Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind
by, Gene Logsdon
December, 2012
Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind, contrary farmer Gene Logsdon provides the inside story of manure-our greatest, yet most misunderstood, natural resource. He begins by lamenting a modern society that not only throws away both animal and human manure-worth billions of dollars in fertilizer value-but that spends a staggering amount of money to do so. This wastefulness makes even less sense as the supply of mined or chemically synthesized fertilizers dwindles and their cost skyrockets. In fact, he argues, if we do not learn how to turn our manures into fertilizer to keep food production in line with increasing population, our civilization, like so many that went before it, will inevitably decline.
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
by Charles C Mann
November, 2012
In this groundbreaking work of science, history, and archaeology, Charles C. Mann radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492.
Reinventing Community: Stories from the Walkways of Cohousing
by David Wann
October, 2012
A collection of first hand experiences from inside these unique neighborhoods, offering a glimpse at the personalities and dynamic that make them work.
The Hunger Games Trilogy
by Suzanne Collins
August, 2012
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
Seaweed: Nature's Secret to Balancing Your Metabolism, Preventing Disease, and Revitalizing Body & Mind
by Valerie Cooksley
July, 2012
This ambitious work is comprised of five books in one - a health reference manual, nutrition resource, sea vegetable cookbook, bath and body how-to book, and an ocean forager's guide.
How to Know Higher Worlds
by Rudolf Steiner
June, 2012
This is the classic account of the modern Western esoteric path of initiation made public by Steiner in 1904. He begins with the premise that the capacities by which we can gain insights into the higher worlds lie dormant within each one of us. Steiner carefully and precisely leads the reader from the cultivation of the fundamental soul attitudes of reverence and inner tranquility to the development of inner life through the stages of preparation, illumination, and initiation.
Steiner provides practical exercises of inner and outer observation and moral development. By patiently and persistently following his guidelines, new organs of soul and spirit begin to form, which reveal the contours of the higher worlds thus far concealed from us.
Steiner in this important work becomes a teacher, a counselor, and a friend whose advice is practical, clear, and effective. The challenges we face in life require increasingly deeper levels of understanding, and Steiners text helps readers to cultivate the capacities for such insights and places them at the service of humanity.
The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants
by Samuel Thayer
May, 2012
A guide to 32 of the best and most common edible wild plants in North America, with detailed information on how to identify them, where they are found, how and when they are harvested, which parts are used, how they are prepared, as well as their culinary use, ecology, conservation, and cultural history.
Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening
by Sepp Holzer
April, 2012
Sepp Holzer farms steep mountainsides in Austria 1,500 meters above sea level. His farm is an intricate network of terraces, raised beds, ponds, waterways and tracks, well covered with productive fruit trees and other vegetation, with the farmhouse neatly nestling amongst them. This is in dramatic contrast to his neighbors' spruce monocultures. In this book, Holzer shares the skill and knowledge acquired over his lifetime. He covers every aspect of his farming methods, not just how to create a holistic system on the farm itself, but how to make a living from it.
When the Killing's Done: A Novel
by T.C. Boyle
March, 2012
T.C. Boyle's most powerful and fully realized work yet-"terrifically exciting and unapologetically relevant" (The Washington Post).
Principally set on the wild Channel Islands off the coast of California, T.C. Boyle's new novel is a gripping adventure with a timely theme. Alma Boyd Takesue is a National Park Service biologist spearheading the efforts to save the islands' native creatures from invasive species. Her antagonist, Dave LaJoy, is a local businessman who is fiercely opposed to the killing of any animals whatsoever and will go to any lengths to subvert her plans. As their confrontation plays out in a series of scenes escalating in violence, drama, and danger, When the Killing's Done relates a richly humane tale about the dominion we attempt to exert, for better or worse, over the natural world.
The $50 & Up Underground House Book
by Mike Oehler
February, 2012
Mike Oehler has created a visionary style of underground architecture that is unparalled to any before him in this timeless book. Mike has lived underground in his self made house for over twenty years. He is a brilliant man that lives a simple life in a very much confused world.
"After reading this book, I built a house based on this model, the Hill House, Windham, Vermont." Leigh
The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City
by Kelly Coyne
January, 2012
This celebrated, essential handbook shows how to grow and preserve your own food, clean your house without toxins, raise chickens, gain energy independence, and more. Step-by-step projects, tips and anecdotes will help get you started homesteading immediately. The Urban Homestead is also a guidebook to the larger movement and will point you to the best books and Internet resources on self-sufficiency topics.