Susannah Felts

Nature

Lifestyles: September 2019

Feature by Susannah Felts

★ Dark Skies
I’d never heard of astrotourism until Dark Skies crossed my desk. At a time when 80% of the planet sleeps under light-polluted skies (make that 99% in the USA), stargazing is, more than ever, a brush with the exotic. “Less than one hundred years ago, seeing the unobscured night sky was a birthright; now it is inaccessible to urban and suburban residents across the globe,” writes Valerie Stimac. This thorough book lays out the best dark-sky spots worldwide and contains everything you need to know about astronomical phenomena like meteor showers, aurora and eclipses through 2028. There’s even a section on space tourism (the future is now!). 

One-Pot Vegetarian
“One-pot” cookbooks have popped up everywhere lately, but none has drawn me in like Sabrina Fauda-Rôle’s One-Pot Vegetarian. Why? It could be that I’m eager to incorporate more plant-based cooking into my family’s daily routine. But it might also be the nifty design of this title, which makes the most of its double-page spreads. On the left, we see the raw ingredients collected in the pot—everything neatly parceled, as if in a pie chart—and on the right, the finished, cooked dish. Wildly satisfying, this conceit. Chapters include all-veg dishes, those that mix in plant-based proteins (grains, lentils, soy and such), pasta- and rice-driven meals, soups and even desserts. Some recipes call for a fair amount of chopping and slicing, but otherwise the preparations could not be simpler.

How Your Story Sets You Free
Everybody has a story to tell. Though the line has become a bit cliché, let’s not overlook its useful truth. Personal stories are powerful stuff, and that power can be summoned in so many ways: sharing your story, listening to others, learning to craft the story itself. With How Your Story Sets You Free, co-authors Heather Box and Julian Mocine-McQueen distill the storytelling process into a tiny, bright yellow volume that feels like its own kind of golden ticket. “When you take the mic and share your story,” writes Box, “you immediately make more space in our culture for someone else.” The title is part of Chronicle’s HOW series, which all seem like jewels of compressed wisdom. 

★ Dark Skies
I’d never heard of astrotourism until Dark Skies crossed my desk. At a time when 80% of the planet sleeps under light-polluted skies (make that 99% in the USA), stargazing is, more than ever, a brush with the exotic. “Less than one hundred…

CookbooksArts & Culture

Lifestyles: October 2019

Feature by Susannah Felts

★ You Suck at Cooking
I had just perused several stunning cookbooks, replete with jaw-dropping dishes that made me both hungry and in want of a nap, when I picked up You Suck at Cooking and saw recipes like “Toasted Walnut Cauliflower Stuff” and “Broccoli Cheddar Quiche Cupcake Muffin-­Type Things.” This book is the antidote to precious food culture, and it’s the first cookbook to ever make me repeatedly LOL. The (anonymous) author turns the expected on its head in a voice that’s perhaps best described as Super Mock Textbook. In the “Things You Might Need” section, for example: “There are many heat sources to choose from, each more dangerous than the next. . . . Make sure you choose the heat source that is just dangerous enough for you.” Thing is, the recipes herein could become anyone’s favorite go-tos. Don’t dare miss the section on sandwiches.

Embrace Your Weird
Someone once told me I reminded her of the actor Felicia Day. I didn’t know who Day was at the time, but now I’m glad to see she’s written a book called Embrace Your Weird, a concept I can fully get behind. Building on the success of her previous title, You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), Day returns with a creativity guide that positively vibrates with her bubbly comedic sensibility. If you are exclamation point- or ALL CAPS-averse, this is not the book for YOU! But she isn’t wrong when she writes, “Playfulness is the root of all creation.” Her book delights in manifesting that idea, with the help of cute illustrations, meme jokes and many parenthetical asides.

Shared Living
Our journey into the wilds of adulting begins with Emily Hutchinson’s Shared Living, which takes features of the best modern interior design books—Q&As with stylish folks around the globe, tip lists, gorgeous photography on matte stock—and applies them to spaces shared by two or more people. Communal living, after all, is on the uptick these days, with home ownership ever further out of reach. A number of lofts and open floor plans are featured here, with ideas for breaking up the space and balancing housemates’ varying styles. It’s fun to examine how these individuals bring their cherished and whimsical objects together in ways that work, and this would make a great gift for someone signing their first lease with a roomie.

