Book+Recommendations

=Lauren's Book Review= =Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage= Written by Heather Rogers



Amazon: Gone Tomorrow

__Review by Publishers Weekly:__ Americans produce the most waste of any people on Earth, says Rogers, but few of us ever think about where all that trash goes. Rogers endeavors to show the inner workings of the waste stream, from the garbage truck to the landfill, incinerator or parts unknown. She points out that recycling, once touted as an environmental lifesaver, "has serious flaws," and has done little to mitigate garbage's long history of environmental damage. Rogers also includes chapters on the history of waste removal and disposal, highlighting early sanitation efforts in New York City, as well as the multi-billion-dollar, multinational business of garbage. Consistently engaging, the book delineates the myriad problems caused by the country's waste output, but offers very few concrete examples of what readers can do to improve the garbage situation; instead, Rogers stoically acknowledges that "while consumers making choices with the environment in mind is a good thing, it is in no way a real solution to our trash woes." Nevertheless, the book is an intriguing look into an often misunderstood and overlooked industry. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

__Summary:__ By Joshua P. O'Conner courtesy of Amazon Reviews Garbage seems to experience a pretty dull and predictable life cycle. We might discard a fast food wrapper in our garbage can thinking nothing of its short trip to the local land fill, but the life of trash is writhe with complexities. Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage trash has historically been a focal point of social struggles and environmental disasters. Gone Tomorrow explains the origins of our current perceptions of garbage as well as the tumultuous series of events that formed our current attitudes.

Exposing the powerful social undercurrents that have historically been tied to how society disposes of its wastes, Rogers moves through various eras in the United States showing the progression (or lack their of) of garbage disposal. Gone Tommorow's detailed history of rejectamenta provides a vivid explanation as to how deeply connected our lives are to our refuse. While we typically think of garbage as something we can simply dispose of and forget, Rogers shows that the lengthy tenure of our rejected goods proves otherwise.

Gone Tomorrow transitions smoothly from an explanation of our garbage past and sets the stage for discussion of our future. Rogers takes a critical look at previous efforts to curb waste and blocked attempts at source reduction. Gone Tomorrow avoids coming off as overly preachy and instead examines methods that have been used to successfully to manage wastes. Overall Gone Tomorrow sets the stage for more candid discussion of waste management and provides the reader with a quick primer on how garbage is handled in the United States.

___ =Plastic: A toxic Love story= Written by Susan Freinkel Amazon: Plastic a toxic love story __Review by Publishers Weekly on Amazon:__ "What is plastic, really? Where does it come from? How did my life become so permeated by synthetics without my even trying?" Surrounded by plastic and depressed by the political, environmental, and medical consequences of our dependence on it, Freinkel (The American Chestnut) chronicles our history with plastic, "from enraptured embrace to deep disenchantment," through eight household items including the comb, credit card, and soda bottle (celluloid, one of the first synthetics, transformed the comb from a luxury item to an affordable commodity and was once heralded for relieving the pressure on elephants and tortoises for their ivory and shells). She takes readers to factories in China, where women toil 60-hour weeks for a month to make Frisbees; to preemie wards, where the lifesaving vinyl tubes that deliver food and oxygen to premature babies may cause altered thyroid function, allergies, and liver problems later in life. Freinkel's smart, well-written analysis of this love-hate relationship is likely to make plastic lovers take pause, plastic haters reluctantly realize its value, and all of us understand the importance of individual action, political will, and technological innovation in weaning us off our addiction to synthetics. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

__Summary from susanfreinkel.com:__ Plastic built the modern world**.** Where would we be without pacemakers, polyester, computers, cellphones, sneakers or chewing gum. (Plastic in gum? Yep!) But a century into our love affair with plastic, we’re starting to realize it’s not such a healthy one. Plastics draw on dwindling fossil fuels, leach harmful chemicals, litter landscapes, and destroy marine life. And yet each year we use and consume more; we’ve produced as much plastic in the past decade as we did in the entire twentieth century. We’re trapped in an unhealthy dependence – a toxic relationship. Journalist Susan Freinkel shows in this engaging and eye-opening book that we have reached a crisis point. Freinkel treks through history, science and the global economy to assess the real impact of plastic in our lives. She tells her story through eight familiar plastic objects: the comb, chair, Frisbee, IV bag, disposable lighter, grocery bag, soda bottle, and credit card. Each one illuminates a different facet of our synthetic world, and together they give us a new way of thinking about a substance that has become the defining medium—and metaphor—of our age. Freinkel’s conclusion? We cannot stay on our plastic-paved path. And we don’t have to. //Plastic// points the way toward a new creative partnership with the material we love to hate but can’t seem to live without.

-Review by Jamie Johnson