Village Books Blog

On Eating Animals

The latest book I'm taking on is Jonathan Safran Foer's latest, Eating Animals. Those of you who know me know that I may be a weensy obsessed with Foer's fiction. Although I'm a strict fiction reader, I had to delve into his nonfiction book about, well, eating animals. When Foer and his wife (Nicole Krauss--The History of Love--are they a power couple or what?!) learned they were having a baby, they really began evaluating their lives--in particular, their eating habits. What sort of habits would they want to pass on to their child? They both came to the conclusion that perhaps this was the perfect time to stop their occasional vegetarian ways and instead go all the way. Eating Animals is the result of Foer's desire to understand why they were making that decision. Thus far the book is an interesting take on vegetarianism (something I don't practice). For example, when I read a book about vegetarianism, written by a vegetarian, I don't expect the author to give an extremely convincing argument on why we should eat dogs (don't worry, I'm not going to eat my dog. Or yours, for that matter). Yet, early on in the book I was facing just that argument. It caught me off guard, and let my guard down that I was going to spend the next 300 pages reading a fire and brimstone sermon on why I'm wrong for being a meateater. Some of the matter is, of course, shocking in its imagery, as we all are aware of the horrific practices of slaughterhouses and factory farming. Much of it is informative. And Foer's style still prevails even in his nonfiction (woo-hoo!) I will always eat meat and I'm ok with that. We'll just have to see if any of my unwise practices as a meateater change after I finish this book. I'm certainly aware of what I do wrong, but will I be moved enough to take action, or will I simply feel like I've just been dealt a major guilt-trip? That's yet to be determined, but it has at least got me thinking and that's better than nothing, right?

-Lindsey

Half the Sky

Many women around the world have no dreams. None. Can you imagine that? Thirteen-year-old women are raped and then expected to marry their rapists. Young girls with fistula are left alone in huts at the edge of villages to die. Young women are sold into sex slavery and encouraged to become addicts. The list goes on ...

But when women in the world are empowered there is less violence in the world. When impoverished young girls are educated their lives become better and they in turn help others in their communities.  These are some of the amazing things I learned after reading Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a book that describes many horrors perpetuated against women, but also offers solutions and ways for anyone to get involved.

--Sheri

The Layman's Health Care Guide

The other day, a customer called up and wanted to know if there was just a general book for the lay reader that explained the US Health Care system. Seeing as how we are in the middle of a national debate on the subject, I took a look for something similar to Sowell's Basic Economics - a general text for the lay person on a very important subject.  But what did I find? Nothing! Zip! Zilch! A thousand memoirs of doctors, a dozen angry diatribes about some specific problem with the system or a conspiracy of right-wingers/socialists to turn us into Cuba...but no basic "HEALTH CARE FOR DUMMIES" or "COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO THE US HEALTH CARE SYSTEM." What I did find were several $300 text books for nursing and pre-med students.

 

Surely there must be some book out there that explains the role of insurance in pooling risk, the difference between a hospital and a clinic, who licenses whom and why, the current state of malpractice law, and so on...Isn't there?

--Andrew

A Friend's Take on the Current State of Bookselling

I've commented before on the state of the publishing and bookselling business and I'm sure I'll have more to say about it in the future.  In the meantime, take a look at this post by our friend Bill Petrocelli, co-owner with his wife Elaine of Book Passage in Corte Madera, California.  His piece, Bookselling in a Time of Disaster, really nails a number of the current issues.

An Op-Ed Piece by Kaled Hosseini

Kaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has an op-ed piece about racism in the current presidential campaign in the Washington Post today.  Read it!