Deanna Larson

LifestylesEnvironment

The best of both worlds

Review by Deanna Larson

Will present and future generations help protect our planet from neglect and abuse, or will the social and political mechanisms of the market economy win out? In The Fate of Nature, award-winning writer Charles Wohlforth (The Whale and the Supercomputer) argues that humans are inexorably linked to nature and “if we’re to imprint good will on the world, those wishes have to vie in the same arena as our selfishness.”

Wohlforth—a former reporter for the Anchorage Daily News—examines the many challenges in preserving “wild nature,” the slippery cause and effect of the many issues and conflicts in environmentalism and conservation, focusing on the ocean, mountains, harbors and ancient communities of his native Alaska. Among many other angles, he looks at the history of conservation, property rights vs. community rights, how change happens and, most notably, how communities both thrived and failed in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. “Simply changing the menu of wants is not enough,” Wohlforth writes. “[It] depends on changing the social economic and political system that values wants. We are built to be cooperators and altruists, too—givers, not only wanters. We are capable of joining in communities that elevate our love instead of our drives.”

Intellectual, philosophical and packed with feeling, Wohlforth’s hopeful arguments for preserving our natural world are also practical and ring true as a bell, a gentle pause in the noise that often takes the place of civilized debate on the topic. “Stronger than our greed and materialism,” he writes, “most of us feel a connection to other people, to animals and wild places, and when we’re faced with a choice between those sources of meaning and our own material gain, we tend to prefer fairness and the bonds of the heart over getting ahead.” Readers will surely hope he is right.

Will present and future generations help protect our planet from neglect and abuse, or will the social and political mechanisms of the market economy win out? In The Fate of Nature, award-winning writer Charles Wohlforth (The Whale and the Supercomputer) argues that humans are inexorably…

Animals

The wonders of winged creatures

Review by Deanna Larson

If an Archaeopteryx of the Late Jurassic Period perched on our rooftops, we’d surely take notice. But rushing around, we often fail to see birds—the only wild animals that we encounter every day, and a link to our prehistoric past—eating berries from backyard bushes, drinking from puddles and raising young in delicate nests of stray hairs and blades of grass. It’s a subject ripe with possibility for noted naturalist and writer Sy Montgomery (The Good Good Pig). Her new book, Birdology, reconnects readers with the “winged aliens” that fill our lives with movement, song and mystery.

Each chapter reveals a fundamental truth about birds, such as Birds are Individuals (Chickens), Birds are Dinosaurs (Cassowary), Birds are Made of Air (Hummingbirds) and Birds Can Talk (Parrots). Montgomery draws a line from her beloved childhood parakeet Jerry to her current barnyard full of gregarious chickens and beyond, focusing on one aspect of these common birds’ anatomy, physiology or behavior—the hawk’s incredible eyesight, the amazing architecture of hummingbird wings—to hint at the larger wonders and mysteries of the approximately 10,000 living bird species. Her reporting takes her to a wildlife rehabilitator in California who specializes in baby hummingbirds the size of a bumblebee; to Australia to track down the dinosaur-throwback cassowary; to New England to hunt with birds of prey. She gets a seat at the start line at a Boston-area pigeon race, allows a dangerous Harris hawk to perch on her leather-covered hand and dances with a cockatoo. “Although we are separated by 325 million years of evolution,” she writes, “Snowball and I move together, as if in a mirror.”

The often poetic, relaxed elegance of her observations make this adventure into the science and natural history of birds deeply satisfying. Whether keeping watch over a newly relaunched hummingbird until he is “just a silhouette that dissolves into the soft, moonlit night” or putting a hood on a bird, “like extinguishing a candle,” Montgomery’s microscope reveals feathered creatures with intellectual and emotional abilities remarkably like ours, animals that “stir our souls in ways that change our lives.”

Deanna Larson writes from Nashville.

If an Archaeopteryx of the Late Jurassic Period perched on our rooftops, we’d surely take notice. But rushing around, we often fail to see birds—the only wild animals that we encounter every day, and a link to our prehistoric past—eating berries from backyard bushes, drinking…

Memoir

A Big Little Life

Review by Deanna Larson

Classic suspense and intricate plots are the usual domain of mega-best-selling writer Dean Koontz—a touching story about a beloved dog, not so much. But Koontz’s boundless love for his golden retriever Trixie shines through his latest book, A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog. Koontz had always been good at capturing the canine spirit in print, and he did in-person research on guide dogs for one of his books at Canine Companions for Independence, an organization that trains assistance dogs. Koontz and his wife Gerda had spent nearly every moment of 24 years together, childless workaholics who thought they were too busy for a dog. But CCI kept asking if they were ready to adopt one of their course “failures.” Enter Trixie, the force that would change Koontz’s middle age forever.

It’s not every pooch that has the opportunity to rub its Kong toy on a pricey oil painting, or get a dish of Swedish meatballs at a favorite restaurant. Trixie’s down-to-earth joy and antics are the cheerful squeaky toy at the center of this moving story. Part sitcom, part prose portrait, spiritual quest and eulogy, A Big Little Life is a page-turner in its own right—even if every dog lover knows how the plot must play out. “Most of us will never be able to live with as much joy as a dog brings to every moment of his day,” Koontz writes. “But if we recognize that we share a tao, we then see that the dog lives more closely at that core than we do, and the way to achieving greater joy becomes clear. . . . Dogs know.” And so will readers and dog lovers everywhere who bask in the reflected glow of Koontz’s unwavering love for Trixie.

