn a $15 profit into a $150 one." (p. 75-76)
Some quotes I liked:
[On the rise and reliance on contract workers in all spheres] "Of the roughly 750,000 workers around the globe who help make and sell Apple products, only around 63,000 work directly for Apple." (p. 53)
[On the exorbitant interest on payday loans] "The APR for a two-week $300 loan can reach 664 percent in Texas, 516 percent in Wisconsin, and 460 percent in California...Except that when the loan comes due, you usually still happen to be broke. So you ask for an extension, which will cost you. If you took out a two-week $400 loan with a $60 fee ($15 per $100), the loan officer might allow an extension if you pay the $60 fee when the original loan comes due. Then he will issue another fee, say for an additional $60. Just like that, you are charged $120 for borrowing $400, and that's if you as for only a single extension...The average borrower stays indebted for five months, paying $520 in fees to borrow $375. Keeping people indebted is, of course, the ideal outcome for the payday lender. It's how they turn a $15 profit into a $150 one." (p. 75-76)
Hell If We Don't Change Our Ways by Brittany Means
Brittany Means grew up with almost no stability. Her earliest memories are being in the car with her Mom driving - driving to someone, away from someone, just driving. When she would ask her Mom "Where are we going?" she would reply, Hell If We Don't Change Our Ways. Sadly, Brittany's life was hell. Almost every bad thing you can imagine happened to her - often multiple times. Her entire childhood was trauma, poverty, abuse (physical, sexual, and emotional), addiction (her mother's), instability, hoarding, and some extreme Pentecostal Christianity thrown in as well. Literally every single adult in her life failed her over and over again. It's almost amazing in a terrible way how every time it would seem like things might get better, they would get worse instead. It was also amazing in a bad way how many times CPS was called and didn't dig deep enough to see what was going on and how she was coached to give the "right" answers. Her half brother in addition to all the other trauma was actually abducted by a stranger, molested, and almost murdered. I mean how much could happen to these kids?! I think the hardest part to read about was her abusive relationship with her high school boyfriend. His family had taken her in after her Mom abandoned her again. But, they had to keep their relationship a secret while she was living there and it was VERY abusive in every way. It seemed like it could have been such a great opportunity for some stability and an actual home, then it too turned into yet another trauma for her. College was her escape and that's where she met her current boyfriend who was finally someone good for her and to her. College is also where she discovered therapy and finally started addressing all the trauma she'd experienced and started working on creating healthier ways for herself. Knowing she survived everything and is a functional adult is amazing. Brittany is a great writer but there was just SO MUCH BAD STUFF that it was a hard book to read. Like other dysfunctional family/trauma memoirs this won't be for everyone.
Some quotes I liked:
"I knew that the first-grade teacher hated me for never finishing the work packets and for humming to myself without realizing it. She looked at me the way people in the store looked at me sometimes, like I was failing some test I never knew I'd started." (p. 155)
"Planting a seed is easy. Tending to it so it can grow is the hard part." (p. 281)
Some quotes I liked:
"I knew that the first-grade teacher hated me for never finishing the work packets and for humming to myself without realizing it. She looked at me the way people in the store looked at me sometimes, like I was failing some test I never knew I'd started." (p. 155)
"Planting a seed is easy. Tending to it so it can grow is the hard part." (p. 281)
A Bold Return to Giving a Damn by Will Harris
Will Harris is the 4th generation to farm his family's land in Georgia. His father started industrializing their farm and Will picked it up and continued in that vein for awhile as well. Then he started to realize that industrial farming was hurting everything - their land, the animals, the farmers, the community, and even the food. Because he was already financially stable, he started making incremental changes that over time lead to some very big changes. He eventually built a slaughter facility on his farm to be able to control even how his animals were slaughtered. White Oak Pastures farm now has 6 generations of the Harris family living on it and is considered a pioneer in the regenerative farming movement.
I was all set to LOVE this book, but I was disappointed. The writing felt very rambling and could have been organized better. It also seems a little suspicious that suddenly Will Harris had this epiphany one day while his cattle were being loaded to go to a feed lot and he decided to completely change every aspect of the farm. That needed to be more fleshed out in my opinion. It was portrayed like this overnight HUGE change. While he did talk about things that were failures as he started to transition the farm, overall the depiction of this seemed a little too easy and simplistic. I also found it interesting that his father started having dementia in his early 60's and it was never mentioned that maybe that was because of all the chemicals he used and was exposed to while farming. But this was the reason Will came back to the farm to run things when his Dad started to decline more.
