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rocknrollbookshelf's reviews
518 reviews
Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry by Gail A. Eisnitz
4.0
I had a rude awakening very recently concerning the health hazards as well as the immorality of eating meat, and as a result, i've been seeking out information on the meat industry and animal rights. This book is more or less the top of the stack as far as I'm concerned, being a new convert to vegetarianism. It exposes the gross crimes committed against animals every day by the thousands as they're drug through the slaughterhouse, being skinned, mutilated, tortured, beaten, shocked, and scalded while still alive. Federal legislation "requires" humane slaughtering practices, but these are largely ignored as a result of USDA pressure and power over the meat plants and employees. The industry, being concerned only with the amount of production, looks the other way while innocent animals are subjected to gruesome and painful deaths so that we can put dinner on the table. The corruption doesn't just affect the animals; non-enforcement of health standards and practices in the slaughterhouses and packaging plants leaves us with meat products that are more often than not contaminated with fecal matter, bacteria, etc etc etc. Gail Eisnitz courageously investigates and uncovers these and other horrific injustices in the meat industry and presents them to us. Even if you're not particularly interested in animal rights, the governmental corruption this book demonstrates is absolutely astonishing, and the health risks being sold to us at the meat counter are of interest to ANYONE. You'll need a strong stomach to read this one, but it's absolutely worth it.
Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story by Chuck Klosterman
4.0
chuck klosterman is the shit; enough said.
Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami
4.0
haruki murakami has a narrative style that draws you in without your consent. it's addicting, it's irresistable, and the only drawback to reading murakami that i can come up with is that it makes you wish you were a native japanese speaker... the idea of any possible beautiful subtlety murakami penned in his native tongue being lost in translation to english is a heartbreaking concept. but i'll take what i can get.
Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
3.0
i've been highly anticipating my first encounter with pynchon for quite awhile. he's one of those authors who is always getting critically lumped in with other authors that i really like, so i've been meaning to read him for about a year or so. 'vineland' is definitely somewhat of a dense read... it took a good 200 pages before i really got into it, but once i did, i was entirely enthralled, and the book only got better from there.
the story is a dark and funny attempt to demonstrate the not-so-groovy aftereffects of the 60s, on the government and countercultural sides, and how it affects the generations to come. i had trouble because a lot of the story has to do with governmental spies and good guys and bad guys and double agents, and for some reason i've never been any good with keeping up with those types of stories. put me in front of an action movie, and by the end of it, i cannot tell you who's on what side or even what has happened throughout the movie other than gratuitous bomb and tit shots.
i have only rated this book 3 stars right now, but i have a strong feeling that it is going to grow on me (you know those kinds of books? the ones that you think you only liked but you find yourself thinking about them frequently for weeks afterwards?) and it may very well go up in the ratings. i definitely plan to read more pynchon, and i look forward to it. 'vineland' made me laugh out loud and even once brought me to tears at a particularly tender scene. i would definitely recommend this novel, especially to anyone interested in the revolutionary sixties generation.
the story is a dark and funny attempt to demonstrate the not-so-groovy aftereffects of the 60s, on the government and countercultural sides, and how it affects the generations to come. i had trouble because a lot of the story has to do with governmental spies and good guys and bad guys and double agents, and for some reason i've never been any good with keeping up with those types of stories. put me in front of an action movie, and by the end of it, i cannot tell you who's on what side or even what has happened throughout the movie other than gratuitous bomb and tit shots.
i have only rated this book 3 stars right now, but i have a strong feeling that it is going to grow on me (you know those kinds of books? the ones that you think you only liked but you find yourself thinking about them frequently for weeks afterwards?) and it may very well go up in the ratings. i definitely plan to read more pynchon, and i look forward to it. 'vineland' made me laugh out loud and even once brought me to tears at a particularly tender scene. i would definitely recommend this novel, especially to anyone interested in the revolutionary sixties generation.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
5.0
good god. j.k. does not disappoint... i just want to say that she starts kicking the reader's ass about 20 pages in, and doesn't stop kicking your ass until she's done. now, i have to get back to grieving the end of the harry potter series.