<i>Peyton Place</i> by Grace Metalious

This reminded me, very much, of a cleaned up version of The Beans of Egypt Maine. The Beans, though, was written from the perspective of the "shack dwellers," where this was written from that of the townspeople. I also agree with the Introduction to Peyton Place that the Beans are more caricatures of individuals, whereas Metalious's characters are more dimensional and believable.

Metalious writes very well about northern small town New England. The descriptions of the of the people and places ring true and are not forced. I was frustrated, somewhat, by the rather prosaic descriptions of Indian Summer, which occurred at least twice and was functioning almost exclusively as a metaphor (not quite as bad, though, as Wolfe's "island fortress"). Generally, though, she captured the color well and I enjoyed reading.

I was put out of place a bit by the year the book was set. I kept thinking it was set around the time the book was written (mid-1950's) instead of about 15 years before. The war seemed out of place due to that. And the times when the years were identified ("Class of 1939") it stood out to me like a sore thumb. I think Metalious could have gotten away with setting the book in some undefined and undefinable time.

As with most books that ere once banned or considered deviant, now the idea seems quaint. I think I've read modern "teen" books with more sex and "shocking" behavior in them. I suppose, though, the more shocking idea is the extent to which the characters kept up appearances and took the mantra "live and let live" to the extremes. The realization to the reader was that even polite, idyllic small-town society has its secrets and often they are kept by the whole town.

As a former and probably future resident of small-town New England, I found the characters quite believable and the secrets very true. Overall, a good read. Well paced and written.

8/10

<i>Mindless Eating</i> by Brian Wansink

I read about this book somewhere online. Wansink is a food researcher and completes experiments to asses what effects how much and what we eat. The food labs he uses include the standard one-way glass and a full service restaurant on campus.

It is very sobering to see how much influence advertising has on us. I suppose it shouldn't be much of a surprise, since modern advertising has been figuring out these things for a number of years. Wansink gives a number of examples of this: printing the number of servings in large text a package contains causes us to eat less; having an emotion tie to a food influences us like it that much more; etc. He used his lab to prove these and a number of other behaviors that modern humans have with food---a serving is how much we have in front of us (proved, in part, by an experiment with a never-ending soup bowl; that would've been an awesome Course 2 UROP).

Wansik outlines a diet based on this research. The idea is to generally reduce the amount you eat---not drastically, but by only 100 calories a day (i.e. if you normally eat 2100 calories a day, aiming for 2000), otherwise you fell hungry or deprived---to slowly lose weight. Since thought the eating behavior you develop becomes a habit over time, you tend to keep the weight off that is lost in this manner. The goal: mindless weight loss.

The strategies are basic: split big meals; pick two: dessert, drink or appetizer; keep food out of sight and distant from you; use smaller plates; don't eat straight from the bag. I like the advice a lot, as it doesn't tell you: "NO! Don't eat THAT!" You don't have to feel deprived, you just need to adjust your habits slightly to lose weight over th long term.

This book was interesting for three reasons: (1) it offers reasonable advice for a better diet; (2) it explains (at least partly) why we tend to overeat; (3) it includes some great annecdotes about the results of studies completed in Wansink's food labs. An educational, quick read.

8/10

<i>Father and Son</i> by Edmund Gosse

Back almost a year ago when Slate.com had its series of articles about memoirs, this book was mentioned as a first in its genre: the "tell all" memoir . First, this is a tell all by Victorian standards. So, don't go reading it expecting to find tales of lurid sexual affairs or the exposure of wrists or ankles. It is a tell all more in the terms of feelings and relationships---equally as repressed as sex during that time period.

Second, despite being a "significant" book in the history of literature, it is very good.

Gosse recounts his youth. Since much of his youth was spent only with his father---his mother died of cancer when he was six---it is mostly about his relationship with his father and his relationship with religion. His mother and father were strict Plymouth style Puritans. His father often preached the good word, but he would often be found in his study working on his day job as a naturalist.

In one very interesting part of the book Gosse describes the difficulty his father went through when first encountering the ideas of Charles Darwin. Since his father was, at very least, observant about nature (he drew, painted and cataloged it for many books), Gosse describes (and imagines) his father's final decision to promote a creationist style view as very difficult. Once, though, the decision was made, his father never looked back, even going so far as to write a book about God's role in geological formations, despite geology being far outside his ken.

Another dramatic part of the book is Gosse's baptism. Part of the Puritan belief is that one can only be baptized once one is an adult. Gosse's father convinced his congregation that his son was so advanced in spirit that they must baptize him despite him only being around ten years old. Gosse, at this point, was very enthusiastic about his religion---even to the point of smugness---despite not believing in the same idea of god that his father saw. This belief goes back to a much younger time: Gosse tested the idea of a vengeful god by putting another god before him. One afternoon, around the age of five, while his parents were out, Gosse said his usual daily prayer to a chair---replace all the "Oh Lords" with "Oh Chair" (a very comical scene). Since nothing horrible happened, he concluded that the vengeful god of his father's mind was not the correct understanding of god.

This difference of interpretation widens then contracts throughout Gosse's boyhood. By the end, though, Gosse has moved to London to study and finds his father's intense interest in his son's soul stifling. Their relationship breaks a part.

The story of Gosse's young life and relationship with his parents is wonderfully told. He describes his younger days without raging sentimentality. He is sober when describing his mother's illness and death, but still brings out some of the small charms that occur during such life-changing events (Gosse at age six reading his mother poetry). The writing is clear, witty and engaging. Well recommended.

9/10