Completed, though not entirely: Food

Of course, one's quest to find amazing recipes and eat good food is never at an end. But I'm happy to say that I'm done with the books I intended to read (though we had to return Starved for Science, so I didn't get to that one).

It has taken me some time to get here. I got married three weeks ago! There was much work leading up to it, and lots of time with family and friends, and so I have not spent nearly as much time reading as I might ordinarily. However, we're settling back down into normal life, and also into some brand-new living room furniture - a wedding wish that has come true. Now I have a true reading nook! Not as lovely as some of the fancy library getups that some people on the internet seem to have, but it's mine and I'm thrilled: a lovely leather armchair and ottoman to sink into and read a book. They have replaced a dilapidated Ikea Poang and associated dilapidated ottoman.

My new reading nook

I've made recipes from Simple Suppers and the Vegetarian Collection, and they turned out delicious. I returned the Whole Foods Market cookbook to the library because it is coming as a gift from my new sister-in-law.

Seeds of Deception was exactly what I thought it would be - drivel. Poorly researched, out of date, poorly sourced, and, frankly, mostly irrelevant to Canadians. A lot of the pages are devoted to GM tomatoes (no longer on the market), GM potatoes (also no longer on the market), and issues related to American governmental interference with scientific efforts and GM research (no surprises there). If anything, the book reinforces that the Canadian government has stood up, kept BGH milk and dairy out of Canada, and held government to account when it tried to muzzle research on BGH milk. Admittedly, Canada is currently failing miserably at scientific backing and freedom, but in terms of GM produce I don't think we're doing too bad. The book totally cherry-picks and sensationalizes what it writes, with a heaping spoonful of sarcasm and disdain. It was terrible, but I read it cover to cover in order to be able to say that with authority. I hope to never read as poor a quality of book ever again.

Just Food was interesting. It also had a bit too much haughty confidence on the part of the author, but I did find his writing to be much more, well, fair, and realistic in terms of how humanity can balance our population and our food needs along with the environment. His main ideas were:

• Local food is a bit too overrated - don't focus so much on food miles but on the carbon cycle of the thing you're eating overall
• We need to drastically reduce our meat consumption, and instead replace land-based meat with ethically- and environmentally-sound aquaculture systems (more fish!)
•  Integrate livestock and food production on mid-size farms, growing things that thrive in the environment you're in without heavily modifying it
• Judicious use of biotech and chemicals, being mindful that some organic chemicals are very environmentally harmful

I would definitely recommend the book. My main issue throughout, which was validated in the final chapter, was that a lot of the food decisions he recommends are currently impossible to make, with our labelling and farming systems as they currently appear. This was a disappointing ending to a book that brought me much hope. But it certainly gave good ideas for what to keep an eye out for as I shop and eat.

So, with a bigger focus on finding vegetarian meals for all four of us to enjoy, and finding ethically raised meat (pork and beef has been found, chicken pending) to eat in moderation (less than we have in the past), and eating more fish, I'm going to go sit in my new chair and move on to my next book, started before the food kick: The Bedtime Book of Famous French Stories. So far it is fabulous! I'm kinda done with reading non-fiction for a bit, and am looking forward to engulfing myself in French prose.

Title: Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of GE Foods
Author: Jeffrey M. Smith
Published: 2003
Pages: 254

Title: Just Food: Where Locavores get it Wrong and How we can Eat Responsibly
Author: James E. McWilliams
Published: 2009
Pages: 222

Total Books Blogged: 12
Total Pages: 4145

Interruption: Food

As a step-mother, or as a part of a situation where children have two homes, it's not easy sometimes when there is a fundamental difference of opinion between the homes. Hence, I have interrupted my barely-gotten-started bookcase quest in order to learn more about food.

We have been accused of poisoning the children, of ignorance, and of stupidity. I know none of these are true. However, in order to meet one opinion with a dissenting one, I began a quest to read up on food so that I can either alter or justify the food we eat (or both).

