Outrider Books

Good Old Books: In Search of Skiing

2012-02-22T11:05:00.000-08:00

How long has it been since you said, "Chairlift three at two o'clock? I thought you said chairlift two at three o'clock."

Join Warren on his journey of missed appointments, frozen boots, icy slopes, broken ski lifts, magnetic bindings that don't work and ski clothes that got put in the trash compactor instead of the laundromat.

If you are In Search of Skiing, this book is for you.

Warren has spent thirty years, produced four hundred films, visited hundreds of ski resorts and skied ten zillion turns In Search of Skiing. This book is what that search is all about.

In Search of Skiing

by Warren Miller

Hermosa Publishing Company, 1980

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History Book List Addition: "All Labor Has Dignity"

2012-02-17T11:17:00.000-08:00

People forget that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was every bit as committed to economic justice as he was to ending racial segregation. He fought throughout his life to connect the labor and civil rights movements, envisioning them as twin pillars for social reform. As we struggle with massive unemployment, a staggering racial wealth gap, and the near collapse of a financial system that puts profits before people, King's prophetic writings and speeches underscore his relevance for today. They help us imagine King anew: as a human rights leader whose commitment to unions and an end to poverty was a crucial part of his civil rights agenda.

Covering all the civil rights movement highlights - Montgomery, Albany, Birmingham, Selma, Chicago, and Memphis - award-winning historian Michael K. Honey introduces and traces King's dream of economic equality.

Gathered in one volume for the first time, the majority of these speeches will be new to most readers. The collection begins with King's lectures to unions in the 1960s and includes his addresses during his Poor People's Campaign, culminating with his momentous "Mountaintop" speech, delivered in support of striking black sanitation workers in Memphis.

"All Labor Has Dignity"

by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Beacon Press, 2012

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History Book List Addition: Ten Tea Parties

2012-02-07T19:10:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows the story of the Boston Tea Party—in which colonists stormed three British ships and dumped 92,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. But do you know the history of the Philadelphia Tea Party (December 1773)? How about the York, Maine, Tea Party (September 1774) or the Wilmington, North Carolina, Tea Party (March 1775)?

Ten Tea Parties is the first book to chronicle all these uniquely American protests. Author and historian Joseph Cummins begins with the history of the East India Company (the biggest global corporation in the eighteenth century) and their staggering financial losses during the Boston Tea Party (more than a million dollars in today’s money).

Ten Tea Parties

Patriotic Protests That History Forgot

by Joseph Cummins

Quirk Books, 2012

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Good Old Books: Let The Drums Be Your Heart

2012-02-03T20:36:00.000-08:00

Let the Drums be Your Heart brings together the work of more than forty aboriginal writers from all over Canada. concerned with family and days gone by, romance and adventure, tragedy and danger, these poems, short stories, articles and life stories ring with native pride and determination.

As editor Joel T. Maki points out in his introduction, storytellers and historians have always played a vital role in aboriginal communities, ensuring that indvidiual cultures, languages, legends and customs would survive.

Let The Drums Be Your Heart

New Native Voices

by Joel T. Maki

Douglas & McIntyre, 1996

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The Nature Pages
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Review: Mobilizing Web Sites

2012-01-20T14:05:00.000-08:00

Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are likely to surpass PCs as the most common sources of web access in the near future. Anyone with a web site, consequently, has to consider the impact this will have on visitor traffic, user experience, accessibility and e-commerce.

This book describes design and coding techniques for making web sites initially created for desktop PCs accessbile and user-friendly on small screen devices. It includes lessons and case studies on mobilizing layout, navigation, images, text and forms.

Continued in ... The Book Stall

Mobilizing Web Sites

Strategies for Mobile Web Implementation

by Kristofer Layon

Peachpit Press, 2011

History Book List Addition: Food and Faith in Christian Culture

2012-01-18T11:37:00.000-08:00

Without a uniform dietary code, Christians around the world used food in strikingly different ways, developing widely divergent practices that spread, nurtured, and strengthened their religious beliefs and communities.

Featuring never-before published essays, this anthology follows the intersection of food and faith from the 14th to the 21st century.

Food and Faith in Christian Culture

by Ken Albala and Trudy Eden

Columbia University Press, 2011

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Review: After Custer

2012-01-16T20:21:00.000-08:00

The Great Sioux War, which included the defeat of General Custer at the Little Big Horn, brought irreversible changes to the northern plains of the United States. In a few short years, Sioux Country and its buffalo herds was extinguished and replaced with railroads and prospectors and cattle and settlements named after the war's white combatants.

"I have attempted to expose the interconnectedness of it all: a war, the generals who came west in 1877 to bask in the accomplishments of their army, the forts they built to lock up a countryside and people, a new transcontinental railroad, the demise of the massive northern buffalo herd, the saga of the dynamic Beef Bonanza, the tribulations of the Lakota and Northern Cheyennes, and the army's substantial effort at memorialization," writes Paul L. Hedren in the preface to this historical geography of the northern Great Plains.

Hedren's assessment begins with the concluding battles of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 and follows its consequences through the next two decades as the northern Great Plains is opened to settlement, the buffalo herds are replaced with cattle drives, soldiers are converted to reservation watchdogs, battlefields become memorial graveyards and newly created towns are named after the conflict's military leaders.

After Custer

Loss and Transformation in Sioux Country

by Paul L. Hedren

University of Oklahoma Press, 2011.

Out of the Past: Battle of the Little Big Horn
Out of the Past
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How-To Book List Addition: Mobilizing Web Sites

2012-01-11T12:06:00.000-08:00

Everyone has been talking about the mobile web in recent years, and more of us are browsing the web on smartphones and similar devices than ever before. But most of what we are viewing has not yet been updated for mobile presentation. How can designers bring more of the web up to speed with the capabilities of today's mobile devices?

In Mobilizing Web Sites: Develop and Design, author and designer Kristofer Layon addresses that elephant in the room --the many existing web sites that we manage on a day-to-day basis-- and walks through techniques that web designers can use to make these legacy web sites better-suited for mobile viewing.

Mobilizing Web Sites

Strategies for Mobile Web Implementation

by Kristofer Layon

Peachpit Press, 2011

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Electrical and Electronics Outlet

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How-To Book List Addition: Photoshop Elements

2011-12-22T19:05:00.000-08:00

Now that you've bought that new DSLR and taken some amazing shots, you need a simple guide for processing and enhancing those great images.

For photographers using Photoshop Elements (including the brand new Elements 10), this book by pro photographer Jeff Revell will help you conquer the fundamentals of downloading, editing, and enhancing their work to create stunning hang-on-the-wall images.

Revell starts with the basics–from importing images, handling Camera Raw files, making basic fixes and local edits, to creating special effects and fine-tuning. He covers the key software features that affect and improve your image, including: removing blemishes with the Spot Healing Brush, using masks to isolate effects, sharpening with High Pass, darkening blue skies and using gradients, creating black and white images, going wide with a Panorama, and removing people with Photomerge Scene Cleaner.

Photoshop Elements
From Snapshots to Great Shots
by Jeff Revell
Peachpit Press, 2011

How-To Book List Addition: The Google+ Guide

2011-12-15T22:12:00.000-08:00

This approachable, four-color book will offer readers a thorough guide to using Google+, Google's answer to the challenge it faces from Facebook, Twitter, and all other ways people are being social on the web.

After covering the fundamentals of being social on the web, the book digs into how to set up and manage Circles, control the Stream, share photos and video, use Hangouts, get the most out of Sparks, and use games.

The Google+ Guide
Circles, Photos, and Hangouts
by Scott McNulty
Peachpit Press, 2011

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Cookbooks
The Corral

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Baseball Book List Addition: Top of the Heap

2011-12-08T19:15:00.000-08:00

Perhaps more has been written about the New York Yankees than about any other sports team. And the magic that has played out on the field over the years has been rivaled only by baseball scribes' prowess on the page. Excellence breeds excellence, and for 100 years some of the best writers in America have chronicled the New York Yankees, taking a single swing or game and somehow making it singular.

This anthology from the series editor of The Best American Sports Writing and author of Yankees Century collects the best writing about the Yankees over the course of their long history. Published to coincide with the team's centenary celebration, this is a must-have volume for fans the world over who claim the New York Yankees as their own.

Top of the Heap

A Yankees Collection

by Glenn Stout

Mariner Books, 2003

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The Roster

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How-To Book List Addition: Dollar Origami

2011-12-08T12:03:00.000-08:00

Dollar Origami teaches you how to turn your currency into almost anything with just a few folds.

With simple instructions, full-color photos, and 100 sheets of paper to practice on before you use your own money, you'll be crafting beautiful butterflies, adorable penguins, and more in your own home in no time.