★ You Suck at Cooking
I had just perused several stunning cookbooks, replete with jaw-dropping dishes that made me both hungry and in want of a nap, when I picked up You Suck at Cooking and saw recipes like “Toasted Walnut Cauliflower Stuff” and “Broccoli Cheddar…

CookbooksArts & Culture

Lifestyles: November 2019

Feature by Susannah Felts

★ Garden to Glass
Mike Wolf’s Garden to Glass, which explores the intersection of gardening, foraging and beverage design, offers instant appeal. Wolf, who worked with chef Sean Brock at Husk in Nashville, is a curious and passionate guide, taking readers into his garden and onto trails where he gathers ingredients for bitters, cordials, shrubs and more. These are featured in recipes that will enhance any bar program or make you one hell of a home mixologist. Beautiful watercolor illustrations and interviews with specialists give this study of botanical cocktails a dimension not achieved in other guides.

Pity the Reader
Pity the Reader, a hefty, essential new volume of Kurt Vonnegut’s writing advice and life stories, is certainly a book first and foremost for writers, with chapters on plot, character, talent and diligence. But it’s also a gold mine for any Vonnegut fan or creative seeker. Suzanne McConnell, our trusty guide through the book and a student and friend of the late author, exhaustively plumbs Vonnegut’s archives, revealing choice bits from interviews, letters, drafts and published novels. It’s fascinating to observe Vonnegut’s revisions (and rejections) and fascinating, too, to learn how the nitty-gritty of his life shaped his works. And it’s a joy to see how McConnell interacts with the ideas and words of her mentor, weaving and contrasting them with insight from her own multidecade teaching career. 

A Place at the Table
Now more than ever, America must celebrate the countless contributions of its foreign-born population. A Place at the Table, a project from the Vilcek Foundation, which recognizes the work of immigrants in the arts, sciences and humanities, takes up this cause in stunning fashion. The editors gather profiles of 40 of the best foreign-born chefs working in cities across the U.S. today and share recipes from each. The result is a trip around the world through cuisine, from Thai Dang’s grilled salmon and snow fungus salad with Vietnamese herbs, to Erik Bruner-Yang’s takoyaki hush puppies, to Maneet Chauhan’s naanzanella. Simply scanning the ingredient lists and gazing upon the photographs of each dish feels like a journey, something of a foodie fever dream. 

★ Garden to Glass
Mike Wolf’s Garden to Glass, which explores the intersection of gardening, foraging and beverage design, offers instant appeal. Wolf, who worked with chef Sean Brock at Husk in Nashville, is a curious and passionate guide, taking readers into his garden and…

Food & DrinkCookbooks

5 great cookbooks to give your friends (so they’ll invite you to dinner)

Feature by Susannah Felts

If giving cookbooks to my friends for the holidays (in hopes that they’ll invite me to dinner) is wrong, I don’t want to be right. These five guides stand out from the pack for their innovative angles, spellbinding designs and accessible recipes for cooks of all levels of expertise.

★ The Forest Feast Mediterranean
It’s hard not to feel a little bit envious of Erin Gleeson. The bestselling cookbook author spent three months traveling with her family through France, Portugal, Spain and Italy to research The Forest Feast Mediterranean: Simple Vegetarian Recipes Inspired by My Travels. It’s as gorgeous as her previous books, awash in watercolor illustrations and bright vegetarian dishes that leap off the page into your sunniest kitchen dreams. Images of Gleeson and her family star alongside scenic shots from the region that inspired this book, but of course the real heroes are its 100 recipes, which include mouthwatering salads, decadent pastas and small shareables like caponata, a burrata bar, bruschetta, tartines, tartlets, tortilla espanola and pintxos, which are appetizers on long toothpicks, unique to the Barcelona bar scene. Best of all, there’s a travel guide in the back in case you’re hungry to follow in Gleeson’s picturesque footsteps—and you will be.

Mixtape Potluck
Is there anyone more creatively connected than Questlove? The musician-DJ-writer-ideas guy has friends in every corner of the arts and entertainment industry, and he assembles them in Mixtape Potluck as contributors to what might be the most fabulous party ever-. Questlove asked each of the roughly 60 notable figures—including Carla Hall, Padma Lakshmi, Q-Tip and Amy Poehler—for their “super-special secret recipe,” resulting in a staggering range of dishes, from Fred Armisen’s plantains two ways to Martha Stewart’s grape focaccia. But it’s not just a celebrity hodgepodge. Questlove gives each friend a song as inspiration, noting that “the songs and the dishes do not have a direct relationship.” All the songs are listed at the end, along with smart tips for hosting a potluck and cuing up your own party jams. Bold photography by Marcus Maddox makes its own noise, with a distinctly 1970s vibe. You and your coolest friends need this book; there’s really no question.

