Finished: Down and Out on the Murder Mile

Title: Down and Out on the Murder Mile

Author: Tony O'Neill

Started: 22 December 2010

Finished: 23 December 2010

Listen. When you bill a book as a "novel" (because that subtitle is given on the cover of the book), the implication is that the book is fictional. So, when the names and identities of characters turn out to be the names of real-life individuals, and when events happen exactly the same way they happened to you, the author, it's not a novel. That, Mister O'Neill, is a memoir. I know as a life-long musician with a stint of several years as a junkie you cannot be held to the same standards as those who studied English and creative writing and put their dues in, learning the trade; still, in this day and age, Google can be greatly helpful. I just checked the Wikipedia page for "novel," to confirm my rant, and all over it says that it is fictional. So please, learn the terminology. It is not difficult to learn...well...anything, with the information superhighway at our fingertips.

Moving on!

Despite my dissatisfaction with the poor editing and nomenclature, I enjoyed this book on a visceral plane. I found myself standing in the kitchen with a beer in one hand and the book in the other, glued to the powerful narrative in my hand.

However, the memoir was chronologically unclear (I was shocked by the end to discover that the book spanned several years), punctuated by filthy anecdotes of the dire circumstances of drug addiction. Every situation was the worst possible situation, starting from page one, through until the last few chapters, during which, in a jarring reversal of circumstance and barely any explanation, Tony finds his girlfriend is pregnant, he gets clean, and anticipates his daughter's birth.

Two stars. Maybe I just don't relate because I'm not a drug addict.

Currently Reading

Title: Down and Out on the Murder Mile

Author: Tony O'Neill

This book is depressing. I think that it is intended to be at least semi-autobiographical, and honestly, the way he has written, I could not imagine any person describing his experiences in such gruesome detail without having experienced it himself. A junkie and his junkie wife living in LA, then London, unconvincingly battle their addiction.

I still haven't figured out how I really feel about this book.

Edit: Two things are true: O'Neill seems to be quite careless with his writing, and his editor is not terribly meticulous. I have seen the word "where" used in place of "were" at least twice, and there have been many blatant typos, particularly letters missing entirely from words.

Finished: The Snapper and The Van

Title(s): The Snapper and The Van

Author: Roddy Doyle

I read The Snapper when I was in high school, and was always interested in completing the Barrytown Trilogy (first book, The Commitments). Purchased a book with all three, read The Commitments, started to re-read The Snapper and slacked off.

Well, after spending three or four days glued to my computer screen during break, I decided I needed to find a different way to spend my time. Generally, during breaks, I get down to business reading right away. But because it has been several months since I have had even a free second to read, I forgot how enjoyable a pastime it is and skipped straight to the computer. Furthermore, I had no idea what to read!

Then, I remembered that I had to complete the Trilogy, and once I picked up my book, I could not stop. I plowed through the first hundred pages of The Snapper, virtually without stopping, in one night. Woke up and finished it the next day, then read two-hundred-and-thirty pages of The Van later that day, hardly even noticing that I had almost finished.

The books are written in a very colloquial Irish style. The casualness, and large amounts of dialogue, make it easy to get lost in these books. Rarely do we see a book in the third-person-omniscient, but these books are, well done, too. In said person, it is easy to confuse the reader by detailing the thoughts and feelings of all characters, but Doyle's writing is anything but confusing.

The only thing I would say is confusing is the dialect used by the characters, but that is only due to the fact that I am not accustomed to calling the bathroom "jacks" and rarely use the word "bollix." Anyway, once the reader begins to understand the dialect, it is easy to get into the flow of the writing.

Excellent books, realistically and relatably written.

Four stars.

Finished: The Omnivore's Dilemma

Title: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Author: Michael Pollan

Start Date: 13 June 2010

End Date: 28 July 2010

What I Liked About It: Nearly everything. I think the most compelling thing about this book is that it is not a story book; it is primarily an information book. But the information is dispensed in a way that makes it feel like a story. Each of the four meals that were followed from beginning to end HAD a story, just like every person's life, and no detail of that meal's conception was spared.