Part sitcom, part prose portrait, spiritual quest and eulogy, A Big Little Life is a page-turner in its own right—even if every dog lover knows how the plot must play out.
Nonfiction

Harmonic life lessons

Review by Deanna Larson

Oh Susannah, anybody can play an instrument! That’s the simple revelation made charmingly real in How to Play the Harmonica (and Other Life Lessons) by Sam Barry, a former Presbyterian minister now working for a major book publisher (and co-writing the Author Enablers column for BookPage). Barry is also a musician and music teacher who plays in and around San Francisco in the band Los Train Wreck and tours with the all-author rock band the Rock Bottom Remainders. Clearly, this isn’t his first camp “Kumbaya.”

In this little gem of a book, Barry’s pastorly reassurances loosen ties, bring out inner chickens and enable nascent musicians to let rip like Dylan and the Boss, eventually moving toward pomposity-slaying licks and writing an original blues song (because you know you have one in you). “The greatest crime of all is that we’ve stopped telling our own stories and making our own music,” Barry writes. “It’s just plain wrong.” Chapter by chapter, Barry shares memories from the embarrassments he’s had in life, along with a simple harp lesson charted out in a sidebar. It’s a whole lot more than Mel Bay. “Right now, take your harmonica and pretend you are in the Deep South late in the nineteenth century . . . Tell us a story. Make us remember how sad the world is yet how joyous life is. Take us on a journey.”

In Barry’s hands, this humble portable instrument teaches ideas like patience, letting go, tolerating failure, practice as meditation, listening to others and seeing the beauty in imperfection. “We can have new adventures at any time of life,” Barry writes. “Unfortunately, as we take on the responsibilities of adulthood, our fear of appearing silly or inept or less accomplished in the eyes of others increases and we shy away from trying anything new. We allow these concerns to dictate our behavior and miss a great deal. You don’t need anyone’s permission, so play.” 

Oh Susannah, anybody can play an instrument! That’s the simple revelation made charmingly real in How to Play the Harmonica (and Other Life Lessons) by Sam Barry, a former Presbyterian minister now working for a major book publisher (and co-writing the Author Enablers column for…

NonfictionHumorAnimals

Wild things

Review by Deanna Larson

Animal Life is the ultimate armchair expedition for wildlife enthusiasts. Compiled in association with the American Museum of Natural History and captured by some of the world's best wildlife photographers, this coffee – table safari is full of action – packed close encounters with some of the world's most exotic and familiar species. Broken into three massive sections – the Animal Kingdom, Animal Anatomy and Animal Behavior – the book uses the most distinctive or spectacular examples to illustrate every aspect of life in the wild, from birth and development, sexual rivalry and raising young, play and learning, and society and intelligence to predation, scavenging, hunting, camouflage and deception. Unforgettable pictures include a brown trout leaping out of a stream, mouth gaping, to eat a damselfly, a flock of oxpeckers sucking blood from the back and ears of an African buffalo, giraffe in combat and a short account of how the Marsh Warbler learns its song. But nature can be harsh as well, graphically illustrated by a mother cheetah bringing back small or injured prey for her babies to practice the kill, and a grey heron stepping on the head of a flock mate before dining on its flesh.

For the birds

A mouse-devouring predator with an injured wing makes a strange but fascinating soul mate in Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl. When Caltech biologist Stacey O'Brien is asked to adopt a four – day – old barn owlet by her research department, she is wary of raising an unreleasable wild animal in her living space. But the chance to observe bird behavior outside the lab intrigues the ethologist. "After all, theoretical scientists do not require a lab," she writes, "only a piece of paper, a pencil, and a fantastic brain." Quickly, O'Brien is killing the many live mice the bird needs to grow into a striking 18 – inch predator that flutters into her heart, her researcher's brain and every corner of her life. Wesley imprints on the scientist as he sleeps next to her in a box on a pillow, and matures to swoop with his talons and pounce on prey (O'Brien lifts one tiny foot to find a smashed spider). He fills her bathroom cupboards with strips of old magazines, calling her to them with a nesting cry. O'Brien has this remarkable feathered creature as her companion for nearly 20 years, through illness and other challenges, bonding girl and bird in a true love story that crossed species and confounded expectations. "He was my teacher," she writes, "my companion, my child, my playmate, my reminder of God."

Any bird lover who has refilled a feeder on a cold December morning, or gone out to the backyard to try to find the owl hooting at midnight and wondered, who else is as crazy as me, will find good company in The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology. Prize – winning writer/ornithologist Tim Birkhead turns the long and disjointed history of birds into an accessible, engaging look at the beauty, songs, behavior and balletic ability of this ancient species. Inspired by the work of 17th – century British biologist John Ray, Birkhead takes a fresh look at bird behavior and ecology with entertaining stories based on the observations and discoveries of scientists, biologists and bird lovers throughout history. Footnotes, a glossary, index and bibliography will appeal to the amateur ornithologist, but the tales and illustrations will thrill any birdwatcher curious about those who gather the information they use to learn about the lives of their feathered friends.

Counting sheep

Beautiful Sheep: Portraits of Champion Breeds is a shepherd's Playboy, filled with gorgeous specimens swathed in every type of wool coat, perched on delicate, downy legs. Farm veterinarian and professor Kathryn Dun, who descends from a family of Scottish sheep breeders (she helped deliver Dolly, the cloned sheep), presents rams and ewes from the ancient herding cultures of the world, evolved to match the landscape: cotton – cloud Oxford Down soft as the Cotswold hills, the long lustrous ringlets of the English Wensleydale, the shaggy black Hebridean of rugged Scotland, with its ribbed horns. The origin and distribution of each breed, as well as its distinguishing features and uses, is included. While sections on sheep history and the show scene in the British Isles would most likely interest only sheep breeders, herding dog fanciers and agrarians, the photos of sheep posing against a canvas backdrop by Paul Farnham are like stunning Dutch still lifes, with the sheep's glassy stare reminding viewers of the time when hardy, healthy livestock were the lifeblood of any village or community.