Skillet Love
My husband, head chef in our house, uses a cast-iron skillet nearly daily, so I couldn’t wait to show him Skillet Love: From Steak to Cake. The result? “This one’s a keeper,” he proclaimed after we made picadillo-stuffed peppers, skillet salmon and pound cake. (Yes, pound cake. In fact, that’s the recipe that begot this book.) Or how about a massive chocolate chip cookie, gooey in the middle? If the humble workhorse that is the cast-iron skillet is new to you, Anne Byrn provides an overview on care, seasoning and the many tricks a skillet can pull off, from stir-frying and dry-roasting to searing, frying, baking and even pan-grilling. “There really isn’t anything on your dinner list that the skillet can’t accomplish,” Byrn writes, and this book is beautiful evidence of that.

The Little Women Cookbook
“What exactly would the March sisters have eaten?” That’s what librarian authors Jenne Bergstrom and Miko Osada asked themselves about their favorite novel, before making it their mission to explore Victorian-era cooking and share the best of it in The Little Women Cookbook. Each sister gets a chapter, with subheadings like “Amy’s Little Artistic Fête,” at which Proper Roast Chicken and Elegant Raspberry Ice Cream is served, or “Jo’s Standing Joke of a Dinner,” with Lobster Salad and Plenty of Potatoes. Along the way we learn historical tidbits about the era and read short excerpts from Little Women. What fun it would be to read the classic novel with family or friends over the course of several months, whipping up dishes from this book along the way. 

South
The late, great writer and Southern-food expert John Egerton would probably look fondly upon what chef Sean Brock is doing for Southern and Appalachian cuisine these days, lovingly sharing the gospel of the region’s traditions with a new generation. Though the concept of seasonal, local eating may seem like a trend worn thin, it’s anything but that for Brock; it’s the correct (and most delicious) way to live and eat. In South: Essential Recipes and New Explorations, you’ll find everything from fried bologna and tomato-okra stew to spring lamb with rhubarb butter. There aren’t too many lengthy ingredient lists amid these simple but deeply considered preparations for vegetables, grains, meats and fish. Brock shares tips for cooking up a big pot of greens and selecting fireplace cookery and fills in the gaps with plentiful background on the region that gave birth to these dishes. And tucked within, too, are Egerton’s Beaten Biscuits. 

If giving cookbooks to my friends for the holidays (in hopes that they’ll invite me to dinner) is wrong, I don’t want to be right. These five guides stand out from the pack for their innovative angles, spellbinding designs and accessible recipes for cooks of…

NonfictionCrafts, Hobbies & Home

Gift books: For your most stressed-out friend

Feature by Susannah Felts

The holidays are famously stressful. Arm yourself ahead of time with one of these relaxing reads.

The world is a tad intense these days. While books can’t make everything better—well, actually, who says they can’t? This holiday season, don’t hesitate to give your loved ones (or yourself) a helping hand in the form of these surefire finds.

The Poetry Remedy by William Sieghart
Some years ago, poetry enthusiast William Sieghart developed a project in which passersby could share a topic of concern and be “prescribed” a poem in response. The Poetry Pharmacy, as it was known, was a huge hit. “Suffering is the access point to poetry for a lot of people: that’s when they open their ears, hearts, and minds,” Sieghart writes in The Poetry Remedy: Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind, and Soul, which brings the pharmacy home. In it, he gathers poems for numerous struggles of the human spirit, from loneliness and glumness to social overload, one-sided love and everything in between, each with a brief introduction. With this book on your shelf, you’ll never be at a loss for comforting words. Pair with herbal tea and a comfy blanket.

When You Kant Figure It Out, Ask a Philosopher by Marie Robert
Is there any consolation quite like finding your modern-day woes reflected in the writings of ancient minds? We can’t help but feel less isolated when the ancient teachings of Spinoza, Plato and others seem to speak directly to our innermost questions. In Marie Robert’s slim, digestible When You Kant Figure It Out, Ask a Philosopher: Timeless Wisdom for Modern Dilemmas, she presents typical bummers and sticky situations, then reveals how philosophy can help you reframe and move on. Got a super-surly teen? Squandering your life on social media? Had to part with a beloved pet? The words of Levinas, Epicurus and Heidegger may not solve these problems per se, but they can give you refreshing insight, and sometimes that’s all you need. “Philosophy should make our lives more meaningful,” Robert says, and this down-to-earth book paves the way. Pair with a gift card to a favorite coffee shop and a new journal.

