Reference Books - Page 3

Country Wisdom & Know-How

The Editors of Storey Publishing's Country Wisdom Boards

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Subjects -> Home & Garden -> How-to & Home Improvements -> Do-It-Yourself

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Tons of information, but layout is a little awkward 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

There is an insane amount of valuable information in this book, the only reason I'm giving 4 and not 5 stars is that I think the layout could be better (this is a gigantic book made out of recycled paper with a softcover, which makes it very floppy). Otherwise this is a great thing to have in the house, although I'd suggest getting When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance and Planetary Survival as well.

Editorial Review:

Reminiscent in both spirit and design of the beloved Whole Earth Catalog, Country Wisdom & Know-How is an unprecedented collection of information on nearly 200 individual topics of country and self-sustained living. Compiled from the information in Storey Publishing's landmark series of "Country Wisdom Bulletins," this book is the most thorough and reliable volume of its kind. Organized by general topic including animals, cooking, crafts, gardening, health and well-being, and home, it is further broken down to cover dozens of specifics from "Building Chicken Coops" to "Making Cheese, Butter, and Yogurt" to "Improving Your Soil" to "Restoring Hardwood Floors." Nearly 1,000 black-and-white illustrations and photographs run throughout and fascinating projects and trusted advice crowd every page.

The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America

David Allen Sibley, Rick Cech

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 61 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Sibley Guide to Birds has quickly become the new standard of excellence in bird identification guides, covering more than 810 North American birds in amazing detail. Now comes a new portable guide from David Sibley that every birder will want to carry into the field. Compact and comprehensive, this new guide features 650 bird species plus regional populations found east of the Rocky Mountains. Accounts include stunningly accurate illustrations—more than 4,200 in total—with descriptive caption text pointing out the most important field marks. Each entry contains new text concerning frequency, nesting, behavior, food and feeding, voice description, and key identification features. Accounts also include brand-new maps created from information contributed by 110 regional experts across the continent.

The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America is an indispensable resource for all birders seeking an authoritative and portable guide to the birds of the East.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Edwin Abbott Abbott

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 160 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A 2D and 4D Classic Text 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Originally written with a Victorian theme, it is now a must-read classic for anyone who enjoys reading about the fourth dimension. The story is about a two-dimensional being (called A Square) living in a two-dimensional world (hence the title, Flatland). As a three-dimensional being imagining this two-dimensional world, you come to realize that you can understand higher-dimensional space through lower-dimensional analogies. In fact, A Square meets a three-dimensional being (A Sphere), and takes a journey beyond the second dimension. Although some readers may enjoy the book for its historical and Victorian period merits, math lovers can enjoy the book for its geometric insight.

If you are curious about the fourth dimension, you should also read:

- Spaceland: A Novel of the Fourth Dimension, Rudy Rucker's novel of the fourth dimension
- Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So, a continuation of the geometric idea from Flatland
- The 4th Dimension: Toward a Geometry of Higher Reality, Rudy Rucker's classic introduction to the fourth dimension
- The Visual Guide to Extra Dimensions: Volume 1: Visualizing the Fourth Dimension, Higher-Dimensional Polytopes, and Curved Hypersurfaces, a modern geometric introduction to the fourth dimension

Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Third Edition

Lester R. Brown

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

exhaustive and detail oriented 3 out of 5 stars.
7 of 10 people found this review helpful.

This is a difficult book to get wrapped around. Which is good news, and then again it is bad news.

The good news is that this is an excellent and wide-sweeping run-up to the current health of our Earth.

Such topics as Our Socially Divided World, Eradicating Poverty, Designing Cities For People, and The Great Mobilization are spread over 287 pages of dense statistics and research, backed up by nearly another 100 pages of footnotes.

The bad news? There is far more content than is of interest to me - the motivated renewable energy reader. Some day I will wade through the less interesting parts, and then leave the remainder as a source reference.

The book cover heralds "REVISED AND EXPANDED". Actually, I would have preferred the less-is-more previous edition.

