Vermont Books

The Good Life

Scott Nearing, Helen Nearing

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Dated, redundant, and inconsistent but a fairly good old book. 3 out of 5 stars.
13 of 23 people found this review helpful.

From what I've been able to piece together Helen and Scott must have been a couple of outcast university professors that were scorned for their anti-establishment (socialist?) teachings. I think they must have been what would later become beatniks (and later hippies).

Throughout their book (actually 2 books) they forecast the social disintegration of the US.

They believe people should only work 4 hours a day and play the rest of the day. To me they actually seem lazy.

They say that when they feel a cold coming on they do as the neighborhood dogs and cats do, they quit eating until they feel fit again. To me, that's a very silly way of treating a cold. When animals quit eating it's because they don't feel like eating. They don't say, "I must be sick so I shouldn't eat." Ridiculous.

They preach about not using animals for food or labor. They also refer to milk as a food not for adults but for baby animals and talk about being vegetarians. Then in one chapter they talk about 3 girls down the road that regularly deliver milk to their house (contrary to their teachings). There is also a photo of them using horses to plow a field and another photo of Helen driving a pair of horses (two more examples of them not following their own teachings) on a snow covered road while she's riding in the wagon or sled (can't tell which since the picture is taken from in front of the horses). ??? Were they hypocrites? Did they eat shrimp cocktail and prime rib on Sunday afternoons?

There is a lot of information that is repeated in the book.

This book is way overrated. It's more of a 'do as I say, not as I do' book. I got very annoyed at the often repeated refences to America's 'disintegrating society'. (Here were are fifty years after the first of the 2 books were written.)

I felt that they may have been frustrated by not being able to establish a large following (as prophets?) so they could create a large commune. Instead, people seemed to come and go from their homesteads.

It seems to be more of a treatise against capitalism and self motivation than for homesteading and self sufficiency. They simply wanted to barely get by. Were they lazy? (People that visited were talked out of working more than 4 hours a day.)

I'm reading it for the 3rd time in 25 years and it is enjoyable to read. There are much better books out there for those considering homesteading. If you are considering homesteading then read some books that are more up to date and don't have such political influences.

This is a fairly well written and somewhat entertaining book (actually 2 books in one) but it's worthless as a reference book for homesteaders.

Editorial Review:

This one volume edition of Living the Good Life and Continuing the Good Life brings these classics on rural homesteading together. This couple abandoned the city for a rural life with minimal cash and the knowledge of self reliance and good health.

Horn of the Moon Cookbook: Recipes from Vermont's Renowned Vegetarian Restaurant

Ginny Callan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Horn of the Moon Café's vegetarian cookbook is one we've an been waiting for. It offers a splendid array of recipes perfected during many years of serving customers at the popular restaurant in Montpelier, Vermont. The café specializes in dishes that feature healthful, meatless meals with a gourmet, international flair. Ginny Callan's Horn of the Moon Cookbook contains irresistible ideas for every meal of the day, from Blackberry Buttermilk Coffeecake and a Brie with Fresh Herb Omelette for breakfast to Chilled Melon Soup and Asparagus Fettuccine for lunch to Mexican Vegetable Pie or Stuffed Shells Florentine for dinner. Desserts include Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies, Mandarin Orange Cake, and Raspberry Pie. Using whole-grain flours and natural sweeteners, Ginny's dishes combine principles of good nutrition with loving attention to the taste, color, and texture of fresh, natural foods-and the results are delightful. Whether you're cooking a simple meal or preparing a banquet for a festive occasion, you'll find a wealth of pleasure in the Horn of the Moon Cookbook.

Ben & Jerry's: The Inside Scoop: How Two Real Guys Built a Business with a Social Conscience and a Sense of Humor

Fred Lager

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

The Inside Scoop is just that ! 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

It's a chronicle of the intriguing journey of junior high friends who split the $5 cost of a home study course in making homemade ice cream and turn it into a $237 million company (1999 sales). Ben & Jerry's antics of giving away ice cream so they can 'get the ice cream into people's mouths so they will buy it,' take on some unusual situations. Free cones are offered to folks who register to vote, donate books to Head Start, or send postcards to elected officials for a variety of causes, and to celebrate at Fall Down Festivals with block long stilt walking races, music and other amusements. Solar-powered mobiles are used to transport the ice cream and a show on the road. They still sponsor customer appreciation day once a year when free cones are dipped all day.

It's hard to resist a bowl or cone of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or Cherry Garcia as you read this humorous show and tell of two guys who really want (and do) make a difference. You'll be ready to book a snow shoe tour of the Vermont plant by the time you finish reading about these guys' mission. Their values-led business (in addition to having fun) is to produce the best ice cream from Vermont dairy products, to increase the value of the of the company for the stockholders and create career opportunities and financial rewards for employees, and to improve the quality of life for the community. (They donate 7.5% of pretax profits to Ben & Jerry's Foundation that supports a variety of causes that improve the quality of life for children.)

