The Storyteller by Dave Grohl
I've always liked the Foo Fighters and everything I had read about Dave Grohl made it seem like he was just a normal guy who happens to be a huge rock star. So, when I found out he had written a memoir I was excited to read it. And he doesn't disappoint. Not at all a traditional memoir, The Storyteller is a collection of mostly chronological musical events in Grohl's life. He measures his life in music - what was going on in his life when that album came out or he went to a certain concert, etc. His life was shaped from an early age by music and he believes he has musical DNA - he only ever had one music lesson in his entire life and is completely self-taught. He's seen the same thing with his two older daughters too how they just have the music gift. What I loved the most about this book is just how much Grohl is himself - he recognized from a young age that he was a weirdo and instead of trying to change that he just learned to fly his own freak flag and create the life he wanted. And it obviously worked out for him. But, even if he wasn't the famous Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters he would still be himself - blazing his own trail and being true to himself.
Some quotes I liked:
"The audiences were growing exponentially, and looking out from the stage every night, it was clear that a radical cultural shift was imminent from the energy and aesthetic of the fans who sang along to every word with deafening volume. This was no longer just the sound of the underground or late-night college radio; this was a fucking battering ram to the gates that guarded mainstream popular culture, and our three bands [Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Red Hot Chili Peppers] were spearheading the takeover." (p. 161-62)
"I decided not to waste this moment. I decided to stop asking 'How did I get here?' I was there. I told myself that I was not going to spend a second being scared or wishing I were somewhere else. The long journey from my childhood in Springfield, Virginia; to cutting my teeth as a musician in the Washington, DC, music scene; to performing in the White House for a Beatle and a president made this in every way the most full-circle moment of my life, but rather than get lost in complicated introspection, I just smiled. A calm came over me, and just then my name was called. I walked to the stage with my head held high and stood before Paul and the president with pride, feeling like the luckiest person on earth to have made it to this very moment, past and present, right and left, bridged together in music." (p. 254)
"'This will never last,' my father had once told me, and it very well may have been this challenge that drove me to ensure that it did." (p. 369)
The Log Cabin Years by Cindy Ross
Cindy Ross and Todd Gladfelter were both outdoors people and long distance hikers. From a young age Cindy read an article about a school for building log cabins and saved it - she and Todd would eventually attend there before starting the process of building their own log cabin. Both dreamed of living a minimalist lifestyle, close to the land, and working to live instead of living to work. But, building a log cabin home from scratch by two semi-inexperienced people (who are also married to each other) is definitely a labor of love. Cindy does a great job of detailing the years they spent building their log cabin home without getting too technical. What I thought was the most interesting is how attuned she was to their relationship and how the cabin build both strengthened and tested their marriage. She also had several interesting interactions with other men who came to help and didn't like being shown up or managed by a woman in the more "manly" field of construction. Overall, it was definitely an interesting book, but all the work they did was incredibly hard both physically and mentally and sometimes it was exhausting just to read about how hard they were working. There were some drawings to illustrate some things in the book, but I would have loved to have had some photos included as well.
Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles (Evening Edition book club, re-read)
At the end of the Civil War Simon Boudlin was finally conscripted into the Confederate army. He had been running and avoiding conscription since the war started. At least he ended up in the regimental band because of his fiddle playing. The other men in the band stick together during one final battle and at the surrender. Once the Confederate army is disbanded, Simon and the other musicians strike out to make money with their music. At a party after the surrender Simon meets Doris Dillon, an indentured servant from Ireland working for a Union military Colonel and his family. Working his way through Texas, Simon works to make money and get closer to Doris. He eventually finds his way to her and realizes her situation with the Colonel's family is terrible and is even more determined to rescue her and make a better life for them on land he's buying. Simon's first love is music and he's an incredibly talented musician, but he's also quick-tempered and proud which often leads to fights. But, he and his friends work together to make a life for themselves in the hard scrabble, post-Civil War wilderness of Texas. Beautifully written and now Jiles has written three books that tie in characters during the same time period in post-Civil War Texas - The Color of Lightning, News of the World, and now Simon the Fiddler. My favorite is still News of the World, but this one is right there just behind it. I would love to have a sequel and see what happens further for Simon and Doris or a book with Damon Lessing's back story.
