Week 8: Nonfiction

Assignments 1 and 2: Read, read, viewed.

Assignment 3:
Memoir: BIO + name
The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
Contemporary Social Issues: 362
Methland: the Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding
Medical: 600s
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy Frost and Gail Steketee
Food: 641
Cooked by Michael Pollan

Assignment 4:
Oelwein Indiana: a small town filled with hardworking people. How does it become a center of methamphetamine production and distribution, riddled with poverty, violence and addiction? In Methland: the Death and Life of an American Small Town, Nick Reding chronicles the town's transformation, caused by the takeover of family-owned meat-packing plants by huge agribusiness conglomerates, with journalistic detail. This is a fascinating look at the growth of an underground economy based on illegal drug trade, and at its residual effect on the people in small towns across America. Fans of Breaking Bad will gain more insight into the real world of meth production and distribution.

If you've ever been glued to an episode of the TV show Hoarders, by turns fascinated, disgusted, sympathetic and perhaps even seeing a bit of yourself in it, Randy Frost's Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things would be an enlightening read. Frost and co-author Gail Steketee, who have spent nearly 20 years working with hoarders, provide a sympathetic portrayal of hoarders and the numerous underlying causes of this compulsion. Pair this with E.L. Doctorow's fictional portrayal of the infamous hoarding Collyer brothers, Homer & Langley.