I'm using this book as a project for an organizational communications course and enjoyed the reading (and eating) more than I ever expected. It was the most fun I've had doing homework!

Editorial Review:

The former CEO of Ben & Jerry's tells how two '60s holdovers built a single ice cream store into one of America's hottest companies. "Deftly and compassionately captures [Ben's] genius in all its entrepreneurial splendor...This tale will keep you entertained."--New York Times Book Review.

City of Trees: The Complete Field Guide to the Trees of Washington, D.C., Third Edition (Center Books)

Melanie Choukas-Bradley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Washington, D.C., boasts more than three hundred species of trees from America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, and City of Trees has been the authoritative guide for locating, identifying, and learning about them for more than twenty-five years. The third edition is fully revised, updated, and expanded and includes an eloquent new foreword by the Washington Post's garden editor, Adrian Higgins.

In the introduction, Choukas-Bradley describes the efforts of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other prominent Washingtonians who helped the nation's capital evolve into the "City of Trees," a moniker regaining popularity thanks to present-day efforts encouraging citizen participation in tree planting and maintenance.

Part 1 gives the reader a guided tour of the nation's capital, highlighting historic and rare trees of the urban canopy. Part 2 is a comprehensive, simply worded, and fully illustrated botanical guide to the magnificent trees of the nation's capital and surroundings. The guide also includes botanical keys, an illustrated glossary, exquisite pen-and-ink drawings by Polly Alexander, and color close-up photographs of flowering trees, many by the nationally acclaimed photographer Susan A. Roth.

What to look for in the new edition:

* Added locations: the FDR Memorial; the Smithsonian Institution gardens; the Tudor Place grounds; the Bishop's Garden of the Washington National Cathedral; Audubon Naturalist Society sanctuaries; and much more.

* "City of Trees" history from 1987 to 2007, including the establishment of Casey Trees and the importance of the urban canopy in the twenty-first century.

* Twice as many pages of color photographs, new species descriptions and illustrations, and added habitat information.

Published in association with the Center for American Places

The Vermont Encyclopedia

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

When outsiders think of Vermont, they conjure up images of pumpkin picking against a backdrop of stunning fall foliage, skiing the Green Mountains in wintertime, harvesting maple syrup in mud season, and canoeing on Lake Champlain in the summer. Ethan Allen comes to mind, as do Robert Frost, Norman Rockwell, Calvin Coolidge, and, more recently, James Jeffords. Other Vermont touchstones include Ben & Jerry's, Holstein cows in hillside pastures, and tranquil village greens featuring a single white church. This is romantic Vermont, a place that seems to have changed little since it joined the union in 1791.

In reality, Vermont is much more complex. It is a place of dramatic contrasts, with a rich and provocative history. First a contested frontier region and then an independent republic, Vermont eventually became one of the most politically conservative states while gaining a reputation for innovation in areas such as the production of machine tools. Although agriculture was its mainstay, Vermont became famous for its high-grade marble and granite and, later, for the development of skiing, now one of its most important economic activities.

Beginning in the 1950s, Vermont became a mecca for enterprising individuals from other parts of the country whose alliance with native-born Vermonters gradually changed the state into a liberal political bastion. Active in the preservation of the good life through conservation and land management, Vermonters also pioneered the legal recognition of gay relationships. The state has preserved such civic forms as the town meeting and the citizen legislature while also providing a welcome for environmentally sound new industries and start-up businesses.

Most existing encyclopedias on Vermont were published more than seventy years ago. The Vermont Encyclopedia's thousand-plus entries, the work of 140 contributors, present a completely up-to-date and comprehensive collection of information on the Green Mountain State. Drawn from the most recent research available, its subjects range from prehistoric settlement to events in today's headlines. Entries include famous and infamous Vermonters, features of the physical landscape; political, economic, and social history; organizations like the 251 Club; and tidbits on nudism, the Wasp (the only car ever made in Vermont), the fabled fur-bearing trout, and the invention of the jogbra.

Four topical essays introduce the volume. These treat the geography, climate, and natural history of the state; offer an account of settlement from precolonial times to the present; analyze and discuss contemporary features of Vermont's demography, commerce, and culture; and describe the evolution and current structure of the Vermont Constitution as well as state, county and municipal government. The essays are followed by the individual entries, arranged alphabetically. Supplemented by charts, maps, and photographs, The Vermont Encyclopedia will serve as the quintessential guide to the Green Mountain state for years to come.

Vintage Vermont Villainies: True Tales of Murder & Mystery from the 19th and 20th Centuries

John Stark Bellamy II

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An antique and gothic read 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

John Stark Bellamy II's "Vintage Vermont Villainies: True Tales of Murder & Mystery from the 19th and 20th Centuries" contains 12 stories of disappearance, mishap, manslaughter, and murder, all of which are straight out of the annals of Vermont history. If you're familiar with the area it's a tad chilling recognizing so many names of towns, newspapers, roads and so on, but even if you aren't the stories are quite compelling.

