Green book review: The Zero Footprint Baby by Keya Chatterjee

Babies and sustainability should go hand in hand - after all, sustainability is all about "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

But how do you do it when your new baby has just been born and taking care of the new baby seems nothing but sustainable (take the waste diapers generate for example)? The book we review today has some answers for current and future parents who want to know how to do it right.

The book we review today is:

The Zero Footprint Baby: How to Save the Planet While Raising a Healthy Baby by Keya Chatterjee (publisher: Ig Publishing)

What this book is about?
In our culture, pregnancy, birth, and childrearing are deeply connected to consumption and resource use. From the baby shower to the minivan and the larger apartment or first house, the baby-raising years are the most hyper-consumptive of our lives, and can set a family on an unsustainable track for years to come. 

The Zero Footprint Baby: How to Save the Planet While Raising a Healthy Baby shows how to raise a child with little to no carbon footprint. This timely book covers every issue new parents face, including pregnancy (what kind of birth has the lowest impact?); what to feed your baby (breastfeed, formula, or both?); childcare (who should take care of the baby, and how?); and of course, diapering. Using a mix of personal anecdotes, summarized research, and clear guidance on how to pursue the most sustainable baby-rearing options, environmental expert and new mom Keya Chatterjee has authored the ultimate resource for all new parents with green inclinations.

About the author:
Keya Chatterjee is a Senior Director for Renewable Energy and Footprint Outreach at the World Wildlife Fund. Her commentary on climate change policy and sustainability issues has been quoted in dozens of media outlets, including USA Today, the New York Times, Fox News, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, and NBC Nightly News. She has also served as a Climate Change Specialist at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and worked at the NASA Earth Science Enterprise. She lives in Washington DC with her husband and son. For more info, visit: http://keyachatterjee.com

Our review:

I found this book interesting and even fun at times. Some of the ideas I thought were very useful and would be easy to put into practice, and then others bordered on absurd. Then there were the ideas that were fascinating to my mind, but not all that reasonable in the long run. One of my favorites though was the toilet sink. The water used in the sink, filters into the tank of the toilet, and then is used as the flushing water. This is ingenious, why had I not heard of it before?  Why do we need clean water to flush with? I can get behind this all the way. 

There are also some ideas that I found ridiculous. Maybe I don’t have the right mind-set. Maybe I am not doing enough to lower my carbon use. There are definitely some things that I can change and am willing to try and change. However, I am not one to put my children at risk in the process. Some of the things in this book I feel have the potential to do that.

As to the writing itself, I found the authors tone to be a bit condescending. Had a bit of the ‘this is why I am awesome’ kind of thing going on. It seemed even a bit insulting at times to me. For instance, one of the ways to cut down carbon use is to recycle (obviously), which includes clothing. The author spoke of all the people that graciously gave her their used maternity clothes, but then complained that these same people had the nerve, the very gall, to share their pregnancy and birthing stories with her. How dare they want to share with her? At first I took this as her shot at humor, but then it didn’t seem all that funny to me.  

All in all, the book is sound. I liked its contents and the information provided. I did. It’s a wonderful book to get parents, or expecting parenting, or planning to be expecting parents to think about their carbon footprint now, not after it’s too late. I suggest reading it, and then taking from it what you can.

The book is available on Amazon in both electronic and paperback formats.

Yours,

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

Green book review - The Greenest Home: Superinsulated and Passive House Design by Julie Torres Moskovitz

Making buildings more sustainable is one of the more interesting developments that we're witnessing in the last couple of years. Our book today focuses on one of the latest developments in this area - passive houses.

The book we review today is:

The Greenest Home: Superinsulated and Passive House Design By Julie Torres Moskovitz (publisher: Princeton Architectural Press)

What this book is about?
Passive is the new green. Passive Houses, well–insulated, virtually airtight buildings, can decrease home heating consumption by an astounding ninety percent, making them not only an attractive choice for current and prospective homeowners, but also the right choice for a sustainable future. The Greenest Home showcases eighteen of the world's most attractive Passive Houses by forward-thinking architects such as Bernheimer Architecture, Olson Kundig Architects, and Onion Flats, among many others. Each case study consists of a detailed project description, plans, and photographs. Including a mix of new construction and retrofit projects built in a variety of site conditions, The Greenest Home is an inspiring sourcebook for architects and prospective homeowners, as well as a useful tool for students, and builders alike.

