Relentless Enemies

by Dereck and Beverly Joubert

I've been eying this book on its display shelf every visit to the library for the past few weeks, and finally I just gave in and brought it home, even though it's big and heavy (we were walking). And I'm glad I did; it was a wonderful book.

Relentless Enemies is one of those large-format coffee-table books full of gorgeous photos of wildlife. It's based on three years the authors spent living among lions and buffalo in the Okavango Delta of Botswana, studying their interactions and filming. (I really want to see the film they produced now; I really loved their film Eye of the Leopard so I'm sure I'd like this one as well). The unique thing about this area, besides that no people are allowed there (no tourists, nada) is that most of it is swampy. The lions wade and hunt and travel through water day after day. What fascinated me most was to read about how the three lion prides they studied each had their own different strategies of hunting buffalo in the water. While the pictures dominate the book, the writing is beautiful, thoughtful, even poetic and so it was just as much a delight to read through as to enjoy visually.

Rating: 4/5 ....... 175 pages, 2006

Demon Fish

by Juliet Eilperin

Sharks, one of the creatures most widely feared and loathed by humanity, kill less people a year than accidents with toasters or chairs! (How someone dies from a toaster encounter I don't know). Our fear of sharks has led us to ignore what's been happening to them, but as Juliet Eilperin succinctly describes in her book Demon Fish, their numbers are rapidly plummenting. They've been killed because we fear them, killed because they get caught in equipment set to catch other fish, killed because we want to eat them to show off (the shark components of shark's-fin soup add nothing to the flavor of the dish) and killed as their habitats are destroyed. Some say: who cares? they eat us. Let them die. But as top predators in the ocean, sharks fill a very important role of keeping other species in check. Not to mention that they are beautiful in their own right, unique creatures we are just beginning to understand.

Some of the amazing things I learned about sharks in this book (I'd heard of some of these things before, but never read about them in detail)

Sharks are ancient. They predate the dinosaurs!
Shark skin is very tough, made out of the same material as teeth.
Some sharks lay eggs, others give live birth.
A few sharks even give virgin birth. That's right: no dad.
Some baby sharks eat their siblings in utero.
There are about five hundred known species of shark.
Most sharks are small, and many of them have beautiful patterns. Look at this one.

So I learned a lot about sharks, what makes them different, how scientists study them, how our actions are pushing many of them towards extinction and why we should care. And of course, take steps to halt their demise.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 295 pages, 2011

more opinions:
We Loved DC
All Fins Attached

an aside

For the first in a long time, I have been inspired by something I read to make a purchase. Thus the presence of this post, about a food item, on my book blog!

It was from reading Honeybee, which first sparked my interest in local, or monofloral honey. So for the first time ever, I have bought some special honeys, and they do have very different flavors.

The first one I got was an orange-blossom honey from the local supermarket, Wegman's. It has a light amber color like clover honey (which is all I'm used to eating in regards to honey) and tastes a lot similar. It has a definite, sharp citrusy zing, kind of as if the honey had orange zest in it. And a nice tingly aftertaste that seems to linger in the roof of my mouth.

Then just a few days ago we went to a local produce stand at an Amish farm we like to visit, but only go two or three times a season because it's quite a bit of distance from us (at least a twenty-minute drive). I usually get eager about their homemade jams and sauces, but this time noticed there was a shelf full of monofloral honey! I got all excited when I saw the tupelo honey, which I read about in Robbing the Bees, and had a hard time deciding which other type to try. They had starthistle honey, blackberry, apple blossom and many others I can't remember now. I was intrigued by the avocado one so we got that.

You can see the difference in the colors here. The Tupelo honey is amber too, a bit darker than orange blossom. The avocado honey has a rich, dark almost red-tinted color. We tried just a bit smeared on crackers to compare the flavors.

The tupelo honey is very sweet and astringent. Its flavor reminds me of something else but I haven't been able to put my finger on it. The avocado honey has an incredibly rich, heavy flavor like molasses. It left the longest aftertaste on my tongue. I can't decide which I like best and have to figure out some special cooking or food combinations to do with these. They are a bit pricey- the tupelo jar cost $10, the others about $6 each, but we are going to savor them. I don't know if they're exactly local- I think tupelo trees only grow in Florida, for example- but I know our farmer's market has honey produced by local hives. Next change I get, I want to try some of theirs, too.

winner

Hey, Lezlie! You won my Egyptian bookmarks. Let me know where to send them!

Drawings of the Masters

Flemish and Dutch Drawings from the 15th to the 18th Century

by Colin Eisler

Another art book I got from a library sale recently. I picked it up because in thumbing through saw a wonderful drawing of an elephant by Rembrandt, also several awesome lions, and figured there'd be more. I was right- there was much more. Just a few are of animals: a boar's head, a scruffy-looking bull, a donkey, a beautiful little monkey with a chain on his neck, several cows in a group and quite a few horses (mostly with figures). There's also a wonderful page full of little studies of garden vegetables which made me wish I could draw plants better, and two that quite made me laugh. One is a drawing called Men Shoveling Chairs. Seriously. I was glancing at the plate titles in the front of the book and my eye wandered down the usual kind of names: Portrait of a Young Man, Virgin and Child, Landscape with a Bridge, etc. then I saw Men Shoveling Chairs. What!? I turned to that page and it was exactly that: four men with long-handled paddle-like shovels thrusting them under piles of three-and-four-legged stools and chairs. I still puzzle over what it means or why the artist drew it, but it makes me laugh nonetheless. The other amusing one is a drawing by Hieronymous Bosch called Tree-Man in a Landscape which reminds me how even centuries ago people would idly sketch fantastic things they just dreamed up: a "man" with an egg-shaped body (cut away to show figures around a table inside), his legs are trees and his feet boats, his hat has a jug on top out of which tiny figures climb on a ladder, an owl sits on a branch growing from his back. It's entirely fanciful and curiously delightful to peer at.

Of course there are lots of the types of drawings you'd expect to find: the portraits and madonnas, landscapes and buildings. They all show me something to aspire to, but I was really glad that I found something to smile about, too.

