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Another book in my permaculture research, this in-depth guide is definitely going on my To-Buy list. (I always check these out from the library before spending money on personal copies.)
There is SO MUCH information in this book. Unlike some of the other books, there's no big spreads of full-color, glossy photos (which can be useful, I'm not digging on those); The Food Forest Handbook is mostly text with a few black-and-white photos tucked in. There are spreadsheets and diagrams and lists, sidebars of useful information, how-to walkthroughs and case studies of specific plants. I'm not sure how they packed so much into a little over 200 pages, but this book is a treasure trove of permaculture strategies.
The book starts with a chapter on why permaculture is important; they explore past examples of permaculture, some present food forests, and why it could be useful to us going forward. The second chapter gets into designing a food forest to fit your needs - scoping out your site, determining what resources you have, all of the planning aspects. Then we have a short chapter on putting all that knowledge together and going "from concept sketch to detailed designs" - how to refine your research and plans into something you can work off of. Chapter 4 is about selecting the specific plants; going from "okay here I want a fruit tree and a nitrogen fixer" to "a peach and comfrey." Plant varietals are discussed here, as well as the different needs of tree guilds.
The rest of the book gets into maintenance, harvesting, and propagating the food forest, and the last chapter is on a tour of established food forests in various climates, to see what's possible.
This is definitely a book I want on my resource shelf; it can get a little dry at points, but there is so much knowledge here. One thing I really liked was the diagram of tree shapes - if one tree says it has a conical shape when full grown, and one has a pyramid shape, there's a diagram that shows what exactly the difference is.
Overall an excellent, information-packed book, if a little difficult to read straight through.You can read all my book reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
There is SO MUCH information in this book. Unlike some of the other books, there's no big spreads of full-color, glossy photos (which can be useful, I'm not digging on those); The Food Forest Handbook is mostly text with a few black-and-white photos tucked in. There are spreadsheets and diagrams and lists, sidebars of useful information, how-to walkthroughs and case studies of specific plants. I'm not sure how they packed so much into a little over 200 pages, but this book is a treasure trove of permaculture strategies.
The book starts with a chapter on why permaculture is important; they explore past examples of permaculture, some present food forests, and why it could be useful to us going forward. The second chapter gets into designing a food forest to fit your needs - scoping out your site, determining what resources you have, all of the planning aspects. Then we have a short chapter on putting all that knowledge together and going "from concept sketch to detailed designs" - how to refine your research and plans into something you can work off of. Chapter 4 is about selecting the specific plants; going from "okay here I want a fruit tree and a nitrogen fixer" to "a peach and comfrey." Plant varietals are discussed here, as well as the different needs of tree guilds.
The rest of the book gets into maintenance, harvesting, and propagating the food forest, and the last chapter is on a tour of established food forests in various climates, to see what's possible.
This is definitely a book I want on my resource shelf; it can get a little dry at points, but there is so much knowledge here. One thing I really liked was the diagram of tree shapes - if one tree says it has a conical shape when full grown, and one has a pyramid shape, there's a diagram that shows what exactly the difference is.
Overall an excellent, information-packed book, if a little difficult to read straight through.You can read all my book reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2097 KP) rated Three Tales Of My Father's Dragon in Books
Mar 9, 2018
All three of the books about Elmer's adventures with the dragon. While the first is the best, all of them are still fun and make great early chapter books, read alouds, or both.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2013/04/book-review-three-tales-of-my-fathers.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2013/04/book-review-three-tales-of-my-fathers.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
John Lithgow recommended A Bright Shining Lie in Books (curated)
BookblogbyCari (345 KP) rated The Psychopath Test in Books
Sep 11, 2018
This book is remarkably entertaining – I can see why it’s having such a long stint in the bookseller’s shelves! It’s most definitely written for the lay person, and that goes some way to explaining the book’s longevity.
It logs the course of events taken by Jon Ronson as he interviews some people who are deemed crazy, or psychopathic, and some people who diagnose psychological traits. The start of Ronson’s journey is intriguing - it begins when various academics, predominately neuroscientists, are sent mysterious and cryptic packages. They all rush onto online forums trying to figure out what it’s all about. Unfortunately, this section comes to an abrupt and disappointing conclusion (no spoilers).