I also did not appreciate that he acted like he was THE regenerative farming pioneer and NO ONE ELSE WAS DOING THIS at the time. Polyface farm started in 1961 - they didn't achieve the fame they have now until later when Joel was running it, but other people were doing regenerative farming in the US before the 1990's. Maybe Harris didn't know about Joel Salatin. But that's hard to imagine as it was a very small world of farmers like that in the 90's and early 2000's. He never mentioned Joel or Polyface at all which seemed odd to me as Joel is such a huge voice for this movement and has been for a LONG time. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan that featured Joel was published in 2006 and really sparked a lot of the public interest in this kind of farming and food.
Overall, I just didn't care for the tone of the book. Harris comes across as arrogant in my opinion and like he was the only one doing this for so long (which is not the case). The book was rambling and kind of all over the place. There are many MUCH better books out there about regenerative farming and the pioneers, or current voices, of the movement. Check out anything written by Joel Salatin or Ben Hewitt.
There were some quotes I liked:
"Separating animals from the landscapes they evolved to live on - grasslands for herbivores, forests for hogs - was our original sin. Moving them indoors into industrial-scale houses, or fully away from their natural environment in concrete feedlots, was the ultimate arrogance." (p. 125-26)
"I believe that to raise food the right way, humane slaughter must be brought under the farmer's oversight - whether it happens on their own farm is not as important as whether the farmer has a direct connection to the process, and some influence over how it is done. This is extremely unusual even today." (p. 136)
[During COVID] "On our cyclical farm we didn't miss a beat. That's not said from a place of arrogance. But the pandemic impacted us a lot less than it impacted the Big Food system, because we are not as dependent on external sources for the things we need done, and we don't rely on other entities to take our products to market. Building a system in which we have control over production, processing, and marketing made it easier for us to pivot under duress." (p. 244)
I was all set to LOVE this book, but I was disappointed. The writing felt very rambling and could have been organized better. It also seems a little suspicious that suddenly Will Harris had this epiphany one day while his cattle were being loaded to go to a feed lot and he decided to completely change every aspect of the farm. That needed to be more fleshed out in my opinion. It was portrayed like this overnight HUGE change. While he did talk about things that were failures as he started to transition the farm, overall the depiction of this seemed a little too easy and simplistic. I also found it interesting that his father started having dementia in his early 60's and it was never mentioned that maybe that was because of all the chemicals he used and was exposed to while farming. But this was the reason Will came back to the farm to run things when his Dad started to decline more.
I also did not appreciate that he acted like he was THE regenerative farming pioneer and NO ONE ELSE WAS DOING THIS at the time. Polyface farm started in 1961 - they didn't achieve the fame they have now until later when Joel was running it, but other people were doing regenerative farming in the US before the 1990's. Maybe Harris didn't know about Joel Salatin. But that's hard to imagine as it was a very small world of farmers like that in the 90's and early 2000's. He never mentioned Joel or Polyface at all which seemed odd to me as Joel is such a huge voice for this movement and has been for a LONG time. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan that featured Joel was published in 2006 and really sparked a lot of the public interest in this kind of farming and food.
Overall, I just didn't care for the tone of the book. Harris comes across as arrogant in my opinion and like he was the only one doing this for so long (which is not the case). The book was rambling and kind of all over the place. There are many MUCH better books out there about regenerative farming and the pioneers, or current voices, of the movement. Check out anything written by Joel Salatin or Ben Hewitt.