The style of the drawings ranges from very rough, simple line sketches to highly detailed meticulous wash studies and finely hatched pen-and-ink works. Some you can imagine the artist having spent hours working on, others just a few moments. There are lots of amazing studies of folds from the clothing people wore, and a wide variety of faces. The introductory text describing the artwork and its changing styles through the centuries and via different artists wasn't nearly as incomprehensible as I feared, actually pretty interesting. But of course, I mostly enjoyed just looking and looking at the pictures.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 140 pages, 1963

Metropolitan Zoo

by Joseph Bell

This book has been sitting on my shelf a long time, picked up from a library sale who-knows-when. I read it through several bouts of nursing the baby, taking time to look closely at all the pictures. Metropolitan Zoo is a collection of images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art that all feature wild animals. There are paintings, drawings, sculpture, embroideries, jewelry and other forms of art. Each image is described, not only explaining the medium and style, the artist's inspiration (whether from life or completely fanciful) and a bit of history, but also something about the animal. In particular, the author points out when the details of the artwork show something factual about the animal's life or habits, and when they got it dead wrong! I noticed myself a few small details: in the painted screen of white-handed gibbons (shown on the cover), the male is holding some kind of insect in his clenched fist. In few pages showing lions, I saw that quite a number of them depicted the Barbary lion, now extinct in the wild, whose mane extends along the belly. And one left me with a question: what is the other, un-named animal in the detail of the unicorn tapestry shown? Next to the hyena (which doesn't look much like a hyena) is a creature with a striped tail like a raccoon (only skinnier) but the longer neck and finer face of a weasel. A civet? I keep turning to that page, trying to puzzle it out. The artworks feature lions, elephants, rhinos, deer, squirrels and many other mammals. There are also quite a few pieces depicting snakes and other reptiles, and lots of various and beautiful birds. It's a book I thoroughly enjoyed looking through, and should be very popular with anyone who loves animals or art (or both, like me!)

I want to get my hands someday on the other edition they've printed featuring cats from the museum's artwork.

Rating: 5/5 .......112 pages, 1985

Harvest for Hope

by Jane Goodall 
with Gary McAvoy and Gail Hudson

Concerned about many alarming trends she's noticed around the world Jane Goodall wrote this book about "mindful eating." In it she talks about all sorts of things revolving around what we, as humanity eat, and how current practices are destroying our environment and what we can do (on an individual level) to make a difference. Some of the things she talks about in Harvest for Hope include the presence of chemicals and poisons in our food, water shortages, bio-engineered crops, the awful treatment of animals in large-scale operations, overfishing of the oceans and loss of species diversity. Some of the information and predictions for the future are downright scary. On a positive note she talks about the many rich food cultures around the world, organizations that teach schoolchildren how to grow and cook their own produce, farmers that go back to using "deep organic" practices in order to heal their land and produce healthier food, the growing numbers of farmer's markets and restaurants that use local food, the importance of vegetarianism (in all its forms) for our health, the well-being of animals and the reduction of resources overuse, etc. She hasn't quite convinced me to go vegetarian but I am more determined to make an effort to buy local and organic food when I can. Even if it costs more and I can't buy as much, eating a bit less can only be good for me!

rating: 3/5 ....... 296 pages, 2005

more opinions at:
Sayin' Stuff
She Writes, Right?

more TBR

Rin Tin Tin by Susan Orlean- seen on Sophisticated Dorkiness
Healing Paradise by Gay Courter- noticed by Superfast Reader
One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-read about on A Work in Progress
The Gardener's Year by Karel Capek- Captive Reader
Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver- Stuff as Dreams Are Made On
The Curious Gardener by Ana Pavord- Captive Reader
Flower Hunters by Mary Gribbin and John Gribbin- Captive Reader
Sex on Six Legs by Marlene Zuk- A Striped Armchair
The Curious Gardener by Ana Pavord- Garden Rant
Second Nature by Michael Pollan- Stuff As Dreams Are Made On

The Orchard: A Memoir by Theresa Weir
It's a Long Road to a Tomato by Keith Stewart
The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond
those three from Caroline Bookbinder

The Proof of Love by Catherine Hall- Farm Lane Books Blog
A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard- We'll Always Have Books
Seeing Trees by Nancy Ross Hugo- Commonweeder
Cluck: From Jungle Fowl to City Chicks- Garden Rant
Feathers! by Thor Hanson- Sophisticated Dorkiness
Your Farm in the City by Lisa Taylor- Garden Rant 
Night Waking by Sara Moss- Farm Lane Books Blog
Urban Farming by Thomas J Fox- Garden Rant
Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi- Farm Lane Books Blog
Chick Days by Jenna Woginrich - Garden Rant
My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira- Books and Movies
A Lucky Child by Thomas Buergenthal- Diary of an Eccentric
The City Homesteader by Scott Meyer - Garden Rant
Sugar Snaps and Strawberries by Andrea Bellamy- Garden Rant

The Seventh Well by Fred Wander- Diary of an Eccentric
Making It: Radical Home Ec... by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen- Garden Rant
Bending Toward the Sun by Leslie Gilbert Lurie- Diary of An Eccentric

Four Hedges by Clare Leighton
A Countrywoman's Notes by Rosemary Verey
The Garden in the Clouds by Antony Woodward
The Curious Gardener's Almanac by Niall Edworthy
all those last four from Captive Reader

No Impact Man

by Colin Beavan

I don't know why I have this thing lately for reading books about people doing experiments to change their lives and live in ways that are better for the environment. It's interesting to see how far people are willing or able to go, what challenges they come up against, how they solve them. I guess I also like to compare myself, to imagine if it's something I could do, too. Most seem to have one focus; I've read a lot of books (because I like gardening) about sustainable living and feeding yourself. This Organic Life, Farm City and  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle are several titles about people who tried to only eat what they could grow or find within a short distance of home (thus avoiding the costs of food traveling far). This author has alerted me to several more; there's a book called  The 100-Mile Diet whose title explains itself, and another where the author tries to do one new environmentally-friendly thing per day: Sleeping Naked is Green.

Anyway, No Impact Man describes Beavan's experiences taking his family through a year-long project to see how much they could reduce their carbon footprint on the earth. It's pretty impressive that he didn't just focus on one thing, like see if we can only eat local for a year, or only use green energy for a year. No, he did it all. In stages, which I think was smart. First, he cut out all the trash their family produced. The used nothing new. They quit buying any food that came in packaging- so only fresh produce, no take-out, not even coffee from Starbucks until he thought to bring his own re-usable cup along. Next they quit using vehicles for transportation, walking and biking everywhere (and taking stairs- they even eschewed the elevator!) Then tried to do without electricity. He flipped the circuit breaker in his apartment and took to shopping for fresh food several times a week, going to sleep when it got dark, stomping on clothes in the tub to wash them, etc.

