Book Review: My Fair Lazy by Jennifer Lancaster

This book works for double whammy for both the Read Your Name Challenge (M-A-R-E) and the Non-Fiction Five (Book 3/5)...

My Fair Lazy by Jen Lancaster

Summary:  Readers have followed Jen Lancaster through job loss, sucky city living, weight loss attempts, and 1980s nostalgia. Now Jen chronicles her efforts to achieve cultural enlightenment, with some hilarious missteps and genuine moments of inspiration along the way. And she does so by any means necessary: reading canonical literature, viewing classic films, attending the opera, researching artisan cheeses, and even enrolling in etiquette classes to improve her social graces.

In Jen's corner is a crack team of experts, including Page Six socialites, gourmet chefs, an opera aficionado, and a master sommelier. She may discover that well-regarded, high-priced stinky cheese tastes exactly as bad as it smells, and that her love for Kraft American Singles is forever. But one thing's for certain: Eliza Doolittle's got nothing on Jen Lancaster-and failure is an option
 
My review:  The length of time it took me to finish this book is in no way due to the actual book and more to my own ongoing life and craziness. This is the second book by Jen Lancaster that I've read and I have to say that she's one I will continue to read. I really enjoy the way Jen Lancaster writes. She comes across as someone I would want to be friends with (even though we don't share political ideologies, but she barely ever brings that up). Her writing style is unique and all her own, like she's having a chat with you about whatever she has learned or has happened to her. And it's always amusing, with an overall story from beginning to end. She's one of those writers who makes the banal bits of life enjoyable to read about, not boring in the yeah-we've-all-been-there sort of way.

This book focuses mainly on her decision to become more culturally aware by opening herself up to new experiences with theater, literature, food, etc. I found it quite interesting as someone who, while I've always loved theater, has her own issues with coming out of her own comfort zones. And it's nice to see that others struggle with the same things, just in different ways.

If you like memoirs or books about life lessons and opening up to the world, this a book for you.
 
Overall: highly enjoyable - 4 stars

Book Review: Eating Animals

This book works for double whammy for both the Read Your Name Challenge (M-A-R-E) and the Non-Fiction Five (Book 2/5)...

Title:  Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer 

Summary:  Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between carnivore and vegetarian. As he became a husband and a father, he kept returning to two questions: Why do we eat animals? And would we eat them if we knew how they got on our dinner plates?

Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, and his own undercover detective work, Eating Animals explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits-from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth-and how such tales justify a brutal ignorance. Marked by Foer's profound moral ferocity and unvarying generosity, as well as the vibrant style and creativity that made his previous books, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, huge bestsellers, Eating Animals is a celebration and a reckoning, a story about the stories we've told--and the stories we now need to tell.

My Review:  I read this book, coming off having seen the movie, Food, Inc, searching out more information on what is really going on with the current meat industry. I heard Jonathan Safran Foer on NPR talking about this and decided to give it a go.I think this is a must read for everyone. The author makes no attempts to turn people into vegetarians/vegans and he spends a huge portion of time getting accounts from many different perspectives, including small farm owners. The reason it's a must read is that he shares a lot of information that most of us don't know - or don't care to know - about what goes on with the animals we eat. It's not that we eat animals, though he is admittedly a vegetarian, but the way they are treated in factory farms and the way it effects our environment (it causes a lot more pollution than cars on the roads).

There were quite a few unpleasant moments in the book, but I think they are necessary. And I have to say that this book has made me rethink my own way of viewing meat - not only slowly cutting meat out of my diet, but becoming an advocate for alternative ways to provide meat for people that don't involve horrible suffering for the animals.

While I truly recommend this book, I must warn that it has gruesome bits, especially for animal lovers.

Overall: 5 stars

Read Your Name Challenge

http://namereading.blogspot.com/2009/12/2010-sign-ups.html

I thought this challenge sounded cool.  I'll have to figure out what books to read, but basically, the idea is nifty - where I read books with titles that spell out my first name.  So eight books...hhhhmmm...