Editorial Review:

"How to build a more just world and save the planet....We should all heed Brown's advice."—Bill Clinton

In this updated edition of the landmark Plan B, Lester Brown outlines a survival strategy for our early twenty-first-century civilization. The world faces many environmental trends of disruption and decline, including rising temperatures and spreading water shortage. In addition to these looming threats, we face the peaking of oil, annual population growth of 70 million, a widening global economic divide, and a growing list of failing states. The scale and complexity of issues facing our fast-forward world have no precedent

With Plan A, business as usual, we have neglected these issues overly long. In Plan B 3.0, Lester R. Brown warns that the only effective response now is a World War II-type mobilization like that in the United States after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Fairy Houses ... Everywhere! (The Fairy Houses Series) (The Fairy Houses Series)

Barry Kane, Tracy Kane

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Beautiful Photography 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great natural photos. My pre school daughter loved the ideas and created her own fairy house by gathering natural elements from the woods. She adds to it every weeek.

Fairy Houses 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Anyone with an imaginative child with fairy aspirations will love this book! Share an architechtural adventure with your little one as the two of you build a home for your fairy.

Delightful! Inspiring book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This was a wonderul little book that inspired my son and nephews to create several fairy houses down at our river. Not only did it inspire them but my nieghbor and myself found fairy logs as we call them and are creating fairy houses in our gardens. You will love all the different woodsy fairy houses found in this book. Using the outdoor elements to create each one was a great tool to teach kids about nature. Simply enchanting!

Editorial Review:

Take a peek! Just turn these pages and discover a world filled with whimsical habitats constructed from natural materials. The idea is to entice a fairy to stop by for a visit. From rustic dwellings to fairy mansions, these small structures are appearing in woods, parks, backyard gardens and even at the beach. But beware! Building fairy houses can be addictive for all ages. Symptoms include exploring the outdoors, being creative, sparking the imagination and discovering Nature s enchantment. You know you re really hooked when you start building fairy houses ... everywhere!

The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants

Samuel Thayer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Disappointing for California Foragers 1 out of 5 stars.
6 of 14 people found this review helpful.

We vacation in the Sierra Nevada every summer and I wanted to start learning about foraging in these beautiful forests. Unfortunately, information for this area is sorely lacking in this volume. I'm sure the Indians who inhabited this area found plenty of wonderful plants to eat. Fortunately for them, they did not have to rely on this book. I will have to look elsewhere for a resource on plants of the Sierra.

It fills the void! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book is unique in that it fills a big void in the other wild edible books out there. This void is filled mainly by the chapters entitled "Harvest and Preparation Methods for Wild Plant Foods" and "Storing Wild Foods". Thayer wrote this book with his experience and not what he has compiled from other books like so many others. It covers only 32 plants but they are very useful plants and it covers them in detail. I agree with other reviewers in that the book may only cover plants that are more common in the eastern U.S. but the author makes recommendations for other books that will cover what his book does not...and I can vouch that his recommendations are worth while. Great pictures, a useful glossary and the verbal content is not only an enjoyable read but overwhelmingly informative. Despite the fact that this book is a softcover, the quality of the pages and binding will seemingly make it a durable guide for field use and the repeated referencing I intend to give it. Regardless of where you live, if you are a serious forager or survival enthusiast your library should not be without this book!

Editorial Review:

A practical guide to all aspects of edible wild plants: finding and identifying them, their seasons of harvest, and their methods of collection and preparation. Each plant is discussed in great detail and accompanied by excellent color photographs. Includes an index, illustrated glossary, bibliography, and harvest calendar. The perfect guide for all experience levels.

The Snow Leopard (Penguin Classics)

Peter Matthiessen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 68 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

