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Powell's Staff:
Five Book Friday: In Memoriam
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Every year, the booksellers at Powell’s submit their Top Fives: their five favorite books that were released in 2023. It’s a list that, when put together, shows just how varied and interesting the book tastes of Powell’s booksellers are. I highly recommend digging into the recommendations — we would never lead you astray — but today...
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Brontez Purnell:
Powell’s Q&A: Brontez Purnell, author of ‘Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt’
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Rachael P.:
Starter Pack: Where to Begin with Ursula K. Le Guin
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Customer Comments
JaneBePe has commented on (22) products
Vegetable Gardeners Book of Building Projects
by
Storey Publishing
JaneBePe
, December 01, 2014
I love this book! It could be subtitled What To Do When It's Cold and Rainy Outside iof you have a garage to work in). I love that the projects are mostly simple. (If I wanted to be a carpenter or woodworker, I would be doing that instead of gardening!) I love that simple projects don't usually take up a lot of time. I love that it's all about my garden! Lots of ways to do raised beds. Build your own cold frame so it fits on top of your raised bed! OK, it does have more complicated stuff for those who want to get into the woodworking part - like the Adirondack chair. But I love it for all the useful, simple garden things.
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A Place at the Table
by
Peter Pringle
JaneBePe
, November 27, 2014
Very interesting and informative book. I know this book is designed to be a companion to the movie, but I never saw the movie, yet I still find the book interesting. It offers clear information on the impact of hunger on children's brains and the prevalence of hunger among children in the US. It clearly states why food banks, even though they are very important, are not the solution to hunger. It also discusses the "corporate infiltration" of food banks - how large processed food corporations make food donations that food banks come to depend on, and send their employees to sit on food bank boards so that criticism of the low nutritional quality of food that low-income people receive is squelched. The issue of the impact of the neighborhood around schools is also discussed - schools with fast food outlets close by have higher levels of obesity in their students, etc. It also talks extensively about programs that work - free school meals, breakfast in the classroom, SNAP (what used to be called food stamps), access to farmers' markets, green carts vendors, etc. And about the things that can be done to prevent hunger - public education, policy advocacy, a minimum wage that is a living wage, etc. It also calls for non-profits to merge or cooperate to increase their impact by having more money for marketing, special banking situations, and the ability to give their seal of approval on items for people to "buycott." Basically, a lot of ground is covered, and each reader should be able to find something in these pages that will work for them at whatever level they wish to work at. It also contains something the movie did not have - Seven Steps to Ending Child Hunger on page 233. Do you care about the fact that there are hungry children in this rich country? You will find this book as interesting as I do.
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Switch How to Change Things When Change is Hard
by
Chip Heath, Dan Heath
JaneBePe
, November 23, 2014
This book is full of examples of human behavior change - the hardest change in the world to make happen! You can read this book as an entertainment (and I did) and I think you will find it very interesting and a fun read. Some of the information will seamlessly make itself part of your world view and you will have read a non fiction book about world problems that was not at all depressing. (How rare is that?) I'm now going back through the book to study it. (Yes, actually study it.) It includes powerful tools for behavior change and I think I need to have each of them readily accessible in my tool kit of life skills.
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Cass Turnbulls Guide to Pruning 3rd Edition What When Where & How to Prune for a More Beautiful Garden
by
Cass Turnbull
JaneBePe
, November 21, 2014
I bought this book because it was recommended by Dulcy Mahar. (Surely a book recommended by Dulcy Mahar doesn't need a review from me.) It is informative and (surprisingly) also passionate. It was infinitely less boring than most pruning books. Very readable, in fact. It gave me confidence that if, perhaps, I am not able to do the best job of pruning, I can at least do an adequate job of pruning. It is, as the title states, about a Beautiful garden, meaning, it is not about how to prune your fruit trees. But this basic knowledge will be helpful when you go on to that slightly more complex task. I recommend this book highly.
