Book 31: Escape from Camp 14

This is the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, a North Korean defector who had been born into the prison camp and lived there his entire life until escaping at the age of 23. Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, another North Korean story, was one of the best books I've read this year, and this was also incredibly interesting, but not quite as compelling. That might have been because I listened to the audio book instead of reading it.



Blaine Harden writes that North Korean human rights issues are essentially ignored; Tibet has the Dalai Lama and Richard Gere, Burma/Myanmar has Aung San Suu Kyi, Darfur has Mia Farrow and George Clooney, but there are no celebrity spokespeople for North Korea. It's a shame. Maybe Shin Dong-hyuk can become that spokesperson.

Book 30: Dreams of Joy

This is the sequel to Shanghai Girls, which I read about a month ago. Shanghai Girls was good, but Dreams of Joy was riveting.



Both main characters (mother Pearl and daughter Joy) grabbed my attention. Joy was compelling because I couldn't understand how she could be so foolish, and then I remembered what I was like at 19 and 20 years old. I could understand Pearl's perspective as a mother trying desperately to keep her daughter from making more of what she perceived as terrible mistakes.

Some parts were quite distressing to read, but I could not stop reading.

Book 29: On Writing

I was excited to read this because I'd love to write more and better. I had heard great things about it.



I didn't love it. It was ok, but not life-changing, as I had been lead to believe it might be. Part of the problem: I don't really want to write fiction, which it leans heavily toward. A lot of the same principles apply, of course, but still.

And how lame is this: I came away with the feeling that writing and being published is really hard. Waaaaaah. Finding out which small literary magazines are best suited to your work (do they even exist anymore)? Work. Drudgery, dare I say. Submitting stories to the selected literary magazines? Wow, that's lots of work. Finding an agent? More work. I suspect some of this might have changed since the book was written, as it certainly has changed since Stephen King was first published. The feeling of my heart sinking at reading all of this means I'm probably not motivated enough to go through the process.

Book 28: Why We Get Fat

I was reluctant to read this book because I thought he was going to tell me I needed to become an omnivore--at least, that was what I had heard about the book. Why would I want to read that?



Thankfully, Taubes did not alienate this most-of-the-time vegan. Essentially, all he's saying is that refined flours and sugars (even "natural" ones like maple syrup or agave nectar) will make you gain fat. That's pretty hard to argue with. I believe that anyway. Now, to get those sneaky foods out of my diet again and retrain my tastebuds.

I do have a couple of questions that Taubes didn't address. If hormones like insulin (and to a lesser extent, estrogen and testosterone) affect weight gain, how are endocrine disruptors in the environment involved? One would think all that BPA would make us thinner, since it's a pseudo-estrogen, right?

I'm also wondering about the longevity of the Inuit, who ate a traditional hunter-gatherer diet fairly recently. I had never gotten the impression that the Inuit were particularly long-lived, but maybe that is related to accidents and injuries, rather than illness. I do absolutely believe that the introduction of refined flours and sugars to the Inuit diet has been terrible for their health, though.

Book 27: Shanghai Girls

I almost gave up on this one early on. The beginning is not to be read late at night by mothers of small children. Or maybe mothers of any size children. There should be a warning on the cover.



I'm glad I persisted. I loved the complexity of the sister relationship. There is no one like your sister to understand you, and yet no one like your sister to fight with! May says, "When our hair is white, we'll still have our sister love." Your daughters move away, your husband might be a poor match for you, but your sister will always "get it".

I also really enjoyed the way Lisa See makes you wonder about the truth of almost everything you've just read. Perspective is everything.

Now I'm anxious to read Dreams of Joy, the book which picks up where this one left off.

Book 26: Drop Dead Healthy

You know you're weird when nearly half of what you do anyway is written about by an "experiential journalist", and a lot of the rest doesn't really sound that far-fetched.



It was very, very funny. I laughed a lot, and saw myself in many of the descriptions. Highlights were the caveman workout and the description of caveman Vlad, and the section on raw food.

There were a few things that were a little out-there: squatting platforms for your toilet (though let's be honest--I have considered one), noise canceling headphones that you wear *all the time*, hand exercises, spice-smelling practice, and wearing a helmet while walking.

Overall, I feel renewed motivation to buy organic versions of the Dirty Dozen fruits and vegetables, especially for my kids, and use my standing workstation more often.