Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
A little dated in time, but sadly, still so very true in substance. Since the book was published there's been a good bit of pushback from school systems about accepting money from soft-drink vendors or junk food pushers. But you still see Dr. Pepper sponsoring sports stadiums and Coke being named the official drink of the 'insert sport here'.
The really interesting parts are the first chapters, when he writes engagingly about the invention of the fast-food franchise. It was a surprise to me that McDonalds, for example, had an original intent to provide high quality food at an affordable price. The one thing I didn't find here, and wished for, was how that goal/reputation degraded into "cheap junk at an enormous profit" that it bears now.
The feedlot and meat-packing descriptions are as disgusting as you'd expect. Too bad the people who stand in front of abortion clinics showing mangled fetuses don't switch their target--imagine going into a fast-food restaurant and having to see signs of where the meat really came from?
By the way, why can't there be a really good, vegetarian only, fast food option? Chipotle is the closest I've found and even they are mostly meat-based.
Anyways, as to the book. Worth reading even now, and if you get too nauseous in the middle and have to give up, it's worthwhile just for the first half.
And more of the non-fiction:
by Des Linden
Wow! This lady could run! And did run and run and run until (no spoiler--it's real) great things happened. I was sort of inspired.
Her bout with hypothyroidism made me very uneasy about my own. I need to get it checked out again, and not just ignore it. Hers appeared to be acute and life-threatening. Which sucked, but it seems to have made her stronger.
Great memoir. I wonder what she's doing now?
Aha! Running marathons, for one. I hope she writes more books.
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