The part of the book that absolutely blew my mind was the second half of the second part of the book; Pollan partitions the book into approximate thirds. The first part was about the industrial style of creating and consuming food. The second, perhaps longer than the first and third, tells about the organic movement -- more specifically, Big Organic earlier, and Small Organic later. The final section is the story of Pollan's brief foray into the world of Hunting and Gathering.

I was completely taken aback by the Small Organic part. Pollan visited Polyface Farm in Swoope, VA, which is run and maintained primarily by farmer Joel Salatin and his son Daniel. The farm is entirely self-sustaining. Every product that the farm creates (lots of produce, beef, pork, poultry, etc.) plays more parts on the farm than just its meat. For example, in the winter, the cows are kept inside a barn, and instead of cleaning up their manure, fresh hay and shavings are laid down so that the manure can become fertilizer. In addition, corn kernels are laid down with the shavings and allowed to ferment; pigs are later brought into the mix, being allowed to forage for the alcoholic corn kernels. Of course they don't know it, but their foraging aerates what has become a compost, making it healthy fertilizer which can be used to fertilize the Salatins' crops. Everything is as intertwined as this. Best of all, Polyface Farm has a transparency policy -- that is, potential customers are allowed, and encouraged, to tour the farm and see any part of the production of any of their foods, at any time. That includes the humane slaughter of the poultry chickens. (I am planning a trip down to Virginia with my mother to visit the farm.)

What I Didn't Like About It: Pollan uses the word "boon" about fifteen times throughout the book. I got sick of it after a while. Also, at least twice he used the phrase "comprised of," which is one of my biggest pet peeves in writing. That's all.

Would I Recommend It? That depends. Depends on who you are and what your opinions about food are. The way Pollan sees it, there are three types of food production -- industrial, organic, and hunter-gatherer. Believe it or not, most of what is sold in mainstream supermarkets is industrial. This essentially means that almost everything includes some corn product, because of the surplus in commodity corn. Often the corn is in the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup, but there are plenty of other ingredients -- maltodextrin, fructose, ascorbic acid, citric acid, etc. -- that are found in almost all foods.

Organic, in its two categories, is Big and Small. Salatin's farm is an example of Small Organic, meaning grown without pesticides and synthetic growth hormones; his animals are fed what evolution determined they eat, not what the economy determined. Big Organic is what is sold in places like Whole Foods -- technically, by the FDA's standards, that food is considered to be organic. However, the FDA has very loose standards, and lots of that "organic" food is not what we imagine it to be.

So, would I recommend this book? If you are happy eating industrially and being ignorant of ingredient labels (not saying that is a bad thing), no, I would not recommend this book. It was the catalyst for a huge change in my own view of food; I was already trying to eat things that were, as I put it, "from the earth," with as few ingredients on the package as possible, and hopefully all of them natural. The Omnivore's Dilemma gave me the information I need to do that in a healthy and a socially beneficial way, supporting local farmers who grow organically and in season. So if you are of that mindset, looking for ways to be healthier and committed to doing it, absolutely. It is a slow read, but certainly not boring; slow only because it is so dense with information.

Fantastic book. Definitely top five.

Well, I guess that is all....

Accomplishedly,

Allie.

Thoughts.

Still working through The Omnivore's Dilemma. It's a great, informational book and is totally changing the way I think and feel about food. Here are some words that have provoked my thoughts:

"Harvey Levenstein, a Canadian historian who has written two fascinating social histories of American foodways, neatly sums up the beliefs that have guided the American way of eating since the heyday of John Harvey Kellog: 'that taste is not a true guide to what should be eaten; that one should not simply eat what one enjoys; that the important components of food cannot be seen or tasted, but are discernible only in scientific laboratories; and that experimental science has produced the rules of nutrition that will prevent illness and encourage longevity.' The power of any orthodoxy resides in its ability not to seem like one and, at least to a 1906 or 2006 American, these beliefs don't seem strange or controversial." (p. 300)

and

"...that orthodoxy regards certain tasty foods as poisons (carbs now, fats then), failing to appreciate that how we eat, and even how we feel about eating, may in the end be just as important as what we eat. THe French eat all sorts of supposedly unhealthy foods, but they do it according to a strict and stable set of rules: They eat small portions and don't go back for seconds; they don't snack; they seldom eat alone; and communal meals are long, leisurely affairs. In other words, the French culture of food successfully negotiates the omnivore's dilemma, allowing the FRench to enjoy their meals without ruining their health." (pp. 300-301)

That's all.

