Beverly B

Hank Cardello – a former executive at some of America’s largest food giants – gives us an insider’s look at how the food industry through clever marketing and manipulation, has super-sized the American diet all of reasonable proportion and made it practically impossible for the consumer to resist. Nutritional science has been trumped by profit. Though some things are obvious – product placement on store shelves, for example – the reader will learn of numerous other practices designed to make you buy and consume more. My favorite was – “Sullivan’s Nod” – used by restaurant wait-staff to persuade you to choose the most expensive item on the menu. There is a thought provoking discussion of vending machines in our schools, how they got there and what their future might be. Cardello also points out the need for personal responsibility on the part of the consumer in the choices they make and lays out a concrete plan of action to make America’s food healthier and then make the healthier food both available and desirable to consumers

This was the first Lena Jones mystery I have read...but certainly won't be the last. Betty Webb has written a fast paced story with a not-so-perfect heroine and a not-so-pleasant plot line. The victims in Webb's mysteries are generally women -- or children -- who suffer abuse at the hands of not just the abuser but an out of control social system as well. The story could come right out of todays headlines -- if anyone is brave enough to name it.

Roberto Saviano paints a brilliant, bloody portrait of his hometown Naples, Italy. Far from the lovely image the tourist bureau would have you believe, lies a dirty, corrupt, toxic, violent world controlled by organized crime whose reach extends throughout the world. Shocking!