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Rating: 
Summary: Informative & well-written; confirms Rachel Carson's fears.
Review: Early on it is evident Steingraber is an ecologist (informative) and a poet (delightful writing) - exceptionally rewarding read: packed with data interwoven with relevant anecdotes from her life. When you finish reading this I urge you to read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring if you haven't already. Steingraber presents the overwhelming evidence confirming Carson's early insights, fears and predictions.
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Summary: Silent Spring II
Review: Living Downstream reads like part two of Carson's Silent Spring, only with a touch of the personal. I cannot even begin to emphasize the importance of this book. With the scientific background of a biologist and the pen of a poet, Steingraber provides the dirty truth in beautiful language - which makes reading this book at once pleasureful and painful. In a world where many scientists are now hired to PROTECT polluters or skew the facts in a cloud of obfuscation, this book is refreshing. It will grab you, frighten you and at times make you want to cry. Like Silent Spring, it must not be ignored. Read it, get mad, and get involved. (Related readings that blew me away: "From Naked Ape to Superspecies" by David Suzuki (or anything else he wrote); "Canaries on the Rim" by Chip Ward; and "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" by Thom Hartman)
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Summary: Two Views: Scientific & Personal
Review: Ms Steingraber provides poignant views of the environment where she and others are bathed in toxins. Her chapters are simply titled air, water, fire, ... , but they each delve deeply into both science and personal history. Ms Steingraber knows her science and at the same time has a wonderful gift for conveying it to others less knowledgeable. On the personal level, the author relates very closely to the place where she grew up and its effects on her immediate environment where she became a cancer victim at the age of 20. My only disappointment was that the author did not quantitatively describe the various risks. Specifically, what is the relative level of risk of eating meat versus being a vegetarian? All in all a wonderful and very readable book that I would strongly recommend to all.
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Summary: This is one of the most important books since Silent Spring
Review: This book, together with OUR STOLEN FUTURE, reveal the truth chemical corporations have kept secret since the 1930's. All of us our now carrying endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC's or "gender benders") hidden in our fat cells which are altering our sexuality, our ability to reproduce, our short term memory, our health...perhaps the very survival of the species. Steingraber makes this data accesible while she invokes a sense of land and family, as well as the stigma of cancer. Read this book! Then you can decide what you want to drink and eat---for yourself and those you love! V.S. Ferguson/author of INANNA RETURNS
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