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Winter Gardening in the Maritime Northwest Cool Season Crops for the Year Round Gardener
by
Binda Colebrook
JaneBePe
, November 20, 2014
What I love about this book is that it is so local and so honest! There's no gardening book more valuable than one written for your specific climate and Binda shares with us her personal experiences with growing veggies that she eats. I enjoyed the first edition very much and had hoped that her personal viewpoints might be rounded out in the new edition by new experiences or comments from others. Nope. She still gives short shrift to veggies that she herself does not like to eat. (Fortunately she likes most veggies.) And her comments about growing "plain parsley" meaning parsley with no variety name are unchanged and just as frustrating as they were in the first edition. (She does not direct you to anyone who sells "plain parsley" and says it can be difficult to find. Not much help there.) Nonetheless this remains THE essential book for winter gardening in the maritime northwest.
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Wild About Greens 125 Delectable Vegan Recipes for Kale Collards Arugula Bok Choy & other Leafy Veggies Everyone Loves
by
Nava Atlas
JaneBePe
, November 18, 2014
I'm not vegan but everyone would benefit from eating more greens. Unfortunately, I am also not a person who is hugely confident in the kitchen, so I like to follow a recipe, even if I modify it by leaving out things I don't care for. Where I get stymied is with the recipes that are basically a lot of variations - you know, the ones that go: so much of this or this or this or this, plus a little bit of that or that or that or that, then some of this or this or this or this. My cooking imagination (which is not very strong to begin with) fails completely at that point. There are definitely some of those recipes in this book. If you are an accomplished cook, you may love that. Fortunately for me, there are also plenty of recipes that are actual recipes with a list of ingredients and not so many variations that I forget what I am trying to cook. I also love that she spent a lot of time cooking and eating these greens to write the book. Her descriptions of the flavor and toughness/tenderness of various greens are very enlightening. She says things like, "Curly kale is slightly sweeter and slightly more tender than Lacinato or Russian kale." These things I have not had time to experience myself (which she encourages you to do since everyone's tastebuds are slightly different) and I really appreciate that basis of information before I start my experiments. And, of course, there are some really interesting recipes!
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How I Became a Pirate
by
Melinda Long
JaneBePe
, November 17, 2014
What fun! I love children's books with great illustrations and this is one of them. Being kidnapped by pirates while at the beach seems perfectly logical in this story, as does the fun of not being made to go to bed or mind your manners. But, there's always a catch... And fortunately, in this case, a happy ending.
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Financing Our Foodshed Growing Local Food with Slow Money
by
Carol Peppe Hewitt
JaneBePe
, November 16, 2014
This is a very inspiring book! The author and two friends started a Slow Money movement in North Carolina after hearing Tasch (the author of Enquiries into the Nature of Slow Money) speak at a local venue in 2010. Things happened fast after that, partly because the community had already been having conversations about sustainability, small farms, preserving soil fertility, and financing that the bank will not consider and partly because the author of the book is obviously a bundle of energy and began discussing the issue with anyone who would listen. This is a fun book and a very personal book and full of examples of slow money loans that were arranged (person to person) by Slow Money NC and that were related to food (farming, bakeries, butcher shops, restaurants, local transportation of food, etc.). If you are tired of hearing about the problems with our financial system and tired of fancy theories about what should be done, this is a book about what CAN be done that will give you hope and maybe boost you into action locally. If you have not already read them, the author will encourage you to read Enquiries into the Nature of Slow Money, Locavesting, Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery, and Local Money. (They are certainly on MY reading list now! LOL.)
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Incredible Vegetables from Self Watering Containers
by
Edward C Smith
JaneBePe
, November 14, 2014
This is a big beauty of a book. Not too thick, so not too heavy, but information dense. Lots of color photos (love them). Lots of veggies that you would never think about growing in containers. Good instructions on the sizes of the containers and the varieties that work in containers (i.e., big pumpkins - no, but jack be littles and baby bear - yes.). And, MOST INTERESTING, which veggies actually do better in containers than in the ground! No surprise, these are the ones that thrive best with a constant supply of water. Highly recommended for those who only have a patio or balcony to grow things on. Also recommended for dedicated backyard gardeners who would like to grow a few more finicky things close to the back door. And, of course, recommended for the armchair gardener who just likes to look at pictures of plants.