Pet projects

Happy Dog, Happy You: Quick Tips for Building a Bond with Your Furry Friend and Happy Cat, Happy You: Quick Tips for Building a Bond with Your Feline Friend feature an adorable retro design packed with genius shortcuts to bring out the "doggone best" and "feline finest" in a pet relationship. Arden Moore (The Dog Behavior Answer Book, The Cat Behavior Answer Book) concentrates on simple essentials for a quality life with tips on raising, training, housing and feeding a dog or cat, along with healthful recipes. Happy Dog also includes excellent tips on canine sports and exercising and traveling with a dog; Happy Cat tackles multi – cat households as well as cat – proofing a house and caring for feline senior citizens.

Grandma always said homemade is better, and that goes for pets as well. Jessica and Eric Talley, founders of Bubba Rose Biscuit Company, have created delicious recipes that a canine bubbe can make or bake in The Organic Dog Biscuit Cookbook. This gorgeous compact hardback features 100 illustrated recipes for organic treats and entrees including Teenie Weenie Banana Barkinis, "Asnackadopoulis" (feta cheese, oats and spinach), Honey Mutts (honey and oat biscuits), Energy Barks, Muddy Paws (carob treats), and Pupeyes (spinach biscuits). Some low – fat and meat – , grain – and gluten – free recipes are included along with helpful sidebars on super foods for dogs and nutritional no – no's. While the book's super – simple recipes repeat many of the same ingredients, your pooch will never tire of these wholesome foods.

Read it for the LOLs

Does "I Can Has Cheezburger?" sound like the Queen's English to you? O hai, welcum LOLcat fan! Visitors to the website icanhascheezburger.com add funny "capshuns" to snapshots of cats in a wacky feline pidgin language. The site has become a worldwide sensation and social networking hub with millions of visitors, and LOLspeak now extends to wedding vows and even a Bible translation. I Can Has Cheezburger? A LOLcat Colleckshun collects 200 classic pairings from the site – Do Not Want and Oh Noes! are here – plus gigglesome new "kittehs." These constructs land squarely in the category of "you had to be there," but picture this: a ginger cat hides in an empty aquarium, and says: K … i redy. u may add fishies nao. If such LOLcat mischief strikes you as hilarious, this is a colleckshun you won't want to miss.

Animal Life is the ultimate armchair expedition for wildlife enthusiasts. Compiled in association with the American Museum of Natural History and captured by some of the world's best wildlife photographers, this coffee - table safari is full of action - packed close encounters with some…

Memoirs chart paths to surviving trouble in mind and body

Review by Deanna Larson

Television producer, director and writer Christopher Lukas (Silent Grief) and his Pulitzer Prize – winning journalist brother J. Anthony Lukas were haunted by "the old depressive devil" their entire lives, a tragic family legacy explored in Blue Genes: A Memoir of Loss and Survival. Raised in a wealthy family outside New York, Kit and Tony led a charmed life of private lakes and frog chases, lavish parties and boarding school. Then, their mother committed suicide and the young brothers faced a lifetime of abandonment, as their aunt and then their uncle also took their own lives and their father disappeared into alcoholism. Lukas details his turbulent relationship with Tony as they both search for love, creative work and emotional salvation – then his beloved brother is found dead by his own hand, and Lukas is forced to deal with the familiar torrent of anger, guilt, confusion, self – pity and bitterness that dogs him even as he finds solace and love with writer wife Susan and their children and grandchildren. A heartrending envoi notes that Susan died unexpectedly as the book was being published, and once again, Lukas grieves, learns to "throw the shoe at the wall," and survive.

David Lovelace's struggle with manic depression in Scattershot: My Bipolar Family presents the agonizing, discomfiting – and transcendent – aspects of brain disorder. One of three children born to an artist mother and preacher father both suffering with mental illness, Lovelace was a teen before his genetic predisposition blew up in his face. His run from his fate, family and his scattered mind are difficult to read, let alone live through; roaming South America trying to decide his future, he gets word that his younger brother has been committed to a mental institution. Sent spiraling into a series of manic breaks, Lovelace later ends up committed at the same time as his brother and father. Now wearing a "chemical straight jacket," Lovelace embraces his "astonished mind," falls in love, marries, takes over a failing used bookstore, starts a family and begins to articulate a future where madness isn't waiting in the wings.

Control and certainty evaporate when health is challenged. Roxanne Black navigates that uncertainty cheerfully, along with college, dating and other milestones, after being diagnosed with the chronic (and sometimes fatal) autoimmune disease lupus as a teen, giving herself daily dialysis with a catheter tube stuffed under her clothes. Unexpected Blessings: Finding Hope and Healing in the Face of Illness is her elegant exploration of thriving with chronic illness and other extraordinary circumstances. After surviving a kidney transplant, she founded Friends' Health Connection, a national patient advocacy organization now celebrating its 20th anniversary. Heartfelt anecdotes from Black's life, and experiences of fellow patients, her friends and famous supporters including Dr. Mehmet Oz, Oliver Sacks and Elizabeth Edwards, bolster ruminations on the art of compassion and listening, the grace of gratitude and "ordinary" courage, the blessings of synchronicity and random acts of kindness, making connections and "being of use," lending perspective to the daily stress of chronic conditions.