Dollar Origami

15 Origami Projects Including the Amazing Koi Fish

by Won Park

Thunder Bay Press, 2011

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Cookbooks
The Corral

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Nature Book List Addition: Twelve Owls

2011-12-05T22:15:00.000-08:00

Meet the saw-whet, the tiniest of Minnesota’s owls, a mere eight inches from the tip of its blunt tail to the top of its rounded head. The simplest way to find one is to listen for the scolding calls of a flock of agitated chickadees. Or, if you’re lucky, you might witness the male throwing all caution to the wind and “co-co-co-co-ing” for a mate, inching forward on every note like the bird in a cuckoo clock.

From this fetching little creature to the magnificent great gray, the owls of Minnesota have found the perfect spokeswoman in this book, which is as charming as it is informative.

Twelve Owls

by Laura Erickson

University of Minnesota Press, 2011

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Review: Canyon Crossing

2011-12-05T00:09:00.000-08:00

A narrative about the author's exploration of the corridor trails of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, this book introduces the inner recesses of the national park with a mixture of storytelling, interviews and descriptive
prose.

The National Park Service defines "corridor trails" as those receiving regular maintenance and patrols by park rangers. At the Grand Canyon, there are three such trails. On the South Rim, there are the Bright Angel Trail, the River Trail and the South Kaibab Trail; on the North Rim, visitors hike the North Kaibab Trail.

"People travel from all over the country and the world for the chance to walk or run from one side of the canyon to the other - or from either rim to the very bottom on foot or mule," Seth Muller explains. "The journey etches itself into the memory of its travelers, to radiate for years. Grand Canyon guides speak of clients contacting them five, ten, and fifteen years after a trip to reconnect with their fond memories of the
grandest of chasms."

Continued in ... The Nature Pages

Canyon Crossing

Experiencing Grand Canyon from Rim to Rim

by Seth Muller

Grand Canyon Association, 2011

Book List Addition: Governing the Wild

2011-11-30T12:41:00.000-08:00

Take four emblematic American scenes: the Hall of Biodiversity at the American Museum of Natural History in New York; Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park in Orlando; an ecotour of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks; the film An Inconvenient Truth. Other than expressing a common interest in the environment, they seem quite dissimilar.

And yet, as Governing the Wild makes clear, these sites are all manifestations of green governmentality, each seeking to define and regulate our understanding, experience, and treatment of nature.

Governing the Wild

Ecotours of Power

by Stephanie Rutherford

University of Minnesota Press, 2011

Good Old Books: Plain Enemies

2011-11-27T20:24:00.000-08:00

The years 1830-1870 were years of expansion west as the U.S. Government encouraged patriots to civilize its great untamed wilderness. But the West was already occupied - by native citizens. The conflicts that ensued are legendary, but many stories are yet to be told. Veteran author Bob Scott brings many of these more obscure stories to light.

The flood of immigrants threatened the Indian way of life and they resisted. As the white invasion escalated, a struggle ensued, with both factions violently contending for land and lifestyle.

In Plain Enemies, Bob Scott compiles narratives of faith and fear, heroism and horror, strength and stupidity, love and hatred. Attempting to present both sides of the story, the author discloses evil walking in both boots and moccasins, with honorable humankind inhabiting forts, soddies -- and teepee villages.

Plain Enemies

Best True Stories of the Frontier West

by Robert J. "Bob" Scott

Caxton Press, 1995

History Book List Addition: The Insect and the Image

2011-11-24T19:50:00.000-08:00

Once considered marginal members of the animal world (at best) or vile and offensive creatures (at worst), insects saw a remarkable uptick in their status during the early Renaissance. This quickened interest was primarily manifested in visual images—in illuminated manuscripts, still life paintings, the decorative arts, embroidery, textile design, and cabinets of curiosity.

In The Insect and the Image, Janice Neri explores the ways in which such imagery defined the insect as a proper subject of study for Europeans of the early modern period.

The Insect and the Image

Visualizing Nature in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1700

by Janice Neri

University Of Minnesota Press, 2011

History Book List Addition: Oratory in Native North America

2011-11-17T22:00:00.000-08:00

In Euroamerican annals of contact with Native Americans, Indians have consistently been portrayed as master orators who demonstrate natural eloquence during treaty negotiations, councils, and religious ceremonies. Esteemed by early European commentators more than indigenous storytelling, oratory was in fact a way of establishing self-worth among Native Americans, and might even be viewed as their supreme literary achievement.

William Clements now explores the reasons for the acclaim given to Native oratory.
He examines in detail a wide range of source material representing cultures throughout North America, analyzing speeches made by Natives as recorded by whites, such as observations of treaty negotiations, accounts by travelers, missionaries' reports, captivity narratives, and soldiers' memoirs.

Oratory in Native North America

by William M. Clements

University of Arizona Press, 2002

History Book List Addition: Forging a Fur Empire

2011-11-17T19:30:00.001-08:00

Alexander Ross, the pioneer recorder of the early fur trade in the far northern West, led a beaver trapping expedition in 1824 into the vast, unfamiliar territory east of trading posts in the Pacific Northwest. He and his men ventured deep into Snake River country in present-day Idaho and Montana.

In this narrative, based on the accounts left by Ross and others, historian and legal scholar John Phillip Reid describes the experiences of the earliest Hudson’s Bay Company fur-trapping expeditions—ventures usually overlooked by historians—and explores the interaction between the diverse cultures of the Pacific Northwest.

Forging a Fur Empire

Expeditions in the Snake River Country, 1809-1824

by John Phillip Reid

The Arthur H. Clark Company, 2011

How-To Book List Addition: Caricatures in Motion

2011-11-14T20:46:00.000-08:00

Whether running, jumping, or walking, subtle twists or turns of the body can ultimately give a carving a sense of motion. That concept is proven true in this book.

Caricature Carvers of America members offer up a variety of carvings of figures in motion. All of them are humorous and several carvings share a similar "theme."

Caricatures in Motion

by Caricature Carvers of America

Schiffer Publishing, 2011

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Book List Addition: Louisiana Haunted Forts

2011-11-11T16:31:00.000-08:00

Although there are numerous books about Louisiana, little information about the forts are included and none combines the forts with ghost stories.

This book is filled with historical adventures and intriguing tales of supernatural happenings. The author relates eerie stories of soldiers who still patrol the ruins of fortifications they built, defended, and died for, and others whose lives ended tragically.

Louisiana Haunted Forts

by Elaine Coleman

Taylor Trade Publishing, 2005

Book List Addition: The Undying West

2011-11-06T20:17:00.000-08:00

A moving chronicle of life, past and present, on western Montana's Camas Prairie.

This book reveals the common love of the land by both Native Americans and ranchers, the land influencing and outlasting both. Whether describing the glacial birth of Lake Missoula or land preservation issues, Cross's observations are those of one seasoned by this unique landscape and its peoples.

The Undying West

A Chronicle of Montana's Camas Prairie

by Carlene Cross

Fulcrum Publishing, 1999

Review: Kentucky's Natural Heritage

2011-11-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

A confluence of both science and history, this book describes natural areas in Kentucky that have vanished and inventories a long list of threatened and endangered animals, plants and unique habitats in the state that need protection.

Once 90 percent forested, Kentucky is now made up of roughly 46 percent "Large Forest Tracts" and most of it is fragmented and less able to sustain complex communities of animals and plants. Consequently, more than 50 species of animals and plants that once made Kentucky their home can no longer be found. Of the species that remain, 25 percent of the fish, 26 percent of the reptiles and amphibians, 13 percent of the birds and 20 percent of the mammals are endangered, threatened or close to leaving for good.

More than just a chronicle of loss, this is a guide to places where the species and the habitats that remain can be visited and appreciated. These include federally protected areas (national parks, refuges and forests) and 59 state nature preserves.

Illustrated with numerous maps and remarkable photos of surviving species like the dazzling blue-and-orange flame crayfish or the bright magenta limestone flame flower, this book is an accessible reference for both professional biologists and armchair travelers.

Kentucky's Natural Heritage

An Illustrated Guide to Biodiversity

by Greg Abernathy, Deborah White, Ellis L. Laudermilk, and Marc Evans

The University Press of Kentucky, 2010

Cookbook List Addition: Backcountry Cooking

2011-10-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

Goodbye to mundane, expensive, freeze-dried camping food and welcome to tasty, environmentally conscious, inexpensive dishes. Seasoned outdoor cook Sierra Adare spices her creative and easy-to-follow recipes with Western culinary history and first accounts that are informed by the traditions of the trail.

Inside the book are lists of grocery items you can buy beforehand at your local store, along with instructions to dehydrate your own food to avoid the high prices of outdoor markets.

Backcountry Cooking

The Ultimate Guide to Outdoor Cooking

by Sierra Adare

Skyhorse Publishing, 2011

Book List Addition: Environmental Politics and the Creation of a Dream

2011-10-28T13:33:00.000-07:00

The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is a breathtakingly beautiful archipelago of twenty-two islands in Lake Superior, just off the tip of northern Wisconsin. For years, the national park has been a favorite destination for tourists and locals alike, but the remarkable story behind its creation is little known.