Oh, and he did this all while living in New York City.

Several interesting things happened. He got a lot of attention for this project. His family was willing to go along with it and even found it fun. He discovered he had a lot more time on his hands and began spending it with family and friends, appreciating the simple pleasures of life. He found his limits: there's a point at which doing without in order to save the planet just becomes miserable (washing kid-vomited-on bedsheets by hand?) He also reached a point where it wasn't enough simply to reduce his own use of resources or environmental impact, but that he wanted to do something positive and so got involved with local volunteer projects to plant trees, clean up trash on the river, etc.

Can you tell I was impressed by this man?

There's been a documentary made of the No-Impact Man project (I think that's how I originally found it; saw the title on Netflix). And Beavan has a blog all about it, too.

Rating: 3/5 ........ 274 pages, 2009

more opinions at:  The Back Patio
anyone else?

This Organic Life

Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader

by Joan Dye Gussow

Joan Gussow and her husband set out to build their retirement home, and instead they built a garden. I kid you not. Her dream home was really picked because of its location on the Hudson river and its long backyard with ample sunny space, but when they discovered the house had to be gutted (and even later, that it had to be torn down and rebuilt) they went ahead and started improving the land and planting vegetables months before their home was tenable. I am amazed already, but go on through my reading to discover that Gussow and her husband have reached their goal of feeding themselves from their own yard- veggie garden, fruit trees and berry patches- when there isn't stuff available fresh they eat stored potatoes, onions and parsnips, etc. That impresses me enough, but she goes on to live her environmentalist convictions even further, always questioning where the food she eats was produced, looking for food sources as close to home as she can get them (like Barbara Kingsolver also strove to do) as well as other measures (the book is mostly about food-related ones). One chapter in  This Organic Life is all about things she's willing to do without, another is about the nextdoor community garden she helps establish, yet another is about the hard knocks nature deals them- like when the river floods their garden, when wireworms eat her sweet potatoes, when rats destroy her tomato plants. She admits its not easy and worries even more over the state of our nation's famers, who must have it even harder. This is such a conscientious, thoughtful, funny and encouraging book I'm looking already for a copy to add to my personal library. Not to mention that it's got recipes, and really good-looking ones, too! Granted, they are all on the spicy side, but my husband likes spicy food! I haven't figured out yet what to do with all the hot peppers I grew this year...

I like this author. I like her voice, I like her convictions, I like the fact that she does something about them. I want to read more of what she's written, so I'm looking in my library's database to see what they have... nothing! blah. Time to try for another swap, I suppose.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 273 pages, 2001

more opinions at
Alternate Roots
Edge of the Page

bookmarks!

It's been a while, so I'm doing another bookmarks giveaway. This pair has an Egyptian theme. Simply leave a comment if you'd like to win them!

Sorry, giveaway open to mailing address in the US and Canada only.

It runs for two weeks. I'll draw a name at random on... the weekend of my birthday! Oct 15.

Dolphin Days

by Kenneth Norris

This book was far more interesting and readable than the last one I tried. Dolphin Days is about several decades' work the author spent studying dolphins in tropical waters and also in captive environments. A large part of the book focuses on his efforts to help save dolphins from drowning in tuna nets. He went with a crew of scientists on board fishing boats so they could observe the behavior of the dolphins, what the crew did, even how the fish acted in the net, to figure out what could be done to save the dolphins. Their findings were quite surprising. I knew the dolphins wouldn't jump over the top edge of the net (floating just an inch or so below the surface, which they could easily clear) but had no idea why. I also had no idea how staggering the numbers of dolphins that died for the tuna industry were. And not only that- but the fishermen used the dolphins as markers to find the big tuna schools, because apparently the tuna shadow the dolphins, swimming along underneath them. How well did they think that would keep up if they continued to kill dolphins by the thousands? Anyway, other parts of the book deal with pure research, studying dolphin schools just off the coast of several different tropical islands, and also observing their behavior in captive pools. They made quite a few surprising discoveries.

Aside from the animal-behavior parts, much of the book also simply tells about what it is like to do field research- the difficulties involved working in foreign countries, what is involved in creating a research team, etc. It was all very interesting and told in a friendly, thoughtful manner that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I want to look for this author's earlier book on dolphin behavior, Porpoise Watchers.

Rating: 4/5 ........340 pages, 1980

reading moment

Older daughter was reading the baby a board book about kitty cats.

It has simple captions describing the cats doing various activities pictured on each page: Kitty running, Kitty sunning.... 

Kitty whining, Kitties dining....

It was all good and cute until they got to the page: Kitty puddling, Kitties cuddling... o yes snuggles are good- wait, kitty what?!

and the picture is of a kitty's little hind end with a little yellow tinkle puddle on the floor
just look at the baby's face, haha (click to enlarge it if you like)

Dolphin Mysteries

by Kathleen M. Dudzinski  and Toni Frohoff

A book I've been wanting to read just because every time I see it at the library the cover looks attractive. And dolphins are such fascinating creatures. But a little less than halfway through I found I was forcing myself to pick the book up again every time. Something was just not quite right with this reading experience. Dolphin Mysteries is written by two authors, and most of it is in first-person and you have no idea who is addressing you until suddenly one of them identifies themself in parenthesis, which got to be kind of distracting and annoying. Personally, I think a better way to indicate which author wrote what parts would be a simple change in font, or even segregate their writings into different chapters. But that's just my reading preference.

The book has lots and lots of facts about dolphins but it wasn't very engaging or easy reading. Not quite dry, but a bit overdone somehow. I felt like I kept reading about the same incidents or explanations multiple times. About how dolphins perceive sound, how they communicate via touch and body posture, how they interact with humans... but there was something missing, some other focus or aspect that I wanted and it wasn't there. Sorry, this is one of the times I can't quite put my finger on it, why I didn't like the book, why exactly I decided to stop reading. I was disappointed, as it was praised by Temple Grandin and Sy Montgomery, two of my favorite authors on animal behavior. O well. Maybe I'll try it again another time.