There were some quotes I liked:
"Separating animals from the landscapes they evolved to live on - grasslands for herbivores, forests for hogs - was our original sin. Moving them indoors into industrial-scale houses, or fully away from their natural environment in concrete feedlots, was the ultimate arrogance." (p. 125-26)
"I believe that to raise food the right way, humane slaughter must be brought under the farmer's oversight - whether it happens on their own farm is not as important as whether the farmer has a direct connection to the process, and some influence over how it is done. This is extremely unusual even today." (p. 136)
[During COVID] "On our cyclical farm we didn't miss a beat. That's not said from a place of arrogance. But the pandemic impacted us a lot less than it impacted the Big Food system, because we are not as dependent on external sources for the things we need done, and we don't rely on other entities to take our products to market. Building a system in which we have control over production, processing, and marketing made it easier for us to pivot under duress." (p. 244)
Southern Ground by Jennifer Lapidus
I recently started milling my own flour from whole wheat and have been looking for books in my public library that have recipes for freshly milled flour and/or talk about freshly milled flour. There have been very few in my library. But one of them is this one - Southern Ground by Jennifer Lapidus. She founded Carolina Ground Mill in Asheville, NC - one of the only stone ground mills that also sources locally grown wheat to mill. I had heard of Carolina Ground before but this book gives the background on how and why Lapidus started this mill and its importance in the NC local food movement. The first half of the book is Lapidus's personal story and how she started Carolina Ground Mill. It also includes features of other local bakers who are part of the mill cooperative and test bake with new types of milled flours and grains. The second half of the book is recipes. My only complaint about the recipes is that most of them cater to sourdough or naturally leavened bread. While she does include a good tutorial on creating a natural leaven, I was personally looking for more recipes that are for freshly milled flour. I do think this is a good book that focuses on the importance of sourcing local food/ingredients. It may be one I purchase in the future since the focus is on NC too.
Food, Inc. 2 by Karl Weber, ed.
The first Food, Inc. documentary was life changing for me. I had recently read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, then after I watched the first Food, Inc. I totally changed how I ate. I stopped buying meat at the grocery store and only purchased it directly from local farmers. We started growing more food, learned to can, and basically changed how we ate. So, needless to say I was very excited to hear that Food, Inc. 2 was coming! While waiting for the new documentary I decided to go ahead and read this companion book to the second documentary. I was a little concerned that the focus might be on more plant-based and fake meat, but that was not the case. There were some mentions, but overall the book is still a good collection of essays by a variety of authors continuing the discussion on our current food system and how it could be better. I love that the first section is essays by Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser who were the narrators of the original Food, Inc. documentary. There was a ton of really interesting information that continues to highlight just how awful the current industrial food system is for everyone. I can't wait to see the new documentary! In the meantime I'm still reading about our food system and still adding to what I'm doing at home and supporting my local lunatic farmers.
There were lots of quotes I liked:
In April 2020, "...President Donald Trump issued an executive order that declared meatpacking plants to be 'critical infrastructure' under the Defense Production Act of 1950 and prohibited closure by state health authorities." (p. 12) under the guise that the American people NEEDED this meat that was being processed especially during COVID. " In 2022 "The House subcommittee found that the risk of severe meat shortages, cited repeatedly by the industry to avoid worker protections, was a myth. For example, during the spring of 2020, the United States had 622 million pounds of pork in cold storage - enough to supply American grocery stores for more than a year. 'During the first three quarters of 2020, Smithfield exported 90 percent more pork to China than it did during the same period in 2017, while JBS appears to have exported a whopping 370 percent more,' the subcommittee report said. The profits of the meatpacking industry skyrocketed during the pandemic. Between 2020 and 2021, Tyson's net income increased from $2 billion to $3 billion, while the net income of JBS rose from $937 million to $4.2 billion." (p. 22)
"Many ultra-processed foods are deliberately formulated to be hyper-palatable, instantly gratifying, and habit-forming. A recent review of the science concludes that some 'are created in ways that parallel the development of addictive drugs, including the inclusion of an unnaturally high dose of rewarding ingredients that are rapidly absorbed into the system and enhanced through additives.'" (p. 44)