Thoughtfully,

-A.

Hmm.

I wanted to keep track of, and share, this paragraph from The Omnivore's Dilemma, rife with factoids about obesity in the United States.

"The Alcoholic Republic has long since given way to the Republic of Fat; we're eating today much the way we drank then, and for some of the same reasons. According to the surgeon general, obesity today is officially an epidemic; it is arguably the most pressing public health problem we face, costing the health care system an estimated $90 billion a year. Three of five Americans are overweight; one of every five is obese. The disease formerly known as adult-onset diabetes has had to be renamed Type II diabetes since it now occurs so frequently in children. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association predicts that a child born in 2000 has a one-in-three chance of deceloping diabetes. (An African American child's chances are two in five.) Because of diabetes and all the other health problems that accompany obesity, today's children may turn out to be the first generation of Americans whose life expectancy will actually by shorter than that of their parents."

-Pollan, pp. 101-102

Jeez. Makes me feel bad for having blown off my daily run this morning (it's okay, though, I'm going with my sister tonight when I'm home from work).

In perspective,

Allie.

Currently Reading

Title: The Omivore's Dilemma

Author: Michael Pollan

Start date: 13 June 2010

Non-fiction. I'm only about forty pages in, because I read slowly, but I'm really liking it already. All about food/sort of about nutrition. So far, I have only read about how corn IS the food industry, but I am under the impression that I will also read about factory-farming and advertising; organic farming; and the pureness of the antiquated Hunter-Gathering lifestyle.

Already I can tell it is written in an engaging style, which is my first requirement when it comes to books. I cannot enjoy a book if I am so busy critiquing the writer's vocabulary/style (although I have already come across one instance of "comprised of" -- my biggest pet peeve in writing!); in addition, it is difficult to write to engage in a book that is not a story. Or rather, to make a book that is intended to present facts into a story, the latter of which Pollan has done. Can't wait to sit down later tonight with a glass of wine and read more!

Nutritiously,

Allie.

I think the next book I read needs to be The Omnivore's Dilemma, after having a long discussion today about nutrition, and being somebody who cares a lot about the topic itself.

Anybody agree, disagree?

-Allie.

Finished: The Soloist

Title: The Soloist

Author: Steve Lopez

Start Date: 26 May 2010

End Date: 2 June 2010

What I Liked About It: All the talk about music. Each reference to a specific orchestra piece or string quartet held specific meaning and, often, nostalgia for me. The descriptions of Mr. Ayers' life as a "youngster," studying music in high school and college all felt especially relevant to me, as I am and was the same.

What I Didn't Like About It: Author Steve Lopez's tired cliches and apparent self-righteousness about "what [he has] done" for Mr. Ayers. He constantly refers to how much money he has spent on instruments and sheet music, etc., for the man.

Somebody asked me, while I was reading the book, whether it was sad. But, in fact, until that point I never would have thought of it as sad. To me, it portrayed the simplicity in Mr. Ayers' life, living in a tunnel on Skid Row, playing violin all day everyday. In reality, of course, life in such a situation would not be so simple but all he needed was his music, and he could forget about everything else.

Would I recommend it? Honestly, what I liked about it mostly was that it was about a musician to whom I could relate, at least in terms of how he feels about music. But I don't know that I would have appreciated it otherwise. It's an easy read, so if you're looking for a story that is purely told for the story's sake, then go ahead, give it a shot.

-A.

Currently Reading...

Start date: 26 May 2010

Title: The Soloist

Author: Steve Lopez

Non-fiction. I'm only about five chapters into in, but I'm already really enjoying this book. It's an account given by a columnist of a homeless man, Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, who is a prodigy on string instruments. So far, I'm just loving reading about this incredibly talented but also greatly disturbed alumnus of the Julliard school in Manhattan, who, while in a destitute situation, gets by on his passion for music, specifically Beethoven.

I'm going to go back and sit in the sun, and read a couple more chapters of this book!

-A.

Archive

First thing's first. For my own personal archives, here's my list of the books I've read in the past two years.