In Environmental Politics and the Creation of a Dream, Harold Jordahl, one of the primary advocates for designating the islands as a national park, discloses the full story behind the effort to preserve their natural beauty for posterity.

Environmental Politics and the Creation of a Dream

Establishing the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

by Harold C. Jordahl Jr. and Annie L. Booth

University of Wisconsin Press, 2011

Book List Addition: Darwin's Sacred Cause

2011-10-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

Celebrated for his famous theory of evolution tracing all of life back to a common ancestor, Charles Darwin held an overlooked passion that fired his belief in life’s unity.

The thesis of this book is that Darwin's commitment to the abolition of slavery – his “sacred cause” – led him from a recognition of the shared racial roots of black and white people to the ‘common descent’ of all organisms. This belief in the brotherhood of races – whether animals, plants or people – was the seed that grew into his revolutionary theory.

Darwin's Sacred Cause

Race, Slavery and the Quest for Human Origins

by Adrian Desmond

University Of Chicago Press, 2011

Good Old Books: Adventures and Misadventures with Rod and Gun

2011-10-23T06:58:00.000-07:00

"My name isn't well known, such as Winston Churchill, Dick Nixon, or many others. So the name is not of particular significance, but the era and the unusual and interesting happenings gleaned over a sixty-year span, when outdoor activity was unsurpassed, may be of interest.

"If we don't reduce events of the "good old days" to print they will soon be forgotten; and it must be that future generations will be more interested in this lifetime.

"It is with this in mind I write, not Dave Gardner's experience, but about a rich period in time for the outdoorsman that otherwise will be forgotten."

- from the Preface

Adventures and Misadventures with Rod and Gun

by David L. Gardner

The Record-Courier, 1981

Nature Book List Addition: Canyon Crossing

2011-10-22T22:39:00.000-07:00

There’s the Grand Canyon as seen from one of the rims. Spectacular. Awe-inspiring. Dramatic. And there’s the Grand Canyon below the rims, a very different place steeped in wilderness, bus-sized boulders, tumbling streams, knee-shredding switchbacks, solitude, and the cataract-punctuated Colorado River. The trails in Grand Canyon National Park attract more than 80,000 permitted overnight backpackers annually, as well as an untold number of day hikers and mule riders.

Join author Seth Muller on a grand adventure, searching for the Grand Canyon’s soul along miles of canyon trails. Muller profiles rangers, artists, volunteers, hikers, ultra-marathoners, mule skinners, and others who regularly experience the inner canyon, presenting the Corridor Trails in intimate, creative prose that will carry the reader into the depths of the canyon and back out again.

Canyon Crossing

Experiencing Grand Canyon from Rim to Rim by Seth Muller

Grand Canyon Association, 2011

Nature Book List Addition: Bird Watch

2011-10-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

From the tufted puffin in the Pacific Northwest to the hook-billed hermit in the Brazilian rainforest, birds suffer from the effects of climate change in every corner of the globe. Scientists have found declines of up to 90 percent in some troubled bird populations and unprecedented reproductive failure in others. The most recent studies suggest dire prospects: 1,227 avian species are threatened with extinction and an additional 838 near-threatened species are urgent priorities for conservation action.

As much an indispensable guide as a timely call to action, Bird Watch is an illustrated tour of these endangered birds and their habitats.

Bird Watch
A Survey of Planet Earth's Changing Ecosystems
by Martin Walters
University Of Chicago Press, 2011

Good Old Books: Ski Touring

2011-10-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

This timely panoramic introduction to the joys of ski touring enhances the overall winter recreation prospect for downhill skiers and beckons to the fireside winter "sportsman" to leave the nest and join the flock. All the dos and don'ts that can make a saunter on skis out into the winter wonderland an exhilarating and memorable experience are authoritatively and sometimes humorously set forth.

Chapter One sets the scene, and the ensuing chapters consecutively cover the essentials of the planning stage, paraphernalia, basic skiing techniques, safety and first aid, and the setting up of a winter camp if an overnight tour is planned.

Ski Touring

An Introductory Guide

by William E. Osgood and Leslie J. Hurley

Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1969

Book List Addition: A Student's Guide to the Seashore

2011-10-14T00:55:00.000-07:00

This unique, concise and beautifully illustrated guide allows students to identify over 650 of the common, widespread animals and seaweeds of the shore. User-friendly dichotomous keys are supported by details of diagnostic features and biology of each species.

Now enhanced with 32 pages of colour, this much acclaimed guide is invaluable to students of marine biology at any level.

A Student's Guide to the Seashore

by J. D. Fish and S. Fish

Cambridge University Press, 2011

Good Old Books: Household Ecology

2011-10-13T21:28:00.000-07:00

With industry and government reluctant - or even unwilling - to help clean up pollution, the responsibility of saving the environment falls increasingly on the individual.

Household Ecology is the long-awaited and desperately needed comprehensive guide to ecologicallly "safe" living. Instead of the hackneyed "don'ts," here are hundreds of imaginative, positive suggestions that any consumer can put into practice immediately - and effectively.

Here are scores of natural, efficient, and biodegradable substitutes for laundry detergents, furniture polish, and other chemical household cleansers.

Non-toxic beauty aids, medicines, and tranquilizers that are guaranteed free of side effects, as nature intended them. (Use olive oil as a skin-softener and coffee as a laxative!)... Insect sprays and repellants that work against insects instead of people and all of whose ingrediewnts come from the country store.

Household Ecology
by Julia Percivall and Pixie Burger
Prentice-Hall, 1971

Book List Addition: Grasses of South Texas

2011-10-13T15:20:00.000-07:00

The vast rangelands of south Texas—that portion of the state lying south of San Antonio and extending west and south to the Rio Grande and east to the Gulf of Mexico—are home to many species of grasses, some beneficial and some noxious. Careful identification is important for ranch and farm management, conservation, and scientific study.

This field guide catalogs 250 taxa, representing 9 subfamilies, 15 tribes, and 88 genera. Detailed descriptions, accompanied by color photographs, cover 175 native species and 75 that were introduced.

Grasses of South Texas

A Guide to Identification and Value

by James H. Everitt, D. Lynn Drawe, Christopher R. Little and Robert I. Lonard

Texas Tech University Press, 2011

Book List Addition: Planning Paradise

2011-10-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

“Sprawl” is one of the ugliest words in the American political lexicon. Virtually no one wants America’s rural landscapes, farmland, and natural areas to be lost to bland, placeless malls, freeways, and subdivisions. Yet few of America’s fast-growing rural areas have effective rules to limit or contain sprawl.

Oregon is one of the nation’s most celebrated exceptions. In the early 1970s Oregon established the nation’s first and only comprehensive statewide system of land-use planning and largely succeeded in confining residential and commercial growth to urban areas while preserving the state’s rural farmland, forests, and natural areas.

This is the first book to tell the story of Oregon’s unique land-use planning system from its rise in the early 1970s to its near-death experience in the first decade of the 2000s.

Planning Paradise

Politics and Visioning of Land Use in Oregon

by Peter A. Walker and Patrick T. Hurley

University of Arizona Press, 2011

Book List Addition: After Custer

2011-10-11T16:15:00.000-07:00

Between 1876 and 1877, the U.S. Army battled Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne Indians in a series of vicious conflicts known today as the Great Sioux War. After the defeat of Custer at the Little Big Horn in June 1876, the army responded to its stunning loss by pouring fresh troops and resources into the war effort. In the end, the U.S. Army prevailed, but at a significant cost.

In After Custer, Paul L. Hedren examines the war’s effects on the culture, environment, and geography of the northern Great Plains, their Native inhabitants, and the Anglo-American invaders.

After Custer
Loss and Transformation in Sioux Country
by Paul L. Hedren
University of Oklahoma Press, 2011

Good Old Books: The Practical Handbook of Patio and Outdoor Projects

2011-09-21T12:19:00.000-07:00

"In recent years,the concept of outdoor living has been adopted by more and more families. Basically, all it means is that the family gets as much
enjoyment from activities conducted outside as inside.

"To do this, the outdoor living environment - the patio and its environs - must be properly equipped; stocked, as it were, with all the things an individual family needs to get the maximum enjoyment with the least inconvenience.

"The thrust of this book is helping you, the handyman, equip it yourself. I've striven to include plans and ideas for the things anyone would need. Most basic, of course, is the patio itself -- your outdoor floor.

"I have included other projects as well, because homeowners have a crying need for more information on them. For example, there are instructions on how to build a driveway. Not just any driveway, but one that will last for years without cracking. Elsewhere, you'll find information on making simple edgings and retaining walls, an information on how to make a variety of carports."

-- from the Introduction, Tom Philbin

The Practical Handbook of Patio and Outdoor Projects

by Tom Philbin

Fawcett Publications, 1975

Book List Addition: Eat Smart in Norway

2011-09-18T00:56:00.000-07:00

The latest offering in the Eat Smart series of culinary guidebooks, Eat Smart in Norway offers an upbeat and fascinating look at the culinary history, culture, regional dishes, and recipes of Norway for vacation goers, business travelers, and backpackers alike.