Our review:

This is one of those books that you sit down and read the first time. Then you see it sitting on the counter and you flip through it. Then you walk by it another day and page around in it again. The ideas are contempory and fun. The materials green and environmentally sound. The pictures and the plans are well organized. Paging through this book there are so many ideas that catch your eye and make you want to pop onto the wagon of green homes. The storage ideas and the organization, the lighting aspects, the vaulted ceilings and baboon materials, made me drool with desire. Then….you look into prices and that idea goes out the window.

First, there are no pricing lists in this book. If you are interested you have to hunt down the materials and put together a price list of your own. I found that a bit tedious. I think most people wouldn’t get that far. The only reason I did, was I was curious if it was affordable to go green in this fashion. Most all the homes in this book were huge. Maybe if they cut them down in size a bit, it would be more cost effective for the regular every day person.

Regardless of the pricing, the homes are beautiful both inside and out. The indexing is complete and easy to use as it is broken down by home. I have not yet regaled this book to the shelf. It still sits out in the living area for me to continually flip through and dream.

You can purchase the book here.

Yours,

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

A new book in Hebrew, The Main one by Inbal Malka is going green with Eco-Libris!

We are very happy to announce on our collaboration with Israeli author Inbal Malka to green up her debut novel 'The Main One' - 250 Trees will be planted with Eco-Libris for the first edition of this exciting novel!

The Main One is the third book in Hebrew we're working with after My Cup of Tea  and Natanya - both written by Dror Burstein. We are delighted to have books in Hebrew as part of the growing list of languages of books we work with, which includes among others Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Italian and English.

You can purchase The Main One here.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
Plant a tree for every book you read!

Green book review: Urbanism Without Effort by Charles Wolfe

Urbanism is is gaining more attention these days as we're heading towards a planet where the vast majority of people live in cities, not to mention the fact that as Alex Steffen claims we can't effectively fight climate change without looking first at the way our cities are built.

The book we review today is exploring this issue in great depth and is an important addition to the ongoing discussion about urbanism. The book is:

Urbanism Without Effort by Charles R. Wolfe (publisher: Island Press)

What this book is about?
This beautifully illustrated short e-book explores the idea that to create vibrant, sustainable cities, we must first understand what happens naturally when people congregate in cities – innate, unprompted interactions of urban dwellers with each other and their surrounding environment. Good places are rooted in acknowledgement of a city’s history and the everyday uses of urban space. 

Wolfe argues that city dwellers invariably celebrate environments where and when they can coexist safely, in a mutually supportive way and believes such celebration is most interesting when it occurs spontaneously – seemingly without effort. He contends it is critical to first isolate these spontaneous and latent examples of successful urban land use, before applying any prescriptive government policies or initiatives. 

Wolfe provides something rare in contemporary urbanist writing – rich illustrations and examples from real life – both historical and current. His writing about the past and the future of urban form offers readers inspiration, historical context, and a better understanding of how a sustainable, inviting urban environment is created. 

About the author: 

Charles R. (Chuck) Wolfe, M.R.P., J.D. provides a unique perspective about cities as both a long time writer about urbanism worldwide and an attorney in Seattle, where he focuses on land use and environmental law and permitting. He is also an Affiliate Associate Professor in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington, where he teaches land use law at the graduate level. He contributes regularly to several publications.

Our review:
In this book, we take a look at urban life, both past and present. It is evident that the author has an extensive knowledge and passion for this subject matter. I could tell that he has spent years and hours doing research and studying it. He is still excited about this subject to a point that I will never be able to attain. That feeling of passion and excitement comes through in the writing.  

The book itself was very informative and does provide a new and maybe even better understanding of how a sustainable as well as inviting urban environment can be created. However, it was a bit dull at times for me the everyday reader. I do think it will be useful and appealing to teachers, professors, and students and even companies and city project planners with regard to learning how and putting into effect better urban planning and land use, so that we can in fact create that sustainable city that we all do want. One that is also filled with beauty. 

