Uliano, Sophie. (2009). The Gorgeously Green Diet: How to Live Lean and Green. New York: Dutton. ISBN: 978-0-525-95115-5.
The title implies a diet book, but it is much more than the typical diet book. It has the usual suspects: eating plans, nicely exercises, allowed and not allowed foods. But the book expands the idea of dieting and shows that most of us need to put more than our bodeis on a diet. The pantry and refrigerator are prime targets, and we can move out from there.
Uliano’s plan has a basic, but thoughtful, beginning: figure out what you really want before you begin. How many times have I jumped into a plan of self-improvement in excitement after reading a book or seeing something on television?
And this book does inspire, It connects what we eat with the ecological and environmental movements we are all thining about. It offers three different levels of being green to show that living better is possible for all of us. And she lists many websites and company names that sell the kinds of healthy foods and products recommende in the bookthat makes it easy to do further research on the specific topics that appeal to you. ( 
)
Author’s Website: http://www.gorgeouslygreen.com
Dickson Wright, Clarissa & Scott, Johnny. (2005). A Greener Life: the modern country compendium. London: David & Charles. North American edition. ISBN: 978-0-7153-2750-0.
One of the perennial appeals of the country lifestyle is the sense of living simpler, healthier, more in tune with the planet. The idea of self-sufficiency holds great appeal for those of us who live in a world of ever-increasing specialization. Not only does this world of expertise leave us unbalanced as human beings, it takes away our power of how the things we do and consume affect the planet and even ourselves. While quite useful as a direct guidebook to all aspects of rural living, this book offers far more to people who never intend to live a rural lifestyle.
The wonder of this book is that it encompasses both the lure of the country for nostalgic reasons while offering the idea that country living can be the cure to advancing the way we live in the future. In its practical how-to explanations of the parts traditional-based, rural living, it offers explanations of why these practices have lasted so long. It also compares them quite favorably with their modern counterparts in terms of health and satisfaction.
For instance, in the section on gardening, a description of almost every kind of vegetable is given with growing instructions and cooking suggestions, but greater is the context and commentary for each that explains how contemporary large-scale farming methods often fall short.
Because of technologies like the automobile, computer, internet and such, many of us can live anywhere we like. Cities have their benefits, of course, and this book is not saying everyone should or could live in a rural area and make their own soaps and butter. Rather, the book is useful even for people who never even dream of wanting to grow their own vegetables because we all need an understanding of the context of the foods we eat and the products we buy. This is how I feel the writers draw us toward the future, by saying we should all be more aware of the choices we make.
This bit of criticism of the automatic way most of us live is softened and made more palatable by the style of Clarissa Dickson Wright, familiar to many of us as half of the Two Fat Ladies cooking team from the 1990s. Her personal feelings against supermarkets, American commerce and carrots are (except for the carrots) fully justified in facts and presented in a straightforward and entertaining manner.
This is a perspective that is not always easy to come by in the American media. We tend to focus on commerce, and nutrients and fat and cholesterol and pollution, but not on questioning the foundations of the way we live. It sounds like a lot for a manual on how to live a country life, but this book really is a worth look at by urbanites and suburbanites for its eye-opening perspective if nothing else.
Pollan, Michael. (2008). In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. New York: Penguin. ISBN: 978-1-59420-145-5
How much actual food do you eat? That is the somewhat disconcerting premise that underlies this book. Michael Pollan suggests that, because of the great many processed food products with many additives and the policies of seeking to make more food at a lower cost, much of the food in the American diet today is not actually real food.
He suggests that if we made it a point not to eat any foods or food products that our great grandmothers would not recognize as food, we would go a long way to helping world ecology and our own health (p.148). He says we should also avoid ingredients that are unfamiliar, unpronounceable, and products with more than five ingredients. He says we should also avoid high fructose corn syrup. Pollan is quick to point out that these things by themselves are not necessarily bad for us, “but all of them are reliable markers for foods that have been highly processed” (p.150).
Great detail is taken in this book to explain all the nasty details of why corporate food manufacturing, contemporary farming practices and government policies have conspired to make the things we eat not as healthy and nutrient rich , plus more harmful to the environment, than in the past. He explains why the various traditional and aboriginal diets are good models to copy, because these cultures discovered over a long period of time what food combinations work well together in terms of health and longevity. Contemporary and nontraditional foods have not been tested by time, and their effect on our bodies cannot be measured.
The book outlines eating guidelines that are basically a balanced approach, and common sense: eat more plants, especially leaves; eat meals rather than snacks (preferably at a table and not alone), eat slowly, and don’t look for magic quick solutions to dietary issues.