Bellamy worked with cases at least several decades old and sometimes more than a century old. This gives the entire book a gothic, antique feel, much strengthened by Bellamy's style of writing. It's clear he did quite a bit of reading from period newspapers and journals, and that he allowed the old styles to infuse his work. This creates a beautiful and oddly enchanting hybrid of real-life and an almost otherworldly feel, rendering his subjects quite captivating.

Bellamy deliberately chose cases based on the odd and inexplicable personalities involved, or the unusual events. Many of these stories do not have clear endings. The disappearances weren't always solved; the guilt or innocence of the perpetrator wasn't always proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. We can only guess at the thoughts that went through the heads of victim and attacker alike. These stories do have a few things in common, however. They're fascinating. They're a window into another time, one we're often tempted to think of as far simpler--but which held plenty of its own dangers. They're a stark look at some of the failings and triumphs of the justice system, as well as the ways in which attitudes of the time (particularly with regard to gender and insanity) shaped justice.


[Review copy courtesy of Countryman Press]

Editorial Review:

A bona fide collection of dreadful and diabolical true-crime stories you'll never believe took place in Vermont.

Containing accounts of ten classic murders and two inexplicable disappearances, Vintage Vermont Villainies is a veritable "best of the best" of Vermont homicides occurring between 1874 and 1957. Bellamy's catalog of miscreants includes Mary Rogers, whose seduction of two brothers paved the way to eliminating her inconvenient husband; and John Winters, whose date with the electric chair enlisted the sympathies of Clarence Darrow. This is true crime for every country home bed table.

The Twelve Seasons of Vermont

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Editorial Review:

Each writer takes a month in this stunning new book capturing the changing beauty of Vermont’s incomparable countryside. Every lover of Vermont will relish this portfolio of over 100 full-color photographs accompanied by poetry and prose that add insight and meaning to the visual experience.Authors include Chris Bohjalian, David Budbill, Galway Kinnell, Reeve Lindbergh, Howard Frank Mosher, Noel Perrin, Katherine Patterson, Castle Freeman, Julia Alvarez, and others.

Country Stores of Vermont

Dennis Bathory-Kitsz

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Editorial Review:

Visiting a country store in Vermont is a unique adventure, since each carries its own particular stock of special wares and memorable characters. What all customers should know (and if you forget, any owner will quickly remind you) is that if they don't have it, you don't need it.

Author Dennis Bathory-Kitsz takes readers across the state to places that are the very heart of communities big and small, where locals have been keeping their house keys behind the counter and solving the world's problems on the front stoop for over two hundred years.

Maple Sugarin' in Vermont: A Sweet History

Betty Ann Lockhart

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Editorial Review:

Come along for a trip through maple time in Vermont, from the 1600s to the mid-twentieth century. Betty Ann Lockhart introduces the origins of the 'Flavor of Vermont', the tools of the sugaring trade and the personalities who launched maple sugar to world fame. The Abenakis were discoverers of the sweet sap that flowed from Vermont's trees, and Thomas Jefferson was an early promoter of it. During the Civil War, maple sugar was cheered as the moral alternative to cane sugar- the latter having been produced by slave labor- and in subsequent wars, it was shipped to U.S. troops around the world. Enriched with maple-inspired songs, recipes and legends, Maple Sugarin' in Vermont illuminates not just the industry, but also the culture of maple sugar in the Green Mountain State.

The Carving of Mount Rushmore

Rex Alan Smith

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Engrossing tale of how our Nationa Memorial came to be. 5 out of 5 stars.
17 of 18 people found this review helpful.

Smith writes an engrossing tale about how Doane Robinson decided it would be a good idea to have sculptures created in the Needles of the Black Hills to bring in tourists, and how eccentric carver Gutzon Borglum took his idea over. It is amazing that Mount Rushmore ever was carved, with everyone being most concerned about getting it done their way, and no one paying enough attention to whether or not there was enough money to get it done.

The Creation of a Monument 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The Carving of Mount Rushmore is, quite obviously, about the carving of Mount Rushmore. However, it is much more than this, because Smith discusses the creation of this national monument in the context of its time and through the eyes of the creators. Central to this story is the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, who was a man possessed by ambition and perfection. His is the name that is generally associated with the monument. However, there were many others who were central in the creation, including those in government, business and the actual men who worked on the carving. Each of these is placed very much in the context of the time and place.

If you have an interest in Mount Rushmore, this is a very worthwhile read.

Editorial Review:

This work tells the story of the spectacular artistic and engineering project of carving the American presidents' portraits on Mount Rushmore. It describes how it was conceived and carried out. The author was brought up in sight of Mount Rushmore and witnessed the work in progress.