Joan Peterson provides a treasury of culinary surprises and language tips for navigating menu and market, guiding the reader through unfamiliar Norwegian cuisine.

Eat Smart in Norway

How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods & Embark on a Tasting Adventure

by Joan Peterson

Ginkgo Press, 2011

Book List Addition: A Good Horse Is Never a Bad Color

2011-08-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

Learn why your problem horse is not a lost cause with helpful tips from an internationally acclaimed trainer.

In A Good Horse Is Never a Bad Color, Mark Rashid continues to share his talent for training horses through communication rather than force.

Rashid uses humorous, feel-good stories to relate his techniques of teaching horses by examining their view of the world.

A Good Horse Is Never a Bad Color

Tales of Training through Communication and Trust

Second Edition, Revised and Updated

by Mark Rashid

Skyhorse Publishing, 2011

Good Old Books: The U.S. Government Family Fitness Book

2011-08-15T15:45:00.002-07:00

Here is a scientifically developed and tested program from the renowned President's Council on Physical Fitness. Here is a complete exercise program for everyone -- pre-teen boys and girls, teenagers of bothsexes, adult men and women, senior citizens.

Each plan contains detailed illustrations, instructions and progress records so that you will...

Know exactly how and where to begin - and what to do every step of the way.

Begin easily - without strain or up[set - no matter how long you've stayed away from physical activity.

Make steady progress troward a level of fitness that is most suitable for you - and that you will be easily able to maintain.

The U.S. Government Family Fitness Book

Award Books, 1969

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Book List Addition: When to Eat What

2011-08-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

When to Eat What

by Heidi Reichenberger McIndoo

Adams Media, 2011

Everyone knows what food keeps them healthy and slim, but this book takes it a step further and helps you figure out what to consume at specific times to take the guesswork out of eating well.

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Book List Addition: Fields of Learning

2011-07-30T21:31:00.001-07:00

Fields of Learning

The Student Farm Movement in North America

by Laura Sayre and Sean Clark

The University Press of Kentucky, 2011

From one-acre gardens to five-hundred-acre crop and livestock farms, student farms foster hands-on food-system literacy in a world where the shortcomings of input-intensive conventional agriculture have

become increasingly apparent. They provide a context in which disciplinary boundaries are bridged, intellectual and manual skills are cultivated together, and abstract ideas about sustainability are put to the test.

Editors Laura Sayre and Sean Clark have assembled a volume of essays written by pioneering educators directly involved in the founding and management of fifteen of the most influential student farms in North America.

Book List Addition: The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton

2011-07-29T12:43:00.001-07:00

The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton

by Monica Weis

The University Press of Kentucky, 2011

In The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton, author Monica Weis suggests that Merton's interest in nature, which developed significantly during his years at the Abbey of Gethsemani, laid the foundation for his growing environmental consciousness.

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Book List Addition: Hometown Heroines

2011-07-26T21:47:00.001-07:00

Hometown Heroines

by Betty Bolte

iUniverse, 2001

Did you know that girls and young women made a difference in Americas history? During the 1800s, many girls helped America grow bigger and better, yet are missing from many history books. Virginia Reed, at 12, survived the trek to California with the Donner Party. Joanna Troutman, at 17, created the first Texas flag. Belle Boyd risked her life to spy for the Rebels during the Civil War.

These are just a few of the 19 inspiring true stories of 19th century American girls who touched the hearts of their hometowns. You can remember them today by visiting their historical markers, monuments, exhibits, and parks, or by reading their poems, and singing their songs..

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Book List Addition: Field Man

2011-07-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

Field Man

Life as a Desert Archaeologist

by Julian D. Hayden

University of Arizona Press, 2011

Field Man is the captivating memoir of renowned southwestern archaeologist Julian Dodge Hayden, a man who held no professional degree or faculty position but who camped and argued with a who’s who of the discipline, including Emil

Haury, Malcolm Rogers, Paul Ezell, and Norman Tindale.

This is the personal story of a blue-collar scholar who bucked the conventional thinking on the antiquity of man in the New World, who brought a formidable pragmatism and “hand sense” to the identification of stone tools, and who is remembered as the leading authority on the prehistory of the Sierra Pinacate in northwestern Mexico.

Field Man is the product of years of interviews with Hayden conducted by his colleagues and friends Bill Broyles and Diane Boyer. It is introduced by noted southwestern anthropologist J. Jefferson Reid, and contains an epilogue by Steve Hayden, one of Julian’s sons.

Review: Wide Awake

2011-04-22T18:30:00.001-07:00

Authored by a fourth generation insomniac, this book is both a memoir and a journalistic report on the study of sleep, including recent findings, theories and therapies.

Much of the text is autobiographical, recounting Morrisroe's visits with therapists, psychics, hypnotists, mattress salespeople and others in her laborious pursuit of a good night's sleep.

"People have been searching for ways to induce what Shakespeare called the 'honey-heavy dew of slumber' for as long as they've been able to harvest medicinal plants," Morrisoe writes in a chapter on the effectiveness, risks and side effects of sleeping pills.

The other 11 chapters describe visits to a sleep lab, a trip to Las Vegas to attend a sleep disorders conference for medical professionals, a long night in Lapland's Icehotel inside the Arctic Circle, and a session with a hypnotherapist.

Insomnia, she discovers, is a poorly understood affliction with vague symptoms and few specialists. It affects a much smaller population than sleep apnea, which has become the focus of most sleep doctors since the invention of the CPAP machine in 1981.

When she tells her own sleep doctor in Manhattan about her plan to write a book about her experiences, he tells her it is a terrible idea.

"He wonders if the only reason I went to a sleep clinic was to gather information for my book. I explain that I went to his sleep clinic because I wanted to sleep, not because I wanted to write about sleep. The book came later. Things get tense. I don't blame the doctor for being upset. He has a reputation to protect and doesn't want me to dissuade people from going to a sleep clinic. I explain that I'm only writing about my experience. and each person is different, but the doctor suggests I might be really different."

After all her travels, Morrisroe's personal quest is finally resolved with Chinese breathing exercises and meditation at the 92nd Street Y just around the corner from her apartment in New York City.

Wide Awake
A Memoir of Insomnia
by Patricia Morrisroe
Spiegel & Grau, 2010

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Pomodoro!

2011-04-18T16:56:00.000-07:00

Climbing a Wall of Worry

The Aztecs were growing and harvesting tomatoes in southern Mexico when the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés took down their empire in 1519-1521. Cortés conquered the Aztecs and tomatoes began their slow and steady infiltration into European cuisine. But first they had to endure a lot of bad press.

"The tomato's association with the eggplant and nightshade certainly did it no favors," Gentilcore points out. Pietro Antonio Michiel, a prominent 16th century Venetian botanist, noted that if eggplants are "harmful to the head, generating melancholic humors, cankers, leprosy, oppilations, long-lasting fevers and sickly color," then tomatoes must certainly be "dangerous and harmful" and their odor alone could bring about "eye diseases and headaches."

The nightshade family to which tomatoes belonged also included plants like "henbane, belladonna, and mandrake, all of which were though to have magical and hallucinatory powers."

Pomodoro!
A History of the Tomato in Italy
by David Gentilcore
Columbia University Press, 2010

The Spirit of Cinco de Mayo

2011-04-18T10:50:00.001-07:00

What If?

"What if Mexico had not defended herself so tenaciously? What if her people had not stood their ground at Puebla both times? Would a French puppet regime in Mexico have been able to turn the tide of the American Civil War? Divided, would the United States have risen to the prominence it enjoys today? Would it be two separate countries? How would this have influenced events of the twentieth century? Would the rest of the Americas speak French?

"What if Napoleon III had not reneged on his deal to sell the ironclads to the Confederacy? Would the Union blockade that strangled the Confederacy have been broken?

"What if France had not lost their best troops in Mexico and had benefited from them in the fight against the North German Confederation? Would the German Empire have been created? Would there have been a First World War?"

The Spirit of Cinco de Mayo
by Nathan Muncaster
Trafford, 2009

Money And Soul: The Psychology Of Money And The Transformation Of Capitalism

2011-04-17T19:30:00.000-07:00

Time is Money

"People often say that time is money, but perhaps not in the way that the American politician of the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin, originally meant: that it was shameful to 'waste' time - i.e., time that is not used for productive work.

"Time is money in a much more profound way than that. When credit is created, the debt that comes along with it means that we now owe productive time to the financial system. The debt makes claims on our future work. And the interest rate determines how much of our future time is pledged. We could thus say that money is monetisation of the future, in the way that today's money comes about.

"We have borrowed away, mortgaged, our future to the financial system, with interest and compound interest. No wonder we're all busy running around."

