Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Hi guys,

I've read all the animal rights books meant as kind of an "intro" or explanation of why we shouldn't eat animals (animal liberation, etc) but was wondering if anyone had any book recommendations that have a vegan/animal rights theme (fiction or nonfiction) that are not those "this is why we shouldn't books" (clearly I'm already sold!) Any genre is up for grabs for me!

I'm not sure exactly what you're going for, but Rage and Reason is a fictional book that deals with animal liberation:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... 9?v=glance

It's pretty graphic, but I remember liking it quite a bit.

Another novel I can think of with some animal rights theme to it is The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams- it deals with two dogs who escape from a research laboratory:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plague_Dogs

Exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for! I just want to read about animal rights but not in a way that is like "chapter 1: why chapter 2: how chapter 3: why some more" because I'm already totally on board thanks!

if you can stomach it (which sounds like you can since you are asking) the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer is very thorough.

it took me almost a year to read it because i had to put it down and ignore it for a long time.
even being a vegan didnt make me feel any better after reading that book. horrible horrible stuff. i knew most of the stuff that was in the book already but it's always hard to read when you are so vehemently against it.


also not necessarily about animal rights but Vegan for Life is a great book about veganism and it does cover a bit about factory farming and the horrors there in.

I feel everyone and their mother has read this already, but have you read Fast Food Nation yet? It's not an AR book. It goes from the birth of industrialized agriculture and fast food to modern day problems like food contamination, worker exploitation, the McLibel trial, marketing to children etc. Stuff you won't really read much about in many straight AR books. Also, Capers in the Churchyard is an interesting book about the AR and environmental movement and how the gov't and industries are painting us all as "terrorists" in order to stamp out the movement. Stuff about the SHAC 7, ALF, Paul Watson etc.

Unsaid: A Novel, by Neil Abramson is an interesting exploration of personhood for primates as well as the intense and deep relationships we can have with all animals, dogs, cats, horses, pigs and cows. One of the main characters is vegetarian, but otherwise food is not discussed too much. It is just about to be released in paperback. It is a quick, emotional read.

I highly highly recommend Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. It is excellent, in part because Foer comes from the discipline of writing fiction, which benefits his non-fiction work because it appeals to emotion as well as logic.

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but I recently read Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight by Timothy Pachirat. He worked in a slaughterhouse and wrote a book about it. It is gory and unsettling but lead to interesting conversations with friends and strangers while I was reading it (the cover is pretty gross so it was a conversation starter). People seemed less freaked out or offended by having a conversation about how our society hides uncomfortable/gross things from view rather than talking about why I don't eat animals.

I am reading Every Twelve Seconds also. It is really graphic and sometimes hard to read but the facts in this book and the story it tells is amazing. Having the knowledge from this book keeps me at an advantage when others challenge me and my veganism. This book brings awareness to the stand point of the workers and how absurd it is for companies to hide what they do. I totally back reading this.

I really liked The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them by Wayne Pacelle. It explores the human-animal connection.

I highly recommend the following:

Drawing the Line by Steven Wise (goes through the way that several different species think and why they deserve certain rights; I found it fascinating): http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Line-Scie ... g+the+line

When Elephants Weep by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (discusses the emotional lives of wild animals): http://www.amazon.com/When-Elephants-We ... hants+weep

Slaughterouse by Gail Eisnitz (fair investigative journalism approach to slaughterhouses and the people who work in them): http://www.amazon.com/Slaughterhouse-Sh ... ghterhouse

Read Every Twelve Seconds! I have a whole bunch of AR-type books...what about Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows by Melanie Joy?
I also think CAFO is an excellent book: http://www.amazon.com/CAFO-Tragedy-Indu ... words=cafo
It focuses on factory farms not veganism per se, and I must warn you that there are some non-vegan essays in the collection, but it's a very unique book.
Here is Erik Marcus' review:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R21VONNVX9 ... &linkCode=