It started awhile ago, long before the accusations started flying, with a quest to eat more whole foods, remove more processed foods from our diet, and eat more vegetarian foods, more beans, and more whole grains. It started with finding the 100 Days of Real Food Blog (http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/), and deciding to eat closer to their kind of diet. I started making things like applesauce from scratch, and I want to start making bread. I get very frustrated when a recipe doesn't turn out, and I feel this may happen many times when I start making bread! But I'll do it nonetheless.

Between what was 'recommended' to us by the boys' other household, what we found on our own, and some awesome cookbooks, here's what's been taking up my time:

Titles as follows:

The Whole Foods Market Cookbook - Steve Petusevsky

Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa - Robert Paarlberg

Just Food: Where Locavores Get it Wrong and how we can Eat Responsibly - James E. McWilliams

Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers - The Moosewood Collective

Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the GE Foods you're eating - Jeffrey M. Smith

The Canadian Living Vegetarian Collection - Alison Kent

Three of these are cookbooks - two are vegetarian, and all look delicious! My parents had Moosewood cookbooks as I grew up - my Mom has been vegetarian for years, my older sister has been since she was 12 or so, and for many years my little sister was as well. I think the more vegetarian meals the kids enjoy, the better. Especially given what I've been reading in Just Food - meat, especially beef, is particularly hard on the environment. So eating more vegetarian meals is a current goal of mine.

I've also started reading Seeds of Deception. This is the book that we were ignorant for not having read. From the first pages, the reviews, and the praise, even the cover, I'm enormously skeptical. It's all pseudo-celebrity plugs, and it advertises that it reads "like adventure stories" on the back cover - science doesn't read like that. Sensationalism reads like that. The bibliography is full of newspaper articles, blogs and other non-peer-reviewed sources. I've spent nine years educating myself in an academic environment, and if someone can find no scientific basis for their beliefs, I think their beliefs are likely unfounded, or at least exaggerated. However, I will read every page of the book, because I need to have it under my belt in order to be able to defend myself against assumptions and accusations based on this book. 

After Seeds of Deception and Just Food, I'll read Starved for Science. And, as a scientist, I recognize three books do not a whole knowledge make. However, it's a good start, and three very different perspectives on the GM/'mainstream'/organic debate. And I'll cook some delicious vegetarian foods, too!

Then back to the shelves. I've been reading a bit of a book of French short stories, and some Longfellow. More to come, more to come! But the wedding is next month... so I apologize in advance if I don't update this much until after mid-July!

Completed: Shorter Poems by Alexander

I finished this some days ago. The remaining fifty pages or so did not disappoint, just like the previous 450. I could tell, throughout, which poems had been assigned to this book's once-owner in school, with pencil scribbles in the margins, mostly illegible to me. Original price: 40 cents.

I only tabbed one poem in the last 50 pages - the book overall has about a dozen neon orange post-its sticking out in various locations. This doesn't indicate that I didn't enjoy the final pages, just that there wasn't anything I wanted to immediately come back to apart from this quote. It is from a poem called "Out Of The Night" by W. E. Henley, who I have not heard of before. It is a poem of conquering adversity and of the indomitable soul, and the final stanza is:

'It matters not how strait [sic] the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.'

It is a perfect poem to read on a day when you are feeling defeated because of the circumstances surrounding you.

Since I was a teenager, I have collected poems, quotes, and inspirational tidbits in a beautiful leather-covered notebook. I once had another notebook, but lost it to a former friend when I was 17. The current incarnation was started upon arrival at university, and I have been steadily filling it ever since. Many of the poetical works I read in this book will find their way into my 'Quotes Book' (no, it doesn't have a better name than that). But for the time being, I have blogged it, and might I say thoroughly enjoyed it. I shall read it again, I'm sure, at some point. But I have years to read before I repeat, and years to read before I repeat...

Title: Shorter Poems
Editor: W. J. Alexander
Published: 1924
Pages: 489

Total books blogged: 10
Total pages: 3,669

Currently Reading: Shorter Poems

Silly Molly - when I first saw this book on my bookshelf, I thought it was full of shorter poems by someone named Alexander. No, no... it is an edited volume, edited by W. J. Alexander, professor of English literature at "University College, Toronto", which of course eventually became one of the colleges within the greater University of Toronto, which I attended several years ago.