This all changes in Chapter 2, however. Here, Ronson meets a man, Tony, who claims to have faked mental illness in order to get put into a psychiatric facility rather than a traditional prison. The Scientologists are on his side, and they send Ronson Broadmoor’s file on Tony, but with significant omissions, which shed a whole new light on why Tony should be incarcerated.
Chapter 3 describes how in the 1960’s psychiatrist Elliot Barker, held several nude LSD-induced psychotherapy sessions for psychopaths. In Chapter 4, Ronson goes on a conference to learn about Bob Hare’s psychopath checklist, and by Chapter 5, he’s using it in an interview with a leader of a death squad, Toto Constant. In Chapter 6, he uses it in an interview with Al Dunlan, who apparently enjoyed firing 6.000 people from their jobs.
Following a brief interlude to discuss the media, conspiracy theorists and the second coming, the theme of psychopathy is picked up again in Chapter 9 which looks at criminal profiling, and how it was once used to lure one particular suspect into an unwarranted arrest.
Ronson goes off on another tangent in Chapter 10, which discusses the (very real) problem of an apparent ballooning of mental illness diagnoses. Here he tells the tale of what happened when a 4-year-old girl was given 10 pills a day for “childhood bipolar” disorder.
In Ronson’s concluding chapter, he attends a tribunal for the Tony of Chapter 2, and Tony’s fate is decided (no spoilers). By this point, Tony’s charisma has got Ronson taken in, in spite of Tony showing several psychopathic traits.
My take away from the book is that people will have eccentricities, diagnosis or not, and the way to tell if someone is dangerous, is by their actions. Ronson himself has spotted psychopathic traits in himself, despite being overly anxious and not the slightest bit evil. The book sheds a lot of light, not only on the nature of obtaining a diagnosis, but also on its implications.
Whilst I do recommend the book, this book is most definitely not a thorough analysis of the mental health industry, nor the criminal profiling industry. But for entertainment purposes it gets top marks. If you are looking for a more authoritative book on the mental health industry and diagnosis, I recommend Saving Normal by Allen Frances.
It logs the course of events taken by Jon Ronson as he interviews some people who are deemed crazy, or psychopathic, and some people who diagnose psychological traits. The start of Ronson’s journey is intriguing - it begins when various academics, predominately neuroscientists, are sent mysterious and cryptic packages. They all rush onto online forums trying to figure out what it’s all about. Unfortunately, this section comes to an abrupt and disappointing conclusion (no spoilers).
This all changes in Chapter 2, however. Here, Ronson meets a man, Tony, who claims to have faked mental illness in order to get put into a psychiatric facility rather than a traditional prison. The Scientologists are on his side, and they send Ronson Broadmoor’s file on Tony, but with significant omissions, which shed a whole new light on why Tony should be incarcerated.
Chapter 3 describes how in the 1960’s psychiatrist Elliot Barker, held several nude LSD-induced psychotherapy sessions for psychopaths. In Chapter 4, Ronson goes on a conference to learn about Bob Hare’s psychopath checklist, and by Chapter 5, he’s using it in an interview with a leader of a death squad, Toto Constant. In Chapter 6, he uses it in an interview with Al Dunlan, who apparently enjoyed firing 6.000 people from their jobs.
Following a brief interlude to discuss the media, conspiracy theorists and the second coming, the theme of psychopathy is picked up again in Chapter 9 which looks at criminal profiling, and how it was once used to lure one particular suspect into an unwarranted arrest.
Ronson goes off on another tangent in Chapter 10, which discusses the (very real) problem of an apparent ballooning of mental illness diagnoses. Here he tells the tale of what happened when a 4-year-old girl was given 10 pills a day for “childhood bipolar” disorder.
In Ronson’s concluding chapter, he attends a tribunal for the Tony of Chapter 2, and Tony’s fate is decided (no spoilers). By this point, Tony’s charisma has got Ronson taken in, in spite of Tony showing several psychopathic traits.
My take away from the book is that people will have eccentricities, diagnosis or not, and the way to tell if someone is dangerous, is by their actions. Ronson himself has spotted psychopathic traits in himself, despite being overly anxious and not the slightest bit evil. The book sheds a lot of light, not only on the nature of obtaining a diagnosis, but also on its implications.
Whilst I do recommend the book, this book is most definitely not a thorough analysis of the mental health industry, nor the criminal profiling industry. But for entertainment purposes it gets top marks. If you are looking for a more authoritative book on the mental health industry and diagnosis, I recommend Saving Normal by Allen Frances.
