Devil in the Details
Jennifer Traig
(Little, Brown)

It's important, I think, to be able to laugh at ourselves; a little levity can make the most humiliating experiences more bearable. In Devil in the Details, Jennifer Traig lightens the account of her childhood bouts with scrupulosity - a rare and extreme form of obsessive compulsive disorder - with humor, recalling countless embarrassing episodes and details about her evolution from a mysophobe with a prayer fixation to a compulsively kosher anorexic, and various combinations in between. In looking back on "the Jenny Show," she endears her wacky self to readers the way she most certainly did not to her family and friends while growing up. The whole Traig family was quirky, but Jennifer's disorder catapulted them into the realm of sitcom fodder. In one instance, she matter-of-factly explains: "I was wearing paper hats and talking to the bookcases. It was sad and annoying, but it was also fairly entertaining, and we didn't have cable." Judging by the tone of this courageous memoir, it's clear Jennifer Traig has come to terms with her weirdness. It takes guts to out yourself as a weirdo; if she can do it, we all can.

- Jennifer Elks

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Mary Roach
(Penguin)

If only the fate of the human body were as simple as "ashes to ashes, dust to dust." A lot can happen between the time the Grim Reaper whisks you away and your body returns to the elements. Mary Roach's Stiff provides myriad possibilities of just what adventures may lie ahead for your remains. From medicinal remedies such as human dumplings to crash-test dummies to Swedish compost fodder, Stiff presents, in a well-researched, frank, and dignified yet often humorous manner, the past, present and future of cadaver use and its value to the living. Not content to simply outline the peculiar roles corpses may assume, Roach emphasizes the importance of body and organ donations. Maybe you won't get the final say in how your body will be used if you do donate it, but you should be content knowing it won't be lying around doing nothing. Even if you're squeamish, Stiff will make you glad you're alive and able to laugh in the face of death.

- Trina Lopez

Urban Tribes
Ethan Watters
(Bloomsbury USA)

The greatest achievement of Ethan Watters' Urban Tribes is, it stands as proof that the cult of the unmarried 30-year-old is widespread enough to make
that segment of the population feel more comfortable with their paths in life. But ultimately, the "urban tribe," a group of twenty- and thirtysomethings who function as family when the perfect mate proves unattainable, is not so hefty a topic that it warrants a book.

Watters writes engagingly about the tribes he encountered through his research, but his reporter role is sometimes obscured by his affinity for his own tribe. At a party in Philadelphia whose purpose is to examine a tribe's structure, the author neglects to inquire about the sacrifices and family-like roles the partygoers take on and instead compares their behavior to his friends'. Watters faces a lot of difficulty forming a solid explanation for why these tribes matter so much, and his writing is dry at times, especially considering that his subject is friendship.

Without the overanalyzing, Urban Tribes may have been a more entertaining read. Sketching out the many groups encountered would allow the charm of the "urban tribe" to speak for itself.

-Karen Nicoletti

Diet For a Dead Planet: How the Food Industry Is Killing Us
Christopher D. Cook
(The New Press)

San Francisco journalist Christopher Cook's Diet for a Dead Planet is a comprehensive look into the state of the food industry and the truth and consequences of our current practices. It could be a reference book in classrooms from Economics to Food Science, and for the real gore hound, there is plenty of that, too. The facts are staggering and Cook reveals them in a manner as riveting as any work of fiction.

As Cook explains, "The way we make, market and eat food today creates rampant illness, hunger, poverty, community disintegration, and ecological degradation - and threatens our future food supply." He supports this assertion with numerous horror stories: The duplicity and greed of corporations and the government lead to the foreclosure of many family farms, leaving farmers "standing in bread lines knee deep in wheat." Workers are bussed in from across the border to toil long hours in blood and shit, only to suffer chronic movement disorders or mangled limbs for processed pork products and a chance at the American dream. Then there's the shit spill in North Carolina, where 25 million pounds of waste from a corporate hog farm spilt into a nearby river; twice as large as the Exxon Valdez oil spill, it killed 10 million fish, and was not an isolated incident.

Luckily, Cook concludes with ways we can try to minimize the destructive impact of agribusiness and the corporate food industry. Organic, nongenetically modified carrot, anyone?

- Marla Maiden