Saturday, December 30, 2006

Recommendations

I'm about 50 pages into The Omnivore's Dilemma, and I can't put it down. Who knew reading about corn could be so fascinating? But it is. And I already know a lot of this stuff from my many food books and documentaries. But Michael Pollan has a very engaging style and puts in a lot of interesting science amidst the food facts and anecdotes. There is a reason this is on many best of the year lists. It's not only educational and entertaining, it's extremely important. I can't recommend it highly enough. It's a long sucker, but it's worth the read. At least try out the first section, and see if you're not hooked after reading about corn sex, industrial agriculture, and the way Iowa turned from green to black. Fascinating stuff. My only regret is that I have the library's copy so I can't make notes in it!!

Oh, also we watched United 93 last night and it was extremely well done. It's very sad and upsetting - you'd never believe that stuff really happened if you hadn't lived through it - but I was glad I saw it, and I had been quite hesitant. The DVD has hours of footage with the families meeting the actors and so on, which is extremely moving.

So those are my two big recommendations! We also enjoyed Little Miss Sunshine and Water and Lady inthe Water (but we love M. Night, even The Village, so we're not typical), and we're watching TransAmerica and Good Night and Good Luck next, but our biggest excitement is for Pan's Labyrinth, which just came out in theaters. I also want to see Perfume and Babel and Blood Diamond. But school's about to start again, so I doubt those will happen. We must get to Pan, though. Really can not wait.

OK, back to Pollan!

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