Reading list

Photo by The Conscientious Omnivore (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

The following books helped shape and are shaping how I think about food and eating in my own life and in the world around us. As a sort of chronicle of my conscientious omnivorism, I’m listing them in roughly chronological order from the earliest to the most recent books that I’ve read. All are recommended, but bold and an asterisk means I highly recommend it.

Food books I’ve read :

• The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan*
• Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser*
• In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan*
• Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer*
• The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy, by Sasha Issenberg
• Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip—Confessions of a Cynical Waiter, by Steve Dublanica
• Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, by Richard Wrangham*
• Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eat, by Sarah Murray
• Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition, and Health, Revised and Expanded Edition, by Marion Nestle
• Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, by Dan Koeppel
• American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields, by Rowan Jacobsen
• Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated into What America Eats, by Steve Ettlinger
• White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf, by Aaron Bobrow-Strain*
• The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table, by Tracie McMillan*
  
• Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, by Gustavo Arellano
• Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, by Michael Moss
• Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, by Mary Roach
• Pandora’s Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal, by Melanie Warner*
• Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure, by Samira Kawash

Food books I’m currently reading:

• Bottoms Up: A Toast to Wisconsin’s Historic Bars & Breweries, by Jim Draeger and Mark Speltz with photographs by Mark Fay
• Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food, by Paul Greenberg
• How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table, by Russ Parsons*
• The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, by Peter Singer and Jim Mason (issued in paperback under the title, The Ethics of What We Eat)

Food books on my digital and/or physical shelf, waiting to be read:

• The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business, by Christopher Leonard
• Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat, by Bee Wilson
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver
• Salted: A Manifesto on the World’s Most Essential Mineral, with Recipes, by Mark Bitterman
• The Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin, by James Norton and Becca Dilley
• Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit, by Barry Estabrook
• The Seasons on Henry’s Farm: A Year of Food and Life on a Sustainable Farm, by Terra Brockman
• Creating Dairyland: How caring for cows saved our soil, created our landscape, brought prosperity to our state, and still shapes our way of life in Wisconsin, by Edward Janus
• Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally, by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon
• Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, by Gabrielle Hamilton
• Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew, by Samuel Fromartz
• The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat, by Charles Clover