Green book of the week: Om Baby, Child of the Universe by Schamet Horsfield

Today we review a green book that is about love' peace and happiness and is also working with Eco-Libris to plant a tree for every printed copy.

Our book is:

Om Baby, Child of the Universe

Author and illustrator: Schamet Horsfield

Schamet is a mother, a wife, a visionary artist, a new paradigm business woman, a dreamer, and a firm believer in the ability to turn dreams into reality!

Publisher: Om Baby World

Published on: April 2010

What this book is about? (from the book's Amazon page)

Om Baby Books are a series of children's picture books written and illustrated by Schamet Horsfield. Schamet's first book in the series is called Om Baby, Child of the Universe. It is a beautiful book full of colorful illustrations that are about love, peace, and happiness. The book's text emphasizes the importance of family, friends, and community. Children and adults alike will love Om Baby's colors, imaginative characters, settings, and the feelings the book evokes within them. Om Baby is a superhero for the planet, for love, and for global peace. Om Baby reminds us of the most important things in life: truth, love, friendship, family, community, and the potential for greatness within us all.

Om Baby, Child of the Universe is a 8.5 by 8.5 hardcover picture book with beautifully printed end pages. Full color. 40 pages. The contents of Om Baby are printed with soy inks on paper from responsibly managed forests and contain 25% post-consumer recycled fiber. A tree is planted for each Om Baby book made.

What we think about it?

Schamet Horsfield writes at the end of her book "Om Baby is the light and love within us all. Have you hugged your inner Om Baby today?". Well, with this beautiful and positive book you can't really be nothing but nice to your inner Om baby, no matter how stressful or annoying was your day.

Firstly, I'd like to say that the beautiful illustrations of the author makes the book a great visual experience. They're beautiful and powerful at the same time and help you to stop for a second and think about the text you've just read.

The story itself is very inspiring. Om Baby is everything we want to be - happy, caring about others and the environment, believing in the power of the mind and even avid readers! What we like about Om Baby is the fact that he (or she - I couldn't tell :-) cares and occupies himself only with the things that are really important in life, from family to happiness. This happiness looks very easy when you occupy yourself with things like books, adventures, yoga, family, eating from your garden, caring about planet earth, etc. So why the rest of us don't follow it 24/7?

Well, this is tragedy of the modern life, when we're too occupied with the rat race and don't stop for a minute to appreciate the really important things. This book is an inspiration to look for the right path, the one of Om Baby.

Bottom Line: A great book both for adults and children who are ready to learn an important lesson from a baby with one eye and plenty of wisdom!

Disclosure: We received a copy of this book from the author.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Eco-Libris is collaborating with Books of Giving on a new book: 'I Love to Be Me' by Kate Lilja

We are happy to announce a new collaboration with Books of Giving, a division of Aaspirations Publishing, starting with the beautiful book 'I Love to Be Me' by Kate Lilja.

We have been working for a long time with Aaspirations Publishing, a green publisher from Toronto, that is truly committed to environmental and social causes, on books such as "The Micro Meanies", "Where the Buttercups Grow" and "Under the Desk". Now a tree will be planted for every copy of one of the editions of 'I Love to Be Me', which is the first book to be published with Books of Giving.

So what's this book is about?

Sometimes, it’s tough to remember just how special you are, particularly when you face challenges that set you apart from others. The truth is, we are all different in some way! It’s the differences that make us special and it’s the differences that are our gifts.

That’s the message of this delightfully simple book written by Kate Lilja when she was just seven years old. Feeling out of place and a bit discouraged one day, she decided to write a story for other kids who might be feeling just the same way. Kate wrote and illustrated I Love To Be Me as a reminder for children of all ages to love themselves exactly as they are.

The author is a 13-year old Canadian girl and it has a very special story behind it that you can read about in an article about her that was published last week on TheRecord.com.

The book is printed in two editions - the first one contains a special dedication to the Grand River Hospital, Kitchener, Ontario Canada . A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this edition will be donated to their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

The second one, which is balanced out by Eco-Libris, contains a special dedication from Craig Kielburger, Founder of Free the Children. A portion of the proceeds from this edition will be donated to organizations that support children in need. Groups may use this edition for fundraising for their cause.

