Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) by David Cay Johnston

I’ve just started reading Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) by David Cay Johnston (click here to read Jonathan Chait’s New York Times review of this book titled “Other People’s Money” and published in February 2008).

Johnston is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist for the New York Times whose best seller Perfectly Legal won the 2004 Investigative Book of the Year award (I’ve checked that out of the library as well but haven’t started it yet).

Free Lunch is really a fascinating book!

I didn’t know that the average income of the bottom 90% of Americans (what Johnston calls the “vast manjority”) was just $29,000 in 2005 (down from $33,000 in 1973). To be in the top 10% of Americans in 2005, you only had to make $100,000 per year and to be in the top 0.1% just $1.7 million per year. Johnston wrote about this and more about income inequality in Chapter 2, Mr. Reagan’s Question, named for Ronald Reagan’s famous campaign question from nearly 30 years ago “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” [Corrected May 27, 2008.]

I’m in the middle of Chapter 9, Goin’ Fishin, which describes the subsidies that Cabelas, Bass Pro Shops, Wal-Mart and other large national chains receive from local governments. I’d heard much about the sins of Wal-Mart and reading this book finally made those comments hit home.

Most distressing was Chapter 3, Trust and Consequences, in which I learned that Amtrak — while government owned — uses privately owned tracks and has signed contracts to be financially responsible for all claims arising from Amtrak passengers, even if CSX or other parties are at fault for negligence. Since Amtrak is owned by the government, that results in taxpayers paying for all such claims even if a private company is at fault.

I will write more when I finish this shocking book!

Click here to view the table of contents and read a few excerpts from the author’s website for this book.

The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket by Trevor Corson

I’ve been enjoying Trevor Corson’s The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket, which I heard about in Jay McInerny’s New York Times June 2007 review titled “Raw.” Corson is also the author of the acclaimed The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean (I haven’t read it).

This book has been entertaining and educational so far!

My family loves sushi and I’ve eaten it for as long as I can remember. Growing up, we had make your own sushi for dinner at least once a month.

My dad’s side of the family in particularly can’t get enough of maguro (bluefin tuna) sashimi.

And still I’ve learned so much from this book!

I learned that yanagi, the name of one of my family’s favorite sushi restaurants, means willow and is the name of the primary knife used by sushi chefs, a long, slim, 10 inch blade that ends in a point (and is said to resemble a willow leaf).

I also learned about the other knives used by a sushi chef: usuba (a rectangular blade used to cut vegetables) and deba (a triangular blade for filleting fish).

I found the chapter describing the process of making miso (fermented soybeans) particularly educational and engaging.

I especially liked this quote about the use of MSG (the artificial form of glutamate found naturally in miso and soy sauce) in Western foods from page 23, “The Buddhist vegetarian condiments of ancient Japan are now used to make American factory meat palatable.”

I suppose that appeals to me since I’ve recently read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life and Michael Pollan’s The Omnivores Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.

I’m about halfway through the book and eager to learn more!

To read an excerpt from the author’s website, click here or visit NPR to listen to Corson speak about the book.

Back to reading!