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Edible Landscaping: Now You Can Have Your Gorgeous Garden and Eat It Too!
by
Rosalind Creasy
JaneBePe
, November 13, 2014
What a magnificent book! I bought the original more than 20 years ago and kept it until this update was released. The original was ground-breaking. She sorted many many edible plants by not only USDA planting zones and sun and water needs, but also rated them according to how much work it was to grow and get anything edible out of them. Very helpful for gardeners who don't have a lot of time. For example, many herbs are listed as easy to grow because they were basically weeds where they were originally growing and harvest often requires little more than picking leaves, and perhaps, allowing them to dry. However, olive trees are listed as more difficult, not because the trees are difficult to grow, but because if you want olives, they have to be brined to be edible and if you want olive oil, it will require the equipment (and time and effort) to press it. I have never seen plants rated in such an informative, easy to understand way in any other book. This latest edition is a great example of the book arts. It is full of full-color pictures of plants on every page, which makes it fun to read even if you don't grow any of the plants. The previous edition was a lovely book but was full of black and white illustrations rather than full color photos. My only reservation is that she gardens in southern California and many of her selections reflect that. I suggest you read the USDA zone listing for a plant before reading anything else about it (so you don't fall in love with a plant that doesn't grow in your area, like I did). Also, (this is true of many gardening books) she will list a variety of a plant that she loves because it grows so well for her but you may not be able to find that variety where you are or on the web. I fell in love with her description of a specific variety of apricot tree that she describes as easy and almost fool-proof. I could never locate anyone who sold it here or on the web (or had even heard of it) and was told repeatedly that this area is a disaster for apricots in general. Many hours of searching later, I finally gave up. This is, nonetheless, a wonderful book. An information dense reference book that is lovely enough to use as a coffee table book.
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CAD Monkeys, Dinosaur Babies, and T-Shaped People: Inside the World of Design Thinking and How It Can Spark Creativity and Innovati on
by
Warren Berger
JaneBePe
, November 10, 2014
I loved this book! It takes design out of the realm of consumer products and into the realm of real world problems: social problems, economic problems, etc. In the same way that Reality Is Broken made me want to become a game programmer, this book made me want to be a designer. In a similar way, it is a hopeful book, meaning that it talks about some solutions that have been designed for seemingly intractable problems. It can be challenging to be hopeful with all the things that are going wrong and falling apart and letting us down. I did feel hopeful after reading this book, but I have to admit that Reality is Broken made a bigger actual impact on my life. This book is good at showing us that since most of our problems were designed into our lives, most of them can be designed out of our lives. It's not a How To book, though. Where you go with it (if you go anywhere at all) is up to you.
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Soul Survivor
by
Bruce Leininger
JaneBePe
, November 09, 2014
What an interesting book! This is the story of a religiously conservative family whose 2 year old son's nightmares and random comments and art drawings told the story of a young man who died as a pilot in WWII. The personalities are interesting - the skeptical but methodical father who ended up convincing himself. The mother who was willing to change beliefs to help her son. The small child struggling with adult knowledge. The conversations with the WWII vets are intriguing and the part where the child attends a veterans reunion is fascinating! If you are interested in reincarnation, you will probably enjoy this book. Past life stories are usually a few vague memories and some nagging feelings. I have not heard any past life story that was so detailed before this one.
