I liked this but didn't love it. A good concept but for some reason I couldn't get that into it. I've heard a lot of good things about her, though, so I'm going to try another one of her books.

I admit it, I took this book off the shelf because I was like, "OMG, Lizzie Mcguire wrote a book?!" (Along with her ghostwriter Elise Allen.) I didn't expect it to be great, but I tried to keep an open mind. But WHAT THE HELL, this book was so bizarre. It was like a Da Vinci Code/Twilight hybrid, but with no vampires, and with reincarnation. Also I guess I'm that that on GR this is called Elixir #1, not because I particularly want to read Elixir #2, but because my copy makes no mention of this being a series, and the ending (no real spoiler) is like... super abrupt and doesn't really tie anything up??

I was really impressed by how well these two authors wrote together. I think they really balanced each other out. I was a littttle annoyed by all-lowercase emo will grayson, but perhaps that is because I'm a few years out of my teens. And, confession, I haven't read anything else by David Levithan but he's ON MY LIST now. And John Green retains his place on my YA lit crush list.

I read this and mainly felt sure of two things: 1) I never, ever, ever want to climb Mt. Everest, or really any mountain and 2) I felt very deeply sad for all of the emotional turmoil Jon Krakauer and the other members of his team felt. Since I don't really know... anything about rock climbing I felt a little bit outside of this story. I mean he explained all the climbing terminology and everything. Mainly I could not get over like, why the fuck would anyone want to put themselves through that? Whyyyyy. So whatever, I mean it was well-written and I really admired the painful honesty involved, but it's not my new favorite book or anything.

File this book alongside Salt: A World History under "Books that my friends probably got tired of me reading" since the whole time I read it I was constantly sharing facts about the history of the Mormon church. Possibly my favorite is that Mormon churches usually feature a statue of the angel Moroni. MORONI. Anyway.

I really like the style that this is written in... Krakauer is good about pointing out some seriously wacky/disturbing shit but without calling it wacky or seeming patronizing. One of my favorite parts was this from the afterword:

"... He's convinced me that those who write about religion owe it to their readers to come clean about their own theological frame of reference. SO here's mine:

I don't know what God is, or what God had in mind when the universe was set in motion. In fact, I don't know if God even exists, although i confess that I sometimes find myself praying in times of great fear, or despair, or astonishment at a display of unexpected beauty.

There are some ten thousand extant religious sects--each with its own cosmology, each with its own answer for the meaning of life and death. Most assert that the other 9,999 not only have it completely wrong, but are instruments of evil, besides. None of the ten thousand has yet persuaded me to make the requisite leap of faith. In the absence of conviction, I've come to terms with the fact that uncertainty is an inescapable corollary of life. An abundance of mystery is simply part of the bargain--which doesn't strike me as something to lament. Accepting the essential inscrutability of existence, in any case, is surely preferable to its opposite: capitulating to the tyranny of intransigent belief.

And If I remain in the dark about our purpose here, and the meaning of eternity, I have nevertheless arrived at an understanding of a few more modest truths: Most of us fear death. Most of us yearn to comprehend how we got here, and why--which is to say, most of us ache to know the love of our creator. And we will no doubt feel that ache, most of us, for as long as we happen to be alive."

Right!? Anyway, it's also a really interesting biography/history of Ron and Dan Lafferty, who I hadn't heard of before this book but I guess I should have.

A well-written, engaging read. And a quick read, too. I related to McCandless's angst about This Modern Life to some extent and enjoyed Krakauer's journey. It's not my fave book ever or anything, but I liked Krakauer's style enough to want to check out his other books.

Really impressive read. Great sense of time and place (Greece, Detroit). Great handling of really complicated gender issues without reading like a gender studies textbook. Great characters.

Hmm. I felt like this was more hit-or-miss than previous BANRs, but perhaps I have just grown grumpier. Still, some great pieces are in here.

OH MAN. I loved this book. I'm really glad I read it immediately after I read the Omnivore's Dilemma (which I also loved), because it directly engages with Omnivore, while also going beyond it. If you eat meat and don't want to read this book because you think it will attack you... try it. Foer talks about his life as an omnivore and all the pros and cons (cultural, culinary, ethical, etc.) of meat eating and agriculture ( industrial and sustainable). This book is, I think, more literary and personal than Omnivore's Dilemma, but as well-researched. It isn't preachy, but it is searching. And although it deals with tricky ethical questions, it's extremely readable.... I almost want to call it a page-turner, although I'd usually save that term for a Dan Brown book or something.

If you are at all curious about the food that you eat, I'd strongly recommend reading both this and Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, preferably this book following Omnivore. But if you only care enough to read one book, make it this one.


--

"Just how destructive does a culinary preference have to be before we decide to eat something else? If contributing to the suffering of billions of animals that live miserable lives and (quite often) die in horrific ways isn't motivating, what would be? If being the number one contributor to the most serious threat facing the planet (global warming) isn't enough, what is? And if you are tempted to put off these questions of conscience, to say not now, then when?"
--JSF

Hmm. Interesting, though not totally groundbreaking for me given my other readings. A good read for someone curious about the corporatocracy, if you can get past Perkins' self-involvement.