Former LiteraryMama.com columnist Gail Konop Baker blasts through illness with expectations blazing in Cancer Is a Bitch (Or, I'd Rather Be Having a Midlife Crisis). Baker is served a fat dollop of irony when – right after she finishes a novel about a woman who finds a lump in her breast and wonders if she's lived a meaningful life – she finds herself sitting in a hospital gown facing a breast cancer diagnosis. She longs to be the Audrey Hepburn of the Big C, but instead she careens through mental and emotional aftershocks that fiction couldn't predict. Gobbling organic produce, practicing yoga and weighing Hobson's choices, Baker courageously places her screwed – up childhood, imperfect marriage, motherhood and sanity under the microscope even as her "good cancer" diagnosis follows her everywhere "like an annoying sibling, mimicking my every move, mirroring the parts of me that make me feel awkward, ashamed." Her guts, and affection for the occasional joke, toke and profanity, make her a deeply consoling companion on a frightening journey.

 

Television producer, director and writer Christopher Lukas (Silent Grief) and his Pulitzer Prize - winning journalist brother J. Anthony Lukas were haunted by "the old depressive devil" their entire lives, a tragic family legacy explored in Blue Genes: A Memoir of Loss and Survival. Raised…

Lifestyles

Crafty books for crafty people

Review by Deanna Larson

NEEDLE WORKS
The "haute homespun" Project Alabama cotton T-shirts created by Natalie Chanin and stitchers of her native Florence, Alabama, revived a Southern community's dormant textile industry and received critical acclaim. Chanin then founded Alabama Chanin, a line of recycled and sustainable products from furniture to quilts and clothing made by artisans from that same community. In Alabama Stitch Book: Projects and Stories Celebrating Hand-Sewing, Quilting and Embroidery for Contemporary Sustainable Style, Chanin introduces the patterns, stitching, stenciling and beading techniques of the Depression-era South that inspired her, followed by 20 illustrated projects using her trademark deconstructed T-shirts and applique techniques. Her popular T-shirts, skirts and corsets are included along with instructions for a "rag boa" that doubles as a furniture duster, a bugle-beaded postcard of kraft paper and a gorgeous tablecloth of cream cotton backed with royal blue roosters embellished with paint and knots perfect for a country picnic of homegrown fruits and vegetables. Some projects include recipes and country wisdom ("Here's the lesson: if you start to get a hole in something, fix it immediately . . . this saying seems to apply to most problems in life."). Pull-out patterns, stencils and templates, and evocative photographs by Robert Rausch inspire readers to take a stab at these inventive needlework projects.

Interest in needle arts is exploding, but this new generation of "chicks with sticks" demands quick-and-hip projects that offer somewhat instant gratification. Knitwear designers Nancy Queen and Mary Ellen O'Connell have developed just these kind of quick, no-fear projects in The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Knitting: Learn to Knit with More Than 30 Cool, Easy Patterns and The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Crochet. Each book starts with a "getting hooked" section on yarn, tools, patterns and lingo, followed by a crash course in basic techniques and fixing mistakes. Crafters are introduced to basic stitches working through beginning-to-advanced garment and accessory patterns, with detailed schematic diagrams and color photos along with "Cheep Tricks" and "Chick Feed" sidebars of anecdotes and tips. You won't find weird ponchos or boxy Christmas sweaters here, unless they're retro-ironic; patterns include a "surfer chick quick cap," a no-sweat hoodie, a "bad to the bone" dog sweater and a felted hobo bag.

FELT WITH FEELING
Felting is a popular offshoot of the knitting craze, and Kathleen Taylor (Knit One, Felt Too) has developed some wild and wooly projects using the technique in I Heart Felt: 33 Eye-Popping Projects for the Inspired Knitter. Throwing a hand-knitted object into hot water and watching it shrink isn't for the faint of heart, but Taylor lends knitters courage with patterns for small felted stuffed vegetables, a honeycomb ear warmer and shaggy slippers. Basic techniques for felting common knitted stitches from cabled to Fair Isle and caring for felted items is followed by illustrated projects highlighting texture, color and embellishments with suggested yarns, knitting patterns and felting and assembly instructions. Knitters who have always wanted to try this technique will find plenty of inspiration in Taylor's bright and cheerful projects.

Silver and gold are precious, but there is plenty of charm in soft, homespun adornments made of knitted, knotted, felted or braided fibers. Felt, Fabric and Fiber Jewelry: 20 Beautiful Projects to Bead, Stitch, Knot and Braid presents gallery-quality projects by popular crafting writer Sherri Haab (The Art of Metal Clay) and guest designers using fabric, ribbon, thread, cord, beads, buttons and a variety of needlework techniques from crochet and felting to tatting, braiding and macrame. The jewelry varies from the extremely modern and hip (mixed-media charms, black crocheted choker, velvet and ribbon cuff) to the whimsical (felted bead bracelet, braided cord necklace with polymer clay pendant), and sweet and retro (embroidered rings, crocheted bracelet, ribbon flower pins). Each project has a list of materials and supplies, detailed directions, diagrams and step-by-step photos. While beginners will play catch-up on some projects, and familiarity with tools and supplies like the eyelet setter, Japanese screw punch and inkjet linen is assumed, the finished-project photos will encourage any crafter to attempt these gorgeous items.

