The Complete Guide to Houseplants
The Complete Guide to Houseplants: The Easy Way to Choose and Grow Happy, Health Houseplants (2006), edited by Valerie Bradley is part of the Reader’s Digest guide series. This book is illustrated with many full color pictures so one not familiar with the plants written about can get a ready and clear view of what to look for.
I recently decided to have more plants in the house, but I wanted to get plants that were hardy, because I do not have the best track record with houseplants. This great (and very affordable) book has instructions for growing and propagating a wide variety of plants with clear pictorial guides at the head of each entry for light, size and room temp.
This guide is a great single resource for those of us with less than stellar experience growing plants indoors.
Labels: Bradley, environment, nonfiction, plants
The Hidden Forest
When Jon Luoma wrote
The Hidden Forest: The Biography of an Ecosystem (1999), he opened new ways of thinking about our forests for many including me. Luoma writes of many of the living beings that make up a forest, not just the
trees.
Living adult trees are
only one part of what makes a forest a forest. Other integral parts include the dead trees, the young and baby trees, the specialized insects and invertebrates that eat dead trees helping them to decompose and become food for others, the fungi (read truffles!) that work in symbiosis with the trees for mutual growth and health, and so many more beings. Luoma writes of the naturalists who study the forest, specifically
Andrews in Washington, USA, and their scientific discoveries of the interconnectedness of the forest.
I like this book because it brings to the fore the
interconnectedness of
forests, one of our world treasures. The book scientifically explains how important balance is for the living forest and how each is dependent upon others for health and continuance.
Labels: environment, Luoma, nonfiction, trees
Organic, INC.
The way we farm our land is a great part of how we interact with our environment. Organic farming practices may be a way we can better live in harmony with the world in which we live. Here is a post in honor of Blog Action Day.
Samuel Fromartz writes about the mainlining of organic foods in
Organic, INC: Natural Foods and How they Grew (2006). This book is great as an initial
mainstream look at organics and how the industry has changed in recent times.
Fromartz approaches the subject from the viewpoint of a consumer initially lured to organic produce due to visual aesthetics. Through interviews with leaders of organizations such as
Organic Valley,
CROPP,
White Wave (Silk brand), and
Earthbound, he strives to show how organic farming has grown into the Organic Food Industrial Complex and how much is lost (ideals, locality), while much is gained (audiences).
This book might be a sort of primer for someone who would like an overview of the organic industry at present day and its roots.
Labels: environment, Fromartz, nonfiction, organic
Blog Action Day
A note that Something to Read will be participating in the first annual
Blog Action Day on October 15. Keep your eyes peeled for a review of a book dealing with our shared environment.
Labels: environment