"In July 2021, the Rockefeller Foundation released a report estimating the true cost of food in the United States. It found that while Americans reached into their wallets and paid just over $1 trillion to purchase food in 2019, the actual cost - including the economic toll of pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, health care, and other factors - was three times that amount, at more than $3 trillion." (p. 92)
"...Iowa is home to twenty-three million pigs at any given moment, an increase of 64 percent in the last twenty years. And pig waste is a real shitstorm compared to chicken waste. In 2019, a University of Iowa research engineer calculated that, while Iowa has a population of just 3.2 million people, it produces the waste of 168 million. In November 2019, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources found that more than half the state's rivers, streams, lakes, and wetlands failed to meet water quality standards due to pollutants including nitrogen, E. coli, and cyanobacteria. The agency has documented hundreds of manure spills from confinement operations, which regularly kill thousands of fish and other aquatic organisms." (p. 94)
"However, in the United States, despite the populist movement, anti-tipping sentiment was largely quelled in the 1850s and 1860s due to restaurant employers' quest to seek ever-cheaper labor. In 1853, waiters in large northeastern cities, who were mostly white men who received full wages and no tips, went on strike to demand higher salaries from their employers. In response, restaurants replaced these male waiters with women entering the workforce, offering them far less wages. Twelve years later, when emancipation finally resulted in the slaves being freed, restaurant owners sought an even cheaper source of labor. They hired newly freed African Americans arriving in northern cities after emancipation, offering them service jobs with no wages at all - only the opportunity to obtain white customers' tips." (p. 105)
"A 2021 study on the impact of subsidies on farmer behavior also concluded that subsidies often disincentivize producers from risk-mitigation efforts. If crop insurance and subsidy payments neutralize negative impacts from low prices or poor yields, a farmer has less incentive to take proactive steps against those outcomes - for example, by paying for cover crops to boost soil health, diversifying rotations, or repairing degraded riparian buffers to prevent nutrient runoff." (p. 126)
"Rather than encouraging Americans to adopt healthier eating habits, US industry has a vested interest in producing and selling medications aimed at alleviating diseases caused by unhealthy foods. Accordingly, between 1999 and 2018, the pharmaceutical industry spent roughly $4.7 billion on lobbying while making $414 million in contributions to political campaigns. It shelled out another $877 million in contributions to state-based candidates. Most of these contributions were targeted toward senior legislators responsible for drafting health-care laws or committees that oversee referenda on drug pricing and regulation." (p. 127-28)
"...data from OSHA summarized in a 2019 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report shows that in the United States, a worker in the meat and poultry industry lost a body part or was sent to the hospital for in-patient treatment about every other day between 2015 and 2018. Between 2013 and 2017, eight workers died, on average, each year because of an incident in their plant." (p. 210)
"Charles Eisenstein writes, 'When you eat something, you eat everything that happened to make that food come into existence. You are affirming a certain version of the world.' He then asks, 'Does it nourish you? Are you happy with the reality you are saying yes to?'" (p. 235)
There were lots of quotes I liked:
In April 2020, "...President Donald Trump issued an executive order that declared meatpacking plants to be 'critical infrastructure' under the Defense Production Act of 1950 and prohibited closure by state health authorities." (p. 12) under the guise that the American people NEEDED this meat that was being processed especially during COVID. " In 2022 "The House subcommittee found that the risk of severe meat shortages, cited repeatedly by the industry to avoid worker protections, was a myth. For example, during the spring of 2020, the United States had 622 million pounds of pork in cold storage - enough to supply American grocery stores for more than a year. 'During the first three quarters of 2020, Smithfield exported 90 percent more pork to China than it did during the same period in 2017, while JBS appears to have exported a whopping 370 percent more,' the subcommittee report said. The profits of the meatpacking industry skyrocketed during the pandemic. Between 2020 and 2021, Tyson's net income increased from $2 billion to $3 billion, while the net income of JBS rose from $937 million to $4.2 billion." (p. 22)
"Many ultra-processed foods are deliberately formulated to be hyper-palatable, instantly gratifying, and habit-forming. A recent review of the science concludes that some 'are created in ways that parallel the development of addictive drugs, including the inclusion of an unnaturally high dose of rewarding ingredients that are rapidly absorbed into the system and enhanced through additives.'" (p. 44)
