93 books
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195 voters
“At a law school in Canada, we are in deep discussion of the law as a universal instrument that feminists should expect to be flexible. I am arguing that this is what judges are for - otherwise, justice could be meted out by a computer. The mostly male law students are arguing that any exception is dangerous and creates a "slippery slope." Make one exception, and the number will grow until the law will be overturned de facto. I am not a lawyer. I am stuck. Those young men may or may not represent the common-sense majority in the audience, but they have triumphed. Then a tall young woman in jeans rises from the back of the room. "Well," she says calmly, "I have a boa constrictor." This quiets the audience right down. "Once a month," she continues, "I go to the dissection lab on campus to get frozen mice to feed my boa constrictor. But this month, there is a new professor in charge, and he said to me 'I can't give you frozen mice. If I give you frozen mice, everyone will want frozen mice." There is such an explosion of laughter that even the argumentative young men can't resist. She has made her point: not everyone wants the same thing. A just law can be flexible. To be just, a law has to be flexible. She has saved the day.”
― My Life on the Road
― My Life on the Road
“Part of not wanting children has always been the certainty that I didn’t have the energy for it, and so I had to make a choice, the choice between children and writing. The first time it occurred to me that I wouldn’t have both, I was still years away from being biologically capable of reproduction. History offers some examples of people who’ve done a good job with children and writing, I know that, but I wasn’t one of those people. I’ve always known my limitations. I lacked the units of energy, and the energy I had, I wanted to spend on my work. To have a child and neglect her in favor of a novel would be cruel, but to simply skip the child in favor of a novel was to avoid harm altogether.”
― These Precious Days: Essays
― These Precious Days: Essays
“It's a pretty amazing to wake up every morning, knowing that every decision I make is to cause as little harm as possible. It's a pretty fantastic way to live.”
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“And so, because business leadership is still so dominated by men, modern workplaces are riddled with these kind of gaps, from doors that are too heavy for the average woman to open with ease, to glass stairs and lobby floors that mean anyone below can see up your skirt, to paving that’s exactly the right size to catch your heels. Small, niggling issues that aren’t the end of the world, granted, but that nevertheless irritate. Then there’s the standard office temperature. The formula to determine standard office temperature was developed in the 1960s around the metabolic resting rate of the average forty-year-old, 70 kg man.1 But a recent study found that ‘the metabolic rate of young adult females performing light office work is significantly lower’ than the standard values for men doing the same type of activity. In fact, the formula may overestimate female metabolic rate by as much as 35%, meaning that current offices are on average five degrees too cold for women. Which leads to the odd sight of female office workers wrapped up in blankets in the New York summer while their male colleagues wander around in summer clothes.”
― Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
― Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
“I deeply respect doctors, but I want to be very clear on something: at every hospital in the United States, many doctors are doing the wrong things, pushing pills and interventions when an ultra-aggressive stance on diet and behavior would do far more for the patient in front of them. Suicide and burnout rates are astronomical in health care, with approximately four hundred doctors per year killing themselves. (That’s equivalent to about four medical school graduating classes just dropping dead every year by their own hand.) Doctors have twice the rate of suicide as the general population. Based on my own experience with depression as a young surgeon, I think a contributor to this phenomenon is an insidious spiritual crisis about the efficacy of our work and a sense of being trapped in a system”
― Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health
― Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health
Vegan Cooking & Cookbooks
— 1318 members
— last activity Dec 09, 2025 07:20AM
A group to share and discuss vegan cookbooks and related resources.
Vegan
— 99 members
— last activity Dec 10, 2019 01:58AM
Vegans and vegan hopefuls join this group to discuss resources, literature, and topics concerning veganism. Health! Animal Rights! Environmentalism!
TCFL
— 138 members
— last activity May 28, 2018 01:59PM
A gathering place for the CF who enjoy good books and good discussions.
Vegan Cookbooks
— 30 members
— last activity Nov 16, 2019 01:25PM
A group to discuss vegan cookbooks moderated by Mary from veganease.
Vegans/vegetarians/just plain people who really care about animals!
— 18 members
— last activity Jun 28, 2012 07:02AM
Tis is for anyone who cares about animals.Especially vegans/vegetarians.You dont have to be one to join,though.
Melissa’s 2025 Year in Books
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