The Utne Weeder

Our staff’s picks of good books

September/October 2001

By Utne Staff, Utne Reader

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FOOD This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteaderby Joan Dye Gussow (Chelsea Green, $22.95). With intimate details about living the gardening life, Gussow, an expert on nutrition and health, describes how, and why, she became vegetally self-sufficient. While she makes a compelling argument—both ecological and moral—for growing our own food, Gussow’s book is also a great read, filled with insightful, down-home stories and fabulous recipes.
—Karen Olson
BEAT GENERATIONBeat Down to Your Soulby Ann Charters (Penguin, $17). A hefty anthology of (as the subtitle accurately promises) "Poems, Essays, Memoirs, Notes, Protests, Attacks and Apologies—from the Beat Explosion That Rocked the World." From works by Kerouac and Ferlinghetti to commentary from Grace Paley and Tom Wolfe, there’s a fascinating gathering of material that, taken all together, explains why this explosive literary movement has burned for so long in the souls of readers around the world.
—Jay Walljasper
HEALTHThe Camera My Mother Gave Meby Susanna Kaysen (Knopf, $21). Almost too revealing, this memoir of illness and desire is the story of Kaysen’s journey to uncover the source of a sudden and mysterious pain in her vagina. In sadly familiar detail, Kaysen, author
of the best-selling Girl, Interrupted, describes countless frustrating visits with medical professionals and her unflinching resolve to make the pain go away.
—Andy Steiner
SPIRITUALITY Grassroots Zenby Manfred Steger and Perle Besserman (Tuttle, $24.95). The rigidity and hierarchy of traditional Buddhist practice sent the authors on an exploration of the Chinese concept of community practice—teachings without masters, robes, or the trappings of authority. What they found was a spiritual path open to regular folks.
—Craig Cox

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