Update from re-reading:
I still got caught up in the story even though I knew what would happen. I just love Jiles's writing and how beautifully she describes both characters and the landscape. Reading this book a second time made me love Simon even more too. I would love to see a sequel with more of Simon and Doris's story too.
A quote that stood out to me this time:
"They were living in a world of returned soldiers who had fought, had seen death and destruction, suffered hunger and want, and were not afraid of Satan himself. Fights could start up with amazing speed." (p. 81)
World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Books & Banter book club)
I was really looking forward to reading this book and was much disappointed. If it wasn't for my book club reading it I probably wouldn't have finished it. The premise is a collection of short essays that combine nature/animals and events or memories from the author's life. But, in my opinion other than a few of the essays most of them felt extremely forced and contrived with seemingly nothing to do with the animal/plant that the chapter was named. It's obvious the author loves nature and that was encouraged by her parents and she is trying to instill the same love in her children. But, I would have rather read a collection of nature essays that were actually about the animals/topics named than a paragraph or two followed by a random childhood memory or event. There were a few essays that I did like and her writing wasn't bad, but the style was not well done at all in my opinion. This was not at all what I was expecting and I didn't like it.
PreachersNSneakers by Ben Kirby
In 2019 Ben Kirby missed church and decided to watch some worship music online. When he saw the lead vocalist of Elevation Church's worship team wearing $800 sneakers it irritated him even if he didn't fully understand why. That lead to the Instagram account PreachersnSneakers that posted pictures of celebrity pastors wearing ridiculously expensive clothing and shoes. What started as a whim based on Kirby's own sneaker obsession combined with his Christian faith, blew up and went viral. Some people praised him for pointing out the contradiction between pastors and wealth, while others felt like he was pointing fingers without all the information or trying to defame pastors. Kirby admits that he didn't have an agenda when he created the now infamous account, but merely wanted to shine a light on issues surrounding Christianity, celebrity, and consumer-culture. He openly admits that he does NOT have all the answers, but feels like this is an issue that increasingly needs to be addressed in churches and that Christians need to wrestle with in their own lives. There is definitely a lot to think about and I really liked that he didn't try to pretend that he has all the answers. The last chapter gives some questions and things to think about from several sources related to Christianity and money.
I wasn't familiar with PreachersnSneakers from the very beginning, but it was on my radar and when I saw this book was coming out I decided to check it out. I'm really glad I did because Kirby is a great writer and I was blown away by how well done this book is and how well he covered this topic. Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend this one.
There were a lot of quotes I liked:
"The world's most famous pastors and their followers messaged me to say that I was divisive, that I was being a gossip, and that I would ultimately have to account for the souls lost (to hell, apparently) due to my posts. Let that sink in for a minute. Christ followers felt so strongly about my pointing to the value of their favorite faith personalities' footwear that they questioned my salvation and prescribed eternal judgement for my actions. You could say I'd touched a nerve." (p. 6)
"No one can say for sure whether this was an elaborate ploy or if Jesus really wreaked the rapper's [Kanye West] world. Either way, we should ask whether pushing a brand-new believer into the pulpit two seconds after his conversion is the wisest route. Maybe we should allow converts - celebrity or otherwise - to explore their faith more deeply before hailing them as role models for the next generation of religious young people." (p. 44)
[On the prosperity gospel] "I grew up thinking that God's blessing was that we are saved from eternal damnation in a fiery pit of death. But these leaders take it down a few notches and connect blessings to dream jobs, wedding anniversaries, expensive vacations, luxury vehicles, and of course, rare sneakers." (p. 61)
"If only God had sent a representative to earth to model how we should view health, wealth, possessions, power, fame, and status. Oh, wait.