[Start Date - End Date: Title, Author]

22 August 2008 - 27 September 2008: 1984, George Orwell

28 September 2008 - 17 December 2008: The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver

18 December 2008 - 24 December 2008: Pigs in Heaven, Barbara Kingsolver

24 December 2008 - Unfinished: Song of Solomon, Toni Morrisson

1 January 2009 - 9 January 2009: The Commitments, Roddy Doyle

22 January 2009 - Unfinished: The Snapper, Roddy Doyle

11 April 2009 - Unfinished: Lavinia, Ursula Leguin

9 May 2009 - 18 May 2009: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling

18 May 2009 - 19 May 2009: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling

21 May 2009 - 31 May 2009: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling

1 June 2009 - 10 June 2009: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling

10 June 2009 - 15 June 2009: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling

16 June 2009 - Unfinished: Catch-22, Joseph Heller

11 July 2009 - 13 July 2009: Look Me In The Eye, John Elder Robison

14 July 2009 - 18 August 2009: Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides

19 August 2009 - 24 August 2009: Perforated Heart, Eric Bogosian

24 August 2009 - 4 September 2009: The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien

14 September 2009 - 29 November 2009: Running With Scissors, Augusten Burroughs

2 December 2009 - 28 December 2009: Welcome to the Monkey House, Kurt Vonnegut

3 January 2010 - 11 May 2010: Riding the Bus with my Sister, Rachel Simon

4 January 2010 - 10 January 2010: Dress Codes: Of Three Girlhoods - My Mother's, My Father's, and Mine, Noelle Howey

11 January 2010 - 14 January 2010: Jarhead, Anthony Swofford

11 May 2010 - 13 May 2010: The Stranger, Albert Camus

14 May 2010 - 26 May 2010: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling

26 May 2010 - 2 June 2010: The Soloist, Steve Lopez

13 June 2010 - 28 July 2010: The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan

20 December 2010 - 21 December 2010: The Snapper, Roddy Doyle

21 December 2010 - 22 December 2010: The Van, Roddy Doyle

22 December 2010 - 23 December 2010: Down and Out on the Murder Mile, Tony O'Neill

24 December 2010 - 25 December 2010: Mother Night, Kurt Vonnegut

27 December 2010 - 28 December 2010: On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction, Karl Iagnemma

28 December 2010 - 18 March 2011: The Plot Against America, Philip Roth

April 2010 - 22 May 2011: St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, Karen Russell

22 May 2011 - 23 May 2011: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling

24 May 2011 - 31 May 2011: Star Island, Carl Hiaasen

1 June 2011 - 30 June 2011: When Mortals Sleep, Kurt Vonnegut

2 July 2011 - 11 July 2011: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling

13 July 2011 - 25 August 2011: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling

25 August 2011 - 28 December 2011: The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barberry

30 December 2011 - 22 January 2012: Skin Tight, Carl Hiaasen

23 January 2012 - 1 February 2012: BossyPants, Tina Fey

2 February 2012 - 21 February 2012: Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult

24 February 2012 - 4 March 2012: House Rules, Jodi Picoult

4 March 2012 - 6 March 2012: American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang

7 March 2012 - 13 May 2012: Three Farmers on their Way to a Dance, Richard Powers
13 May 2012 - 13 May 2012: Pretty Theft, Adam Szymkowicz
14 May 2012 - 27 May 2012: Basket Case, Carl Hiaasen
28 May 2012 - 26 June 2012: My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult
2 July 2012 - 15 October 2012: The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults, James C. McKinney