Abandoned ........ 224 pages, 2008

The Tale of Ginger and Pickles

by Beatrix Potter

My daughter brought The Tale of Ginger and Pickles home from her school library. It's one Beatrix Potter she didn't recognize, as we have quite a collection at home but not this one. I do have a fat bound volume of the entire works of Beatrix Potter (all the way from the familiar Peter Rabbit through other animal stories and some poetry/nursery rhymes as well) but I've always found the small single-story volumes that you can practically hold in the palm of your hand so charming, I almost like reading them in that format better.

Well, Ginger and Pickles is a little story about a dog and cat who keep shop in a village. They give unlimited credit, and so get lots and lots of customers, but needless to say their business is doing poorly. I had to explain to my daughter what credit meant, and she paid attention to the fact that creatures kept coming to buy stuff, but no one ever paid for it! So of course when it came time to pay for rent, and licences they were in trouble, and things kept getting worse. Eventually they went hungry and resorted to eating their own goods, then had to abandon the shop. The next proprietor wasn't so foolish as to allow credit all the time!

Besides prompting a conversation about bad business models, the book made me explain quite a bit of British language to my daughter as well. Told her that galoshes are rainboots, pounds are similar to dollars, shillings are coins and biscuits more like cookies than bread, among other things.

Rating: 3/5 ........ 60 pages, 1909

James and the Giant Peach

by Roald Dahl

Just finished reading this one with my kid, because she thought Little House in the Big Woods was boring! (We didn't even make it through the first chapter. I was disappointed by that response, actually). She wanted something more exciting! so James and the Giant Peach was a hit.

If you're not familiar with the story, here goes: James lives with his nasty aunts and is thoroughly miserable until one day magic happens (I'll leave you to find out how) and an ancient peach tree in the backyard suddenly grows a beautiful peach. Not just any peach, either. This one keeps growing until it's bigger than the house! When the peach breaks free and goes rolling off on fantastic adventures, James happens to be aboard- along with a handful of insects which have also magically grown to tremendous size. They're quite the characters. We got the most laughs out of the endless banter between the Earthworm and the Centipede with his many, many boots.

It really is a fun story. All the more delightful that lots of facts about the insects are working into the story, so you don't even realize you're learning about them. My daughter and I got into a conversation about it afterwards, I mentioned one of the facts about the bugs and suddenly she said: "wait! I thought it was fiction. You mean that's true?"

So I explained that even though a fictional story is made-up, usually the setting and things that occur really do exist or could happen. But you can tell the difference. Let's see if you can tell, I said to her. "Do ladybugs help the garden by eating aphids and other nasty bugs?" Yeah, she said. "And do earthworms help with the dirt?" Yeah. "And do centipedes wear boots?" She giggled, No. "See! You already know, which parts are made-up and which parts are real."

Anyway, it was fun. I was trying to think afterwards of all the other Roald Dahl books I've read. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and its sequel The Great Glass Elevator. Matilda. The BFG. Danny, the Champion of the World (which is about pheasant hunting and poaching!) and my favorite, Fantastic Mr. Fox. And he's written so many, many others. Which are your favorites?

Rating: 3/5 ........ 126 pages, 1961

Made From Scratch

Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life

by Jenna Woginrich

Another book about sustainable living. This one was a bit different. In the first place, it's written in a simple, friendly style that makes it a breeze to read. The author shares her experiences learning to do many things for herself and learn new homesteading skills, then at the end of each chapter gives some general advice and pointers on doing the same for yourself. In the back is a nice, comprehensive list of books and online resources to find more information. She even has a website where you can read about her doings: Cold Antler Farm.

In Made from Scratch Woginrich describes starting a vegetable garden, raising chickens, keeping bees and learning to make things like bread, noodles, pasta sauce, jam, etc. in her own kitchen. All that sounded familiar. But then she goes on to have angora rabbits to spin their fur into yarn for her own clothes (because she couldn't have sheep, but if you go look at her blog, she has them now, I think!), trains her dogs to carry packs and pull things, and learns to play music on the fiddle and dulcimer. Another aspect I found really interesting was that she made a point of hunting down antique objects to use in her home- like an old cheese grater, or a hand-cranked coffee grinder. She likes the aesthetics of old objects, plus says they're made better, and its nicer to give them a second, useful life than buy something brand-new that might break in a few months anyways. I like that. It wasn't like the guy in See You in a Hundred Years who made himself use old stuff to follow some rule he made up. Woginrich liked and wanted this stuff.

Anyhow, her book is amusing and inspiring, and I want a copy of my own if just to try out some of the recipes.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 184 pages, 2008

more opinions: You've GOTTA Read This!

The Gaia Book of Organic Gardening

by Charlie Ryrie and Cindy Engel

Basic introduction to the principles of organic gardening, illustrated with beautiful photographs. The Gaia Book of Organic Gardening places an emphasis on taking care of and feeding your soil, giving an entire chapter over to identifying and nurturing different soil types, and another just to composting. There's also information on planting times and methods, interplanting crops and herbs to help with attracting beneficial insects or repelling pests, how to save seeds, and keep your garden tidy. The authors points out that since organic gardeners live with nature instead of fighting against it or outright annihilating whatever they don't like, you're bound to have a few weeds and pests around. But they note that many weeds are great for feeding your compost, and without pests around you wouldn't be able to feed the ladybugs and other "good guys".

I took a lot of notes from this book. Particularly, I was interested in the interplanting suggestions, I know I need to work better at rotating my crops efficiently, and I didn't realize before that I ought to be covering my compost pile! Mine gets rained on quite a bit.

The only downside to this book is that it was written for a British audience, so some of the advice doesn't really apply to me (I don't have hedgehogs in my garden, for example). Also, I wasn't familiar with some of the terms. I knew courgettes are zucchini, but had to look up aubergines (eggplant) and tagetes (marigolds). Another book great for my itchy green thumb!

Found this one at a library sale and brought it home. I was wondering when I first opened it up, what gardening had to do with Gaia and if it was going to have some unfamiliar ideas in it (I don't know much about the concepts of Gaia). Really, it's just the name of the printing company, Gaia Publishing. And there is a small note on the publication page that says Books from Gaia celebrate the vision of Gaia, the self-sustaining living Earth, and seek to help its readers live in greater personal and planetary harmony. That's all. There's no other mention of it.

