Green book review (and a giveaway!): Closer to the Ground by Dylan Tomine

I'm sure you've heard of outdoor clothing company Patagonia. For 40 years, they have outfitted hardcore climbers to casual day hikers. But puffy jackets and fleece-wear aside: did you know that Patagonia is also in the book business?

We are excited to share with you today one of Patagonia Books' brand new eBook offerings, and we're even more excited to have a giveaway of one digital copy of the book we're reviewing today! See details below.

So today we have the pleasure to review a great book from Patagonia Books: Closer to the Ground by Dylan Tomine.

What this book is about?
Closer to the Ground is the deeply personal story of a father learning to share his love of nature with his children, not through the indoor lens of words or pictures, but directly, palpably, by exploring the natural world as they forage, cook and eat from the woods and sea.

This compelling, masterfully written tale follows Dylan Tomine and his family through four seasons as they hunt chanterelles, fish for salmon, dig clams and gather at the kitchen table, mouths watering, to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Closer to the Ground captures the beauty and surprise of the natural world—and the ways it teaches us how to live—with humor, gratitude and a nose for adventure as keen as a child’s.

It is a book filled with weather, natural history and many delicious meals. A compelling story of raising children to know the natural world. Captures the adventure of foraging, cooking and eating close to home. Finely crafted narrative of outdoor life through the seasons. Originally published 2012; eBook published 2012.

Our review:
I live a fine line between city and country. I work in the city, but live very differently, within my rural property. It’s one of those fine lines in life. The book, Closer to the Ground , by Dylan Tomine, is a book on how he and his wife and two children don’t live that fine line. They instead live the life of nature as best they can.

I’m a bit jealous to be honest. In this book we get to spend a year of this life as a fly on the wall watching and learning and wondering if we could do it ourselves and do it even half as well as they do. The life stories of crabbing and clamming and digging for oysters; the constant worry and year round back breaking work of putting up wood for heat; the mushroom and yes, deer hunting; fishing for salmon and anything and everything else in season; gardening and “gathering”, the good, the bad, the tearful. We follow along to see and feel both the wins and the losses of each of these events.

As the reader, we get to meet fun and interesting people, both in passing and through memories. There is a chapter / inner debate on the benefits and detriments in our world footprint featuring a Prius and an old beat up Montero. The issues are there. The worries of the world are there. They are more palatable because they are not shoved down you throat with demands. This author shows you all the sides of the issues he faces every day, whether its over deforestation or burning wood for heat instead of using electric energy; or growing your own food instead of getting the hybrids and grocery store selections; or going out and fighting to catch fresh fish and dig fresh clams instead of worrying about hormone laced store bought meats.

Again, the issues are apparent, but they are there within the story. Not just facts thrown at you and expected to take root. His life looks hard and wet and cold and backbreaking, but it also looks wonderful from the outside looking in. This book is such a fantastic read. I absolutely loved it. High praise coming from me, but true all the same. I say again, I loved it.

You can purchase here (both in paper and electronic formats).

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!

We're giving away one digital copy of this book, courtesy of the publisher, Patagonia Books!

How you can win? Very simple. All you have to do is to add a comment to this post with a reply to the following question: What is your favorite outdoor activity? (and why..). We will have a raffle on Friday, Dec 21, 5:00PM EST between all the readers that will reply by then. The winner will be announced the following day.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Don't miss Simon and Schuster Audio Holiday Sweeps Week!

If you're an audiobook lover like us, you should check out the Holiday Sweeps Week our friends at Simon & Schuster Audio run this week. There will be a different prize every day and you can enter through their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/SimonAudio/app_161683100556760 

Here's the list of prizes that you can still win this week:

WEDNESDAY: The Ultimate Christmas Collection: Patrick Stewart's A CHRISTMAS CAROL, THE BRIDGE, THE TRUE GIFT, and THE CHRISTMAS BOX!

THURSDAY: A Thriller Thursday Collection: CREOLE BELLE from James Lee Burke, BLACK LIST from Brad Thor, LAST MAN from Vince Flynn, and BONES ARE FOREVER from Kathy Reichs!

FRIDAY: A Pimsleur course in a language of your choice!