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Homegrown Whole Grains Grow Harvest & Cook Your Own Wheat Barley Oats Rice & More
by
Sara Pitzer
JaneBePe
, November 07, 2014
What a fun book! I have some doubts that I will ever grow grains since my backyard is small and I am already growing other edibles there, but Sara covers the topic in detail (with recipes!) so I feel prepared to grow some if the urge hits. And, she makes it seem likely that the urge would hit. She enticingly describes where grains would be planted in rotation (not after nitrogen fixers like peas because too much nitrogen is bad for grains) and how some of them grow well in poor soil (need good drainage, though). She also mentions that many fall planted grains (like winter wheat) ripen in mid summer, before the busy late summer harvest season in the rest of your garden. She also quotes a Portland area grower who refers to corn as the "gateway grain," especially popcorn which can be eaten as popcorn or ground for polenta. In addition to the grains mentioned in the title, she also talks about amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, corn, oats, millet, and rye. (Maybe others, but that's what I remember.) These grains cover a range of climates. For example, rice needs lots of water and also lots of heat. (That eliminates it for me.) But rye will sprout in soil that's as cold as 32 degrees! She gives full info on when and how to harvest. You learn about bundles and shocks, threshing and winnowing, which grains are hard to separate from their hulls (like barley) and which are easy (like "hull-less oats" and wheat). Mostly she talks about 100 square feet for your planting area (10 ft x 10 ft or 5 ft x 20 ft) just as a measure for how much to plant, etc. Smaller areas can be calculated as factors of 100. Mostly an exercise in imagination for me, but... buckwheat is looking very doable! LOL.
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Chasing Kangaroos A Continent a Scientist & a Search for the Worlds Most Extraordinary Creature
by
Tim Flannery
JaneBePe
, November 06, 2014
I bought this book to read before going to Australia for a visit. It's a little all over the map (memoir + Australian history + paleontology) but still very interesting. The only reason I did not give it 5 stars was after I read it I tried to look something up in it and had the devil of a time because the topics jump around. He talks about how he got into paleontology, some of the history of abuses of the aborigines, and interesting anatomical and paleological facts about kangaroos. For example, many people may not even know that there are currently several species of kangaroo or that wallabys are basically small kangaroos. But did you know that there were giant kangaroos in the past? (Although, perhaps, not as giant as was previously thought.) Did you know that the placental mammals evolved in the Southern Hemisphere and the marsupials evolved in the Northern Hemisphere? It's an interesting read if you are interested in Australia, or indigenous rights, or kangaroos.
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Shamanic Gardening Timeless Techniques for the Modern Sustainable Garden
by
Melinda Miller
JaneBePe
, November 05, 2014
I forgot to mention that she loves Monticello and seems to feel that Thomas Jefferson was the paragon of gardeners. I keep wondering if his many slaves who did the actual work in the gardens felt the same way.
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Perennial Vegetables From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro
by
Eric Toensmeier
JaneBePe
, November 04, 2014
IMO, this book will have great appeal for two kinds of gardeners: 1) those who love to learn about and grow unusual plants, and 2) those who already love or are currently intrigued by permaculture. (I fall into the second category.) Over hundreds of years we humans have selected our vegetables more and more from the ranks of annuals. If you love permaculture, you may find yourself asking, "Where are all the perennial vegetables?" This book is your answer. The thing that fascinates me is that many of the vegetables listed in this book have been eaten by humans for hundreds (some, thousands) of years, so perennial vegetables are often "very old" vegetables, rather than "very new" vegetables, even if they are new to you. Toensmeier has been a prolific permaculture writer. Fans of his will not be disappointed in this book. He includes more personal experience in this book than in his previous massive two volume permaculture book, but he does not neglect the all important Plant List! (Plant geeks take note!) The book is information dense but remains comparatively modest in size because he focuses on vegetable plants and doesn't try to recapitulate everything in his other books. If you love a good permaculture book, this book is a must buy. If you are looking for an unusual plant for your yard, that you don't have to replant every year and that might also be edible, this book is for you. Enjoy!
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Wyrd Sisters: Discworld 6
by
Terry Pratchett
JaneBePe
, November 03, 2014
Terry Pratchett has written many, many books. IMO, his books with male main characters are OK but his books with female main characters (especially the witches) are really funny! (On second thought, the ones about the Ank-Morpork watch, which are primarily male, are also very good.) At first I thought that was because I am female, but my husband feels the same way, so I don't know what to attribute it to. Any of the witch books are great, but this was the first one, so I always recommend that people start here.