Rating: 4/5 ...... 160 pages, 2005

In Deep

country essays

by Maxine Kumin

I can't remember how I found this author; I think she was mentioned in some other books I read. She's a poet, and I struggle to appreciate poetry, so instead I looked for some of her prose and found this book of essays about country living on the steep hillsides of New England.

In Deep has a range of topics, from tapping maple trees and trying to divert the rivers of mud in spring to collecting wild mushrooms (which brought to mind the mushroom book) and growing a kitchen garden. But most of them are about horses- the first horse she rode as a child, the keeping of family horses (very large pets), one about a foal that was rejected by its mother and raised as an orphan. There's also a chapter all about mules, comparing them to poets (quite favorably for the poets, I'd say- mules are hardy, stalwart creatures!) and another about the virtues of Scots Highland cattle. Even if you're not excited about horses, there's something lively and thoughtful in these essays- from Kumin's thoughts on the weather and observations about other people to her descriptions of the animals and seasons they all pass through on the little farm.

Incidentally, a few of her poems were included in the book, as she also talks quite a bit about the work of writing poetry. I liked them okay, but I'm not sure if I'd get through a whole book of them. I do want to find more essays by Kumin, or has she ever written a novel? Have any of you read more of her works? Got any recommendations for me?

Rating: 4/5 ....... 180 pages, 1987

Linnea's Windowsill Garden

by Christina Bjork and Lena Anderson

I happened to walk to the library today, and saw this book on their sale shelf, next to another one about organic gardening. Thumbing through it for a few seconds, I knew this was a book I wanted to have. And it sounded familiar- now I recall a book my mother found at the library called Linnea in Monet's Garden, which was quite good. So I paid fifty cents, and upon returning home sat and read it while the baby fed. Charmed.

And instructed. It's all about a little girl and how she grows plants in her apartment. She grows plants from the seeds and pits of produce brought home from the supermarket. She grows plants from cuttings given by a friend. She grows from seed packets from the nursery. And tells you all about how to do your own plant experiments (did you know that a pea, urged to grow, can break out from being sealed inside a lump of plaster of paris?!), how to care for the plants, how to get rid of nasty bugs, etc. I was delighted to find info about sprouting avocado and orange seeds (both of which I've tried, my avocados succeeded and the oranges didn't- and with both I used a different method than the one she suggests) and lots of practical stuff like how to keep your plants happy when you're gone for a few days (again, not by any method I've ever used) or how to soften water for sensitive plants (just let it sit out overnight). I like that she notes that not all plants will thrive, or all seeds germinate; you just have to try again. And that the bug-ridding methods include not only pick-them-off-and-squash them or spray with soapy water but also ingenious tricks I've never tried, like putting an aphid-infested plant in a bag and blowing cigarette smoke into it! Maybe I'm silly to get itchy green thumb over a kid's book, but now I'm eager to try growing experiments again...

Rating: 4/5 ........ 59 pages, 1978

The Backyard Homestead

edited by by Carleen Madigan

Beyond just a vegetable garden or keeping a handful of chickens, this book aims to show how you can raise everything you'd need to eat on your own little patch of land. Even if you've just got a tenth of an acre, The Backyard Homestead claims you can produce a staggering amount of produce, fruits, grain, eggs, meat, honey, etc. It has instructions on nearly everything. Let me just make a list of the food subjects this book covers: vegetables, fruits, berries, nuts, eggs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, herbs, beekeeping, sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, making wine, beer, herb vinegars, bread, cheese, yogurt, etc etc etc. It just got to be kind of mind-boggling after a while. I mean, I envision a huge veggie garden, a nice full herb bed, permanent strawberry, rhubarb, asparagus patches, chickens and maybe bees someday. I might stretch that to add rabbits. I want to try my hand at breadmaking someday, although just the idea of cheese still intimidates me. But pigs? wheat? digging dandelion roots and grinding them up in leiu of coffee? Those things I don't even dream of.

One thing this book doesn't do, is give you all the details. After reading the parts about making bread I'm almost ready to follow their recipe and try (it all sounded familiar from watching my mom make bread as a child, too) but then other sections seem lacking so it makes me wonder what they skimmed over here. I've read quite a few books on beekeeping lately and their four pages here seem woefully brief. I've tried my hand at canning green beans and making jam a few times and in no way would I sally forth into that venture again with just the information in this book. So whatever activity this volume encouraged me to attempt, I'd be sure to read up a lot more on it first. However, it does inspire and show you what kind of scope really is possible in a small space. I've already added another dozen plants to the list of what I want to add into my herb garden, and am going to try their johnnycake recipe for breakfast one day.

If you read the welcome pages, it's clear why this book lacks all the details. The editor states: It's an introduction to the best of Storey's information about food production. I hope it'll inspire you and give you a starting point, a foothold to learn a few practical skills. So in that it has succeeded admirably. I am inspired, and I do want to go forth and learn more. The Storey publications include a lot of other good-sounding titles, including a few that are already on my TBR list such as Carrots Love Tomatoes and Made from Scratch.

This is really a resource book, but it was surprisingly easy and engaging to read. Even the sections I thought didn't really relate to me I ended up reading out of curiosity. For example, I don't drink alcohol but my husband has a friend who home-brews his own beer and I was curious about the process so I read the section about making beer (sounds awfully complicated!). I have no space in my yard for a nut tree, nor do I ever envision raising a beef cow, but still I found it interesting to read about those things too.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 367 pages, 2009

more opinions at:
Mama Gone Green
Seed to Harvest

belated

I just realized my blog turned four years old last month.

I've been so preoccupied with the baby and my husband's campaign and my six-year-old's first week of school it just slipped my mind. And I'm not quite sure what to think about it. I feel like my blogging here has really slacked off this year. I've been reading, and making notes of what I think, but am often too tired to write something really coherent or thoughtful. I've been following everyone else in google reader, but often short on time, or tied up with baby in arms, so don't type lots of comments (which means I get fewer and fewer visitors here). So it's just been very quiet over here, lately.

I'm hoping someone out there is still reading what I write here, so that when I get the time/energy to put more effort into this, it will reflect back again. I'm not going away, or giving up! just have my focus diverted elsewhere for a while.