Jesus amplified the idea that the poor, weary, and beaten down are actually blessed, loved, and even elevated in the eyes of God. This seemingly proved that He was God's Son and not some poser with slick words, because that idea was so countercultural for the time - and it still is." (p. 65)
"Connecting the faith I so strongly believe in with a political movement or party that I do not feel as strongly about feels like I am being forced into one of two groups of which I do not want to be a part." (p. 118)
"While the Bible promotes obedience to the government and political leaders through paying taxes and praying for those God has placed in leadership, we never find Jesus promoting, politicking, or stumping for a political leader...The gospel seeks to unite us to a Person, not a party, and I fear that many of those claiming to follow Christ are more worried about the latter than the former." (p. 121)
"At what point, though, are we willing to say as believers in Jesus that all our production, equipment, amenities, and commerce have become gluttonous or vain? Where does production excellence stop and vanity start? I totally get the argument that if God has gifted us with talents and abilities, we should use those for His glory in the most excellent way possible and to reduce distractions from Him. That could include using lights and sound in an excellent way. But when is it too much? Can it be too much? This is a macro level of the same discussion of whether or not it's okay for preachers to wear expensive sneakers." (p. 153)
"This whole conversation begs a bigger question about those Christians who choose to be public figures: Do we still owe them the Matthew 18 treatment of going to them in private if they've chosen to put their whole lives on display? If you sign up for the benefits, followers, and influence of being a massive public figure, should those followers still admonish, question, or encourage you privately? How is this supposed to work? There isn't much in the Bible about the topic of how to address sin with people whose lives are on display for all to see, and I still struggle with what to do. Are we supposed to just trust that these guys have a circle of advisors who are holding them accountable? Is their local church body holding them accountable? Many megachurches are led by single families and don't even have elders...Can we then use a larger platform to call out sin? I'm just now sure." (p. 191)
The God of the Garden by Andrew Peterson
I love Andrew Peterson and after reading Adorning the Dark I couldn't wait to read this one when I heard it was coming out. I'm a gardener and was particularly interested to read Peterson's take on gardening and God. But, I think the title is misleading - it's more about trees than gardening, although gardening and nature in general are also major topics. Each chapter is about a tree/garden/natural area from Peterson's life and the memories or ties he has to that area. I will say this book is much more open and vulnerable about Peterson's personal struggles. From the outside when you see someone as creative and inspiring as Andrew Peterson I think it's easy to assume he doesn't struggle with "impostor syndrome" or depression, but obviously nobody has it all together and it's refreshing to read a book as honest as this one. "This garden keeps me awake to the necessity of hope, and it keeps me humble because there is no end to the learning, nor the labor." (p. 193) and that is the focus of the book how nature reflects the hope we have in God and how God uses nature to inspire us and show us that even in the bleakest winters of our lives there is always the hope of Spring. I thought I would like this one more than Adorning the Dark since I'm not a musician or artist, but I am a gardener. But, while I personally liked Adorning the Dark more, this is still a wonderful book with a powerful message. As Peterson says in the Afterward, "...no matter what you do for a living, find a way to get your hands dirty." (p. 198) and find some hope and humility (and food and beauty) in a garden somewhere.