"In July 2021, the Rockefeller Foundation released a report estimating the true cost of food in the United States. It found that while Americans reached into their wallets and paid just over $1 trillion to purchase food in 2019, the actual cost - including the economic toll of pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, health care, and other factors - was three times that amount, at more than $3 trillion." (p. 92)
"...Iowa is home to twenty-three million pigs at any given moment, an increase of 64 percent in the last twenty years. And pig waste is a real shitstorm compared to chicken waste. In 2019, a University of Iowa research engineer calculated that, while Iowa has a population of just 3.2 million people, it produces the waste of 168 million. In November 2019, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources found that more than half the state's rivers, streams, lakes, and wetlands failed to meet water quality standards due to pollutants including nitrogen, E. coli, and cyanobacteria. The agency has documented hundreds of manure spills from confinement operations, which regularly kill thousands of fish and other aquatic organisms." (p. 94)
"However, in the United States, despite the populist movement, anti-tipping sentiment was largely quelled in the 1850s and 1860s due to restaurant employers' quest to seek ever-cheaper labor. In 1853, waiters in large northeastern cities, who were mostly white men who received full wages and no tips, went on strike to demand higher salaries from their employers. In response, restaurants replaced these male waiters with women entering the workforce, offering them far less wages. Twelve years later, when emancipation finally resulted in the slaves being freed, restaurant owners sought an even cheaper source of labor. They hired newly freed African Americans arriving in northern cities after emancipation, offering them service jobs with no wages at all - only the opportunity to obtain white customers' tips." (p. 105)
"A 2021 study on the impact of subsidies on farmer behavior also concluded that subsidies often disincentivize producers from risk-mitigation efforts. If crop insurance and subsidy payments neutralize negative impacts from low prices or poor yields, a farmer has less incentive to take proactive steps against those outcomes - for example, by paying for cover crops to boost soil health, diversifying rotations, or repairing degraded riparian buffers to prevent nutrient runoff." (p. 126)
"Rather than encouraging Americans to adopt healthier eating habits, US industry has a vested interest in producing and selling medications aimed at alleviating diseases caused by unhealthy foods. Accordingly, between 1999 and 2018, the pharmaceutical industry spent roughly $4.7 billion on lobbying while making $414 million in contributions to political campaigns. It shelled out another $877 million in contributions to state-based candidates. Most of these contributions were targeted toward senior legislators responsible for drafting health-care laws or committees that oversee referenda on drug pricing and regulation." (p. 127-28)
"...data from OSHA summarized in a 2019 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report shows that in the United States, a worker in the meat and poultry industry lost a body part or was sent to the hospital for in-patient treatment about every other day between 2015 and 2018. Between 2013 and 2017, eight workers died, on average, each year because of an incident in their plant." (p. 210)
"Charles Eisenstein writes, 'When you eat something, you eat everything that happened to make that food come into existence. You are affirming a certain version of the world.' He then asks, 'Does it nourish you? Are you happy with the reality you are saying yes to?'" (p. 235)
Homestead Tsunami: good for country, critters, and kids by Joel Salatin
Joel Salatin is my hero. In his most recent book, Homestead Tsunami, he looks around at the wave of new homesteaders and writes this book for them. Well, actually he had 3 people in mind when writing this book 1) people who think they want to homestead and are afraid to take the plunge, 2) people who are currently homesteading and are getting burned out or discouraged, and 3) people who don't understand why a friend of family member picked up and moved out to the country to raise their own food. During COVID lockdowns baby chicks sold out, canning jar lids couldn't be found anywhere, seeds sold out, and the #1 things searched in Google was sourdough recipes - all this made Joel very happy to see so many people turning back to homesteading basics. I don't know how you could ever read anything by Joel or hear him speak and not be encouraged - regardless of where you are on your own homesteading/food journey. He is so inspirational and moving and in this book he expertly lays out all the ways that homesteading is better than all the alternatives. He covers everything from land, food, animals, nature, entertainment, relationships, ingenuity, and much, much more. I'm so thankful for Joel and his encouragement in all the forms it takes. The world is hard, yet while reading this book I'm reminded of so many of the good things. I don't know if I would really consider myself a "homesteader" but I definitely have the "homesteading mindset." I've been gardening and canning for over 13 years now and it never gets old. Growing your own food and cooking and preserving it is exciting every time. But, Joel does a much better job of describing it than I can - pick up this book and be inspired to start your own homesteading journey.