Money And Soul: The Psychology Of Money And The Transformation Of Capitalism
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Good Old Books: Landscaping Your Vacation Place

2011-04-15T14:38:00.000-07:00

Landscaping Your Vacation Place
by Jack Kramer
Scribners, 1975

"In Landscaping Your Vacation Place I tell you just what plants will grow where, whether you are at the seaside, in the forest, in the desert or in a temperate all year climate.

"For each locale there are specific plans and plantings to make your vacation home appealing and to save you needless garden work.

"I include extensive lists of plants for each location and also lists of special time-saving plants, such as ground covers, vines, and bulbs and plants for container gardening -- over 550 plants in all.

"So whether you want to garden on weekends only, or just a day a week (and relax the rest of the time) you will find your guide to better vacation gardening in this book." -- Jack Kramer

Good Old Books: Common Wild Animals and Their Young

2011-03-24T13:00:00.001-07:00

Common Wild Animals and Their Young
by Rita Vandivert with photographs by William Vandivert
Dell, 1957

This beautiful picture book tells the life stories of sixteen common
American wild animals. In enchanting, original photographs you will
see....

... the flight of a deer
... what happens inside a beaver house
... baby 'possum in the marsupial pouch,
... the difference between male and female skunks,
... tiny deermice in their nest,
... the sharp-quilled defense of the porcupine,
... mother mink feeding her young,
... black bear cubs in rollicking play,
... and many more intimate glimpses of animal life.

Common Wild Animals and Their Young
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Good Old Books: Human Heredity

2011-03-15T19:42:00.001-07:00

Human Heredity
by Ashley Montagu
New American Library, 1960

What is bad blood?
What is an inherited disease?
Where does environment begin?
Ignorance, superstition, and prejudice have clouded these basic questions for centuries.

Dr. Ashley Montagu clears away much of the mystery concerning inherited traits in this comprehensive and fascinating study of the science of genetics.

This book includes some of the most recent, important discoveries in the field.

Human Heredity
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Good Old Books: The Compact Book of Upland Game Birds

2011-03-14T11:14:00.001-07:00

The Compact Book of Upland Game Birds
edited by Ray Ovington
J. Lowell Pratt, 1965

Whether you are a shooting sportsman who thrills to the sudden flurry and rise of an upland game bird twisting through cover or a bird watcher, the study and practical knowledge of the various species of game birds is challenging.

The species covered in this book are the most popular of the game birds found in the 48 states and Canada.

This book is primarily a book of basic facts and identification for ready reference.

The Compact Book of Upland Game Birds
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Good Old Books: 150 Science Experiments Step-By-Step

2011-03-08T19:06:00.000-08:00

150 Science Experiments Step-By-Step
by Judith Viorst
Bantam Books, 1967

You don't have to be a scientific expert to perform valuable, exciting
scientific experiments. With the new, simple, step-by-step methods outlined in this book you can:

> Build your own laboratory.
> Make your own slide rules, wind vanes, barometers and dozens of other valuable pieces of scientifi apparatus.

Discover how flowers reproduce. Learn how your lungs and senses operate. Discover the basic elements of chemical change. Find out about computer mathematics and scores of other fascinating scientific wonders.

Complete with the Periodic Table of Elements, Laws of Matter, Weights and Measures, Centigrade to Fahrenheit Conversion Table, and Charts of the Animal and Plant Kingdoms.

150 Science Experiments Step-By-Step
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Book List Addition: Scarcity and Frontiers

2011-03-07T18:38:00.000-08:00

S carcity and Frontiers
How Economies Have Developed Through Natural Resource Exploitation
by Edward B. Barbier
Cambridge University Press, 2011

Throughout much of history, a critical driving force behind global economic development has been the response of society to the scarcity of key natural resources. Increasing scarcity raises the cost of exploiting existing natural resources and creates incentives in all economies to innovate and conserve more of these resources. However, economies have also responded to increasing scarcity by obtaining and developing more of these resources. Since the agricultural transition over 12,000 years ago, this exploitation of new 'frontiers' has often proved to be a pivotal human response to natural resource scarcity.

This book provides a fascinating account of the contribution that natural resource exploitation has made to economic development in key eras of world history. This not only fills an important gap in the literature on economic history but also shows how we can draw lessons from these past epochs for attaining sustainable economic development in the world today.

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The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs

2011-02-24T13:15:00.000-08:00

Unconventionally Good Ideas

"Entrepreneurs prove that conventional wisdom may be conventional but is not always wise. They demonstrate that good ideas - the ones that change the world - are often initially rejected by all, save for a select group of risk takers and innovative thinkers."

The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs
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Pecans: The Story in a Nutshell

2011-02-24T12:55:00.001-08:00

Roadside Pecans

"Alongside the highways from the south central to the southeastern states, roadside stands open their shutters each November. Drivers bring their cars to a halt and climb out, assuming they will be remembered from the previous year; often they are."

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Book List Addition: Literature After Darwin

2011-02-16T20:49:00.001-08:00

Literature After Darwin
Human Beasts in Western Fiction 1859-1939
by Virginia Richter
Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

What makes us human? Where is the limit between human and animal? These are questions that haunt post-Darwinian literature.

Covering fiction from Kipling to Kafka, this study offers a historically embedded analysis of anthropological anxiety in the period between the publication of the Origin of Species and the beginning of the Second World War.

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Review: Sea Sick

2011-02-15T18:17:00.000-08:00

Sea Sick
The Global Ocean in Crisis
by Alanna Mitchell
McClelland & Stewart, 2010

Reporting from nine different oceanic locations around the globe, environmental reporter Alanna Mitchell investigates the rapidly declining health of the most important biome on Earth, the Ocean.

"The issue is that all over the world, ocean scientists, in groups of specialists who rarely put their information together, are finding that global climate change and other human actions are beginning to have a measurable effect on the ocean. The vital signs of this critical medium of life are showing clear signs of distress," she explains.

Mitchell makes personal visits to some of the most ailing seas and shorelines on the globe, witnesses wide-ranging effects of human avarice and irresponsibility, and talks to dozens of concerned scientists about their diagnoses and possible remedies.

Continued at... Sea Sick

Book List Addition: Salty Sweets

2011-02-07T06:53:00.000-08:00

Salty Sweets
Delectable Desserts and Tempting Treats with a Sublime Kiss of Salt
by Christie Matheson
Harvard Common Press, 2010

In a cookbook dedicated to the delicious marriage of two flavors, author Christie Matheson offers recipes for mouthwatering treats like Salted Caramels, Butterscotch Brownies, and Nantucket Sea Salt Ice Cream. A touch of salt makes all the difference in the candies, cookies, cakes, puddings, fruits, ice cream, and dessert sauces featured in this collection.

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Book List Addition: Not Your Mother's Casseroles

2011-02-01T06:57:00.001-08:00

Not Your Mother's Casseroles
by Faith Durand
Harvard Common Press, 2011

Casseroles are quick, homey, and cost-effective one-dish meals, but they're also traditionally packed full of convenience foods like canned vegetables and condensed soups.

Faith Durand's Not Your Mother's Casseroles introduces more than 200 recipes that totally revitalize the casserole.

Redefine casseroles with inspired recipes for Baked Basmati Rice with Saffron, Cashews, and Raisins; Root Vegetable Cobbler with Whole Grain Biscuit Topping; Baked Sweet Potatoes with Smoky Chipotle and Onions; Herbed Chicken Meatballs with Coconut Sauce; and Rhubarb-Lavender Oat Crisp.

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Book List Addition: The Wild Vegan Cookbook

2011-01-30T19:17:00.001-08:00

The Wild Vegan Cookbook
A Forager's Culinary Guide (in the Field or in the Supermarket) to Preparing and Savoring Wild (and Not So Wild) Natural Foods
by "Wildman" Steve Brill
Harvard Common Press, 2010

No one knows wild fruits, vegetables, and herbs more intimately than "Wildman" Steve Brill.

In this book, Brill describes how he forages year-round for local, organic foods in New York City.

Beginning farmers committed to launching an organic operation and experienced farmers hoping to transition from traditional farming techniques will find all the information they need. The organic certification process is lengthy and demanding, but author Ann Larkin Hansen clarifies every USDA requirement and offers complete advice on selecting equipment, tending the land, caring for animals, and marketing farm products.

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Book List Addition: The Organic Farming Manual

2011-01-27T22:05:00.001-08:00

The Organic Farming Manual
A Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Running a Certified Organic Farm
by Anne Larkin Hansen
Storey Publishing, 2010

As the organic food market continues to expand, so too do the opportunities for small farmers. For the farmer, the benefits of running an organic operation are great.

This book is a comprehensive guide to growing, certifying, and marketing organic produce, grains, meat, and dairy.

Beginning farmers committed to launching an organic operation and experienced farmers hoping to transition from traditional farming techniques will find all the information they need. The organic certification process is lengthy and demanding, but author Ann Larkin Hansen clarifies every USDA requirement and offers complete advice on selecting equipment, tending the land, caring for animals, and marketing farm products.