Some quotes I liked:
"A teaspoon of garden soil contains hundreds of millions of microbes, which means that gardeners tend to have a wider variety of gut bacteria. One of those is called mycobacterium vaccae which, when it gets under your fingernails, releases serotonin in your system. Serotonin is a natural anti-depressant that also happens to strengthen our immune systems." (p. 118)
"Few things are more wonderful to me than a graceful integration of nature and culture, which is essentially what a garden is - and few things are less wonderful to me than the razing of a forest to plaster yet another soulless subdivision onto yet another corner of the land." (p. 159)
"Ah, the suburbs: that slice of America where we name subdivisions after the trees we've cut down to build them, where we've zoned out any hope of a bookstore or restaurant within walking distance, where we slave over lawns that we seldom use, where our front porches are too shallow for a porch swing, where we walk the dogs but can't walk to lunch, where we don't really get to know the neighbors because nobody's planning to stick around for more than a few years, where the dominant feature of every house is the two-car garage door, where getting to know people is tougher than it needs to be because there's no village pub, no local bakery, no farmer's market - in other words, no casual gathering point where it's possible to bump into neighbors in an organic way." (p. 161)
Made in China by Anna Qu
Anna Qu was born in China and her father died not long after her birth. Her mother was desperate for money and managed to scrape up enough money to go to America, but she had to leave Anna with her grandparents. When Anna was 7 her mother was able to bring her to America, but by that point Anna barely knew her mother having spent the past 5 years being raised by her grandparents. Her mother had also remarried and had two more children. Anna struggled to learn English and acclimate to school, but she was also the outcast at home - constantly reminded that her father was dead and that she was a drain/embarrassment/worthless/etc. At the age of fourteen she was forced to work up to 40 hours per week in the family sweatshop - that was after she went to school all day. She was beaten if she was caught doing homework at night (after coming home from the sweatshop and cleaning the whole house for her family). Finally she contacted child services on her own mother and while it further strained their already bad relationship it did allow Anna the freedom to choose her own part time job after school and keep the money she earned. But, when she graduated from high school she was immediately cut off from her family and they never helped her financially other than $200 when she went off to college. As an adult working in a failing start-up Anna starts to remember and contemplate her childhood. She requests a copy of her OCFS file and realizes that while it did help, OCFS did not consider her to be in an abusive home which throws her for a loop questioning herself and her experiences growing up. At the end of the book she is able to reconnect with her grandmother who has moved to the US after her grandfather's death. That definitely helps end the book with a brighter outlook.
Some reviews I read complained that the section of her working for the start-up were unnecessary and could have been left out. But, I disagree. I think that section and all the turmoil of the start-up going under brought up a lot of her childhood issues that she had pushed down over the years. She even states that maybe her judgement is off since she couldn't see this coming with her job. I think that is what prompts her to re-examine her childhood and the OCFS report - and then eventually reconnect with her grandmother. I absolutely LOVED this book even though it was sad. Anna is an amazing writer and while this book is short, it is packed with emotion and content. I probably could have read the whole book in one sitting if I hadn't started it right before going out of town.
Some quotes I liked:
"As my mother's daughter, it was my duty to serve her, to obey and please her. I was aware of my fundamental flaw. My mother and I were at the cusp of being who we would always be to each other and there would be no happy ending for us." (p. 109)
"The sharp edges of her words dug into a familiar scar, and an old, knowing feeling beckoned. This was how it always was and how it will always be with her, the feeling told me. It was an old childhood wound that had aired, healed, scabbed over, but here we were, picking at it again." (p. 152)
"My grandparents represented a period of time before the red-brick house, before I understood what it meant to be lonely. In hindsight, there was a short window of my childhood that was happy and sheltered, and they had given me that. Everything after - living with my mother, being sent back to China, the four months at the sweatshop, and calling child services were years I wanted to forget. A secret we both harbored." (p. 153-54)
"I am beginning to realize that we are all raised by children. Children that are shaped by their own traumas, some of them unable to forget or overcome what happened to them before they passed it along." (p. 191)
We Are What We Eat: a slow food manifesto by Alice Waters
After reading and not enjoying Alice Waters' memoir I wasn't sure about reading this one. But, it was recommended to me by a coworker and the premise seemed like something I would like. And I did like it, it's a good overview of the slow food movement and why that's important. The book is divided into two sections - fast food culture and slow food culture. Each section has a few chapters that focus on one aspect of that food culture like convenience or cheapness in the fast food section or seasonality and stewardship in the slow food section. There were a lot of very mixed reviews of this book, but I felt like Waters did a great job of giving a good overview of both food cultures. There were also a lot of reviews about how her views of food are rooted in privilege which I can kind of agree with, but I also think she's not advocating for shopping at Whole Foods, she's advocating for growing your own food, cooking simply, not eating processed food which can (and is) done by many people of varying income levels. It wasn't all that long ago that more people grew and raised at least some of their own food. If government regulations allowed more small farmers/businesses then there could be local food found in more diverse areas. Overall, I did like the book and think it's a good overview of the slow food movement and why it's important.