The photos within the book are wonderful. They take you all over the world and show life as it is being lived now and before. They are absolutely breathtaking. My favorite aspect of the book actually All in all a pretty good book. I do recommend it to anyone that is interested in this subject.

You can purchase the book in an electronic format on Amazon.com and Apple store.

Yours,

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

Eco-Libris is collaborating with Complete Test Preparation to balance out their study guides

We're happy to announce on a new collaboration with Complete Test Preparation Inc., a Canadian publisher of test preparation books. We will work with Complete Test Preparation to plant 100 trees for many of the helpful books they publish! 

Here are the first four books we'll be working to balance out by planting trees - 100 trees will be planted for each of the following books:

Pass the TEAS!   

Complete Study Guide including hundreds of pages of Tutorials, Self-Assessments, 2 sets of practice test questions, Complete guide to multiple choice strategy, Complete guide to taking a test, and over 500 Practice Test Questions including Paragraph Comprehension, Basic Math, Algebra, Metric Conversion, Word Problems, Basic Science, Human Body Science (Anatomy and Physiology), Life Science (Biology, Ecology), Earth and Physical Science, Scientific Method and Reasoning, English Grammar and Language Usage, Grammar and Vocabulary in Context, Spelling and Punctuation, Grammar and structure.

Pass the HESI!
The Evolve Reach Admissions Assessment exam (HESI A2) is required for entrance to the Register Nursing program at many institutions.

HESI Study Guide including Self-Assessments, Tutorials, and 2 practice tests. Practice Test Questions for Reading, Math, Basic Science, Anatomy and Physiology and English Grammar.

Pass the THEA!
Texas Higher Education Assessment (THEA) Test Preparation The THEA exam is designed to test the readiness of students for entrance into Texas Colleges and academic life.

Complete THEA Study Guide including hundreds of pages of Tutorials, Self-Assessments, 2 sets of practice test questions, Complete guide to multiple choice strategy, Complete guide to taking a test, and Practice Test Questions for Reading, Math, Geometry, Algebra and more.

Pass the CHSPE!  
A Certificate of Proficiency is awarded to successful candidates of the California High School Proficiency Exam. The Certificate of Proficiency is technically not the same as a high school diploma but is regarded as an equivalent of a diploma, similar to the GED. Complete Study Guide and pratice tests for the CHSPE. Includes tutorials, 2 sets of practice test questions, self-assessments, complete guide to taking a test, guide to multiple choice strategy. Includes practice questions for mathematics, reading comprehension, english grammar, geometry, English usage and algebra.

Yours,

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

Green book review - The EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want by Frances Moore Lappe

It's always a pleasure to have on our weekly green review book series a book of a great environmental thinker, and today we have the honor of reviewing a new book of one of today most thought-provoking leaders of the environmental movement - Frances Moore Lappé.

Frances Moore Lappé has written so far 18 books, including the best-seller Diet for a Small Planet. Her latest book which was released last month is:

The EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want by Frances Moore Lappe (publisher: Nation Books)

What this book is about?
In EcoMind, Frances Moore Lappé—a giant of the environmental movement—confronts accepted wisdom of environmentalism. Drawing on the latest research from anthropology to neuroscience and her own field experience, she argues that the biggest challenge to human survival isn’t our fossil fuel dependency, melting glaciers, or other calamities. Rather, it’s our faulty way of thinking about these environmental crises that robs us of power. Lappé dismantles seven common “thought traps”—from limits to growth to the failings of democracy— that belie what we now know about nature, including our own, and offers contrasting “thought leaps” that reveal our hidden power. 

Like her Diet for a Small Planet classic, EcoMind is challenging, controversial and empowering.

About the author: 

Frances Moore Lappé is the author or co-author of 18 books including the three-million copy Diet for a Small Planet. Her most recent work, released by Nation Books in September 2011, is EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want, winner of a silver medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards in the Environment/Ecology/Nature category. Jane Goodall called the book "powerful and inspiring. "Ecomind will open your eyes and change your thinking. I want everyone to read it," she said.

She is the cofounder of three organizations, including Oakland based think tank Food First and, more recently, the Small Planet Institute, a collaborative network for research and popular education seeking to bring democracy to life, which she leads with her daughter Anna Lappé. Frances and her daughter have also cofounded the Small Planet Fund, which channels resources to democratic social movements worldwide.