About Books of Giving:

Books of Giving shows you how to create, produce and sell your book to raise money for your causes or your charity. Books of Giving shows you how to publish books and use them to fundraise. You can help your community. You can help the world. Books of Giving helps you to get attention for your causes or issues. Want to give back to your community? Books of Giving can help. More details at http://booksofgiving.com

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Green Printing tip #44: What are the most important points of green printing?

We are back today with a new tip on our weekly series of green printing tips, where we bring you information on green printing in collaboration with Greg Barber, an experienced eco-friendly printer.

Today Greg is beginning to review some of the most important lessons we've learned in the last 43 weeks, starting with the definitions of recycled paper and Processed Chlorine Free.

What are the most important points of green printing?

Tip #44

We have now posted 43 Green Printing Tips. I don't expect any of you to remember all the tips and I think it is now a good time to review the most important points.

For the next several weeks, I will do a quick review for you. If I was making a speech, I usually ask the audience, " What is The
Definition of Recycled Paper?". I also ask "What does Processed Chlorine Free mean"?

I have never gotten the correct definition from more than 1 or 2 people. It is hard to make the correct environmental printing decisions, if you are not absolutely clear on these definitions.

Recycled Paper must have 30% Post-Consumer Waste in the new paper, for uncoated paper and 10% PCW for coated paper. When I started in 1990, no one even knew about PCW. Only California required 10% Post-Consumer Waste to be considered recycled Paper.

Coated Recycled Paper gets the 20% reduction, since 40% of the paper in coated contains clay. That means, only 60% of the paper is fiber. So, the USEPA allows less PCW to be a recycled paper in gloss or dull coated papers.

Processed Chlorine Free means the paper is bleached with Oxygen or Hydrogen Peroxide and not Chlorine. Paper bleached with Chlorine will create Dioxins. Dioxin can poison us all.

So in today's review, recycled paper must contain 30% PCW for uncoated and 10% PCW for coated paper, and try to use Processed Chlorine Free paper.

Next week, I will review Green Washing.

For additional information, please visit www.gregbarberco.com and www.ecofriendlyprinter.com. You're also invited to contact Greg via email at greg@gregbarberco.com

You can find links to all the tips at http://www.ecolibris.net/greentips.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing!

Avid reader? got a big book library? try our monthly subscription option!

We would like to remind you with an option that is available on Eco-Libris' website - monthly subscription.

If you have a big library at home and you want to green it up one bookshelf or bookcase at a time, balancing out 5 or 10 books every month on regular basis, can be a good fit for you.

The process is very easy and similar to one-time purchase: On the subscription page you choose how many books you want to balance out each month. Then just click on the 'Buy' bottom and complete the payment process on the PayPal page. That's it.

Then, every month we'll balance out for you the number of books you chose by planting trees in developing countries with our planting partners. You will receive a confirmation email from PayPal following each monthly payment, and of course you will also receive our stickers on monthly basis.

And that's not all, if you're also a member at BookMooch.com, you will receive 1 bookmooch point for every 10 books you balance out!

If and when you'll decide that you want to suspend your subscription, you will be able to do it easily and quickly on PayPal website.

We are very happy to offer this option to all the eco-conscious readers out there who want to green up many of their books but want to do gradually. If you have any questions about the subscription option, please feel free to email me at: raz [at] ecolibris [dot] net.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

Good news of the weekend: No more White Pages in New York!

Last Tuesday I had a 'pleasant' surprise on my doorsteps (see photo above): a new thick copy of the local white pages, which I really didn't want and I'll never use. If printing the yellow pages is a wasteful and anachronistic practice, what can you say about the white pages? even my 95-old grandfather doesn't use them anymore!

Therefore, I was very happy to read today in the New York Times that Verizon is looking "to end the annual delivery of millions of White Pages to all of its customers in New York." Mazal Tov as we say in Hebrew!

And the savings? According to the article "the company estimates that it would save nearly 5,000 tons of paper by ending the automatic distribution of the books."

Verizon is quoting a 2008 Gallup survey saying that "only about one of every nine households uses the hard-copy listings anymore," but somehow I find it difficult to believe that we're talking about more than 10% usage. It looks to me that it's more somewhere around 1%-2% and the example brought in the article (320-unit building in New York when not even one copy was requested) demonstrates it.

I was surprised to hear that the phone companies are required by law to deliver these guides. Hence Verizon and other phone companies need to ask the regulators for a waiver. Is there any chance to see a change in this anachronistic legislation? I sure hope so.