Some quotes I liked:
"Money you don't have to spend is worth more than face value. If you save a dollar, it's really worth about $1.40 because in order to spend a dollar, you have to earn the dollar plus all the taxes associated with it. If you don't have to spend a dollar, you don't have to pay taxes on the earnings and you don't have to pay sales taxes when you buy. These are huge savings." (p. 28)
"The goal must be to take all that angst, all that negative energy that many of us feel right now, and channel it to a positive solution. As homesteaders, when the culture heads like a stampeding herd toward shallowness and dystopia, we must be beacons of hope and help." (p. 32)
"In a day when the word defund seems to be bandied about as the ultimate test of ideological purity, how about we apply the word to things like trash, monocrops, and chemicals? Let's defund GMOs and factory chickens. Let's defund processed foods and unpronounceable ingredients. While we're funding our own enjoyable kitchens and homesteads, we defund outfits that cheat and cheapen. That's a great twofer." (p. 227)
[A friend in Norway who's family owned land going back 500 years] "To hold onto such a massive parcel for several centuries seemed almost other-worldly to me and prompted me to query him on how it could be done. Without hesitating, he responded, 'primogenitor.' I blinked. 'Say what?' He laughed good naturedly and explained the European custom, dating back to Biblical times, that required giving the firstborn either all or most of the family land in order to keep it from being broken up...Noting that my friend was the second-born son, I couldn't resist asking, 'How does it make you feel, as the second-born?' Without a hint of resentment, he answered, 'No problem. My whole role in life is to make sure my older brother doesn't lose it.' It was such a charitable yet matter-of-fact answer I was dumbfounded. Upon later contemplation, I realized the social equity, the familial power, behind both the statement and the practice. This fellow grew up in a culture where legacy trumped equity. Where the family's interests outweighed individual aspirations. Done at scale and ubiquitous in the culture, such thinking creates social cohesion Americans can only imagine. You only find thinking and contentment like this is extremely old, stable, homogeneous cultures." (p. 255)
"Modern American culture seems fixated on chaos, on destroying nature's design and God's order. Our plants and animals know what they are and how to act. A pepper plant never sends out curly, grasping vine tentacles. A carrot doesn't mate with a radish. A pig doesn't wonder if it would be happier if it were a cow. Being this imbedded in a place that honors and respects the Creator's standards, boundaries, and designs brings solace to the soul. It massages our spirits with consistent common sense. It assures us that 'God's got this.' We need that." (p. 277)
Some quotes I liked:
"Money you don't have to spend is worth more than face value. If you save a dollar, it's really worth about $1.40 because in order to spend a dollar, you have to earn the dollar plus all the taxes associated with it. If you don't have to spend a dollar, you don't have to pay taxes on the earnings and you don't have to pay sales taxes when you buy. These are huge savings." (p. 28)
"The goal must be to take all that angst, all that negative energy that many of us feel right now, and channel it to a positive solution. As homesteaders, when the culture heads like a stampeding herd toward shallowness and dystopia, we must be beacons of hope and help." (p. 32)
"In a day when the word defund seems to be bandied about as the ultimate test of ideological purity, how about we apply the word to things like trash, monocrops, and chemicals? Let's defund GMOs and factory chickens. Let's defund processed foods and unpronounceable ingredients. While we're funding our own enjoyable kitchens and homesteads, we defund outfits that cheat and cheapen. That's a great twofer." (p. 227)
[A friend in Norway who's family owned land going back 500 years] "To hold onto such a massive parcel for several centuries seemed almost other-worldly to me and prompted me to query him on how it could be done. Without hesitating, he responded, 'primogenitor.' I blinked. 'Say what?' He laughed good naturedly and explained the European custom, dating back to Biblical times, that required giving the firstborn either all or most of the family land in order to keep it from being broken up...Noting that my friend was the second-born son, I couldn't resist asking, 'How does it make you feel, as the second-born?' Without a hint of resentment, he answered, 'No problem. My whole role in life is to make sure my older brother doesn't lose it.' It was such a charitable yet matter-of-fact answer I was dumbfounded. Upon later contemplation, I realized the social equity, the familial power, behind both the statement and the practice. This fellow grew up in a culture where legacy trumped equity. Where the family's interests outweighed individual aspirations. Done at scale and ubiquitous in the culture, such thinking creates social cohesion Americans can only imagine. You only find thinking and contentment like this is extremely old, stable, homogeneous cultures." (p. 255)
"Modern American culture seems fixated on chaos, on destroying nature's design and God's order. Our plants and animals know what they are and how to act. A pepper plant never sends out curly, grasping vine tentacles. A carrot doesn't mate with a radish. A pig doesn't wonder if it would be happier if it were a cow. Being this imbedded in a place that honors and respects the Creator's standards, boundaries, and designs brings solace to the soul. It massages our spirits with consistent common sense. It assures us that 'God's got this.' We need that." (p. 277)
Foster by Claire Keegan
I really enjoyed Keegan's book Small Things Like These, so I was excited to read another one by her. Foster is written in the same sparse style and it's amazing how much storyline and feeling she can pack into so few words. An unnamed child is taken to live with her aunt and uncle for the summer. Without it ever being spelled out you get the feeling that her parents are not great and have too many children already, yet another is on the way. The child quickly realizes how different this house is from her family's and what she feels for maybe the first time is real love. Her aunt and uncle take care of her lovingly and she experiences a calm, happy home. When it's time to go back home to her parents you see just how deeply the summer impacted the child and her aunt and uncle. The overall tone of the book is sadness mixed with hopefulness and similar to Small Things Like These there is an ambiguous ending. Keegan is an extremely talented author and I am already looking forward to more from her.