16 October 2012 - 21 November 2012: Sick Puppy, Carl Hiaasen
24 November 2012 - : The Naked Voice: A Wholistic Approach to Singing, W. Stephen Smith
12 December 2012 - 2 January 2013: The Soloist, Mark Salzman
22 December 2012 - 25 December 2012: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), Mindy Kaling
25 December 2012 - 26 December 2012: Filthy Rich, Dorothy Samuels
8 January 2013 - 2 February 2013: Gertrude and Claudius, John Updike
4 February 2013 - 4 March 2013: Look at the Birdie, Kurt Vonnegut
16 June 2013 - 18 June 2013: Dog On It, Spencer Quinn *
19 June 2013 - 21 June 2013: Remember Me?, Sophie Kinsella *
19 June 2013 - 25 June 2013: The Van Gogh Affair, Alan S. Mosier
23 June 2013 - 27 June 2013: Life of Pi, Yann Martel *
25 June 2013 - 19 July 2013: Lucky You, Carl Hiaasen
3 July 2013 - 13 July 2013: Undomestic Goddess, Sophie Kinsella *
14 July 2013 - 28 July 2013: Sacré Bleu, Christopher Moore *
19 July 2013 - 24 December 2013: Bad Monkey, Carl Hiaasen
29 July 2013 - 28 November 2013: 2103 C.E., Alan S. Mosier
23 September 2013 - : Light on Yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar
2 October 2013 - 3 October 2013: Light on Life, B.K.S. Iyengar *
16 December 2013 - 31 December 2013: The Happiness Project - Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, Gretchen Rubin
1 January 2014 - 7 January 2014: The 5 Love Languages, Gary Chapman
8 January 2014 - 14 January 2014: Are You There, Vodka?  It's Me, Chelsea, Chelsea Handler
15 January 2014 - 27 March 2014: The Time of Our Singing, Richard Powers
29 March 2014 - 22 April 2014: Alexandria, Lindsey Davis
23 April 2014 - 30 May 2014: Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
6 June 2014 - 20 September 2014: DRiVE, Daniel Pink
1 July 2014 - 16 July 2014: Teaching English Language Learners: Across the Content Areas, Judie Haynes, Debbie Zacarian
10 July 2014 - 17 July 2014: Cell, Stephen King *
18 July 2014 - 20 July 2014: I've Got Your Number, Sophie Kinsella *
14 September 2014 - October 5 2014: Classroom Management for PE, Music, and Art Teachers, Michael Linsin
20 September 2014 - : Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living, Nick Offerman
24 December 2014 - 29 December 2014: Diary of an American Au Pair, Marjorie Leet Ford
29 December 2014 - 31 December 2014: Skink No Surrender, Carl Hiaasen
3 January 2015 - 31 May 2015: J, Howard Jacobson
31 May 2015 - 3 June 2015: Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened, Allie Brosh
3 June 2015 - 19 June 2015: Skinny Dip, Carl Hiaasen
20 June 2015 - 9 July 2015: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
9 July 2015 - 19 July 2015: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
22 July 2015 - 28 August 2015: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
8 September 2015 - 11 October 2015: A Death In China, Carl Hiaasen
11 October 2015 - : Trap Line, Carl Hiaasen
27 October 2015 - 6 November 2015: The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion
8 November 2015 - : The Casual Vacancy, J.K. Rowling
23 November 2015 - 12 December 2015: The Devil In The White City, Erik Larson
16 February 2016 - 22 June 2016: Double Whammy, Carl Hiaasen
22 June 2016 - 25 June 2016 : Getting Mother's Body, Suzan-Lori Parks
29 June 2016 - : The Naked Voice
21 July 2016 - 21 August 2016: Flush, Carl Hiaasen
21 August 2016 - 20 September 2016: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Jack Thorne, J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany
7 September 2016 - : the life-changing magic of tidying up, marie kondo
28 September 2016 - 31 December 2016: Buck Fever, Ben Rehder
4 January 2017 - 1 February 2017: Bone Dry, Ben Rehder
4 February 2017 - 19 March 2017: Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance
20 March 2017 - 15 June 2017: Native Tongue, Carl Hiaasen
16 June 2017 - 17 July 2017: Celebrity Run-Ins, Kathy Griffin
18 July 2017 - 25 July 2017: The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
18 July 2017 - 4 October 2017: Razor Girl, Carl Hiaasen
8 October 2017 - 8 December 2017: Sing For Your Life: A Story of Race, Music, and Family, Daniel Bergner
13 December 2017 - 9 January 2018: The Circle, Dave Eggers
8 March 2018 - 24 March 2018: The Rosie Effect, Graeme Simsion

I'm ashamed of the books I didn't finish, and because I started them I WILL finish them one day. I am also ashamed of how little I read during the year! I try to make up for it by reading obsessively during my summer and winter vacations.

* denotes audiobook

That's all for now!

-A.