Last but not least, this is of course a win-win move that will benefit not only the environment but also the bottom line of the publisher, SuperMedia.

Kudos to Verizon for doing the right thing. I hope you'll continue and move forward in other states as well, and don't forget Delaware. I really hope this is the last time I'll find such pleasant surprises on my doorsteps!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

What green book you should give your mom on Mother's Day?

Mother's Day is going to be celebrated in many countries on Sunday and many people are already asking themselves - what can I bring my mom? what will make her happy?

My mom is a librarian and an avid reader and I always try to find an interesting book for her. This year it will be 'Sustainable Sushi' by Casson Trenor. In any event, a book is always a great gift and we want to help you with recommendations on the best green book to give your mom this Mother's Day.

We chose ten books from the ones we covered on our blog, which we believe will be a great fit to ten different types of moms we detailed below.

1. For the fashionable mother -

Green is the New Black: How to Change the World with Style by Tamsin Blanchard

Is your mother into fashion, but needs an introduction to eco-fashion? well, this is a great book to start the eco-fashion journey with.

Tamsin Blanchard, the Style Director of Telegraph Magazine and a longtime fashion journalist, wrote a guide on how to green up your lifestyle, without compromising on style, quality, being fashionable, etc. She is focusing on topics such as eco-fashion, eco-style, eco-friendly shoes and bags and getting the (green) look. In addition the book also presents the alternative way to be green and fashionable - DIY.

2. For the shopping mother -

Big Green Purse - Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World by Diane MacEachern

If your mother is in charge of shopping in the house, this is the perfect book for her. It will show her how she can change the world with a simple but deadly weapon: her purse.

This book is a call-to-action for women to use their power as buyers (women spend 85 percent of every dollar in the marketplace) to make a difference. MacEachern's message is simple but revolutionary: if women harness the "power of their purse" and intentionally shift their spending money to commodities that have the greatest environmental benefit, they can create a cleaner, greener world.

3. For the Jeff Garlin's fan mother -

My Footprint: Carrying the Weight of the World (audiobook) by Jeff Garlin

How do you know if your mother a fan of Jeff Garlin? Very simple. Does she watch ''Curb Your Enthusiasm', where he co-stars with "Seinfeld" creator Larry David? if your reply is Yes, then you can be positive your mother is a Garlin's fan!

Jeff Garlin is a funny guy. Well, he's a comedian. But he's also a serious guy and in August 2008 he decided to set up an impressive goal: Reducing both his physical and carbon footprint. His journey is documented in a new and extremely funny audiobook released by Simon & Simon Audio. Read by the author, with a special guest appearance by Leonard Nimoy, My Footprint features exclusive audio material unavailable in any other format.

4. For the food (and cooking) loving mother -

100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon

This book can change your mom's kitchen for good. The 100-Mile Diet begins in a cottage in the Canadian wilderness with no light, fridge, car or hot water; After an inspired meal gathered only from the wild, Alisa and James launched a year-long diet of food only found within 100 miles of their home. They found themselves returning from their cottage not starving, but with armfuls more food than they arrived with.

It wouldn’t be easy. Stepping outside the industrial food system, Smith and MacKinnon found themselves relying on World War II-era cookbooks and maverick farmers who refuse to play by the rules of a global economy. They bargained for sacred squash at a suburban Buddhist temple, discovered the true sweetness of honey, and learned the lost history of dozens of varieties of local wheat. What began as a struggle slowly transformed into one of the deepest pleasures of their lives.

5. For the suburban mother -

Farewell My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living by Doug Fine

Here's a book about the experiences of a guy who exchanged the suburbs he grew up in into a farm life in New Mexico. Maybe it will convince your mother to follow suit..

Like many Americans, Doug Fine enjoys his creature comforts, but he also knows full well they keep him addicted to oil. So he wonders: Is it possible to keep his Netflix and his car, his Wi-Fi and his subwoofers, and still reduce his carbon footprint? In an attempt to find out, Fine up and moves to a remote ranch in New Mexico, where he brazenly vows to grow his own food, use sunlight to power his world, and drive on restaurant grease. Both a hilarious romp and an inspiring call to action, 'Farewell, My Subaru' makes a profound statement about trading today’s instant gratifications for a deeper, more enduring kind of satisfaction.