Some quotes I liked:
"I don't know that I can say it better than Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia, who wrote a brilliant opinion piece for The New York Times called 'The Tyranny of Convenience': 'Convenience is the most underestimated and least understood force in the world,' Wu writes. 'As task after task becomes easier, the growing expectation of convenience exerts a pressure on everything else to be easy or get left behind. We are spoiled by immediacy and become annoyed by tasks that remain at the old level of effort and time...Today's cult of convenience fails to acknowledge that difficulty is a constitutive feature of human experience.'" (p. 22)
"Cheapness. In our world, we've mixed up the idea of affordability with cheapness. When cheapness is the most important thing, no one talks about quality, or how good or bad the product might be for you or the planet - just what a good deal it is. We don't understand the real cost of things anymore, because (1) no one tells us and (2) many products are priced artificially low - supported by subsidies and corporate sleight of hand. The truth, which we all need to learn, is that food should be affordable, but it can never be cheap." (p. 59)
"When I make these arguments, knowing I need to spend more money on organic food, wanted to support restaurants that are farm-to-table, I'm labeled an elitist. But this is only because the fast food industry doesn't let the consumers see the hidden costs. People separate healthcare costs from food costs, for example, but they are inextricably linked. Almost 40 percent of the global population is overweight or obese, which increases the risk for numerous health issues, including diabetes and heart disease. There are so many studies about true-cost accounting, demonstrating that when you add up all these hidden costs, including environmental degradation and healthcare, the cost of industrially produced food is considerably higher than that of organic food. People feel that the prices at farmers' markets are artificially high, but it's the discounted prices everywhere else that are artificial." (p. 65)
"We've accepted a pretty low level of taste when it comes to our animals: they've been bred to be uniformly big, fat, and low-maintenance, all to fit the industrial agricultural convenience model. While we absolutely need to focus on how humanely animals are raised and how they are fed, we also need to appreciate and preserve heritage breeds." (p. 111)
"The traditional hedgerows in England, for example, which seem like simple barriers between fields, actually serve as havens of biodiversity, where birds and beneficial insects can live in close relationship to the neighboring crops or the animals grazing nearby. Not only do these hedgerows encourage biodiversity, but they act as effective windbreaks and boundaries. Instead of fences, why not plant hedgerows around schools and other institutions?" (p. 113)
"Another argument I hear against seasonality is that we can't possibly feed everyone on this planet if we have to survive on what's locally grown. I don't believe that. I'm convinced that using networks of small, local farms is the only way we actually can feed everyone sustainably...We are so unaccustomed to eating in season that we've forgotten the traditional ways people have preserved and cooked food. I am amazed at all the ways it is possible to capture seasonality: salting cod, curing ham, pickling cabbage or carrots or turnips, canning tomatoes or peaches - or cooking with all the heritage varieties of dried beans, lentils, pasta, rice, spices, nuts, and dried berries. As recently as sixty years ago, preserving was a skill that most families had." (p. 125-26)
"When you're shelling your own beans or peas, you also value them more: It took this much time to end up with one little bowl. You also understand the value of the person who might otherwise do that kind of work for you. Everyone should understand what it takes to pick beans in a field, or, for that matter, wash dishes in a restaurant." (p. 154)
[Alice visited a prison in San Francisco that was growing food for Chez Panisse] "Catherine asked the men if they would like to speak a little about what they had been doing. One guy, nineteen years old, raised his hand. 'Maybe I shouldn't be speaking up, because it's my first day in the garden,' he said. 'But it's the best day of my life.' Every time I tell that story, it makes me cry." (p. 159)
"We have witnessed this strength of smaller, scaled-down, decentralized networks firsthand during the coronavirus pandemic. The smaller farms have been the ones that are better able to pivot, adapt, and even flourish under new and unexpected circumstances. 'This is one time where small is beautiful,' our peach farmer, Mas Masumoto, said in a New York Times article in May 2020, two months into our country's quarantine. 'When you're small you can make these shifts much more easily,' We think we need these big corporations to feed ourselves, but we don't." (p. 170)
