For the Love of Books

If you know me very well at all, you know that I LOVE reading. I started reading rather young, and pretty much always had a book in my hands when I was a kid. My parents have some funny pictures of me reading in strange positions, like laying upside down on a couch with my head on the floor and my feet in the air. It's still a comfortable way to read :)

Once I hit college and had soooo much reading to do for classes, reading for pleasure kind of fell by the wayside. But I have lately rediscovered my love of reading. I ride the bus every day to and from work. The bus route is about 25-30 minutes each way (or more like 60 minutes this week due to the snow!). That gives me good time to get some reading done, and I feel like I have read some really great books lately. I've mostly been reading non-fiction lately, but I would like to get back into fiction books again as well. It seems harder to find good fiction as an adult. I'm sort of picky. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

So here's my list of books I've read so far this year (or since Christmas) that I highly recommend:

Serve God Save the Planet by Matthew Sleeth, MD
An excellent book about earth stewardship from a Christian perspective. I realize that the debate over global warming is not over, however we can all admit that overall we're doing a pretty crappy job of taking care of our planet. Most of this is due to the fact that we like "stuff" and we're lazy. The author is a former chief of medical staff at a large hospital and talks about his experiences in the ER with seeing patients suffer from the effects of not taking care of the Earth (including a poignant story of a young girl who died of an asthma attack on a high pollution day in the city). I don't agree with everything he writes, especially when he hits on population control. However, he has some excellent suggestions and almost has me convinced to stop using our clothes dryer. This guy has his montly electricty bill down to $20 for a family of four!! It's refreshing to get advice on how to be "more green" from someone who is actually doing it. Nothing worse than hypocritical advice from rich celebrity types who own several homes which are all 4+ times the size of the home where I grew up!

The Suburban Christian by Albert Hsu
Discusses the role of the church and modeling the way of Christ in the suburbs. Definitely an interesting read. Not as good as I thought it would be, since he spends a lot of time discussing suburban sociology and the birth of the suburb which is somewhat boring, but he does have some suggestions about how Christians can form community within the suburbs, and not succumb to a "keeping up with the Jones's" mentality.

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
Excellent, excellent, excellent book. When I transferred to Iowa State and started studying nutrition, I never intended to actually become a dietitian. I just wanted a good health science background for a graduate degree in some health science field (like public health, PA school, or advanced practice nursing). However, after attending a lecture by Marion Nestle discussing her book Food Politics, I knew I wanted to pursue nutrition as a career. The relationship between government, politics, food, and obesity is so fascinating to me. This author is actually not a formally trained nutritionist, just a good journalist, but I highly recommend this book. His nutrition advice is beautifully summed up as "Eat Food. Not to Much. Mostly Plants." Simple, yet profound. Few of us Americans realize that the majority of what we eat today would not have been recognizable to our ancestors as food. There are aisles upon aisles of processed junk with ingredients list that are miles long. This book is a call to return to eating actual real food- fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, whole grains. Pretty much most of the stuff that is on the perimeter of the grocery store and won't keep for months and years on the shelf. If you are interested in nutrition at all, read this book!

As a side note, here is a YouTube video I found discussing the same types of issues- and guess who is in it- none other than Marion Nestle- my nutrition hero! :) I'm not sure Peter Jennings conclusion that the government must save us is the answer (why don't we start by refusing to eat the junk that's produced- it's made because there is a market for it!), although there are definitely policy changes that would help. But overall this is a well done piece. I'd post it right here on the blog if I could figure out how! But click on the link, it's about a 10 minute video.