Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir, by Susanne Antonetta // Mad Cow; Could the Nightmare Happen Here? by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber.

Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir, by Susanne Antonetta // Mad Cow U.S.A.; Could the Nightmare Happen Here? by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber.

After the terrifying, instantaneous murders of September 11, it's difficult to take notice of the slow, pernicious murders from environmental contaminants that continue in the background. But here are two good books that contain awful truths.

Susanne Antonetta's Body Toxic recounts her contaminated childhood vacations in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, where she, her siblings and cousins played freely in the salt marshes of Barnegat Bay. The drinking water from the taps in their modest cabins tasted and looked funny, but the adults thought it held beneficial minerals and took it home in bottles.

Antonetta grew into profound health problems as a woman, including manic depression and a double uterus. She connects her litany of disease with the DDT spraying, General Electric's nuclear wastes and the poisons released into the waters by Ciba-Geigy and Union Carbide.