Milkweed

While browsing a display at the end of an aisle in Vroman's Bookstore, I came across this book: Wild Card Quilt: Taking a Chance on Home, by Janisse Ray. It's about a woman in her mid-30s returning to her childhood home and "[r]ediscovering the nearly lost pleasures of country life."

The book is published by Milkweed Editions, a non-profit literary press that offers some intriguing titles.

Misc. food topics

Calcium-themed Food Guide Pyramid. I printed the page and put it on my refrigerator for reference.

The Color Code: A Revolutionary Eating Plan for Optimum Health by J. A. Joseph, D. A. Nadeau and A. Underwood. I had first read about this book in a NY Times' article to which I linked last year. In spite of its "market-ese" title—"revolutionary" and "optimum" in one sub-title!—the book's claims are carefully qualified. The first two authors work and research in nutrition at Tufts. As the title suggests, the authors categorize fruits and vegetables by color group and analyze the health benefits, particularly the phytochemicals.

Plants manufacture those compounds to protect themselves against a variety of dangers, ranging from solar radiation to menacing microbes. . . .[T]hese vegetable defenders turn out to protect people, too, against a whole host of ills. (pp. 3-4)

According to the book (p. 185) the top ten fruits and vegetables (although the book analyzes many more) are:

• Red: Strawberries, raspberries; tomatoes, red bell peppers
• Orange-Yellow: Oranges, mangoes, grapefruit; carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squash
• Green: Kiwi, avocado; kale, broccoli, spinach
• Blue-Purple: Blueberries, Concord grapes, dried plums; purple cabbage, eggplant

The School of Nutrition at Tufts University evaluates nutrition websites, rating websites from "Among the best" to "Not recommended."

Peaches are now available at the Farmer's Market. However, I'm still enjoying the strawberries.

Book reviews

Today's Los Angeles Times Book Review was particularly scrumptious—an extended review of Robert Lowell's Collected Poems, including a biographical sketch, and a shorter review of collected essays by Clive James.

Lee Siegel, James' reviewer, describes James' review of George Orwell's writing this way:

Considering, in 1999, the publication of George Orwell's collected journalism, James reflects on the strange fate of the adjective "Orwellian," which has been almost wholly detached from the author and applied to the condition of totalitarianism that he despised. "It is as if George Orwell had conceived the nightmare instead of analyzed it, helped to create it instead of helping to dispel its euphemistic thrall." In other words, the term "Orwellian" itself has now recast around the phenomenon of totalitarianism the sort of "euphemistic thrall"—gorgeous phrase—it once helped to sweep away.

Such an original, restorative perception serves the purpose not just of pleasure but of shaping a cultivated mind.

To write

From "A conversation with Mary Doria Russell," appended to her book The Sparrow:

Q: What sort of writing routine do you have?

A: . . .The main thing to remember is that writing happens by doing the writing.

The cat sat on the mat

I just realized that phrase is true. It struck me this morning as I was wheeling the rubbish bins to the curb and saw my neighbors' elegant long-haired cat sitting on their front door mat, his tail fanned around his feet.

More summer reading

I'm now halfway through the second book by Mary Doria Russell, Children of God. I haven't read much science fiction, but I came across an interview with Russell on Metanexus and was intrigued by the themes of her books. My local library branch happened to have both of them. (The Sparrow is the first book.) Russell explores questions of theodicy and coincidence vs. divine intention/intervention. She pushes the question of suffering for God or nought to the limit, and very explicitly.

However, I'm enjoying the story and characters, as well as the theological grapplings.

P. S. What kind of spell checker doesn't recognize the word "theodicy"?

Religion and Science

Metanexus has many resources available online about the current religion and science discussions. The Meta-Library section has a number of in-depth articles on a variety of topics. The last topic listed, "Theology and Science: Current Issues and Future Directions," gives a useful introduction to ideas and thinkers in the theology/science debates, with handy links to a glossary of philosophical and scientific concepts.