The 100-Mile Diet- A Year of Local Eating

Co-authored by Alisa Smith & J.B. MacKinnon, a couple who decided to try a local-eating experiment for one year, limiting themselves to a 100-mile radius surrounding their Vancouver home. By now everyone's heard of the 100-mile diet, and these are the two who coined it. Overall it was a good read, both engaging and inspiring, it had some great facts about our current global food system, some new and some I'd heard before. It definitely argues some of the common disbeliefs: I can't do this if I live in a city (they did), or it's a diet designed only for their area (they polled lots of farmers in various areas and the consensus seemed to be that if agriculture is possible in your area, so is eating local).

A couple of minor beefs though: the running commentary about relationship discontent, as far as I can tell, has no contribution to the storyline and seems misplaced. (Or maybe it is the discontent in general, which Smith expresses and seems to blame on- though ultimately fails to connect to, thus the seeming irrelevance- our culture's disconnectedness with nature and mass consumerism.) And then there is the sometimes borderline melodrama- maybe it's a characteristic of (some) writers in general, to embellish or dramatize events for the sake of story, but when it's non-fiction, and you're reading about something familiar, it's both obvious and ridiculous. Example: it is common knowledge that the earthquakes of Vancouver Island, generally minor occurrences, will cause a devastating quake sometime in the next 200 years (which works out to be something like a 5% chance of it happening today). It's not as if people walk around waiting for the sky to fall on them, but according to this book they do, all that and more:

"It is both exciting and horrible to know that the earth beneath your feet is constantly shifting. My whole generation, I think, feels these tensions. No one I know seems able to settle into one calling or one place."

Maybe it's just me, but I find this kind of stuff annoying. If I met anyone in real life who walked around daily freaking out about the minor chance of major earthquakes, I probably wouldn't be rushing out to read their memoir. I mean, I had no idea that the discontentedness and inability to commit of people today had to do with.... earthquakes. Nothing to do with being constantly bombarded by 300 to 3000 advertisements every day telling us we should be discontented with our lot (and therefore, buy more). Nope. Not that. It's the earthquakes, fellas. Golly.

Anyway, ranting aside, despite being a little overdone in small moments (and much less so than 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle', I might add) I still found it a good and worthwhile read, good food for thought, and worth recommending. Read it, and hopefully find ways to live it!

How To Be Good by Nick Hornby

Yep, another Nick Hornby book, but you just can't beat his fabulous writing. This book was still a pleasure to read despite the fact that I wasn't too fond of the story... A middle-aged woman is fed up with her cynical husband, unhappy with her life, and contemplating divorce. Meanwhile, the husband has a sort of spiritual experience and suddenly loses all of his pessimism and cynicism for life. Overnight, he has become everything the wife has wished for- he is good and kind and considerate- but is it really what she wants?

Anyway, too much mid-life cynicism and crisis for me to really connect with or enjoy (I can't say I'm a fan of reading about the nothing-to-do-but-accept-how-depressing-life-is storyline) but in spite of all of that, I found it enjoyable and the writing itself a pleasure to read. But probably wouldn't really recommend it.

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

Another good read by Nick Hornby, I must confess that 'About A Boy' hooked me so deep that I've gone out and read everything else of his I can get my hands on. There's no denying that he is a fabulous writer, whip-smart and funny, even though this book didn't strike quite the same chords as AbAB. Partly I think because I could relate more personally to the other book, but I think also because AbAB was more heartfelt (while still witty) whereas 'High Fidelity' was much more humourous. Once again, they did a fabulous job of turning the book into a movie, and I would have to say the book and the movie are on pretty equal par. Definitely worth reading.

About A Boy by Nick Hornby

Picked up this book because I loved the movie version of it (it's for sure on my top ten- heh heh, that's a little High Fidelity reference though, we'll get to that later) and figured all that wit had to be based on something. I didn't like the writing style at first, but persevered because of my good faith in the movie, and it didn't take long to adjust to the Hornby's writing style and really get into it. I loved it- I loved the writing style, the humour, the story, and the themes- relationships and community and family. Such a good read. Quick and sharp. I won't bother getting into the plot. If you've seen the movie, you already know. If you haven't seen the movie... maybe you should.

This is one rare case where I thought that the movie was as good as the book- in some ways better, because all of the ideas from the book are condensed and crystallized and so perhaps pack a bit more punch. But on the other hand, it was really enjoyable to have all of those ideas elaborated upon on the page and I certainly didn't mind those extra pages of great reading. As quick a read as it is, it gave a great satisfaction upon finishing- everything about it was just right I'd say.