A case for vegetarianism from the perspectives of health, morality, ecology and spirituality.
Founder of Nature’s Path Foods Arran and health writer Rosen present an elegant universal plea for compassionate dietary change on several levels: for the animals who suffer to become our food, for the millions of starving humans and for the preservation of the planet, which is being rapidly consumed to feed the meat addiction of wealthier nations. Supportive and staggering statistics from Environmental Defense and the EarthSave Foundation describe the massive quantities of crops, acreage and money it takes to support the meat industry, along with its impact on health and the environment. Shaded text boxes contain applicable quotes from famous vegetarians like Albert Einstein, religious texts, or medical professionals: “I don’t understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic, while it is medically conservative to cut people open and put them on cholesterol-lowering drugs for the rest of their lives,” states Dr. Dean Ornish. Considering the authors’ backgrounds, it's no surprise that the strongest portion of their argument is their sharing of the significant nutritional benefits of the meatless diet, which include lower cholesterol, decreased risk for cancer and a longer life span. Spiritual rationale for the fleshless diet abounds in various religions, and the authors have dug deep to find supportive passages from each. However, in attempting to portray Jesus Christ as a vegetarian, the authors reach for corroboration using ancient literary evidence that contradicts most versions of the Bible. The brief chapter describing karma and our complicity in killing when we consume the flesh of other sentient beings would have sufficed. Wonderful quotes and legitimate arguments for an animal-free diet make up this manageable, convincing book.
Pub Date: May 24, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-60961-063-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Rodale
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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