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris
Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Libraries are Forever: E-books and Print Books Can Coexist (infographic)

We find the relationship between paper (or print) books and ebooks very interesting and important to our ongoing mission of making reading more sustainable. Therefore I was happy to learn about a new infographic  of TeachingDegree.org, which "examines the state of print books in the digital era, and why (contrary to popular belief) recent trends show that print books can in fact coexist with e-books."

So here it is - I hope you also find it valuable:





Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris
Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Pick-a-Woo Woo's new book, Guardians of Earth, is going green with Eco-Libris!

We are happy to announce a new collaboration with our partner, the Australian publishers Pick-a-Woo Woo, on a great new green children's book that was just released: Guardians of Earth: Adventures in Wild & Wonderful Places.

100 trees will be planted with Eco-Libris for this book. As you can see in the picture above, our logo is also added to the book's cover.

Based in Western Australia, Pick-a-Woo Woo Publishers are publishers of Mind Body Spirit books for children. Their inspirational books are designed to help children connect with their intuition and inner guidance, develop their awareness skills and enhance their Mind, Body, Spirit connection.

This book is a green book, not just because of the trees planted for it, but also because of the story it tells and the messages it sends to the readers. Here are more details about Guardians of Earth: Adventures in Wild and Wonderful Places:Adventures in Wild's Wonderful Places. 'Have you ever seen a penguin in your study; or a slinky, carpet python on your porch; a wedge-tail eagle resting in your sandpit or been possum spotting with a torch? We have! Follow the adventures of three lively lads. A Wild and Wonderful start to becoming a guardian of the earth.' 

"Pure delight! Highly recommended!" Andrew Chapman - Biologist, " Everyone will love the magic this series brings." Tracey Puckeridge - CEO, Steiner Education Australia

Author: Esther-Rose Mills
Esther Mills was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Her love for conservation and art are combined in 'Adventures in Wild and Wonderful Places', the first book in the 'Guardians of the Earth' series. Inspired by life in the Fitzgerald River National Park; where her husband Stephen worked as a national park ranger; and the curiosity of her three young sons, Esther is commited to reconnecting children with nature and the importance of sustainable living. The Mills family currently reside in the garden village of Nannup, Western Australia.

Copies of the book are available for purchase on MBS Press website.

Other Pick-a-Woo-Woo titles that go green with Eco-Libris:
The Star Who Lost Her Sparkle
The Boy Who Was Born To Love Frogs
Angel Steps
Ocean's Calling
KC the Conscious Came
Archie Angel to the Rescue

More information on these books and other titles published by Pick-a-Woo Woo can be found on their website - http://www.pickawoowoo.com

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris
Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Green book review: Visit Sunny Chernobyl by Andrew Blackwell

We didn't make it last Friday but we didn't forget it's time to review another green book, so here we go - this time we're reviewing Visit Sunny Chernobyl and Other Adventures in the World's Most Polluted Places by Andrew Blackwell (published by Rodale Books).

What this book is about?
For most of us, traveling means visiting the most beautiful places on Earth—Paris, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon. It’s rare to book a plane ticket to visit the lifeless moonscape of Canada’s oil sand strip mines, or to seek out the Chinese city of Linfen, legendary as the most polluted in the world. But in Visit Sunny Chernobyl, Andrew Blackwell embraces a different kind of travel, taking a jaunt through the most gruesomely polluted places on Earth.

From the hidden bars and convenience stores of a radioactive wilderness to the sacred but reeking waters of India, Visit Sunny Chernobyl fuses immersive first-person reporting with satire and analysis, making the case that it’s time to start appreciating our planet as it is—not as we wish it would be. Irreverent and reflective, the book is a love letter to our biosphere’s most tainted, most degraded ecosystems, and a measured consideration of what they mean for us.

Equal parts travelogue, expose, environmental memoir, and faux guidebook, Blackwell careens through a rogue’s gallery of environmental disaster areas in search of the worst the world has to offer—and approaches a deeper understanding of what’s really happening to our planet in the process. 

Our review:
This book had me at the title. What a great start to a fun and lively non-fiction book (which I can’t say all that often). The author, Andrew Blackwell, has quite the way with story telling in this book. 