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Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden A Natural Approach to Pest Control
by
Jessica Walliser
JaneBePe
, October 31, 2014
If you are a permaculture fan, this entire book is devoted to plants that are labeled "insectary" in permaculture! If you don't know what permaculture is, this book is about the web of life in your backyard (or where ever the piece of land is that you care about). It is about plants that draw beneficial bugs to your backyard to prey upon the "bad guys" that might be there so you don't have to worry about them. It's about connecting your backyard to your local ecosystem by planting plants that are either native or supportive of native life. It's about the hummingbirds and butterflies that you want in your backyard. I am always leery of buying garden books that are written by people in a different climate zone from me, but the author does an amazing job of sharing information on plants from a wide range of climate zones. Love the plant list! I definitely found some new must-haves! If you just want pretty plants (plenty of those in this book) and don't care about pollinators, minimizing pesticide use, or supporting local hummers, butterflies, etc. you might find some things of interest but you will miss the point entirely.
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Reality Is Broken
by
Jane McGonigal
JaneBePe
, October 30, 2014
This was the best book that I read last year and a book that has influenced my life immensely. I found out about ChoreWars from this book and it has changed my home life greatly. I also found out about FreeRice from this book which is a wonderful and handy thing. The thing that I don't like about it, is that it clearly shows the potential, but many of the examples are not yet available or are static sites on the web. I wanted to be a game creator when I finished reading this book! I also had new respect for computer games. Whether you love them or hate them, you will very likely find this book really interesting. Those with interests in psychology or sociology, I think, will be especially intrigued. I also think that people who liked the book Switch will enjoy this book. Both books are about behavior change: one talks about how to make it easier and the other talks about how to make it easier using games.
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Bats at the Beach
by
Brian Lies
JaneBePe
, October 30, 2014
Love this book! Amazing art! Full of cute and realistic bats doing unrealistic things! Fun poem about bats who go to the beach when the humans have gone home. All the usual beach stuff including getting a moon tan. Families of bats doing family things. Lots of little things in the art that are not mentioned in the poem. Everything that makes a children's book fun for children and adults alike.
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Urban Shaman
by
Serge Kahili King
JaneBePe
, October 24, 2014
Urban Shaman is, IMO, the best of Serge King's writing. All of his books are interesting, but I find this one the most readable. I find it both profound and practical. I came upon it long after it was first published and used the principles described in it to to get myself out of a very bad place emotionally. But, you don't need a crisis to find this book enlightening and useful. King gives many many exercises throughout the book and I have probably done less than 5% of them, but when you get the concepts, your life becomes the exercise! You could think of this as The Secret without the greed and egocentricity. Or, you could think of it as any religion you care to name, without the dogma, guilt and shame. I warn you that you might find it un-American. He talks about the true power of relaxation, which is a concept that is neither accepted nor valued by Americans in general. But if you are a slightly-off-the-beaten-path kind of person, you may find (like me) that you love it.
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Gaias Garden 2nd Edition a Guide to Home Scale Permaculture
by
Toby Hemenway
JaneBePe
, October 23, 2014
For those who are familiar with permaculture, I would like to share how this book is different. The more a permaculture book tries to be useful to everyone, the more difficult it is for it to be useful to a specific person or climate zone. This book was written by some one currently in Portland, Oregon. The first edition was written while he was in a comparatively rural area in Oregon. This edition benefits by also having his insights about gardening in Portland itself. For anyone who wants to practice permaculture in the Pacific Northwest, you will find this book very valuable and useful. For those who are interested in permaculture but not familiar with it, this is a great book. Some permaculture books can be very technical (and huge!). This book and the information in it are both very manageable. For example, his discussion (with examples) of what a guild is happens to be the best I have read in the literature, especially for those new to permaculture. Part of the beauty of the book is that those who are familiar with permaculture will find much of interest in this book, especially if you are gardening in the Pacific Northwest. But also, those who are not familiar with permaculture will find the book very approachable. I love this book!
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