Treason, by Orson Scott Card

A true gem. This was the second novel published by Card, apparently under the title "A Planet Called Treason" in 1979. Although categorized as science fiction, the novel barely touches on science, but uses some science as the backdrop for the discussion of ethical and sociological issues. In that sense, it reminded me much of Asimov's writings from the original "Foundation Trilogy" time period, but with even softer science. If I were forced to pigeonhole this, I might call it space-opera, but of the highest caliber.

The story is told in first person by Lanik Mueller, heir of the Family's estate, in a feudal society in planet Treason. The Mueller, together with a number of other clans, were exiled by the Republic to this iron-poor planet, where a bitter competition takes place to build the first spaceship and receive untold riches as reward. The clans fight for survival and try to outdo each other in producing goods that can be sold to the Republic's Ambassadors in exchange for iron.

The Mueller are known for their super-human healing powers, but Lanik takes it a step beyond being a "radical regenerative". The individuals afflicted with this malady grow excess organs and body parts and are condemned to live isolated from their community in "pens". Surgeons harvest these excess limbs and organs to sell to their Ambassador. Being cast out of his clan, Lanik roams planet Treason, learning about life in the other clan's provinces and about their particular talents. The journey serves to teach Lanik much more than just what his world is like and exposes to self-discovery opportunities.

The story is incredibly well paced and rife with interesting philosophical questions. It's an engrossing book that is hard to put down and which has immediately surfaced to my top list of the best works of sci-fi ever. Although it can be said that this novel only begins to explore themes that have reappeared in depth in Card's most well-known novels, it is fresh, honest, and good hearted. Card's latest novels seem quite out of line with respect to how he started to the point where I think he's losing his touch. I particularly dislike his lack of effort in getting things right when he writes about subjects he doesn't know well. He shows that research is either not one of his talents or something he doesn't care about and ends up sounding nearly offensive. My favorite of his blunders appears in Shadow of the Giant: "Es tu feliz em ter irminha?", a sentence in Portuguese that would have been better constructed by any automatic translator found on the world wide web.

Fuggedaboudit, we're talking about Treason here, and this novel really rocks (an unintentional pun that can only be understood in the context of the story).

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, by Brian Wansink

This is more of a scientific book than a diet book, although for marketing purposes it seems to try to sell itself as the latter. I really enjoyed the descriptions of all the studies and experiments the author has done on how we determine that we have had enough to eat, our perception of the caloric content of our food, etc. It's fascinating to see evidence that indicates that we are not equipped to stop ourselves before we overeat. The message is a bit grim, in that sense, but on the positive side, it seems that knowing how we mindlessly consume more than we need can help us reverse the trend and apply to lose extra weight. Science geeks in the readership would probably rather read Wansink's scientific papers instead of this book, but in any case, this is a great starting point for one not well-versed in this area of expertise.