Andrew Blackwell travels to the earth's worst polluted places but it is so much more than just that. He takes us with him on his adventures. This includes Chernobyl's highly regulated and radioactive exclusion zone, Delhi, India, for a quick trip into the Yamuna river filed with sewage, a trip up north to the sand oil mines of Fort McMurray, then onward to the Amazon, and more. This author takes part in his own adventure as he sails the ocean, wanders through garbage and sewage, and radioactive Kiev. Then he tells of his adventure with a wonderfully entertaining sarcastic humor that has you giggling along with him. 

This book was not just a joy to read, it was also very informative. He brings to light the ways that people all over are polluting and destroying the world and don’t even see what they are doing. It was quite eye opening and somewhat scary and sad at the same time. This is a wonderful book. I hope Mr. Blackwell continues to write more on this subject, as I will definitely be in line for more. 


You can purchase the book on Amazon.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Friday green book review: On the Dark Side of the Moon by Mike Medberry

It's (Black) Friday and we're back with our weekly green book review. Today we're reviewing On the Dark Side of the Moon: A Journey to Recovery by Mike Medberry (published by Caxton Press).

What this book is about?
In the spring of 2000, Mike Medberry, a longtime advocate of conservation with American Lands, the Wilderness Society, and the Idaho Conservation League, suffered a stroke in the remote wilderness of the Craters of the Moon in Idaho. He was rescued after nearly a full day lying alone and contemplating death in one of the harshest yet most beautiful landscapes in the lower forty-eight states.

Medberry was flown to a nearby hospital about the same time that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, on behalf of President Clinton, came to the Craters of the Moon to support protecting three-quarters of a million acres as a unique national monument, a conservation effort in which Medberry himself had already been personally involved.  This story interweaves Medberry’s own struggle to speak, walk, and think with the struggle to protect this brutal, lava-bound, but for him gentle landscape. Medberry’s recovery from the stroke and his struggle to protect the Craters of the Moon is a story of renewal, restoration, accommodation, and, ultimately, of finding workable compromises to some of life’s most difficult problems.

Our review:
The basic premise of this book is this: Mike Medberry, the author and an advocate of conservation with American Lands, the Wilderness Society, and the Idaho Conservation League, suffered a debilitating stroke while out in the wilderness of Idaho, at the Craters of the Moon. He was rescued after lying alone in the elements for almost a day. Although he lived, he was changed in a very real and almost overwhelming way. 

However, the book is not just about Medberry’s recovery as he re-learns how to speak and walk and to even think in general. It is also about protecting the Craters of the Moon. At the time of Medberry’s stroke, a Mr. Bruce Babbitt, was sent by President Clinton to the Craters of the Moon in order to support the protection of three-quarters of a million acres as a national monument. This was very real and hard fought battle for conservation. This was why Medberry was on the Craters that day. 

This book was two elements. The first is the author’s struggle to find a way to live and work and be productive after his life-altering stroke. The frustration and the despondency felt through his journey were written in a way that I as the reader could follow along and feel and sympathize with him. I cheered him on as he made progress with his body and his mind, as well as his life, both socially and economically.

The second is the conservation effort with regard to the Craters of the Moon. I understand this was a very important part of his life and maybe it helped in his journey through his recovery. It was also great information and the efforts are very important to our world today. However, as to this book, I found it intrusive to the story. It didn’t add anything, and in fact it jerked you out of his life and his struggle and shoved you into “the cause”.

However, this book is very worthwhile and is one that I am happy to have read. All in all, I enjoyed the read.

You can purchase the on Caxton Press website.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

What to do on Black Friday? 10 tips for the responsible shopper!

If you're wondering what you can do on Black Friday as a responsible shopper other than buying nothing, take a look at the guide I published earlier this week on Triple Pundit with 10 tips for the responsible shopper (and yes, buy nothing is still one of the options!).

Here's the first tip:
Buy only what you meant to buy anyway. Make a list of the things you wanted to buy anyway and stick with it. If you have planned for some time to buy a TV and you know exactly what you want, then it doesn’t make sense not to buy it on Black Friday if you can get it for a better price. So go for it, but don’t forget to use some of the other tips when doing so.

You can read the rest of the tips at http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/11/black-friday-guide-responsible-shopper/

Happy Thanksgiving!
Raz  @ Eco-Libris

Image credit: laurieofindy, Flickr Creative Commons]