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The View from Lazy Point

2011-01-24T08:17:00.000-08:00

A Compassionate Mind

"In the panic among the fishes and in the frenzying terns, it’s also evident that nature has neither sentiment nor mercy. What it does have is life, truth, and logic. And it strives for what it cannot have: an end to danger, an assurance of longevity, a moment’s peace, and a comfortable death. It’s like us all, because we are natural.

"What anyone needs to know about mercy, one can learn by watching nature strive, seeing people struggle, and realizing what a compassionate mind could add to the picture. So I’m also struck that we who have named ourselves “wise humans” — Homo sapiens — haven’t quite realized that nature, civilization, peace, and human dignity are all facets of the same gemstone, and that abrasion of one tarnishes the whole."

The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World by Carl Safina
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Review: The View from Lazy Point

2011-01-22T21:29:00.001-08:00

The View from Lazy Point
A Natural Year in an Unnatural World
by Carl Safina
Henry Holt and Co., 2011

Following the course of four seasons and the four directions of the compass, this philosophical memoir chronicles a year of the author's life as he travels from his coastal home on Long Island to Antarctica and the Arctic, and from islands in the Caribbean to the western edges of the Pacific Ocean trying to understand, as a scientist, how the natural world is faring in the face of serious environmental challenges and what role humans have in its fate.

As he follows scientists studying troubled parrotfish in the coral reefs off the coast of Venezuela, managing salmon populations in Alaska, maintaining the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard (an archipelago halfway between Norway and the North Pole) and documenting the decline of penguin populations in Antarctica he concludes that old notions and beliefs of humans are compromising the survival of species and the ecosystems that support them.

"Science has marched forward. But civilization's values remain rooted in philosophies, religious traditions, and ethical frameworks devised many centuries ago," he writes, making the same observation in different words at several points in the book.

What is needed, he concludes, is greater development of the uniquely human trait known a compassion.

"Compassion doesn't simply mean caring for poor people or putting band-aids on need. It seeks to remedy sources of suffering," he explains. "It means we require a clear, peaceful way of providing what the world can bear - and knowing when enough is too much. In part, it means realizing that far fewer people would mean far less suffering."

Review: Growing Tasty Tropical Plants

2011-01-21T19:15:00.000-08:00

Growing Tasty Tropical Plants
in any home, anywhere
by Laurelynn Martin and Byron Martin
Storey Publishing, 2010

For those of us living in cool, northern climates, the idea of growing tropical fruit at home for consumption has been a dream that few have dared pursue... until now.

Laurelynn and Byron Martin, third-generation greenhouse growers in Connecticut, have recently started supplying tropical plants to home gardeners who are growing them on decks, patios and in containers indoors all across North America.

"Growing Tasty Tropical Plants in any home, anywhere" documents their conviction that almost everyone can enjoy the taste of the tropics without leaving home, provided they have the proper cultivars.

"One of the keys to success with tropical container fruits is providing the right environment for the plants as they grow and mature," they explain.

"Some types need a winter cool period, while others do best in warm conditions year-round. Some tropicals do well in partial sun, but many of them will produce fruit only when the grow in very bright conditions, such as a sunny windowsill, sunroom, or conservatory during the winter. If you don't have a sunroom or some large south-facing windows, then you'll need to explore using supplemental lighting for these plants."

The Martins profile 47 fruiting tropical plants in their text, from the well-known citrus fruits to the exotics like acerola, dwarf pomegranate and papaya and even chocolate, coffee, cinnamon, vanilla and sugarcane plants. An artist’s sketch and close up photograph of foliage, fruit and flower is included with each featured plant along with detailed instructions on cultivation, care and harvest.

"If you're brand new to container gardening, it's a good idea to start with plants that grow quickly and can tolerate a range ot temperatures," the Martins advise. These include coffee, fig, ‘Meyer’ lemon, naranjilla, orangeberry, tree tomato, and yerba mate plants.

This book invites readers to a gardening adventure rich with sunny flavors and exotic fragrances, growing fruits once forbidden beyond the tropics.

Growing Tasty Tropical Plants
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Review: The Startup Game

2011-01-20T21:37:00.001-08:00

The Startup Game
Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs
by William H. Draper and Eric Schmidt
Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

Co-authored by one of the best known and most respected venture capitalists, William Draper, this book is an autobiographical account of 40 years of investing in entrepreneurs and their ideas.

Draper uses stories of risky investments, cagey CEOs and rancorous board meetings to illustrate how he evaluates innovations and their innovators. Object lessons drawn from his involvement with Skype, OpenTable, Hotmail, Prolacta BioScience, Baidu, Selectica and dozens of other high-tech firms make for fascinating reading.

Draper sums up much of his message in "The Top Ten Avoidable Mistakes of Entrepreneurs" where he elaborates on the following preventable blunders:

* Creating overly optimistic projections about market size and customer acquisitions.
* Underestimating timelines.
* Trying to do everything yourself.
* Failing to master the elevator pitch.
* Not downsizing when necessary.
* Being inflexible.
* Not developing a clear marketing plan.
* Building a board that consists only of friends.
* Not taking action in a recession.
* Not knowing the right way to approach venture capitalists.

Anyone expecting to meet with venture capitalists now or in the future would be well advised to read this text carefully and take its lessons to heart.

The Startup Game
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The View from Lazy Point

2011-01-17T11:56:00.001-08:00

Life on the Edge

"The coast is an edgy place. Living on the coast presents certain stark realities and a wild, bare beauty. Continent confronts ocean. Weather intensifies. It's a place of tide and tantrum; of flirtations among fresh and saltwaters, forests and shores; of tense negotiations with an ocean that gives much but demands more. Every year the raw rim that is this coast gets hammered and reshaped like molten bronze. This place roils with power and a sometimes terrible beauty. The guessing, the risk; in a way we're all thrill seekers here."

The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World by Carl Safina
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Book List Addition: Collage of Myself

2011-01-14T18:59:00.000-08:00

Collage of Myself
Walt Whitman and the Making of Leaves of Grass
by Matt Miller
University of Nebraska Press, 2010

Collage of Myself presents a groundbreaking account of the creative story behind America’s most celebrated collection of poems. In the first book-length study of Walt Whitman’s journals and manuscripts, Matt Miller demonstrates that until approximately 1854 (only a single year before the first publication of Leaves of Grass), Whitman — who once speculated that Leaves would be a novel or a play — was unaware that his ambitions would assume the form of poetry at all.

Collage of Myself details Whitman’s discovery of a remarkable new creative process that allowed him to transform a diverse array of texts into poems such as “Song of Myself” and “The Sleepers.”

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Book List Addition: Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares

2011-01-14T15:03:00.000-08:00

Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares
The Love, Lore, and Mystique of Mushrooms
by Greg A. Marley
Chelsea Green, 2010

Throughout history, people have had a complex and confusing relationship with mushrooms. Are fungi food or medicine, beneficial decomposers or deadly "toadstools" ready to kill anyone foolhardy enough to eat them? In fact, there is truth in all these statements.

In Chanterelle Dreams and Amanita Nightmares, author Greg Marley reveals some of the wonders and mysteries of mushrooms, and our conflicting human reactions to them.

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Book List Addition: But Rabbits Don't Climb Trees

2011-01-14T13:24:00.001-08:00

But Rabbits Don't Climb Trees
by Marsh Rat Annie
iUniverse, 2010

In this poetry and short story collection, fact and fantasy are cleverly combined to create a light-hearted look at the wild side of life in the coastal marshlands of South Carolina - through the eyes of the animals.

Marsh Rat Annie, the author, relies on her years of experience in caring for and raising young animals in combination with her imagination and knowledge to personify marsh critters.

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Review: Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar

2011-01-10T20:09:00.000-08:00

Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar
How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success
by James Marcus Bach
Chronicle Books, 2009

Many people who failed to thrive in a traditional classroom setting have gone on to become highly successful in business, industry, arts and even the sciences. Despite low grades, none lacked intelligence. Instead, they developed their own nontraditional learning styles that helped them achieve in their chosen fields .

James Marcus Bach, son of the Richard Bach who wrote Jonathan Livingston Seagull, is one such example. He dropped out of school with an 8th grade education, and yet by his early 20's he had became a software tester at Apple Computers.

Part autobiography and part self-help book, Bach explains in these pages why he didn't get much of an eduation in schools, yet was able to educate himself. He outlines his unique style of education in these pages, providing the reader a curriculum guide for self-education.

Bach's primary lesson is that the real key to getting an eduation, and staying educated, is a love of learning.

“The pattern I experienced at Apple would be confirmed almost everywhere I traveled in the computer industry: most people have put themselves on intellectual autopilot. Most don’t study on their own initiative, but only when they are forced to do so. Even when they study, they choose to study the obvious and conventional subjects. This has the effect of making them more alike instead of more unique. It’s an educational herd mentality.”

Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
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Fire in the Forest

2011-01-04T12:39:00.001-08:00

Climate Change

"Forests contain a large proportion of the carbon held in all terrestial ecosystems, and therefore wildland fires can produce a significant amount of GHGs, which in turn contribute to climate change... This means that as the climate changes there would be more fire and more GHG emissions, which would further accelerate the rate of climate change."

Fire in the Forest by Peter Thomas and Robert McApline
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Book List Addition: Fire in the Forest

2011-01-02T19:33:00.000-08:00

Fire in the Forest
by Peter Thomas and Robert McApline
Cambridge University Press, 2010

How destructive or beneficial are forest fires to wildlife? Should we be trying to reduce or increase the amount of fire in forests? How are forest fires controlled, and why does this sometimes fail? What effect will climate change have?

These and many other questions are answered in this richly illustrated book, written in non-technical language.

Fire in the Forest
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Book List Addition: The Heart of the Sound

2011-01-01T20:31:00.000-08:00

The Heart of the Sound
An Alaskan Paradise Found and Nearly Lost
by Marybeth Holleman
Bison Books, 2010

How does one recover from disaster? That question is at the heart of Marybeth Holleman’s lyrical, elegiac response to the repercussions of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which devastated Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989. Intertwining the destruction of an ecosystem, the disintegration of her marriage, and her emerging identity as a new mother, Holleman explores the resiliency of nature—both wild and human—and the ways in which that resiliency is tested.

While much of nature writing is about the search for an unspoiled landscape, The Heart of the Sound is about what happens when such a place is irrevocably damaged.

In language rich with passion and hard-won insight and imbued with descriptions that give voice to the place, Holleman creates a captivating story of a woman who found her Eden in the sweeping fjords of Alaska’s Prince William Sound only to almost lose it to ecological tragedy. Speaking as a witness and survivor, she discovers what it means to love what remains.

The Heart of the Sound
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Booklist Addition: The Viking in the Wheat Field

2010-12-31T20:57:00.000-08:00

The Viking in the Wheat Field
A Scientist's Struggle to Preserve the World's Harvest
by Susan Dworkin
Walker & Company, 2010

For thirty years, Danish plant scientist Bent Skovmand served as adviser to dozens of countries and hunted for seeds with genes to resist disease and such environmental stresses as drought, flooding, and global warming.

In an era when multinational corporations often jealously guarded patents on plant breeding, Skovmand fought to keep his seed bank a free, open scientific exchange for breeders and farmers everywhere.

By telling the story of Skovmand and his colleagues, The Viking in the Wheat Field sheds welcome light on an agricultural sector--plant genetic resources--on which our food supply is crucially dependent.

The Viking in the Wheat Field
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Equinox: Life, Love, and Birds of Prey

2010-12-30T10:38:00.000-08:00

Equinox: Life, Love, and Birds of Prey
by Dan O'Brien
Bison Books, 2010

Recently republished in paperback, this memoir about falconry is also an evocative immersion into life on the Dakota prairies.

"The heartbreak of western South Dakota is made greater by the country's mystic power to generate optimism," author Dan O'Brien writes. "Even people who have lived here their whole lives - and know better - find themselves counting on a chain of events that is completely beyond their control. Unpredictable weather is the big spoiler."

Set against the backdrop of his fiftieth birthday - a personal "equinox" - O'Brien tells the story of a year spent training hunting falcons. The relationships between man and raptors and hunting dogs are expertly described, providing an insightful look at a little-known sport and a unique way of living.

Glossary terms specific to raptors and falcony, such as "deck feathers" (the middle two feathers in a bird's tail) and "bate" (to fly from the fist or a perch and be brought up short by the leash) are defined in small inserts into the body of the text as they appear.

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Classic Cookbooks: Adventures in Cooking with Health Foods

2010-12-26T19:27:00.001-08:00

Adventures in Cooking with Health Foods
by Nancy Sutton
Pyramid, 1972

Food grown naturally and cooked with a gourmet's touch! That's the happy combination offered in this lively, luscious book.

Mrs. Sutton puts together nature's own whole grains and vegetables with the gourmet flavorings of wines, spices and herbs.

She shows in easy-to-follow recipes how to prepare unforgettable dishes - from macadamia nut cheese filling and beets in pomegranate sauce to rose petal sherbet and carob coconut Easter eggs.

If you want to start eating healthier, tastier meals, began by reading this book - and do on to prove in your own kitchen that the natural way with food is the most delicious way..

Adventures in Cooking with Health Foods
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The Master Your Metabolism Cookbook

2010-12-25T16:45:00.001-08:00

Best Choice in Meat, Fish & Eggs; Alaskan Wild Salmon

Salmon is an all-around nutritional rock star. High in protein, it is a rich source of selenium, which is critical to your thyroid, and vitamin D, which helps preserve muscle. But the main reason it's my preferred choice of animal protein is its very high level of omega-3 fats. Omega-3s regulate your heart rhythm, decrease blood clotting, dilate your blood vessels, decrease your blood pressure and triglycerides, and fight inflammation. Yu need to eat only two servings of salmon a wek to cut your risk of heart disease dramatically.

Review: The Master Your Metabolism Cookbook
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Classic Cookbooks: The Natural Foods Cookbook

2010-12-25T14:15:00.000-08:00

The Natural Foods Cookbook
by Beatrice Trum Hunter
Pyramid, 1975

The unique Natural Foods Cookbook is the first book of its kind. Comprehensive and complete, it is filled with easy-to-prepare recipes using only whole natural foods.

Over 2,000 dishes that are different, exciting delicious... for people who want to taste what they eat.

The Natural Foods Cookbook is richly full of foods with the wholesome old-fashioned flavor that comes from using whole, natural foods - the fresh taste that many people yearn for and that many others, whose palates may have been dulled by "modern" foods, will now have the thrill of discovering..

The Natural Foods Cookbook
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Classic Cookbooks: Joan Lay's Book of Salads

2010-12-17T20:55:00.000-08:00

The best source of vitamins and mineral salts is raw food, and there is no more appetizing way of eating such food than in salads.

This book includes a wide range of exciting vegetables with which to experiment - including salsify, seakale, kohl rabi, fennel, peppers and red cabbage.

Here is an original and varied selection of salads - all vegetarian - including Hors d'Oeuvre, Green and Side Salads, Vegetable and Rice Salads, Salads with Fruit, Blended or Liquidized Salads, and a selection of TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) Salads.

Joan Lay's Book of Salads by Joan Lay
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Nature Stories

2010-12-16T19:25:00.001-08:00

Nature Stories
by Jules Renard
The New York Review of Books, 2010

“You can see one there, lying down, stretched out like a lovely noodle” is Jules Renard's single-sentence portrait of a worm, one of about four dozen sketches included in his classic Nature Stories, newly translated from the French by Douglas Parmée.

An early 20th century novelist and playwright, Renard published the first edition of his Histoires naturelles in 1896. Subsequent editions were illustrated by the likes of Toulouse-Latrec and Pierre Bonnard, whose ink-brush images are included in this English edition.

Consisting of mostly short verse and prose poem celebrations of flora and fauna, the collection also includes a couple longer pieces on hunting and fishing, which are not complimentary. Renard deftly anthropomorphizes the plants and animals around him and clearly empathizes with their existences.

Continued at Review: Nature Stories

Pomodoro!

2010-12-06T08:22:00.001-08:00

Pomodoro!
A History of the Tomato in Italy
by David Gentilcore
Columbia University Press, 2010

From its introduction from the New World in the mid-sixteenth century to its prominence in Italian cuisine 300 years later, the tomato as a culinary staple in southern Europe has long and viny history. This book recounts how changes in social values, beliefs and economic condition allowed the fruit to become accepted and eventually dominate Italian cookery.

Pomodoro! A History of the Tomato in Italy
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Christmas Wishes

2010-12-03T06:26:00.000-08:00

Nostalgic Christmas Fireplace

For modern suburban dwellings that did not come with the nostalgia of built-in fireplaces, cardboard replicas were available to provide the suitable hearthside touch. The fake fireplace made a handy place to hang stockings and provided a mantel to decorate, and it usually even came with a bulb and tinfoil reflector to give the impression of a flickering fire.

But unlike the real thing, rather than having to keep it clean, when Christmas was over, it could be folded flat into its storage carton and packed away in the attic or garage for the next eleven months.

from Christmas Wishes: A Catalog of Vintage Holiday Treats
by Tim Hollis

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Booklist Addition: Ah-Choo!

2010-11-27T21:37:00.001-08:00

A h-Choo!
The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold
by Jennifer Ackerman
Twelve, 2010

In Ah-Choo!, Jennifer Ackerman explains what, exactly, a cold is, how it works, and whether it's really possible to "fight one off." Scientists call this the Golden Age of the Common Cold because Americans suffer up to a billion colds each year, resulting in 40 million days of missed work and school and 100 million doctor visits. They've also learned over the past decade much more about what cold viruses are, what they do to the human body, and how symptoms can be addressed. .