Alone by Megan E. Freeman
Maddie and two friends plan a secret sleepover at her grandparents apartment (where they only stay in the summer), but when her friends have to bail at the last minute Maddie decides to stay anyway. That night there is some "imminent threat" and the whole town (state/Western US?) is evacuated in the middle of the night. Maddie's parents each think she's with the other parent, so she doesn't even know if they realize she has been left behind. She goes back to her Mom's house and waits for them to come back. But, soon the phone lines and internet are down, then the power goes out and it's starting to look like it might be awhile before anyone comes back. Maddie quickly assesses her situation and after taking in the neighbor's dog, George, has a companion at least. She starts scavenging food and supplies from neighbors houses, then eventually moves on to the town and stores - even the library - the pre-Google source of information. She deals with her immediate needs, but also the loneliness and worry about when or if she'll be reunited with her family. The way her emotions and thoughts change through the book is well done - first she's hopeful and worried she'll get in trouble for stealing from stores, then she's terrified she'll die or be injured, then she finally comes to terms with the fact that this could be her new reality forever.
I wasn't sure if I would be able to deal with this whole book being written in verse, but I actually think it helped the story move quicker without so much description and detail of a more traditional novel. It's spare, but beautifully written as well. I read several reviews that said the storyline and "imminent threat" were too much of a reach, but I felt like the point wasn't the actual event but how Maddie grows because of this situation. I do think a modern-day 12-year-old who is glued to their phone would NOT have been as smart about things as Maddie was or have handled the situation as well, but that's why it's fiction. The Island of the Blue Dophins is mentioned in this book and some reviewers said this was a modern-day re-telling, but I could also see it as a modern-day female-lead version of Hatchet too. I was honestly kind of surprised by how much I LOVED this one. I read it in one day because I couldn't wait to see what would happen next.
Some quotes I liked:
"A few months ago I would have jumped at the offer of an indefinite vacation. Now I long for the predictable regularity of classes. The comfort of having a daily routine. A place to be and people to notice when I'm absent." (p. 80)
"Before Google. Before Wikipedia. Before Internet. 'Come on, George. We're going to the library.'" (p. 149)
"To hell with these heroines who have entire dystopias rooting for them as they fight to save the day. Sure, their parents are missing in action but I'd like to see them try to survive completely alone without any help from friends or teammates." (p. 234)
"Food and shelter are nothing compared to the challenge of never holding another person's hand never hearing another person's voice. Staying alive isn't easy but it's a heck of a lot easier than keeping my heart hopeful and my mind focused on what's real." (p. 250)
The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr
Benjamin Lorr spent 5 years researching this book - traveling with a truck driver who delivered food across the country, working the fish counter at a Whole Foods store, working with an NGO who was investigating the Thai shrimp industry, and more all to uncover the dark secret life of groceries and grocery stores. The resulting book is eye-opening and horrifying. Not that I expected it to be a happy, light book, but I was appalled at two chapters in particular - the one on the trucking industry and the one about shrimp farming which is mostly being done by modern-day slaves. Every aspect of our industrial food industry is all about how to mass produce the cheapest food possible and the people who suffer the most are the farmers/truck drivers/field workers/slaves/etc that grow/harvest/deliver this cheap food to us in grocery stores. As a country we should be ashamed of our food system on every level, but instead we complain when prices go up or our favorite item is out of stock. Meanwhile, if we had to pay the actual cost of anything food related hardly anyone could afford to shop at a grocery store. I try my best to eat real, regeneratively grown food from local farmers (or that I grow myself), but I do still shop at the grocery store regularly for the things I can't get locally. But, this book has inspired me to focus harder on growing more and supporting my local lunatic farmers. Everyone should read this book.