BAGS, LADIES
Fashionistas who are too busy for long nights of clicking needles will love the inventive fudging in Simply Sublime Bags: 30 No-Sew, Low-Sew Projects. Jodi Kahn (The Little Pink Book of Elegance) has created clever construction methods using scissors, pins, staples, duct tape and thread for accessories that look like they were bought in a chic boutique. Projects range from a tiny "campy coin purse" based on the old Tandy leathercraft pouch and a 1960s handbag assembled from a silk placemat and bamboo handles, to a fringed "Chanel" bag made of black duct tape and brass chain link, a modern square-bottomed handbag created from wallpaper samples, a yellow caution tape zippered clutch, a "Twister" tote from the old game mat, a "metallic" bag made of silver Mylar balloons, and an Astroturf picnic basket. Templates, detailed directions and color photographs accompany the eco-friendly projects. While most projects require a fair amount of patience, fashion-forward crafters and thrifty recyclers will find these ideas thrilling.

JUMP OFF THE PAGE
Young mom-scrapbookers looking for a muse will like Modern Memory Keeper: A New Approach to Scrapbooking Your Family Legacy by scrapbook blogger Ronee Parsons. Emphasizing of-the-moment techniques like distressing, chipboard and digital photo editing, the book presents a wide variety of techniques and layout styles from "shabby chic" to clean and modern for an accessible yet inventive look at traditional scrapbooking. Along with the large layouts, the book's strongest features are the writer's prompts that help scrappers dig deep into family history to find the stories that make for memorable pages, and plenty of ideas for presenting journaling and photos in the most creative way.

Visual learners will appreciate the simple, spiral-bound ideas in Visual Quick Tips: Paper Crafts. This compact portable guide, written by Rebecca Ludens (scrapbooking.about.com) and Jennifer Schmidt, a member of the design team for several scrapbook manufacturers, presents a range of basic paper craft, scrapbooking and card-making techniques illustrated step-by-step with full-color photos. From designing a scrapbook layout, making a minibook, invitation, envelope, art journal or artist trading card, to sewing on paper, stamping, quilling and distressing, this guide touches on important trends and techniques in paper arts.

NEEDLE WORKS
The "haute homespun" Project Alabama cotton T-shirts created by Natalie Chanin and stitchers of her native Florence, Alabama, revived a Southern community's dormant textile industry and received critical acclaim. Chanin then founded Alabama Chanin, a line of recycled and sustainable products from furniture…

Fiction

Friends, tradition and quilting make for a heartwarming tale

Review by Deanna Larson

Snow—and a gentle fate—swirl around Elm Creek Manor as members of the Elm Creek Quilters gather for their annual day-after-Thanksgiving bee in A Quilter’s Holiday.  This latest installment in the Elm Creek Quilts series by Midwestern writer Jennifer Chiaverini (The Lost Quilter, The Quilter’s Kitchen) picks up some loose threads from previous books in the series and is set the day after Thanksgiving. The women share their traditional meal of leftovers, and read aloud squares they have sewn with a message of gratitude. After dinner, they gather around a roaring fire, piecing patterns and styles that have historic as well as personal meaning (Friendship, Log Cabin, Nine-Patch, Double Wedding Ring), sewing together as quiet minds mull knotty family dilemmas and a few gentle spats break out between these old friends.

Sarah, quilter and wife of Elm Creek Manor groundskeeper Matt, is expecting twins as well as possible trouble in her marriage, feeling her husband has something he’s not telling her. Her fellow quilters face their own dilemmas. Diane mourns the loss of family holiday traditions—her teenage boys appear to be leaving the church as they leave for college. New Elm Creek Manor “quilt camp” teacher Gretchen ponders her infertility yet continues to discover new ways to connect with needy children, and Gwen deals with the death of an academic mentor and dear friend. Manor chef Anna discovers she’s in love with Gwen’s daughter’s boyfriend, wondering if his ardor for Summer just might be cooling. And Sylvia Bergstrom Compson Cooper, master quilter and mistress of the manor, conducts a genealogy quest to find long-lost relatives through clues contained in an heirloom quilt.

As the day unfolds and the flurries turn into a blizzard just as Diane decides to brave the storm to get back to her family, the quilters draw closer to the fire. Each plot twist and turn is sewn neatly together through the unbreakable bonds of family, friends and love, making this story as cozy as a Hallmark movie and perfect for the season.

 

Snow—and a gentle fate—swirl around Elm Creek Manor as members of the Elm Creek Quilters gather for their annual day-after-Thanksgiving bee in A Quilter's Holiday.  This latest installment in the Elm Creek Quilts series by Midwestern writer Jennifer Chiaverini (The Lost Quilter, The Quilter’s Kitchen)…

Self-HelpFamily & Relationships

A professor’s stirring ‘last lecture’

Review by Deanna Larson

When Randy Pausch learned he was dying of pancreatic cancer, he found himself in quite a dilemma: at the top of his professional game, with a beautiful wife and three young children, how should he check out of life? A computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Pausch is the co-founder of the university's prestigious Entertainment Technology Center and has worked with such companies as Google, Electronic Arts and Walt Disney Imagineering. "I love thinking I might find a way to beat this late-stage cancer," he writes in The Last Lecture. "Because even if I don't, it's a better mindset to help me get through each day."

Using the forum of his university's "Last Lecture" series, the terminally ill Pausch decided to distill his life lessons into a talk for students, friends and colleagues about how to achieve your childhood dreams. When Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal wrote a column about the lecture, and a video of the speech was posted on the Internet, the reaction was overwhelming. To adapt the lecture into a book, Pausch dictated his thoughts to Zaslow while on his daily bike rides – determined to maintain his fitness and minimize his time away from his family during the final months of his life. (Paush has already outlived his doctors' prediction that he had only six healthy months to live.)