I do have a sort of announcement, and this seems as good a place as any to say it. My husband pretty much volunteered me to be on the library board of our local branch. He said the board consists of lots of older folks and they're looking for younger people to get involved. They accepted him as a member because he was there offering his services, but he said they really want me! Of course he told them all about my reading obsession, but I hope he also mentioned I have a small nursing infant who takes up a lot of my time and won't sit quietly through long functions! I'm not much of a public person so I'm not sure what this will amount to, if I actually take the position. I like to stay in the background, and do things quietly... We'll see what comes of it! I'd love to help the library out, just not sure what I would do.

Living Like Ed

A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life

by Ed Begley

I thought I knew quite a bit about being "green." I thought I was great at recycling, in fact my husband calls me the "recycling nazi" when I chide him for tossing plastic in the trash. But I am nothing like Ed. This guy had so much to teach me. He's been a stickler for recycling and living green in general since the early eighties! He not only has solar panels on his roof, but also a small vertical wind turbine on top of his garage. He has an electric car and a hybrid car, but does most of his transportation via foot, bike or public bus. (His wife - who gets her own sections in the book- says he often refuses to even get into a gas-powered car). This guy also recycles everything you could think of, finds ways to reuse worn-out items (or give them to someone else who will), grows his own veggies in the backyard, buys organic (including clothing) and just in general does every last little thing he can to help the environment. Even when he has to travel by plane he'll buy a TerraPass to offset the carbon used for his air travel.

Granted, not everyone can be like Ed. After all, he's an actor (admit I've never seen his television series, in fact I'd never heard of him until I first read about this book on Both Eyes Book Blog) and can do all the expensive things like buy a car with the newest technology or put solar panels on his roof. But he points out all the things people can do- from the smallest increments like turning down your thermostat or buying those funny-looking twisty lightbulbs to medium-scale improvements such as buying an energy-efficient dishwasher to the big things like making your own solar energy for your home. So I'd bet anyone who reads this book can find dozens of things they could do to live more green. I know I've made a list. Already, these are all the things I could think of that I do in my house to live green:

- recycle
- turn down the heat and wear a sweater
- grow veggies in the backyard
- compost most of my organic waste
- buy those twisty lightbulbs
- walk my kids to school
- walk to the park and most nearby stores
- have an energy-efficient washing machine
- line-dry clothes outside when I can
- potty my baby (cuts my diaper use in half)
- buy organic food when I can
- shop at the farmer's market
- make my own baby food
- buy clothing and books used
- use dishwater / baby bathwater to water my shrubs and flowers
- reuse items (my daughter makes barbie clothes out of worn-out jeans, I rinse out yogurt containers and use them for seedling pots, etc.)

Reading Living Like Ed made me think of so many more things to do. Change the air filter in my furnace/ac more often. Look up where to recycle dead batteries instead of throw them in the trash. Consider putting a water-heater blanket on my old appliance. And of course, I've always dreamed of being able to afford solar panels on the roof or a hybrid car. Someday...

What kinds of things does your household do to live green? I bet Ed could help you come up with some more. This book is highly recommended- by me!

Rating: 4/5 ........ 240 pages, 2008

The Secret Language of Life

How Animals and Plants Feel and Communicate

by Brian J. Ford

This book is all about well, what the subtitle says- how animals and plants use their senses to perceive the world and respond to it. Ford's main argument seems to be that we, as humans, have no right to feel superior to the rest of life on earth because most of them have been around far longer than us, and are just as capable of seeing and feeling things, of making decisions about how to act. First he describes in detail our own sense of sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing- and then points out how many animals have much superior senses, or possess ones we lack completely- like bats' and dolphins' ability to echolocate, or birds' ability to navigate using magnetism. Even tiny creatures like insects can see far better than us- have you ever tried to swat a fly? it sees you coming far faster than you can act. All of this was intriguing, but the part of the book that really floored me was where Ford talked about how plants perceive the world. Most of them can sense light, can tell direction (gravity), can respond to temperature changes and wind, and touch. At one point he says that plants sense each other's presence and space themselves out to even out the resources; that's why trees are well-spaced in a forest. I didn't quite get this point, though; he never really explained how that worked out. I always thought trees were well-spaced because when too close together the weaker one would simply fail to thrive.... The final chapters are about microscopic creatures and how they sense the world around them. Not only do they react to their environment and seek out food, but some apparently communicate with each other as well- insofar as they need to, in order to find mates and such. Did you know there's even a microbe that has a functional eye? Crazy stuff, that makes you really wonder at the world around you. The Secret Language of Life is really a fascinating book.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 320 pages, 1999

futile list

About a week ago I got all excited at discovering a list of the John Burroughs Medal- awarded to the best natural history book of the year. This list spans the years 1926-2002, but some years no award was given, so in total there are 68 books on it. Can you believe I looked all the titles up (except for the six I've actually read already) and not a single one is in my local library's system?

Not a single one. I guess they're just too old and obscure, plus I know natural history isn't the top subject of the day. (The section in my nearby library is woefully small). Well, the titles still catch my interest, so I've been sleuthing through reviews online to see which I might actually want to hunt down and read someday, and then searching for them on swap sites. Found a few available. Discovered several new titles along the way (of course- and none of those are at my library either!)

Thus, here are all the books I've found I have an interest in, but little chance of ever reading. Someday, maybe... [edit: the books I have found copies of and read, are now crossed out and linked to]

from the Burroughs list:
From Laurel Hill to Siler's Bog by John Terres
Iceland Summer by George Sutton
Driftwood Valley by Theodora Fletcher
The Great Beach by John Hay
A Canyon Road by Frederick S. Dellenbaugh
The Windward Road  by Archie Carr
Wilderness and Razor Wire by Ken Lamberton
Swampwalker's Journal by David Carroll
In a Desert Garden by John Alcock
The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen
Into Africa by Craig Packer
Dolphin Days by Kenneth Norris
The Island Within by Richard Nelson
Of Wolves and Men by Barry Lopez
Roadless Area by Paul Brooks
Canoe Country and Snowshoe Country by Florence Jaques et al

discovered in tandem:
Peace at Heart by Barbara Drake
The Goshawk by T.H. White

I'm particularly interested in this last title. I love T.H. White's writing, The Once and Future King is one of my all-time favorite books. And several years ago I went through a spate of reading about falconry; it's quite a fascinating subject.