Our review:
The book Ecomind, by Frances Moore Lappe, appeared to mainly be a book about balance, balance of the people and the earth and the economy in order to have a healthier or more environmentally sound earth. 

There was a lot of information on how the world perceives the environment and how we all feel paralyzed by inaction, both of others and ourselves. It goes on with how the people of the world could work together, and think outside the box, we could change the world and create a better place for everyone and everything. Maybe even just try out some of the ideas and examples of what other countries and places are doing. Simple things like going local and reusing wasted material. All good ideas and I agree with most of the ideas.

I enjoyed the author’s approach of conversational writing. She has humorous comments as well as intelligent and useful studies she discusses. I found the book simple and comprehensive to understand. It didn’t feel as though I was being talked down to, which I have found in many of the these types of books. Some of the sections seemed a bit long, and some were not as provoking of topics as others, but all in all, it was a very insightful read.

You can purchase Ecomind on Amazon.com (in both electronic and hardcover formats).

Yours,

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

Green book review - The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari by Paul Theroux

Africa is dear to our heart, which is why we're so proud to have one of our planting partners  RIPPLE Africa, operating in Malawi, Africa. This is also why we're so happy to review a special book on a special journey in this troubled and beautiful continent.

Our book for this week is:

The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari by Paul Theroux (publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

What this book is about?
Following the success of the acclaimed Ghost Train to the Eastern Star and The Great Railway Bazaar, The Last Train to Zona Verde is an ode to the last African journey of the world's most celebrated travel writer.

“Happy again, back in the kingdom of light,” writes Paul Theroux as he sets out on a new journey through the continent he knows and loves best. Theroux first came to Africa as a twenty-two-year-old Peace Corps volunteer, and the pull of the vast land never left him. Now he returns, after fifty years on the road, to explore the little-traveled territory of western Africa and to take stock both of the place and of himself.

His odyssey takes him northward from Cape Town, through South Africa and Namibia, then on into Angola, wishing to head farther still until he reaches the end of the line. Journeying alone through the greenest continent, Theroux encounters a world increasingly removed from both the itineraries of tourists and the hopes of postcolonial independence movements. Leaving the Cape Town townships, traversing the Namibian bush, passing the browsing cattle of the great sunbaked heartland of the savanna, Theroux crosses “the Red Line” into a different Africa: “the improvised, slapped-together Africa of tumbled fences and cooking fires, of mud and thatch,” of heat and poverty, and of roadblocks, mobs, and anarchy. After 2,500 arduous miles, he comes to the end of his journey in more ways than one, a decision he chronicles with typically unsparing honesty in a chapter called “What Am I Doing Here?”

Vivid, witty, and beautifully evocative, The Last Train to Zona Verde is a fitting final African adventure from the writer whose gimlet eye and effortless prose have brought the world to generations of readers. 

About the author: 

Paul Theroux is the author of many highly acclaimed books. His novels include The Lower River and The Mosquito Coast, and his renowned travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star and Dark Star Safari. He lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod. 

Our review:

The Last Train to Zona Verde by Paul Theroux was read with mixed feelings. I had a bit of awe, a bit of jealousy, and a bit of fear for this writer. He is one of the true and real travel writers. He goes to the places he writes about and tells you of his visit in fine and colorful detail. He has a fantastic voice and tells the story with such life that at times you forget that it’s not fiction. I wish I could see some of the things he has seen and wish I could forget some of the things I have learned from him.

On this journey, Paul spent his time roaming through parts of Africa that frankly I had to hunt down on a map to find: the bush country or Zona Verde, Cape Town, Botswana, and Namibia are just a few. This is not simply a story about the landscape, but actual events that he saw or lived, such as: the people; or the wildlife and landscape destruction that we all know about, but don’t actually see face to face in our own everyday lives; or the government’s blasé indifference to the state of the things. Then it all ends, so fast and so unexpectedly. I felt his strong emotions about having to quit his adventure before he had planned, thanks only to violent militant actions.

I wish I could come up with a better word, but this book was simply very well done. You can purchase the book on Amazon.com (in both electronic and hardcover formats).

Yours,

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