The Last Lecture touches on Pausch's upbringing by parents who encouraged creativity and curiosity, as well as the support he received from important professors and mentors. The book gathers momentum with short sections about teamwork and cooperation, dreaming big, not obsessing over what people think, the power of apology and the little touches that mean so much (Pausch handed out Thin Mints with every request to review research papers).

Ultimately, this insightful nerd-optimist-dreamer abandons the idea of a "bucket list," reflecting instead his father's lifelong dedication to sharing intellectual and emotional wealth with others. "Time is all you have," Pausch writes, "And you may find one day that you have less than you think."

When Randy Pausch learned he was dying of pancreatic cancer, he found himself in quite a dilemma: at the top of his professional game, with a beautiful wife and three young children, how should he check out of life? A computer science professor at…

LifestylesEnvironmentCrafts, Hobbies & Home

Green like me

Review by Deanna Larson

Quirky actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. ("Living with Ed") was riding his bike to the Vanity Fair Oscar party long before green was cool. In Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life Begley outlines his frugal but fun earth-hugging approach to living "simply so others could simply live." Just six compact sections – home, transportation, recycling, energy, garden and kitchen, and personal care – contain his simple to saintly changes for carbon-happy neophytes, from vegan shoes, solar cooking and recycled countertops, to solar heaters, electric bikes and "Ed's Transportation Hierachy." Each section features cost comparisons and amusing "real life" commentary by his Pilates-toned wife Rachelle. A guy with a wind turbine mounted on his roof has his share of granola-head friends, and sidebars about their innovative green products prove fascinating, if not consummate salesmanship to a captive audience. Sure, earnest Ed racks up a few carbon miles on studious arguments like what constitutes a true zero-emission vehicle, but he's so self-effacing and down-to-earth on a topic dominated by self-righteousness that it's hard to resent his halo.

Eco-conversion

Doug Fine (Not Really an Alaskan Mountain Man) may have been "raised on Gilligan and Quarter Pounders" but he demonstrates amazing resourcefulness trading his comfortable Thai-takeout-and-Netflix lifestyle to become an off-the-grid ranching goatherd in Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living. Fine traveled from Burma to Tajikistan as an environmental writer and NPR correspondent, but finally settled down after buying the Funky Butte Ranch in southern New Mexico. He decides to eat locally, use less oil and power his life with renewable energy, but the following months test Fine's humorous resolve to "prove that green Digital Age living was possible." He survives drought, biblical floods and crackpot UN-hating neighbors as he gradually becomes "solarized" and converts a gas-guzzling monster truck into a vehicle that belches the disconcerting aroma of Kung Pao chicken. Along the way, readers will root for this dry sharp wit and his rosy green dream. Will his tiny "herd" of two rambunctious goats purchased on Craigslist turn Fine into the Mimbres Valley's ice cream man? Will this new singleton finally find love and satisfaction while raising organic rainbow chard and reducing his carbon footprint? Fine's funny struggle to become a better world citizen will entertain both the eco-aware, and those who doze peacefully in their home's formaldehyde fumes.

Green is the new black

Hemp shoes and a hair shirt? Mais non, says Christie Matheson in Green Chic: Saving the Earth in Style. Rejecting a recycled tire home for the pashmina mantle of ultra-hip BFF of Mother Earth, Matheson's recommendations for the elegant yet earth-friendly good life include beeswax candles, linen napkins, a cashmere sweater, lobster on the Maine coast and sleeping on organic cotton sheets at boutique hotels plus other wine and food, beauty, fashion, travel and party ideas. While the slightly snobby tone ("I don't mean tacky spider plants but nice ones. . . only drink coffee that is shade-grown, Fair Trade certified and organic. . .") targets the young and beautiful crowd too sexy to muss their fingernails planting trees, the book is useful for anyone scared to give up their luxuries while saving the planet.

Here's what you do

Lithe goddess Renee Loux (Living Cuisine, "It's Easy Being Green") radiates "personal and planetary health" in Easy Green Living: The Ultimate Guide to Simple, Eco-Friendly Choices for You and Your Home. Elevating the green conversation with serious science, Loux uncovers eco-disasters lurking throughout the home, from nonstick cookware and aluminum baking sheets to foam pillows, paint, dandruff shampoos and plastic sippy cups. Her illustrated tome features plenty of footnotes and charts about hazardous chemicals to bolster the argument but also provides hundreds of nontoxic, earth-friendly options for every room of the house, plus "Green Thumb Guides" to buying healthful cleaning, personal products and cosmetics, as well as recipes for homemade biodegradable cleaning solutions. Certain tips (baking soda not bleach cleanser, vinegar for dirty kettles) are common as mud, but other facts (bleached filters give coffee lovers a mouthful of dioxins with their daily java) make readers grateful Loux became a green detective.

Make a few simple changes without moving next door to Al Gore with "lists" for green living such as 365 Ways to Live Green: Your Everyday Guide to Saving theEnvironment. This small guide covers day-to-day ideas that make a difference while one is eating meals, maintaining home and garden, raising kids and pets, traveling to work or celebrating.

Organizations are resource guzzlers, so the illustrated True Green @ Work: 100 Ways You Can Make the Environment Your Business is a DIY manual for workers wanting to reduce their company's carbon footprint. The brief guide suggests simple tips (refillable pens and washable mugs) and more complicated and worthy efforts (industry advocacy and telecommuting) along with a smidgen of the truly nutty, like cultivating a worm farm on the break room countertop and requesting that a high-rise office building turn off the lights when the last worker leaves.