The New York Times Book of Mammals

edited by Nicholas Wade

Pretty interesting book, The New York Times Book of Mammals is a compilation of the best articles on mammals from the newspaper's Science Times section, spanning the years 1991 through 2002. They're organized in sections regarding which type of mammal is featured: rodents, wild cats, wolves and their cousins, primates, etc. The articles range in subject- some are about new studies into animal physiology that hope to impact modern medicine, others look at animal behavior, or the reintroduction of species to lands they've been extinct from for decades (namely the wolf; there were four or five articles on wolves alone!) I think the most interesting ones for me were to read about the social structure of naked mole rats (similar to insects'), the genetic deterioration of cheetahs, how hormone exposure in the womb influences the gender of infant gerbils, and how reindeer herds are being lost to migrating caribou who tempt them to leave their accustomed lands. Also of course the ones regarding pregnancy, birth, infants bonding to the mother, the amazingly complex components of human milk (subjects close to me right now). I'm intrigued to see if there's a newer edition printed with reports more current to what's being discovered in science today.

Rating: 3/5 ........ 302 pages, 1998

The Year of the Whale

by Victor B. Scheffer

Like Moby Dick, this book alternates narrative with sections describing facts about whales. The storyline is a young sperm whale's life, beginning with its birth in autumn and following it through an entire year as it navigates the waters, shadowing its mother and learning through exploring its environment. The factual parts describe man's encounters with whales and his exploitation of them, including some rather graphic descriptions of the butchering done on whaling ships. Interestingly enough, sometimes a biologist or scientist was present on the whaling ship, hoping to get a chance to study a whale's body as it was being processed. There's also an account of the first sperm whale to be kept alive in captivity, and several stories of stranded whales. An interesting read, but a bit dry for my taste and of course the facts are outdated. The Year of the Whale won an award for being the best natural history book in 1970 (and now I have a new list to pore over- what better reading than all the years' best natural history books going back to 1926?)

Rating: 3/5 ....... 244 pages, 1969

more opinions at:
Lexivore's Lunch

Socks

by Beverly Cleary

One of my childhood favorites, I just finished reading Socks  with my six-year-old last week. It's a friendly little story about the daily life of an ordinary housecat. At first the kitty luxuriates in the attention of his young owners, but soon a baby arrives and everything changes. Socks has to deal with people getting up at odd hours, mealtimes being delayed, the anxiety of listening to the baby cry, and visits from well-meaning relatives, some of whom tease or criticize him. Another trial in Socks' life is battling with a neighborhood tomcat... But then the baby starts to grow up, and Socks finds that the little person in the family is no longer so annoying but can be a great playmate. It's a cute book, one we could really relate to, having two cats and a new baby. My daughter enjoyed pointing out all the ways in which our cats and baby behave similar to or differently from those in the story.

Rating: 3/5 ........ 158 pages, 1973

more opinions at:
MD Sheets
SMS Book Reviews

The Leper

by Sigmund Brouwer

Set in the late 1800's, this brief heart-tugging story is about a man who contracts leprosy while serving with the military in India. He returns home and can't bear to expose his wife and young children either to the risk of contracting the disease nor to the awful sight of his ravaged face. So instead he makes arrangements to have most of his monthly stipend sent to his wife, while removing himself from her life and hoping she finds a man to provide for her and raise his children, so that he can end his own misery with a suicidal jump off a bridge. Before he can carry out all his plans, though, he unexpectedly makes contact with humanity again- discovering an abandoned child who needs his help. Despite the risk of leprosy, if he doesn't take her in she will surely die.... The baby not only touches this man's life, but also the lives of several other individuals, one being a stern unattractive woman (unfortunately named Ima Hogg) who finds her life opening up to love once she begins caring for the baby. And in a neat, tidy circle the leprous man not only finds compassion and acceptance where he only expected repulsion and rejection, but finds love again, and a reason to live.

I can't really say more without giving it all away, as the book is really quite short! It's one my grandmother had borrowed from her public library, and while visiting her this week I picked it up to read as well. It's a tender story, one that will bring you close to tears. With, granted, a strongly religious message but it's not overdone like in some books. My only quibble was the author's penchant for jumping around in time. I prefer my stories to follow a straight linear narrative; but it's not much to complain about here.

Rating: 3/5 ........ 182 pages, 2002

more opinions at:
Original Books
Flowers in my Pot
Book 'em Benj-O

the big list

I may have been quiet about the blogs lately, but I'm still reading them! (I just usually have a babe in arms so it's hard to type comments.) The proof is here: a big old list of all the books I've found in your posts. Follow the links, and you can read what tempted me to add each book to my toppling TBR. I have a sneaking suspicion some of these books are already on my list, but don't have the time to double-check right now...

Through the Garden Gate by Susan Hill- The Octogon
The Righteous by Michael Wallace- Books and Pals
Urban Pantry by Amy Pennington- Book Maven's Blog
The Wisdom of the Radish by Lynda Hopkins- Stuff as Dreams Are Made On
The Hopes of Snakes by Lisa Couturier- Page 247
The Wild Life of Our Bodies by Rob Dunn- Life is Short, Read Fast
Wicked Bugs by Amy Stewart- The Black Sheep Dances
The Bad Tempered Gardener by Anne Wareham- Garden Rant
The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy- The Octogon
In the Kingdom of Gorillas by Bill Weber and Amy Vedder- Ardent Reader
The Earth Moved by Amy Stewart - A Striped Armchair
This Life is in Your Hands by Melissa Coleman- Bermuadonion's Weblog
Season to Taste by Molly Birnbaum- Life is Short, Read Fast
Two Kisses for Maddy by Matthew Longelin- At Home with Books
Slow Love: how I lost my job... by Dominique Browning- books i done read
The Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen- Bookfoolery and Babble
West of the Moon by Katherine Langrish- Things Mean a Lot
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs- The Lost Entwife
Left Neglected by Lisa Genova - Jules' Book Reviews
Fire Season by Philip Connors- Bookfoolery and Babble
Through the Kitchen Window by Susan Hill- The Octogon
Your Backyard Wildlife Year by Marcus Schneck- Stuff as Dreams Are Made On
The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser- Reading Through Life
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall from Reading Through Life
Cheating Death by Sanjay Gupta- books i done read
Sheepish by Catherine Friend- Superfast Reader
Feathers by Thor Hanson- Sophisticated Dorkiness
The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker - Love, Laughter and a touch of Insanity

African Cats

Disneynature

by Amanda Barrett and Keith Scholey

Admittedly I brought this book home to read just because it's cover kept catching my eye from the library shelf, with its large beautiful lion's face. I noticed it a few times and declined (it's rather heavy) before finally giving in to the visual temptation and checking it out. It's about the making of the film African Cats, which I'd never heard of before, much less seen. Now I want to, even though the book has given away probably most of the major events in the film. One of the filmmakers was also involved in creating the tv program Big Cat Diary, which is one of my favorite nature shows. So I'm pretty sure I'd like the African Cats production as well.