Ah-Choo!
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Pecans: The Story in a Nutshell

2010-11-27T20:28:00.000-08:00

Pecans
The Story in a Nutshell
by Jane Manaster
Texas Tech University Press, 2008

From its earliest use by Native Americans to today's pies, candies, condiments and snacks, the story of the nature, cultivation and uses of the pecan is shelled in this slender volume.

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Booklist Addition: Christmas Wishes

2010-11-26T20:07:00.000-08:00

C hristmas Wishes
A Catalog of Vintage Holiday Treats
by Tim Hollis
Stackpole Books, 2010

From plastic nativity scenes to aluminium trees, Christmas became a major marketing extravaganza in America in the mid-twentieth century.

This book recalls the holiday between 1940 and 1970, courtesy of department stores, five and tens, toy manufacturers, publishing houses, and record companies. Boomers and Gen-Xers will relive memories of special holiday toys and treats, Christmas children's books by Little Golden and Wonder, holiday music released by Peter Pan and Disneyland records, and merchandising characters such as Frosty the Snowman and Montgomery Ward's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Review: Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders

2010-11-24T16:41:00.001-08:00

Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders
101 Patterns That Go Way Beyond Socks!
by Judith Durant
Storey Publishing, 2010

What can you do with a single skein of yarn besides make a pair of socks? Quite a lot, according to knitting specialist Judith Durant, who proves her case with 101 patterns for hats, gloves, fingerless mitts, scarves, small shawls, kids, doll clothes, bags, and numerous small accessories.

The patterns in this book come from 75 separate designers who have found creative uses for sock yarn. Each pattern is accompanied by at least one color photograph, yarn and needle suggestions, and supply lists.

Charts are included for the more detailed patterns, but most require little more than basic knitting skills.

Each pattern contains a legend for the symbols used. A back-of-the-book glossary explains how to do some of the increases, decreases, and crossed stitches.

Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders
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Booklist Addition: Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders

2010-11-22T22:04:00.001-08:00

Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders
101 Patterns That Go Way Beyond Socks!
by Judith Durant
Storey Publishing, 2010

Veteran knitter Judith Durant has chosen not simply inventive sock patterns but also more than 5 dozen inspired patterns for other items that can be created from a single skein of sock yarn.

This book offers one-of-a-kind patterns for baby clothes, mittens, scarves, hats, jewelry, cozies, bags . . . even a dog sweater and a lamp shade!

The Nature Pages: Kentucky's Natural Heritage

2010-11-18T04:20:00.001-08:00

Kentucky's Natural Heritage
An Illustrated Guide to Biodiversity
by Greg Abernathy, Deborah White, Ellis L. Laudermilk, and Marc Evans
The University Press of Kentucky, 2010

A confluence of both science and history, this book describes natural areas in Kentucky that have vanished and inventories a long list of threatened and endangered animals, plants and unique habitats in the state that need protection.

Once 90 percent forested, Kentucky is now made up of roughly 46 percent "Large Forest Tracts" and most of it is fragmented and less able to sustain complex communities of animals and plants. Conequently, more than 50 species of animals and plants that once made Kentucky their home can no longer be found. Of the species that remain, 25 percent of the fish, 26 percent of the reptiles and amphibians, 13 percent of the birds and 20 percent of the mammals are endangered, threatened or close to leaving for good.

More than just a chronicle of loss, this is a guide to places where the species and the habitats that remain can be visited and appreciated. These include federally protected areas (national parks, refuges and forests) and 59 state nature preserves.

Illustrated with numerous maps and remarkable photos of surviving species like the dazzling blue-and-orange flame crayfish or the bright magenta limestone flame flower, this book is an accessible reference for both professional biologists and armchair travelers.

Kentucky's Natural Heritage
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Booklist Addition: Kentucky's Natural Heritage

2010-11-12T19:26:00.000-08:00

Kentucky's Natural Heritage
An Illustrated Guide to Biodiversity
by Greg Abernathy, Deborah White, Ellis L. Laudermilk, and Marc Evans
The University Press of Kentucky, 2010

Kentucky's abundance of plant and animal life, from the bottomland swamps in the west to the rich Appalachian forests in the east, is extraordinary as well as beautiful. Glades, prairies, forests, wetlands, rivers, and caves form a biologically diverse patchwork that is unique to the state. Kentucky's Natural Heritage: An Illustrated Guide to Biodiversity provides an essential reference to the remarkable natural history of the commonwealth and is a rallying call for the conservation of this priceless legacy.

Kentucky's ecosystems teem with diverse native species, some of which are found nowhere else in the world. Kentucky's Natural Heritage brings these sometimes elusive creatures into close view, from black-throated green warblers to lizard skin liverworts. The aquatic systems of the state are home to rainbow darters, ghost crayfish, salamander mussels, and an impressive array of other species that constitute some of the greatest levels of freshwater diversity on the planet.

Kentucky's Natural Heritage
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Now Reading: The Philosophy of the Western

2010-11-09T21:31:00.001-08:00

The western movie has undeniably influenced the American psyche.

This book examines the philosophical themes in the western genre, investigating issues of nature, ethics, identity, gender, environmentalism, and animal rights.

The Philosophy of the Western by Jennifer L. McMahon and B. Steve Csaki
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Booklist Addition: The Power of Sustainable Thinking

2010-11-06T23:16:00.000-07:00

T he Power of Sustainable Thinking
How to Create a Positive Future for the Climate the Planet Your Organization and Your Life
by Bob Doppelt
Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2010

Every day we are faced with a myriad of complex, often contradictory choices that have a bearing on the climate and sustainability.

Without a method for understanding our thought processes, we often default to behavior that is destroying the climate, natural environment and social wellbeing.

How can we change our thinking and behaviors to protect the climate and move towards sustainability?

Organizational change specialist Bob Doppelt provides practical methods for transforming our climate-damaging, unsustainable ways into sustainable thinking and behaviors.

The Power of Sustainable Thinking
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This Old Book: Re-Engagement in Later Life

2010-11-04T20:58:00.000-07:00

This study sought to bring to public awareness two subjects that were overdue in 1979 as topics of academic research and areas of practical information: re-employment and remarriage of older people. At the time, these topics had barely been explored.
Re-Engagement in Later Life: Re-Employment and Remarriage by Ruth Harriet Jacobs and Barbara H. Vinick
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Good Old Books: Cunning Is Better Than Strong

2010-11-01T20:39:00.000-07:00

Lee lived in the country with his father and his mother, his sister and his baby brother and his dog, Pomp. Lee was nine, going on ten, and the two things he wanted most in the world were a possum and a raccoon for pets.

He tried all sorts of ways to catch these animals and his father kept reminding him of the old saying -- cunning is better than strong -- and it was cunning that succeeded in the end.

They would, of course, feel and taste and see these things -- and this is the fascinating story of their two-year voyage, or how Matt and Tim found out what they wanted to do with their lives, of the duties an pleasures of life on board -- of the whaleman's world in all its variety and excitement.

Lee's adventures trying to capture the possum and raccoon are funny and exciting and rather eerie. Virginia Ormsby writes of Lee and his family with sureness and affection and of the Georgia country from first-hand knowledge. The folklore and customs and natural beauty of this area are woven skillfully into a story that holds the reader's attention to the very end.

Cunning Is Better Than Strong by Virginia H. Ormsby
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Good Old Books: Whaleman's World

2010-10-29T21:49:00.001-07:00

It was a beautiful autumn day in 1848 when two young men met on the road to a busy Massachusetts whaling port. By nightfall they had signed on as hands for the whaling bark Polly.

"They had no idea how it felt to be on a sailing ship when it moved. They had never heard the creak of swaying masts or the whistle of wind through rigging. They had never touched ropes so hot they were slimed with tar or so cold they were frozen into steel, never smelled the miserable stink of disturbed bilge water or the lovely perfume of a spice island.

"They had never tasted salt junk or the sweetness of a banana picked from the tree at its exact moment of ripeness. There were hundreds of things they had never seen. An ocean of water so wide that no land touched it in any direction. A wild sea storm. A dead calm. A palm tree. A cannibal. An iceberg. The wonderful Southern Cross. A wandering albatross. And, most important of all, a living whale!"

They would, of course, feel and taste and see these things -- and this is the fascinating story of their two-year voyage, or how Matt and Tim found out what they wanted to do with their lives, of the duties an pleasures of life on board -- of the whaleman's world in all its variety and excitement.

Whaleman's World by Jan Henry
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Booklist Addition: Film Nation

2010-10-22T13:47:00.000-07:00

Film Nation
Hollywood Looks at U.S. History
by Robert Burgoyne
University of Minnesota Press, 2010

Events of the past decade have dramatically rewritten the American national narrative, bringing to light an alternate history of nation, marked since the country’s origins by competing geopolitical interests, by mobility and migration, and by contending ethnic and racial groups.

In this revised and expanded edition of Film Nation, Robert Burgoyne analyzes films that give shape to the counternarrative that has emerged since 9/11—one that challenges the traditional myths of the American nation-state.