Planet in peril

Right now, half of the world's population is thirsty because they can't find clean water to drink. Blue Planet Run: The Race to Provide Safe Drinking Water to the World is the latest large-scale project by former Time and National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt (Day in the Life, America 24/7). The "carbon neutral" oversized coffee-table book (with a foreword by Robert Redford) documents Blue Planet Run, a nonstop, around-the-world relay race held in 2007 to bring attention to the global water crisis (all book royalties will fund safe drinking water projects). It's also a thought-provoking visual tour of these global water issues by the world's top photojournalists, from the immense social impact of China's Three Gorges Dam to residents of a New Delhi slum fighting over the hose from a government water tanker truck and portraits of land purchased by oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens so the water underneath it could be sold to gasping Texas towns.

Entrepreneurial spirit and free-market forces are the answer to problems plaguing the planet, according to Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming. Aiming to "harness the great forces of capitalism to save the world from catastrophe," Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, and writer Miriam Horn profile green energy innovators and investors in the "world's biggest business." They include Soviet ∧#233;migr∧#233; Alla Weinstein, who worked with the Makah tribe of the Pacific Northwest to harness ocean power, and Herculano Porto who helped halt the dangerous charge on the "Amazonian frontier" by changing the way people could profit from clearing rain forests. Reading like the best creative nonfiction, Earth: The Sequel makes a fascinating case for this "emerging new energy economy."

Quirky actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. ("Living with Ed") was riding his bike to the Vanity Fair Oscar party long before green was cool. In Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life Begley outlines his frugal but fun earth-hugging approach to living…

LifestylesHealth & Fitness

Keep your New Year’s resolutions all year long

Review by Deanna Larson

Self Magazine's 15 Minutes to Your Best Self by Lucy Danzinger et al. presents multiple New Year's resolutions in one gorgeous little package. This brilliant compilation of 573 hip tips helps even the most harried but health-conscious woman catch up on topics like health, nutrition and fitness, style and beauty, happiness, sex, money, relationships and home by tackling them in tasks that only last from one to 15 minutes. Need to buy shoes for this summer's marathon but want to save time in the store? Wet the bottom of your foot, step on a paper towel and the imprint will tell you what kind of foot you have. Got another minute? Soothe morning moods, make your sex life brighter, figure out if you have a cold or allergies, and make even veggies healthier. Got three minutes? Become sun smart or find your ideal dog or yoga style. Ten minutes? Find the right winter boots. Fifteen minutes? Check for skin cancer and discover secret ways to save. The book also includes amusing to don't lists on various subjects and 10 things lists on topics from eating your way to slender happiness to looking stylish every time you leave the house.

BUT WHAT TO EAT?
If you've resolved to work more healthy foods into your lifestyle, get all the inspiration you need in 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life. This fascinating look at food as therapy is an A-Z guide to common nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, herbs, and grains with uncommon powers. Author David Grotto, R.D. L.D.N., contributing writer to Prevention magazine and president of Nutrition Housecall, a family nutrition consulting firm, bases his research on ancient medicine and scientific studies. He reveals the history, lore and uses for super foods that have boosted health and helped heal diseases and chronic complaints for centuries, including avocado (helps decrease gingivitis), cherries (anti-inflammatory, relieves arthritis pain), cardamom (helps heal ulcers), cumin (more effective than some diabetes medications), sardines (more calcium than a glass of milk) and wasabi (shown to inhibit growth of breast cancer cells). Simple, healthful and imaginative recipes by guest chefs and nutritionists make it easy to incorporate the foods into daily meals, including Cranberry Pear Salad with Curried Hazelnuts, Spicy Japanese Mint Noodles, Steamed Artichokes with Lemon Wasabi Sauce and Carob-Walnut Cake. The book includes vitamin and mineral counts, buying and storage tips and fun facts that make remembering items you've previously overlooked at the supermarket easier.

Prevention magazine is must-reading for a healthy lifestyle, and their new Prevention's 3-2-1 Weight Loss Plan: Eat Your Favorite Foods to Cut Cravings, Improve Energy and Lose Weight is the right antidote to eating endless bowls of cabbage soup. Written by Joy Bauer, M.S., R.D., C.D.N. (Yahoo.com's nutrition and weight-loss expert and Self magazine's monthly weight-loss columnist and author of the best-selling Joy Bauer's Food Cures), the book contains dependable information, backed by scientific research, designed to help dieters adopt good nutrition principles for a lifetime and drop pounds without hunger or cravings. The 3-2-1 plan of three meals, two snacks and one sinfully delightful treat each day is presented in three phases: changing habits, losing weight and maintenance. Each phase has its own health and nutrition information that includes meal plans broken out by calories, treat and snack lists and dozens of healthful recipes, plus illustrated workout routines using a mat and dumbbells. Every aspect of achieving a healthy weight is covered, from why bother to how to keep it off, making the book an excellent companion for those longing to finally shed a lifetime of excuses, fads and excesses.

TRAINING WITH THE STARS
Celebrity trainers are a dime a dumbbell, but Steve Zim manages to put a Hollywood gloss on ordinary workout circuits in The 30-Minute Celebrity Makeover Miracle. Zim (6 Weeks to a Hollywood Body), is a fitness expert on the Weekend Today show, and runs a gym in Southern California, where everyone wants to be a star whether in the next box-office blockbuster or their own life. Our microwave culture calls for instant results, however, so Zim designed a combined cardio-weight training program that promises to raise metabolism, burn fat faster and sculpt muscles in just 30 minutes a day, three times a week for 10 weeks. Of course, you don't get Taye Diggs' biceps or Nicole Kidman's colt-like legs without some serious sweat and this program does require a huge dollop of dedication. Walking, marching and jogging phases blend intense workout circuits of strength training using dumbbells and a balance ball (illustrated with black-and-white photos) interspersed with cardio moves, and Zim also presents a brief but good nutrition plan. While those easing into activity could be discouraged by this program, Zim's promises of Hollywood looks on a mere mortal's schedule will certainly motivate those who find themselves in a fitness rut.