6. For the small business owner mother -

Greening Your Small Business: How to Improve Your Bottom Line, Grow Your Brand, Satisfy Your Customers - and Save the Planet by Jennifer Kaplan

Does your mother own (or work in) a small business? this book is the ultimate resource for small business owners who want to go green without going broke. With this great book in hand, not only your mom will thank you, but all of her small business!

Greening Your Small Business is the definitive resourcerce for those who want their small businesses to be cutting- edge, competitive, profitable, and eco-conscious. Filled with stories from small business owners of all stripes, Greening Your Small Business addresses every aspect of going green, from basics such as recycling, reducing waste, energy efficiency, and reducing the IT footprint, to more in-depth concerns such as green marketing and communications, green business travel, and green employee benefits.

7. For the busy mother -

The Armchair Environmentalist by Karen Christensen

Everyone are busy, especially moms. This is the book to show them how going green is not necessarily time consuming.

The Armchair Environmentalist is “a three minute-a-day action plan to save the world.” It focuses on what individuals can do to reduce their use of energy and water and create a healthier environment at home and at work. It is an easy read and chocked full of cute pictures and graphics. Printed on 100% recycled paper, this little book can fit easily into a briefcase or handbag, making it that much easier to take the info "to go".

8. For the mother with a big carbon footprint -

How to live a low-carbon life: the individual's guide to stopping climate change by Chris Goodball

How big is your mom's carbon footprint? don't know but wants to help her reduce it anyway? here's the guide she'll need.

A handbook for cutting your carbon footprint and bills, written by a former director at consumer champion Which?. It’s ideal for anyone at the early stage of greening up their life when you want the facts, and you want a cash-saving incentive to help you get motivated. Goodall’s book has a sufficient depth of detail to help your mom make decisions and shopping choices to cut her carbon emissions, instead of general and ultimately unhelpful advice like “drive less”, “use less energy” or “shop greener.”

9. For the mother who wants to be an urban farmer -

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter

Does your mom secretly dream on growing vegetables and maybe some animal farms, or in other words, on becoming an urban farmer? If she does, this book, who was described by Michael Pollan as 'edgy, moving and hilarious' is the one for her.

An unforgettably charming memoir, Farm City is full of hilarious moments, fascinating farmer's tips, and a great deal of heart. When Novella Carpenter-captivated by the idea of backyard self-sufficiency- moved to inner city Oakland and discovered a weed-choked, garbage- strewn abandoned lot next door to her house, she closed her eyes and pictured heirloom tomatoes and a chicken coop. The story of how her urban farm grew from a few chickens to one populated with turkeys, geese, rabbits, ducks, and two three-hundred-pound pigs will capture the imagination of anyone who has ever considered leaving the city behind for a more natural lifestyle.

10. For the mother who would like a good green guide -

Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products, and Services by Adria Vasil

This book is for every mom who wants to go green and start living in an eco-friendly way and needs a good guide for this long journey. This excellent guide is the best green compass you can give her - it's thorough, useful and funny!

Ecoholic is an eye-opening guide to decoding the green from the greenwashed in the maze of products lining our shelves. Unlike other eco guidebooks, Ecoholic names names and gives you the dirt on what not to buy and why, as well as the dish on the most sustainable food, the greenest clothes, beauty products, home supplies, banking choices, sports gear, kids stuff and much much more. And yes, it will even take the toxins out of your love life. Ecoholic is a witty and indispensable guide to the small eco choices that make the biggest difference. No wonder reviewers have called this "sassy eco-bible" your " sacred text when it comes to making any life decisions."

If you choose to give your mother a book as a gift, you are more than welcome to balance it out with Eco-Libris, add our sticker to the book and make it the perfect green gift for Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book your read!

Green book of the week - TIME Great Discoveries: Explorations that Changed History

This week we have on our weekly green book series a guest review of Dr. Patrick Meyer.

TIME Great Discoveries: Explorations that Changed History

Reviewed by: Patrick E. Meyer, Ph.D.

TIME Great Discoveries (Retail $29.99, Time Inc. Home Entertainment, 2009, Hardcover, 144 pages, ISBN 1603200835) is a large format coffee table book that demonstrates TIME’s commitment to high-quality, educational, and visually stunning entertainment. A compendium of many of the most important discoveries and explorations in modern history, the publication covers famous and lesser-known topics, providing an excellent balance between fairly well-known subjects and discoveries that may be entirely new to most casual readers.