I read the preface, and this is where I discovered my silliness, above. The preface also gave me some insight into school some 90 years ago. Back in 1924, it was "proper" to read some 3,000 lines of poetry per year in high school. Now, I did read some poetry in middle and high school, but I can guarantee that I did not read 3,000 lines a year. I really didn't grow into an appreciation of poetry until university. I think my difficulty was that I enjoyed reading poetry, but despised analyzing it. I just wanted to read it and experience it without criticizing it. Alexander put it perfectly in the preface: "The chief means of arriving at the enjoyment of good music is to listen to it; of painting, to see it; of literature, to read it."

This book has been a good and gentle reintroduction into the world of poetry. It is mostly filled with short (as per its title), rhyming, relatively 'simple' poems, and it browses through all of the classic poets. Byron and Keats are my favorites.

This book, because it presents many of the 'classic' poems by some of these poets, has allowed me to discover out who wrote some of my favorite lines. "She walks in beauty like the night" - Byron. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever" - Keats. The poem of the Lady of Shalott - Tennyson. "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" - Keats. "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary" - The Raven - Poe. "'Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all" - Tennyson. It has been a magical read, and I'm thankful that it is all 12,000 of those proper high-school lines, rather than shorter. I have about fifty pages left.

Completed: Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey

It took me a while to finish this book, because I kept it at work and only read it during my breaks. (Though now I've started a 600-page Longfellow compilation at work - who knows HOW long that's going to take!).

There's a few reflections on this book that I'd like to share (and you're here reading, and therefore get to read them!).

I have a great respect, more so than before, for Jane Goodall after reading this book. I also find that I have a great appreciation for many of her opinions on belief. She thinks that most of the religious differences are details, and that the faith, the spirituality, the belief and the wonder are the important parts. She is open to everyone who lives their life with integrity, regardless of the religious nuances:

"And what about those, and there are many, who do not believe in a God - those who are athiests? It does not make any difference, I thought. A life lived in the service of humanity, a love of and respect for all living things - those attributes are the essence of saintlike behavior." (p202)

She has had the experience of being faced with a situation that cannot be explained apart from by faith. It is something I've never had, though perhaps not looking at things through a spiritual lens makes the perception different. She had two children - her son, and a friend's daughter - come to her independently and say that they knew her husband had passed away, and had dreamed of him the night he passed. Sometimes children dream or feel things much differently than adults, and so I don't find this surprising. But it's something I always wished for, for some reason. Maybe I would believe more or more fully if something that couldn't be explained would happen to me. As a teenager, it was always a cure for alopecia - give me all my hair and I'll believe. Now as an adult I don't wait for such divine interventions. But it was fascinating to read about Jane's.

She has had times when she despaired, when the evil of the world overwhelmed her. She worried at one time if she "had been justified in bringing a child into such a hopelessly wicked place" (p186-7). And I felt astonished - I had never found it written so perfectly - the biggest reason why I'm scared to ever have a child. We haven't decided if we want to have a child, but if we did, I fear so much the world that we'd be bringing him or her into. But then I think of G and J, and how wonderful and kind they are, and I know it's possible to raise good kids. I felt a connection to Jane for having felt something I have felt so keenly.

I think that is the reason for her ever-enduring appeal - almost anyone can connect to her and feel a closeness to her. I read her spiritual memoir - a book I would ordinarily not even pick up. But at the other end of that book, Jane really makes me want to be a better person. That's why she's been so successful with her foundation and her conservation efforts, I think - because people connect to her. Including me.

Title: Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey
Authors: Jane Goodall with Phillip Berman
Published: 1999
Pages: 282

Total books blogged: 9
Total pages: 3180

Word of the Week: Copra

In my Imperial Royal Canadian Atlas, I kept coming across ‘copra’ as a major product of a lot of the countries mentioned. I wrote it down with the note “Copra – W of the W” and neglected to look it up. So now I did.

My first assumption was that copra had something to do with copper production – an important metal, and surely mined in various parts of the world.

Wrong-o. Copra is defined by Wikipedia as: “…the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. Coconut oil is extracted from it and has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake, which is mainly used as feed for livestock.”

This makes me think of two things.

