Beach Books

[Guest guest]

Washington Post critics pick the best books for summer reading

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/washington-post-critics-pick-t\

he-best-books-for-summer-reading/2011/04/25/AGC33WZH_story.html

Travel Memoirs

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/three-travel-memoirs-of-france\

-siena-and-maine/2011/05/24/AGl37KZH_story.html

Chick Lit for summer reading

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/chick-lit-for-summer-reading/2\

011/06/03/AGFLIZZH_story.html

[Guest guest]

What to read this summer for the 4th

http://boston.com/community/blogs/creative_type/2011/06/fourth_of_july_reads_10_\

novels.html

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2011/07/03/history_of_declaration_of_ind\

ependence_pierces_myth_of_founding_fathers_unity/

12 fine titles on France, French living, French houses, French charm, French

cinema, French theatre, walks in Paris, train rides in France, and of course,

the language.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/06/a-summers-worth-of-french-rea\

ding.html

Best fiction of 2010

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/gallery/2010fiction/

how math shapes our thinking about world

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2011/07/03/three_titles_show_how_numbers\

_shape_our_thinking_about_the_world/

Best books about New England

http://www.boston.com/globe/bestofnewengland/books/

[Guest guest]

Book Review: The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why

It Matters by Rose

The defecation has hit the oscillation.

" Eighty percent of the world's illness is caused by fecal matter, " writes

British journalist Rose in The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of

Human Waste and Why It Matters, her often staggering exploration of how we stem,

or fail to stem, the ever-mounting tide of human waste.

Not exactly a subject for mixed company or polite dinner conversation. But it's

a modern-day `unmentionable' that's increasingly imperative to make mentionable

– and digs in (so to speak) with fecal-factoid irreverence, incisive wit,

and, moreover, persuasive resolve. After all, nearly two million people in the

U.S. have no access to an indoor toilet. And worldwide, disease spread by waste

kills more people every year than any other single cause of death. Yet, while

there is a United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs, notes, there is

none for resolving the biggest public crisis on Earth.

And on this planet, literally and figuratively goes the extra mile to

delve into a subject most of us — when it comes to the crapshoot (so to speak)

of finding a clean gas station restroom — are reluctant to even hold our breaths

and get over with. All in the name of Big Necessity, our intrepid author's

research into the customs and approaches to the disposal, handling, processing,

and use of human waste sees her giving sway to wander-must – if not wanderlust –

by traveling to such locations as London, New York, India (whose " manual

scavengers " remove feces wherever found), China, Tanzania, and Japan (where she

examines the robo-toilets which do everything from check blood pressure to wash

and dry private parts).

What finds is that people dispose of feces or urine in toilets, pit

latrines, buckets, backyards, roads, and streets. She's taken aback by the

severe deficiency of adequate public toilets and aging sewage-handling systems

in both developed and developing countries. But the author commends the social

reformers in the Third World who are developing modern methods of waste disposal

to ease the unsanitary practices that lead to food contamination, illness, and

death.

In addition to steadfast research and top scientific investigation,

interviewed engineers and bureaucrats, making Big Necessity a comprehensive and

provocative account, an informative read that makes good use of the beneficial

information she garners from the World Toilet Organization conferences she

attends. Surely not a believer in wasted effort when it comes to efforts toward

waste, she even covers everything you thought you didn't want to know about

excrement. Although I'm not sure how you're going to work this into your next

cocktail party – and I wouldn't recommend it as an ice-breaker – one defecatory

detail includes the distasteful fact that Luther ate a spoonful of his

own feces daily. Relatively more palatable is the fact that the popularity of

high-heeled shoes dates back to the time when chamber pots were emptied into the

streets. Oh, and in case you don't already have it marked on your calendar, Nov.

19 is World Toilet Day.

Page 2

But I like to think that every day is World Toilet Day. And in that spirit,

everybody but the most coprophobic should appreciate the fact that The Big

Necessity, in the author's aim to investigate The Unmentionable World of Human

Waste and Why It Matters, offers a far-reaching, cohesive, and well-considered

exploration, with its dry sense of humor also evidenced in the chapter titles,

such as " The Battle of Biosolids: Bad Smell, Big Tomatoes, " and " A Public

Necessity: Frightening the Horses. " also includes detailed endnotes that

expands on many areas, while Further Reading consists of such intriguing titles

as Sitting Pretty, An Uninhibited History of the Toilet, and The Anatomy of

Disgust.

If photographs for documentation purposes could be said to be deadpan, the

plain-Jane black-and-whites that head up each chapter make the case: there's no

way to make coffee-table arty, say, the panorama centered on the street sign

" Solids Rd. " at the Blue Plains wastewater treatment in Washington, D.C., so why

try? And I'm not sure I want to ponder the transgressions perpetrated by

offenders who constitute the austere photo of the " Wall of shame, Kalyani,

India " mug shots that introduce Chapter 8, " Open Defecation-Free India: Husband;

Must Have Toilet. "

In any case, another thing these lavatory-less miscreants missed out on is Rose

's gratitude as she thanks, in the Acknowledgments " everyone who shared

their stories and showed me their latrines with no embarrassment and impressive

pride. " That should put them to shame.

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-big-necessity-the/