Some quotes I liked:
"Two of the highest-ranking employees in his organization [Trader Joe's] were Japanese men who had been interned by FDR during World War II. He repeatedly emphasized how the racism and sexism of his competitors represented their stupidity as businessmen, a laziness of imagination that carried over to how they ran their stores. He believed having female secretaries was sexist, and instead employed women in his most esteemed position as buyers. He not only ensured that these women would be paid equally to their male counterparts but wrote a company-wide memo detailing everyone's pay in a transparent fashion, particularly calling out the fact that he was giving a female employee a raise because it was likely he had underpaid her. Like most things about Joe, this egalitarianism existed less as a separate aspirational/noble quality, more just as plain common sense. Useful, intelligent people existed in all colors, ages, and came with or without fancy degrees." (p. 67-68)
"Lynne estimates she grossed $200,000 last year - that is a rough calculation based on miles driven - but that she took home less than $17,000. This for a fourteen-year veteran trucker who knows her industry inside and out. Who participates on trucking blogs, mentors younger truckers about the snares and scams. Who lives in her truck and stays out on the road three weeks at a time. Who works more than seventy hours the week I am with her, much of it spent in a state of constant vigilance, where she sleeps in four to five hour bursts, and wakes up for three thirty a.m. appointments that are make-or-break for her career, but ignored by the distribution center on the other side. Who didn't see her mother for two years because she didn't have the time off and couldn't get loads that lined up with her mother's location...The week I'm with her, Lynne receives a weekly paycheck for just $100. Which is what she received the week before. And the week before that." (p. 92-93)
"To recap: Lynne is homeless, sleeping exclusively in the cab of a truck she does not own and almost certainly will eventually lose when she can no longer make payments on it. Her credit is shot. She has outstanding vet bills for her two dogs, the closest and most beloved members of her family. Her personal health is so wrecked, it's hard to even discuss. Suffice to say, she cannot eat most food because she lost every one of her teeth and her new dentures are not properly fitted so it pains her to chew. Her obsession with Pepsi for calories shifts in my brain into absolute sadness when I learn this." (p. 93-94)
"There are some jobs where it is almost impossible to succeed because they are very difficult. Then there are jobs where you are designed to fail. Lease-to-own programs in OTR trucking seem like both to me...I hear repeatedly about trucking recruiters who cruise for drivers from homeless shelters, soup kitchens, recovery wards, prison work-release programs." (p. 94)
"Every woman [trucker] I spoke with had a story of an abusive trainer, either one who assaulted them, harassed them, threatened to rape them, or did one of those things to a friend. The single exception is a woman who was trained by her husband and drove team with him exclusively...Indeed Lynne's first trainer would sit behind her while she drove and watch porn on his computer with the volume turned up. This continued for weeks. She complained, but he denied it. It was his word against hers, and she was stuck with him. Later he grabbed her chest hard enough to leave a bruise, which she reported to the police. Finally, she was given a new trainer." (p. 105)
"[At Whole Foods staff training] We learn about the 7 Different Types of Difficult Customers, a sort of late-capitalist version of Snow White and her dwarfs, featuring Angry, Whiny, Hysterical, Very Important, The Chatterbox, The Know-It-All, and Mr. Multitasker." (p. 160)
"Factory managers in China can buy software that allows them to keep multiple sets of records, attend trainings on how to falsify their books, or buy guidebooks teaching the best way to conceal a show factory. Or simply issue a bribe." (p. 195)
"Over 35 million people per year work under coercion, more than in the entire history of the Atlantic slave trade, and their labor is responsible for some $150 billion in profits per year. Sex slaves, like the women in Darfur, represent less than a quarter. In many ways, the horror is so vast that it risks overwhelming anyone who learns about it." (p. 249-250)
"This is to say, the great lesson of my time with groceries is that we have got the food system we deserve. The adage is all wrong: it's not that we are what we eat, it's that we eat the way we are. Retail grocery is a reflection. What people call the supply chain is a long, interconnected network of human beings working on other human being's behalf. It responds to our actions, not our pieties; and in its current form it demands convenience and efficiency starting from the checkout counter on down." (p. 269)