The film portrays the lives of one cheetah trying to raise her cubs to adulthood, and the doings of a pride of lions including a bunch of half-grown youngsters, some females with small cubs, and one older male who's recently lost his partners. A lot of it focuses on how different the lives of the solitary cheetahs and social lions are. The book tells about how the film was made, the struggles of the producers to find the animals, keep track of them, keep equipment in working order, and hope the animals didn't leave the boundaries of the reserve, because they couldn't follow them without making huge detours. Most of the narrative, though, is about the lives of the cats, all their twists and turns. The text is accompanied by fantastic photographs, and also an array of lovely ink and wash illustrations by Jean-Paul Orpinas. I was enthralled to the last page.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 205 pages, 2011

What's Michael?

Show Time

by Makoto Kobayashi

This is a japanese comic about a cat. I read volume 8, because that's the one I found. It's a mixture of humor involved in the daily life of the kitty and the ineptitude of his owners, plus some odd fantasy. I have to admit I didn't quite "get it" all the time. The parts that were most amusing to me were about things like the cat stealing fish off the counter, or the baby crawling around imitating the cat. I didn't get the segment about a huge fat cat in a pet store that terrified everyone who no more than looked at it. There's a part where the baby turns into adult and goes to work in an office entirely staffed by cats, who scramble to deal with her still-babyish behavior like examining the stapler by putting it in her mouth, or bursting into tears just because she's tired. I found the baby parts pretty funny, just because I have a baby in the house now, so it's all close to home. Quick, enjoyable, sometimes puzzling, and overall a very different reading experience for me.

You can see a good sample of the artwork here. One thing that really caught my attention in the artwork was the people's faces. The cats are all cute, the owners look relatively normal, some of the other people depicted have quite strange facial proportions. And the face the baby makes when it's about to cry is downright disturbing!

I chose What's Michael? off the library shelf pretty much at random. My daughter is in the summer reading program and one of the challenges was to read a comic book or graphic novel. She selected a Garfield collection, I got to this one thinking it looked cute!

Rating: 3/5 ........ 86 pages, 1995

A Country Year

Living the Questions

by Sue Hubbell

Sue Hubbell lives on a farm in the Ozark hills with several thousand honeybees. She is a small-scale commercial beekeeper, stationing her hives in beeyards around her community, collecting their honey and then trucking it to nearby states for sales. Her existence is full of challenges, often scraping below the poverty line. But it is also full of beauty and a closeness to the wild things that inhabit the land with her. Unlike most of her neighbors, who consider creatures like snakes, possums and coyotes vermin and try to get rid of them on sight, she is delighted to observe them and write down the things she learns and the new questions that spring to mind upon seeing unexplained things happen in nature. Like an oriole perching on a hummingbird feeder to guzzle sugar water. Or a column of saw-fly larvae marching across the ground single-mindedly (to what goal she could not figure out). Even the snakes and roaches that invade her beehives and the termites that eat her cabin floor are treated with leniency, given space to do their thing unmolested (more or less; she used to evict roaches from her hives until she realized the bees did a better job of it themselves and their failure to do so indicated a colony weakness she had better be aware of).

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed reading A Country Year, with its mixture of nature writing, observations on humanity (she has a lot of interesting descriptions of neighbors and acquaintances) and stuff about beekeeping. Her voice reminds me a lot of my favorite gardening writer, Thalassa Cruso, and the book also recalls another one I read about minutiae in nature, Wildlings. Whatever else I can find that Sue Hubbell has written, I know I want to read it.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 221 pages, 1983

more opinions at:
the Stay at Home Bookworm
Notes from the Officer's Club
rick librarian

Honeybee

Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper 

by C. Marina Marchese

Marchese visited a neighbor one day for a personal tour of his apiary. She was fascinated by the bees and floored by the taste of fresh, raw honey (straight from the hive; she stuck her finger in a comb cell and licked it off). Curious to learn more about bees, she started attending meetings of a local beekeeper's club, then acquired her own hive and eventually left her established job to start a new venture: keeping honeybees, harvesting their honey and marketing products she made from it (candles, skin products and the like as well as honey).

Her charming book introduces the reader to honeybees in both the broad sense- giving a little of their history with mankind, their role in other cultures around the world, and their biology for example- as well as the personal minutiae, describing incidents when she personally worked with bees and honey, and how she learned about them. She even includes recipes for foods and lip balm made with honey. I feel like I learned so much from her. I was particularly intrigued by the descriptions of monofloral or varietal honeys, made from collecting the honey after the bees have been harvesting nectar from one main plant, so that it has the distinct flavor of that flower source. I'm pretty much only familiar with the clover honey you get in the grocery store. Once or twice I've tasted honey with comb in it, or a wildflower honey, but again from the same source, so they're probably mixed to create a standard flavor. I had no idea that honeys could have such a wide range of taste. Marchese describes dandelion honey as having a hint of white pepper. Honey from mangroves, she says, have a "swampy" aroma and are used in pickle brine! Colors and consistencies also vary greatly- purple loostrife honey, for instance, is dark and looks like motor oil; ling-heather honey has the consistency of jelly and cannot be extracted from the comb but must be gently pressed out. With each honey description she also describes the plant and climate/soil it comes from, so it's like reading a little gardening treatise; pairing the land and the food that comes from it. She suggests foods to accompany each honey varietal, which might range from mixing it into a specific kind of dressing or marinade to using in certain types of baked goods, or on exotic cheeses with fine wines.

I am very curious now to try some local (and varietal, if I can find it) honey: I know there's some available at the local farmer's market we frequent on the weekends. So far, this is my favorite of all the bee/honey books I've been reading. I borrowed this one from the public library.

You can visit the author's website here: Red Bee Honey

Rating: 4/5 ........ 256 pages, 2009

more opinions at:
a Life Sustained