Posts Tagged as ‘book reviews’

December 1, 2009

Book review: Edible Forest Gardens

Edible Forest Gardens
By Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier
In keeping with this evening’s theme of total honesty, I will confess that I only read volume II of this two volume set.  This was partially because of a mix-up at the library: I requested both volumes but I got two copies of volume II instead of one [...]

October 25, 2009

Book review: Root Cellaring

Root Cellaring
The Simple No-Processing Way to Store Fruits and Vegetables
By Mike & Nancy Bubel
Note: the subtitle of the newer editions is Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables.  I got the 1971 hardcover edition from the library, so my version had some awesome 70s lettering on the front.  (Same art, though.)
I was on the library [...]

October 5, 2009

Book review: Nourishing Traditions

Nourishing Traditions
The cookbook the challenges politically correct nutrition and the diet dictocrats
By Sally Fallon, with Mary Enig, Ph.D.
I’ve been putting this off for a couple months now.  How do you review a book like this?  This all started with a post I did for this blog back in April.  A comment on another blog led [...]

September 30, 2009

Book Review: Freedom Manifesto

The Freedom Manifesto
How to free yourself from anxiety, fear, mortgages, money, guilt, debt, government, boredom, supermarkets, bills, melancholy, pain, depression, work and waste
By Tom Hodgkinson
That’s a bit of a tall order, isn’t it?  Hopefully it’s obvious to anyone who picks this book up that most of the advice within should be taken with a grain [...]

September 17, 2009

What I’m reading right now

So, even though my Recommended Reading section is badly in need of an update, I will skip updating it so I can spend some more time… reading tonight.  Here’s what I’m reading (yes, all three simultaneously):
Home Cheesemaking
Recipes for 75 homemade cheeses
by Ricki Carroll
OK I am only in the opening chapters of this one so [...]

September 14, 2009

Thrifty, or just plain cheap, or… DUTCH

I grew up with a very, um, thrifty Dutch dad so I got quite a few laughs out of this book review on salon.com.  Laura Miller issues a call to rediscover the joys of penny pinching.  The book is In Cheap We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue, by Lauren Weber.
The author apparently [...]

July 22, 2009

Book Review: In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto
by Michael Pollan
This book’s been out for a couple years now but I only just got around to reading it.  And actually I didn’t read it; I listened to the audio book.
First a note on that: I don’t highly recommend the audio version.  The reader, Scott Brick, had kind [...]

July 13, 2009

Book review: Perennial Vegetables

Perennial Vegetables: From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro, A Gardener’s Guide to Over 100 Delicious and Easy to Grow Edibles
By: Eric Toensmeier
Here’s another recent library book that I breezed through pretty quickly.  Why such a quick read?  Once again, much of the information within does not pertain to the frozen tundra on which we live.
I’m really [...]

June 29, 2009

Book review: Building Green

Building Green: A complete how-to guide to alternative building methods
Authors: Clarke Snell and Tim Callahan
I checked this beautiful book out of the library because Adam and I are talking about building a shed/playhouse next spring and I wanted to do a little green building research.
The whole book is basically a complete and well-photographed documentation of [...]

June 15, 2009

Book review: Toolbox for Sustainable City Living

Authors: Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew
This book is full of ideas for really hardcore people who want to practice radical sustainability and preferably live in a mild climate.  The whole time I was reading it I kept picturing the people on the high bikes in the Minneapolis MayDay parade, and what they must do in [...]