More than 40 percent of women ages 55-74 are unable to lift 10 pounds, according to celebrity trainer Kacy Duke (whose clients include Julianne Moore, Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis and Gwen Stefani). That women accept this as a natural part of aging is B.S. according to Duke, who busts out the sistah moves to get self-esteem as well as weak muscles whipped into shape in The Show it Love Workout: Celebrate the Body You Have, Get the Body You Want, co-written with health and fitness writer Selene Yeager. Presenting her signature Woman Warrior Workout with its I Am, I Can, I Do philosophy, Duke's refreshingly up-front advice refashions a workout into a three-part boot camp for emotions, body image and diet, as well as physical self.

I Am looks at the power of the mind-body connection (Duke highlights a study that demonstrated merely thinking about exercising a muscle actually made it stronger). I Can gets the motivation mojo working and I Do focuses on movement after the mental foundation has been established. Pictures of Duke doing the workout moves appropriate for each stage (some brandishing a staff) are also included along with sensible nutrition advice (go on, call Dr. Godiva when needed) and some healthful recipes. The daily get through anything guide at the back keeps the newly-fit on track with short workouts for stressors like the post-baby blues, getting dumped or fired, having a bad day or feeling bored. The entire program can be done in a living room or the gym, and Duke excels at encouraging women to find what they love whether that's a treadmill, gymnastics or flamenco dancing and pushing beyond comfort to a new belief, motivation and strength.

Self Magazine's 15 Minutes to Your Best Self by Lucy Danzinger et al. presents multiple New Year's resolutions in one gorgeous little package. This brilliant compilation of 573 hip tips helps even the most harried but health-conscious woman catch up on topics like health, nutrition…

Memoir

Danticat’s story of family and loss

Review by Deanna Larson

Family can be inscrutable, a mystery sometimes better solved by describing events than by analyzing motives. Edwidge Danticat (Breath, Eyes, Memory; The Dew Breaker) describes her family history in Brother, I'm Dying with a dispassion that only adds to the drama of childhood memories and snippets of family lore learned out of sequence and in fragments. Opening with the news that she's pregnant with her first child, Danticat now married and living in Miami uses that pivotal moment to travel back and forth from the recent past into a childhood of abandonment and violence in Haiti. Love and danger blend together as she is brought up by an aunt and minister-uncle in a hilltop neighborhood overlooking Port-au-Prince harbor.

With intense, weary affection, Danticat details the close relationship between her father, his brother and the daughter Edwidge they raised together across a sea, recreating a few wonderous and terrible months when their lives and mine intersected in startling ways, forcing me to look forward and back in both celebration and despair. The despair is caused both by civil uprisings in Port-au-Prince and the upheaval in her family. Young Danticat lives orphaned among a sibling, aunt, uncle, far-flung cousins and disenfranchised neighbors, abandoned by parents who emigrated to New York. Adrift in poverty and exile, her father and uncle remain devotedly bound to each other and family, despite their infrequent communications (phones are hard to come by in Haiti) and differing views of the future.

Danticat's father left to become a taxi driver in New York because he didn't see a future in Haiti, and her uncle stubbornly remained behind despite the dangers because he couldn't abandon his role in the island's future. Eventually, Edwidge and her brother join the family (and two new siblings) in New York, but leaving her beloved uncle and her homeland prove difficult. The brutalities of war and immigration and the grace of strong family ties are scorched into Danticat's intimate and aching story.

Family can be inscrutable, a mystery sometimes better solved by describing events than by analyzing motives. Edwidge Danticat (Breath, Eyes, Memory; The Dew Breaker) describes her family history in Brother, I'm Dying with a dispassion that only adds to the drama of childhood memories and snippets…

PhotographyArts & Culture

Bella Tuscany

Review by Deanna Larson

Ever since she decided to buy the rundown farmhouse Bramasole and document her adventures in Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes has turned a twist of fate into a one-woman promotional machine for la dolce vita. Her latest book, Bringing Tuscany Home: Sensuous Style From the Heart of Italy, is another astutely observed memoir about life alla Italiana. Writing with her husband Edward, this time Mayes explores historic renovation (the couple has now tackled abandoned Tuscan farmhouse number two), decorating, gardening, cooking and any other home-related subject her magpie mind alights on. The book is also a scrapbook of their life in Italy they now split their time between Bramasole and the Bay Area complete with evocative pictures of dining al fresco with Italian friends, scrumptious sounding recipes and a section on Tuscan wines and stories about growing olives and bottling estate olive oil. Bringing Tuscany Home also includes poetic descriptions and photos of crumbling Tuscan houses and collaborations with local muralists, furniture makers, architects, basket weavers and stonemasons. Thanks to her experiences, Mayes has now been contracted to design furniture and home accessories on the Tuscan theme for some American companies. While the Tuscan sun would keep shining without Frances Mayes, her enthusiastic embrace of all things Italian is a perfect match for the passions of her adopted neighbors, "who inspire the world with their knowledge of how to live like the gods."

 

Deanna Larson is a writer in Nashville.

Ever since she decided to buy the rundown farmhouse Bramasole and document her adventures in Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes has turned a twist of fate into a one-woman promotional machine for la dolce vita. Her latest book, Bringing Tuscany Home: Sensuous Style…

Sign Up

Stay on top of new releases: Sign up for our newsletter to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres.

Sign up now

Trending Features

All Features