Sarah (7798 KP) rated The First City in Books
Dec 19, 2017
A great final chapter
This is such a good final chapter in the Dominion trilogy. It’s such a rollercoaster ride throughout, I could barely put it down and it’s very well written. It almost had me in tears towards the end and there are some very good twists and surprises throughout.
My main issue is still with Zoey. She’s grown on me a little in this final book, but I still find her very frustrating at times, doing things that just don’t make sense. I’m also not entirely convinced about the ending of this book, it’s almost a little too happy and fairytale. Although this is just my opinion, as I tend to prefer depressing endings as opposed to happy ones...
My main issue is still with Zoey. She’s grown on me a little in this final book, but I still find her very frustrating at times, doing things that just don’t make sense. I’m also not entirely convinced about the ending of this book, it’s almost a little too happy and fairytale. Although this is just my opinion, as I tend to prefer depressing endings as opposed to happy ones...
Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated Behind Her Eyes in Books
Jul 27, 2017
That ending...wait until the last chapter
I spent about 90% of the time umming and ah-ing about whether to finish this book or not. Most of the time I felt irritated bordering on bored, or brushing certain elements of it as downright ridiculous. So here's how you should listen to it. It is not a psychological thriller in the conventional sense, parts of it requires suspending all disbelief and just accepting for what it is.
But wait until the last chapter.
And your head will spin 180 degrees to make you realise the past 290 pages was all a fabrication of some sort.
Not a perfect book, could have been a lot shorter, but a very good climax.
But wait until the last chapter.
And your head will spin 180 degrees to make you realise the past 290 pages was all a fabrication of some sort.
Not a perfect book, could have been a lot shorter, but a very good climax.
Kelly Rettie (748 KP) rated The Couple Next Door in Books
Feb 15, 2020
Lots of twists
Contains spoilers, click to show
Started this book and got into it from the first chapter. A couples baby goes missing while they are having dinner at their neighbours. The husbands business is failing and hes desperate for money, and so I thought "okay I know what happened". This book starts you off thinking it's super predictable, but then more twists show all those involved. At the end when the baby is finally home, it appears all is well and a happy ending.... in the last chapter one last twist means no happy ending after all. All in all easy to read and follow, just 300 or so pages of plot twists that make you want to keep reading to get the full truth.
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated A Hundred Veils in Books
Sep 6, 2017
Pretty good book
So the book is set at the very beginning of the Iranian Revolution – Marco is an American English teacher who’s come to Iran for a year. While there, he falls in love with his roommate’s cousin. The book is really their love story, while surrounded by political and religious unrest.
The writing is excellent. I’m sure I would get more out of the book if I could read Farsi, as each chapter is begun by a few lines of poetry in Farsi, written in both Arabic script and English letters. But the pacing is perfect, the descriptions apt – I really enjoyed this book.
Read my full review at https://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com/2017/08/22/book-review-a-hundred-veils/
The writing is excellent. I’m sure I would get more out of the book if I could read Farsi, as each chapter is begun by a few lines of poetry in Farsi, written in both Arabic script and English letters. But the pacing is perfect, the descriptions apt – I really enjoyed this book.
Read my full review at https://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com/2017/08/22/book-review-a-hundred-veils/
I read books 1 and 2 with an air of "hmmm, it's okay, but not really doing much for me.." I read it because Daemon amused me. Then I got to book 3.
At first, I felt pretty much the same.. it's an okay read, but nothing major.
Then I hit the final chapter
What the ever-loving fuck just happened?
For a heart-sinking moment I thought it was the last book of a trilogy... then I realised book 4 was waiting in the wings... holy mother of god... this series just got good.
At first, I felt pretty much the same.. it's an okay read, but nothing major.
Then I hit the final chapter
What the ever-loving fuck just happened?
For a heart-sinking moment I thought it was the last book of a trilogy... then I realised book 4 was waiting in the wings... holy mother of god... this series just got good.
Bubblesreview (110 KP) rated Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Books
Feb 5, 2019
Imaginative (2 more)
Magical
Short chapters
Captivating
This book is a very easy read, obviously aimed at pre teen and younger. That being said, at the age of 25 I can't even count the amount of times I have reread this, it never gets old. I'm very glad that they kept the film very close to the book and really brang it too life. I love how the book holds a lot more parts that the film missed out aswell, the whole first chapter is almost completely ignored in the film. Makes it more exciting!