In addition to the practical advice, the book is an eye-opening view at the way our thinking about food has shifted from food itself to the nutrients food provides, and how we have begun trying to replicate these nutrients with synthetic substitutes. Pollan paints a picture where the cult of nutrition has taken over and allowed us to be jangled around by marketing claims of health issues that may or may not be true.
His argument against nutritionism is worth considering and his practical points worth beginning to implement.
Buchanan, Cathy Marie. (2009). The Day the Falls Stood Still. New York: Voice/Hyperion. ISBN: 978-1-4103-4097-1 320 pages.
Fiction: Novel: Historical Fiction
Gist: A young woman grows to maturity in Niagara Falls during and after World War I. She endures loss in many forms, testing her faith and her strength. Based loosely on real life events.
This is the story of Bess Heath, a young woman coming of age in Niagara Falls during World War I. Her family struggles and failings are rendered in exquisite prose, showcasing the female point of view in a way few novelists have achieved. Bess is pulled away from the expectations of her society and her family toward something she sense is more authentic, even amid a staggering amount of pain and loss.
Tom Cole is at the heart of Bess’s fascination, and the mechanics of their relationship are beautifully and poignantly told through every phase, from their meeting to the very end. Bess’s point of view is also elucidated very well, but Tom remains mostly a predictable character. He is carved out of some mythical essence of nature/spirit man and the romantic notion of man versus the corrupting influences of modern progress. All we see of his personality is the true but flat view of the strong, silent male, handsome and attractive to the sheltered young woman. Cathy Buchanan has set out to tell us a mythical tale, reinforced witha grand setting with natural beauty that is awe inspiring, and told in a man who helps change the central character and helps her find herself. But we never get to see Tom as a human being, and while Buchanan shows us that she can write beautifully about sex, heroic rescues,and the emotions of war and battle, these pieces are not strung together into a believable male character.
It isn’t just Buchanan though; this seems to be a theme in novels of the last few years: a strong female voice, descriptively beautiful that illuminates the female mind. These novels have created great role models for women, except that none of them seem to understand (or care to) what masculinity is all about. They delight in writing graphic scenes of physical sex that don’t empower either person and only reinforce the concept that the men are in the story as an object, a set dressing. If these novels could give more than just glimpses of the male characters as real, and more importantly as connecting to the female characters and the readers in more than a romance novel way, the current crop of novels would be truly great. Without that, they remain entertaining escapist works that can appeal to unfulfilled women.
The novel has themes of environmentalism, war, and human greed woven into a family tale in a way that is quite commendable. The historic inspiration of the story is full of possibility, and yet the author’s notes at the end of the novel seem to invite questions as to why she chose to leave out or include certain events. It si as if she was trying to balance the outrageous, over the top, mythical aspects of the story with a more personal, psychological exploration, and it would perhaps have been better to focus more solely on one aspect or the other.
Goleman, Daniel (2009). Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What we Buy Can Change Everything. New York: Broadway Books. ISBN: 978-0-385-52782-8
“Going Green” is everywhere right now, and nowhere more than in retail stores. Most of the things that we think of as good for the environment, such as recycling and bringing our own bags to the supermarket, but Goleman suggests that these aren’t the most important things we should be doing. The problem is that knowing what the right choices to make is not easy. The production, manufacture and transportation of products each have their own environmental impacts that, when we’re standing in the store, are impossible to know or compare with one another. The people who study these things are highly detailed specialists who create complex reports. Everyone, from manufacturers to retailers to consumers are in the dark about what are the best things they should do for the environment and how to evaluate the choices available.
Goleman paints an eye-opening picture about the present and future of ecological awareness, and the need for all of us to become more aware of the impact of what we do. To make us aware, he gives many examples on everything from yogurt lids to shampoo to pharmaceuticals, but he also uses some faulty logic, especially when describing the environmental past. While I take him at his word that human ecological impact on the planet is accelerating and becoming more negative, I feel he gives to much a romantic picture of the past. He says the past was a more innocent age, and that th choices did not seem to matter as much. There is much literature about the industrial revolution that suggests that captains of industry knew exactly what they were doing and that there were people who were trying to stop it.
But I agree with Goleman that the future is the important thing here; the problem is that the whole thing seems so overwhelming. And our expectations have become set that we expect certain standards in our products and homes. If it turns out that these things are harmful, will we be able to give them up? And with so many people in the world, it seems that the potential for dire consequences is great, and the chance of reversing it is small. Most of us decide that doing something, trying, is better than not. Ecological Intelligencesuggests that the solution is for each of us to become aware of our own impact, and to spread that messsage to others and to the companies we do business with.
