Summer Reading List: Part 2

Part scientific researcher, part inquisitive journalist, Roach has a hilarious knack for bringing odd subjects to life. She made the spirit world a bit more tangible, if not amusing, in Spook. And Bonk was the most witty and thorough sex ed course you could hope for. So I doubt Roach has any trouble depicting the apparently varied trials and tribulations of human corpses.

 

Horror of horrors, I have never read this classic. No idea how I managed that, other than the fact that one AP English teacher had a strange penchant for Native American poetry and another made us sing along to records of West Side Story. Judgments on public education aside, it’s time to see what all the fuss is about. Or at least take another look at this frequent required reading list member—you just might have a different take this time around.

 

 

We’re humans. And humans in general like to eat. A lot. But few humans seem to have stopped to consider how that grass-fed beef burger made it all the way to the plate. Or how much energy went into delivering that perfectly ripe strawberry, in the dead of winter. Pollan sets out to expose all the inner workings of the American way of eating, following our meals from farm to fork. And it seems like we all have a lot to learn, vegans and fast-food junkies alike.

 

 

I can see it now: hunky Robert Redford, bloodied and triumphant, running the bases in slow motion as the lights explode in a rain of fireworks over the baseball diamond. But in the novel that inspired one of the best sports movies of all time, old Roy Hobbs meets a much different ending. Praised for it’s complexity and mythic themes, award winning author Malamud’s first book deserves some attention of its own.