World Ark Magazine - September/October 2008 - (Page 38)

Mixed Media Food for Thought Pathways Magazine Free From the Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality at Stanford University comes this new quarterly focusing on poverty-related trends, policy and current research. Michael Pollan Penguin, January 2008, Hardcover | $21.95 Ann Vileisis Shearwater, October 2007, Hardcover | $26.95 The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It Paul Collier Oxford University Press, 2007 Hardcover | $28 A former director of development research at the World Bank looks at 50 failing nations and suggests that any hope of ending global poverty must take them into account. Review by Jaman Matthews, World Ark Associate Editor Michael Pollan is a darling of The New York Times. In the past year, his essays appeared so often in the newspaper’s Sunday magazine that his absence is more noticeable than his inclusion. He even had his own blog at the newspaper’s website. So it’s no surprise that his latest book, In Defense of Food, is perched near the top of The New York Times best-seller list. But is the book anything more than a wellorchestrated PR effort by his publisher? Pollan’s previous book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, was also a bestseller and also tackled modern American food culture. It’s always a risky proposition for a writer to return immediately to the same topic. There are the obvious dangers of repeating oneself or being pigeonholed as a genre writer. The follow-up book’s success depends on the author’s vigilance in avoiding old ruts and his skill in untangling new threads. There is the writer who can return again and again into the same mine and each time bring forth new gems for his readers. More typical is the writer who, returning again to that familiar earth, re-emerges each time with the same offerings presented in a different bucket. Pollan, I can honestly say, is the former. He is an author of great agility and deserves his devotees. In Defense of Food, far from a simple rehash of his previous work, uncovers a fresh vein. Pollan moves beyond his earlier topic of what to eat and why to address a new question: How should we eat? The answer is so important that Pollan doesn’t feel the need to drag his reader through the whole book, waiting for the big payoff in the end. He unveils his prescription right up front (on the dust Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World Wendy Johnson Bantam, 2008 Paperback | $25 This new book from the head gardener at Green Gulch Farm and Zen Center is part garden manual, part memoir, all inspiration. 38 September/October 2008 | WORLD ARK www.heifer.org http://www.heifer.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - September/October 2008

World Ark Magazine - September/October 2008 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked and Answered Digging Up the Past Not a Drop to Drink Facing the Ogres of Progress Mixed Media Heifer Bulletin Heifer Spirit World Ark Market Calendar First Person

World Ark Magazine - September/October 2008

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