a great travel log with a little zen 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Matthiessen is a talented writer who consistently manages to capture the essence of what he sees. He insists that he is a fiction writer, first and foremost, but the honesty and vibrance of his words in nonfiction are phenomenal. As an "travel log"-type book, this is one of the best. His interactions with the sherpas and his colleague, GS, are human and believable. There are extremely personal moments throughout the book, concerning his first wife and kids and missed opportunities with them, since he spent so much time traveling. A section about a bowl makes me sad even now. The discussion of the animals of the region ( not just the leopard) are very detailed and accurate. Particularly, sections that are devoted to Schaller's attempt to distinguish between goats and sheep. While the leopard, itself, adds a magical quality, a more intriguing creature is the yeti. I became a full-time fan when he spoke of it.
Beyond the actual journey is the constant discussion of Zen. The history and facts he gives are deep, at times. There are many footnotes. It is an excellent resource for Zen students and it's interesting to see how it fits into his life. Zazen in his tent, for instance. Zen isn't something to be learned, but this book and Cave of Tigers are two that every aspiring student of zen should read.
He talks about his wilder days and where he finds himself going at the time (metaphysically speaking, of course.) I picked up this book because I had seen the film At Play in the Fields of the Lord. It is like nothing I have ever read. I still randomly reread passages to experience it again. This is a book that changes how people feel.

Editorial Review:

An unforgettable spiritual journey through the Himalayas— now celebrating its thirtieth anniversary

IN 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller traveled high into the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard. Matthiessen, a student of Z en Buddhism, was also on a spiritual quest—to find the Lama of Shey at the ancient shrine on Crystal Mountain. As the climb proceeds, Matthiessen charts his inner path as well as his outer one, with a deepening Buddhist understanding of reality, suffering, impermanence, and beauty.

A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 58 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Roger Tory Peterson had already made his mark with his innovative field guide when he conducted DDT research during World War II. His friend and fellow naturalist Rachel Carson built on these efforts and eventually wrote Silent Spring, a landmark text that, along with Peterson"s field guide, jump-started the modern environmental movement.
By combining the tireless observation of a scientist with the imaginative skills of an artist and writer, Peterson created a field guide that Robert Bateman, in his foreword to the fifth edition, says was the doorway for millions of people into the wonderland of natural history.
The Peterson Identification System has been used in the more than fifty books that make up the Peterson Field Guide series. Peterson"s magnum opus, now in its fifth edition, created the trail for countless field guides to follow. They are still following year by year, but his is the standard by which all other field guides are judged.
On the morning of July 28, 1996, Roger Peterson was painting his final bird plate. He died peacefully in his sleep later that day. It is fitting that his final work—a culmination of more than sixty years of observing, painting, and writing—should be this one, a revision of the guide that started his legacy.

The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Eastern and Central North America (Backyard Birdsong Guides)

Donald Kroodsma

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Backyard Birdsong Guide:Eastern and Central North America 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Fantastic guide! We use it with our grandchildren and let them use the binoculars to see if they can find any of the birds they saw in the book. Hearing the bird calls and reading about their habitats really encourages adults and children alike an interesting way of developing a love of nature. I would highly recommend this guide to anyone who wants to learn more about birds of their region or has children or grandchildren who could benefit from this knowledge.

Editorial Review:

Building on the tremendous success of Bird Songs (250,000 copies sold), The Backyard Birdsong Guides are regional, interactive handbooks of birds and their songs for beginning bird-watchers. With a touch-button electronic module housing common vocalizations of 75 species from across Eastern and Central North America, this volume offers a truly sensory way to identify and get to know local birds. Crisply detailed and scientifically accurate illustrations accompany each entry, and up-to-date range maps from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology provide clear geographical reference points. Complete with an introduction to birdsong that will inspire readers to look out their kitchen windows and venture out in the field, this unique book provides an exciting entryway into the subtle art of birding.

A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guides (R))

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Up to the usual Peterson Field Guides standards 4 out of 5 stars.
12 of 14 people found this review helpful.

Although this book is well written and organized, I have one minor complaint...

If you are going to depend on a book to decide whether or not you can eat something without poisoning yourself, the pictures next to the plant descriptions ought to be in color rather than black and white sketches.

Would be good if not for the printing error 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is an awesome book, but there was obviously a printing error in the copy I bought. An entire chunk of pages has been repeated and a whole 'nother chunk is missing.

My only other complaint is that it'd be nice if these field guides had color photos all the way through. I know that makes the book more expensive but it also makes it more *useful*. Black-and-white drawings only convey so much.

Editorial Review:

More than 370 edible wild plants, plus 37 poisonous look-alikes, are described here, with 400 drawings and 78 color photographs showing precisely how to recognize each species. Also included are habitat descriptions, lists of plants by season, and preparation instructions for 22 different food uses.