This week I finished:

Animal Liberation Now!, by Peter Singer: Since I last ate meat in 1990 and any dairy or other animal products about ten years ago (I don’t remember when), I can’t remember first reading this book, but this new version is well updated. Now I’ve met Peter, spoken a few times, and read The Life You Can Save. I love how readable his writing is (also his speaking, as I saw him speak at his farewell conference at Princeton last week among other philosophers and they overwhelmingly spoke in academic-ese, which was hard to understand).

The reasons not to eat factory farmed meat are more than abundant. I can see people eating meat as hunter-gatherers, but we don’t live that way. Unless you work hard to source your meat, you’re paying for cruelty. It’s tempting to rationalize and justify eating meat, but Peter takes on every reason you’ll come up with and counters it. Even if you don’t want to stop eating meat, you’ll value Peter’s thoughtfulness. If you end up stopping, you’ll be glad you did.

I recommend it.

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Turning Pages, by John Sargent: A second book by a podcast guest. John was just leaving MacMillan, where he was CEO for twenty-four years. This book was a memoir of a life of fun, family, learning, celebrities, politics, legal battles, leadership, dedication, and more celebrities.

John tells wonderful stories. I found them engaging. They made him approachable despite the rarified level of people he hobnobbed with. He sounds like he worked hard and led effectively too.

In the process of publishing my next book, I enjoyed his inside view of publishing. I also like that he told me a couple of the stories before.

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