The overall production quality is excellent, featuring vivid high-resolution glossy images, many of which fill the large 10.5 by 12 inch pages, others of which span both pages, for example the magnificent panoramic presentation of Pueblo Great Houses in Grand Canyon National Park or the engrossing image of the aftermath of an earthquake’s destruction in Italy’s Abruzzo region. The book holds together well; after a couple months on my coffee table, handled by numerous onlookers, the book’s spine remains tight and pages crisp, demonstrating quality craftsmanship.

TIME provides fascinating overviews of even the lesser-known discoveries, for example, the section discussing Britain’s Sutton Hoo burial mound, which contains the buried monarch King Rædwald who died around A.D. 624. This section contains a detailed background narrative on the historical and religious characteristics of the era not only when Rædwald lived, but also when the discoveries were made earlier in the 20^th century. Through text and high-quality images, the book superbly paints for the reader mental images of these eras, allowing the reader to be engrossed in the content.

The book has an enjoyable mix of new and old discoveries, for example dedicating a few pages to the adventures and discoveries of Lewis and Clark at the turn of the 19^th century, while also housing an impressive discussion on space exploration and discoveries made since the turn of the 21^st century. The variety presented in the book is impressive, obviously requiring the writers and editors to have had knowledge of both modern and classic explorations.

TIME also explains to the reader the meaning of concepts that may be vaguely familiar but the details of which may be unknown to the average reader. For example, the book defines the term Viking, indicating that it is likely from the Old Norse vik, meaning “bay” and refers properly only to men who went on raids, rather than the culture as a whole. Similarly, the book points out that even today, societies around the globe continue to honor the Norse deities Odin, Thor, and Freya, which we recall every week, as Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday--a tidbit of information likely unknown by most.

Yet it is these lessons in history that sometimes are too detailed. By the time the reader gets to mid-book, they may forget that this is a book about the world’s great discoveries and instead have the notion that it is a history book attempting to provide a broad narrative of the days of old.

Given the broadness and variety of the content covered, the book could certainly do with more organization. As it is, the book seems haphazardly organized. There are four general sections, which present first the human-made past (such as Stonehenge and the Antikythra Mechanism), second planet Earth (such as Yellowstone National Park and polar explorations), third life on Earth (focusing primarily on dinosaurs), and lastly space exploration.

The reader may be puzzled as to why the explorations of the Vikings are presented in chapter 1 whereas the explorations of Lewis and Clark are presented in chapter 2. Perhaps the book would benefit from having a chapter dedicated specifically to adventurers, explorers, and quests. Within each chapter organization is also confusing, for example in chapter 1 where the book moves from the history of Pueblo Cliff Dwellings immediately to unearthing the ruins of Jamestown and then to exploring the ruins of the Titanic. The book moves from Lewis and Clark to exploring the Nile River with the flip of one page. There is a certain lack of flow from one topic to the next.

Some sections of the book seem totally out of place for a tome supposedly dedicated to discussing discoveries. For example, as presented, the book’s section on tsunamis has nothing to do with discoveries, per se, but rather provides a brief and recent history of tsunami events and explains how tsunami warning systems may help predict future events and save lives.

These criticisms aside, the book benefits from being very modern and up to date, especially in the chapter on space exploration. Having recently visited the famous, but out of date, National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, I was left wondering if humanity had made any progress exploring the final frontier in the last decade. TIME shows that humanity has made incredible progress in the last decade, having significantly progressed with mapping the surface of Mars, analyzing the makeup and cycles of the sun, and seeking out inhabitable planets in far-away solar systems. The book leaves the reader with the feeling that space is where most significant future discoveries will be made.

In summary, TIME presents a solid compilation of history, explorations, and discoveries, along with a few hypotheses of future developments. Although the book can be criticized for sometimes loosing focus and an overall feeling of disorganization, this book would nonetheless fit well on the coffee table of any reader interested in travel and adventure, prehistory and history, or photography and imagery.

The topics are diverse enough that any reader would likely find something of interest and value. With a retail price of less than $30 and a current Amazon.com price of about $20, this book is a steal with value well exceeding cost of the book itself. I confidently give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars and overall recommendation.