In Meat we Trust provides an interesting look at the history of the meat industry in the USA. However, it should be read with a large corn of salt. It is mostly a business-industrial oriented history, that gives little attention to the environmental impacts of the meat system. There is virtually no discussion of the meat industry's impact on global warming. Ogle spends many pages ridiculing consumer advocate critics of the meat industry (Upton Sinclair receiving the greatest derision), without giving convincing reasons business is more believable. Health concerns surrounding meat are given similar treatment. Derision is heaped upon studies linking meat with heart disease, and the authors of the studies are ridiculed as greedy quacks looking for fame and wealth at the expense of the hardworking meat purveyors of America. Meanwhile, the risks of livestock diseases such as avian flu, e coli, and mad cow disease are hardly discussed at all.
In Meat we Trust should be neither the first nor the last book one reads on this topic; it is a good source of history from the business perspective and is worth reading.

I liked the art and subject matter. My main complaint about Nelson Mandela: the Authorized Comic Book is that it provides about as much information as a timeline of events. The book provides little in the way of historical context, and little in the way of characterization, even of Nelson Mandela himself. the book shows us his childhood and adolescence, but the book gives few clues of where his drive and dedication to the the struggle for freedom came from. For example, the part of the book with Mandela's involvement in a student boycott at his school doesn't say what the boycott was about, or why Mandela participated in it; it just tells us that he participated, and felt strongly about it. Similarly, we are told about his conflicts between the needs of his family and the needs of the Movement, but are not really shown them (which is strange for a graphic novel).
I realize that if Nelson Mandela: the Authorized Comic Book was to delve deeper into the historical moment and into the character of Mandela, and the characters of those around him, it would be a much much longer book, but doesn't the life of such a great man deserve as much?

I liked the subject matter of Strange Fruit, Volume I: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History, but I wish these uncelebrated narratives could have been fleshed out more, allowing us to get to know the characters a little better. I had already heard of Henry "Box" Brown, and was disappointed with how much the book simplified his story. From what I understand, Brown's story was much more complex than what was in the book: Many abolitionists were embarrassed he didn't do more to free his family once he gained his freedom, and Frederick Douglass criticized Brown for giving away his escape route in telling the story of his escape.
Another, more important problem, is the lack of female subjects. The Historical record is full of remarkable women whose stories aren't told in the History books, and this book does nothing to redress that. I guess we're on our own if we want to find black women's uncelebrated narratives!
That said, Strange Fruit, Volume I: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History provides a good jumping-off point for researching the people it does cover.

Sight Reading is not worth reading. The book seems like it's trying to be character-driven, yet it doesn't really characterize anyone. It seemed like Kalotay was inventing the characters' traits as she went along, to conform to Sight Reading's plot points (such as they were). The relationships and sexual interactions aren't fleshed out. The characters abruptly hop into bed with each other, without any exploration of their attractions to one another. This combined with the fact that the book doesn't even depict anyone having sex, often left me wondering if anyone had actually had sex with anyone else at all. Similarly, While the reader was constantly told how important music was to the characters, it was usually hard to see any of the characters connection to music. Sight Reading could have been any group of academics, but Kalotay decided her book would be about musicians and music, and so filled her book with tired cliches about the power of music and art without ever showing the readers HOW the music affected the characters. For me the music parts of the book served mainly to heighten its pretentiousness.

Gave me new insights into the geography of poverty, and into the minimum wage jobs I've worked.

Great sequel to Oryx and Crake. The perspective is shifted enough that this book stands well on its own.

Story of an outcast who betrayed his people, justifying himself to the little girl he abducted.