Bee Wilson - Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud, from poisoned candy to counterfeit coffee

Bee Wilson - Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud, from poisoned candy to counterfeit coffee

(en, 381 pg, 2008)

The title of this book makes it sounds like it some type of novelty caper, an unmasking of food jiggery-pokery. Happily,Swindled is much better and more serious than that. Bee Wilson is perhaps more historian than food writer, or that's what came through in the text. She writes in a nicely nuanced style that draws you into her subject. Wilson has obviously thought deeply about the nature of food adulteration and what it means for the culture and public health. This comes through in her splendid writing.

Swindled tracks the history of food adulteration and those who exposed these food frauds, starting in the nineteenth century. Essentially, food frauds flourished (if I can use that expression) the longer the chain between food producer and eater became. The less we have to do with our food growing, processing and cooking, the more we are prone to food swindles. The rise of industrialisation has also meant a rise in dubious foods. (Interestingly, industrialising China is plagued with food scandals.)

Vlad&Alex Lepădatu - Cobai

Vlad&Alex Lepădatu - Cobai

(162pg, ro)

Bill Bryson - Neither here nor there

Bill Bryson - Neither here nor there

(1991, en, 546pg)

"Bill Bryson's Neither Here Nor There takes up where A Walk In The Woods leaves off. Althought the setting changes from the American wilderness to the great cities of Western Europe, the reader will find themself caught up in his hillarious travel misadventures. In midlife Mr. Bryson attempts to recreate the travel itenerary of his youth some twenty plus years earlier when he backpacked across Europe with highschool buddy Stephen Katz.

The descriptions of historic sights and people encountered along his journey are laced with witty observations and laugh out loud situations. Some of Bill Brysons miscues are self-inflicted due to his pursuit of cozy bars and good draft beer. With the great cities of Europe as the backdrop for this journey to revisit his past the book moves along at a quick pace.

The author finds humor in the most awkward of situations while handling adversity with a stoic British sense of decorum. A skill he has learned over a twenty year period living in Britain with his wife and children. This trip is taken just prior to returning with his family back to America."

(Amazon, 12$)

Lem Stanislaw - Solaris

Lem Stanislaw - Solaris

(ro, 1961, 180pg)

Solaris chronicles the ultimate futility of attempted communications with the extraterrestrial (alien) life on a far-distant planet. Solaris, with whom Terran scientists are attempting communication, is almost completely covered with an ocean that is revealed to be a single, planet-encompassing organism. What appears to be waves on its surface is later revealed to be the equivalent of muscle contractions.

Kris Kelvin arrives aboard the scientific research station hovering (via anti-gravity generators) near the oceanic surface of the planet Solaris. The scientists there have studied the planet and its ocean for many decades, a scientific discipline known as Solaristics, which over the years has degenerated to simply observe and record the complex phenomena that occur upon the surface of the ocean. They've thus far achieved only the formal classification of the phenomena with an elaborate nomenclature — yet do not understand what such activities really mean in a strictly scientific sense. Shortly before psychologist Kelvin's arrival, the crew has exposed the ocean to a more aggressive experimentation with a high-energy X-ray bombardment. Their experimentation give unexpected results and becomes psychologically traumatic for them as individually flawed humans.

Johnny Ryan: A history of the internet and the Digital Future

Johnny Ryan: A history of the internet and the Digital Future

(2010, en, 246pg)

A History of the Internet and the Digital Future tells the story of the development of the Internet from the 1950s to the present, and examines how the balance of power has shifted between the individual and the state in the areas of censorship, copyright infringement, intellectual freedom and terrorism and warfare. Johnny Ryan explains how the Internet has revolutionized political campaigns; how the development of the World Wide Web enfranchised a new online population of assertive, niche consumers; and how the dot-com bust taught smarter firms to capitalize on the power of digital artisans.

(27$,http://www.press.uchicago.edu)

Frank Kafka - Verdictul și alte povestiri

Franz Kafka - Verdictul și alte povestiri

(1969, ro, 132pg)

Drew Carey - Dirty Jokes and Beer

Drew Carey - Dirty Jokes and Beer

(1997, en, 290pg)

Dirty Jokes and Beer: Stories of the Unrefined is a 1997 book written by Drew Carey.

In a preface to the novel, Carey claims that he wrote every word of the book himself - he didn't use a ghost writer (although as he says, "it probably would have been easier").

The book was mentioned briefly in an episode of the US version of the improv comedy TV series Whose Line is it Anyway? (a show which Drew himself hosted from 1998-2003). During a game of "Scenes From a Hat," Drew pulled out the subject "books least likely to be checked out at the library" and friend Ryan Stiles acted as if he was picking a book and read the title "Dirty Jokes and Beer."

(Amazon, 7$)

Luis Sepulveda - Jurnalul unui killer sentimental

Luis Sepulveda - Jurnalul unui killer sentimental

(ro, 70pg, 1996)

Cu Jurnalul... Luis Sepulveda valorifica din plin resursele romanului politist, de care s-a simtit intotdeauna atras. Daca in aceasta carte asasinul incalca, din pricina faptului ca este indragostit, toate regulile impuse de profesia sa implacabila, in Yacare detectivul unei firme de asigurari nu poate sa nu depaseasca limitele misiunii, lasandu-se calauzit de flerul sau de fost politist. In timp ce asasinul platit isi conduce cititorul de la Paris la Madrid, si de la Istanbul la Mexic, detectivul firmei de asigurari isi paraseste pentru o vreme biroul din Zurich pentru a patrunde in lumea necunoscuta a indienilor anare, misteriosi locuitori din sudul Braziliei.

(Amazon,11$)

Stanislaw Lem - Eden

Stanislaw Lem - Eden

(1959, ro, 229pg)

Lem’s Eden, written in 1958, but only translated to English in 1989, is the first of Lems mature works. In this piece, as in other works by Lem, an exploration of an alien species and it’s world is hampered by failure to communicate, or even understand what is found there.

The story begins with the crash landing of a craft on a planet of which little is known. The occupants of the craft are referred to only by their professions…“the doctor”, “the captain”, “the cyberneticist” etc.. etc. After their crash landing, and eventually managing to extricate themselves from their space craft, they proceed to explore the planet. First on foot, and later with the aid of a jeep, and even eventually a tank, they discover that there is an advanced civilization on the planet. Unfortunately is it precisely because of this level of advancement that nothing can be fathomed of it at all.

Their travels reveal fantastic structures…..huge animal/plants which resemble trees but move like animals, giant towers filled with glass eggs, each containing a bizarre skeleton…gigantic factories which seem to produce objects which resemble living tissue, only then to reabsorb and recycle them again. Try as they might, even after making direct contact with the symbiotes who seem to run everything, they cannot understand the whys and wherefores of Eden. Why is the planet littered with seemingly useless factories and images of death? What purpose is served by such things? These and other questions await revelation in the pages of “Eden”