The first – does anyone remember being in middle school and doing your first research projects, and going to the library in order to look up precious summaries of important information like definitions in Encyclopedia Brittanica or World Book? Even hopping on the computer and using Encarta? I feel like it was forever ago.

Second – I read another blog, called 100 Days of Real Food. It’s very helpful in my quest to eat less processed food (my timbit moment Friday aside – I was sick and allowed to eat junk). The lady who writes it uses coconut oil and olive oil, mainly, as she maintains that they are less processed than other oils. And it sounds like, in modern times, it really is less processed and refined. In fact, it is produced in a similar fashion to olive oil – by crushing. Even the by-product of copra production, termed copra ‘cake’, does not go to waste, so double bonus!

I have yet to buy and use coconut oil. But maybe I should give it a try!

Completed: Imperial Royal Canadian World Atlas

I know, it's been too long. I've thought of many things that I could have blogged about lately in regards to my reading. But I've been busy. I have two jobs - a nine-to-five and a part-time research gig. Apart from that, I spent the better part of two weeks' worth of free time completing my annual scrapbook for D. I've made him a scrapbook for each year we've been together, and given it to him for Christmas. This year I didn't get it done for Christmas, and barely got it done for his birthday. And I've just had a bunch of outings with friends - a perfectly good reason to not get around to blogging!

All the while, though, I've been reading before I go to bed - at least 15 minutes or so, but often more. It has taken me some time to finish the Atlas, because after the first few introductory chapters on Canada, it became a more monotone laundry list of the world's countries, along with their population size, industries, natural resources, highest peaks, biggest cities, and features of note. Despite it sometimes being a bit of a tedious read, it was also very illuminating.

I've been interested in history and archaeology my whole life. But often the world is divided up into digestible bites when studying history - World War I, World War II, Vietnam, Cold War, etc. I found this atlas incredible because it fell outside of these normal time periods, and also covered the whole globe, not just areas of interest in the midst of a war or something. It mentioned every (political) part of the planet, and what it was like in 1935. Here are some of the more interesting tidbits that I came across:

• There were only three independent states in Africa: Egypt, Liberia, and Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
• They thought that the Arctic would become an 'air crossroads' of the world, with jets flying across the north pole area
• World War I was not yet World War I, as there had been no World War II (it's just something you don't think about until you come across it) - it was the Great War or the World War
• In the 1931 Canadian census, there was only 1 telephone per 10 people in Canada
• In 1935, women still could not vote in Quebec
• In the title of the British sovereign (George V, at the time), the term "Emperor of India" was still used, as it was not yet self-governing. Pakistan did not yet exist
• Newfoundland was not yet part of Canada
• Terms such as 'savages', 'half-castes', and 'pure races' were still used, though of course we abhor such terms today
• Vatican City had only been around as a political entity for 6 years

I think the biggest realization that this book brought me to is that the world in 1935 was really still divvied up between the various European colonial powers. I didn't realize how many colonies still existed at that time (because again, when you study history in school, you don't normally study the parts of the world not directly involved in whatever war or event you're studying). Africa, south/southeast Asia, the Pacific, the Caribbean, were almost entirely colonial to some degree or another. Germany, however, had no colonies - they had all been taken away after World War I (and so you see many "British/French such-and-such, formerly German such-and-such"s throughout). 

I'm very glad to have read this historical, geographical snapshot from 1935. It makes me all the more excited to read more of my older books (next up: a high-school poetry book from 1924).

One line in this book was ominous, and foretold of what was to come not long after this book was published. I thought I would finish this entry with that, as it is the line that has stayed with me the most since reading it: "Germany... Government: Republic (since November, 1918); official name, Deutches Reich; Since March, 1933 - Dictatorship". It just puts a pit in your stomach to know what that dictatorship was going to do in the decade following this book's publication. The world did not yet know the horror of the Holocaust. Anne Frank was six years old.

Title: Imperial Royal Canadian World Atlas "An Atlas for Canadians"
Editors: Fred James, Lloyd Edwin Smith, and Frederick K. Branom
Published: 1935
Pages: 216

Total books blogged: 8
Total pages: 2898