Good Mornings by Linnea Dunne
For some, mornings are best when started with a bang—a three-mile run or a vigorous yoga class. Others wake happily with quiet time among plants and furry friends. No matter your personal preference, thinking carefully about small daily rituals and fine-tuning them can be a step toward a healthier self. Linnea Dunne helps us see the potential for ritual everywhere (Face-washing? Yep. Journaling? Of course) and shares ideas for creating a valuable sense of ritual in your mornings, whether you’re “time-rich” or “time-poor,” in Good Mornings: Morning Rituals for Wellness, Peace and Purpose. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to rituals. The trick—and pleasure, particularly with this pretty book as your guide—is in discovering which rituals are meant for you. Pair with a basket of fresh fruit and granola, facial cleanser and a Turkish towel. 

The Official Bob Ross Coloring Book by Bob Ross
From the department of “Why Is This Just Now a Thing?” comes the coloring book to end all coloring books—The Official Bob Ross Coloring Book: The Colors of the Four Seasons. The coloring book trend may be on the down slope, but there will never not be room in our hearts and on our coffee tables for Bob Ross and his happy little trees and clouds. With this book, you can forgo painting technique, if that sort of thing stresses you out, and simply create green trees, blue skies and brown cabins to your heart’s content. Best of all are the Ross quotes on every other page. To wit: “Anything we don’t like, we’ll turn it into a happy little tree or something, because as you know, we don’t make mistakes, we just have happy accidents.” Or: “Let’s put a few little highlights in here to make them little rascals just sparkle in the sun.” Or: “Let’s just dance in a happy little sky today.” Don’t you feel better just reading those words? Pair with colored pencils, CBD oil and a forest-scented candle. 

The world is a tad intense these days. While books can’t make everything better—well, actually, who says they can’t? This holiday season, don’t hesitate to give your loved ones (or yourself) a helping hand in the form of these surefire finds.

NonfictionFood & DrinkCrafts, Hobbies & HomeCookbooks

Lifestyles: January 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

These three new lifestyles releases will help you kick 2020 off right.

★ The Thank-You Project
You probably have several thank-you notes to write after the holidays, which may feel like just one more item on your to-do list. But what if you thought about thank-yous differently? When she turned 50, Nancy Davis Kho began writing thoughtful letters of gratitude to the people (and places and things) that had shaped her life for the better. In The Thank-You Project, Kho shares stories from her project and encourages us to embark on our own versions. Her process boils down to three main tasks: “see, say, and savor” your memories of formative people, places and things. Kho is a funny, relatable and not-too-sentimental guide to this deeply meaningful practice.

Weeknight Baking
Procrasti-baking: It’s a thing. You’re on a massive work deadline, but you’re mixing cookie batter because baking makes you feel good. Michelle Lopez of the blog Hummingbird High knows all about it, and she’s here to help all of us fit baking into our busy lives. In Weeknight Baking, Lopez applies time management skills to flexible recipes, so you can put together a cake over a few nights or substitute ingredients when the pantry doesn’t cooperate. She shares a list of the right tools—for instance, you’re going to want a quarter sheet pan for freezing cookie dough. Of course, you may be looking for instant gratification, and Lopez has your back there, too, with her “Single Lady Chocolate Chip Cookie” that gives you one beautiful, 4-inch-wide personal dessert in only 12 minutes. What weeknight doesn’t need that?

Growing Good Food
There are lots of good reasons to grow a garden, and now we can add climate change to the list. In Growing Good Food, Acadia Tucker explains that regenerative farming—which focuses on healthy, organic matter-rich soil—is one simple way to soak up carbon emissions. In making the case for a nation full of “carbon-sucking mini farms,” she recalls the victory gardens of World War II, a successful grassroots response to the war effort. Her book outlines steps for becoming a carbon farmer, no matter how small your plot, and suggests starter plants (go with perennials, not annuals), fertilizers, organic pest control solutions and how to make good compost. This is a slim but smart volume of gardening expertise and a necessary call to arms.

These three new lifestyles releases will help you kick 2020 off right.

★ The Thank-You Project
You probably have several thank-you notes to write after the holidays, which may feel like just one more item on your to-do list. But what if you…

NonfictionNatureFood & DrinkCookbooksAnimals

Lifestyles: February 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

Three new lifestyles books to help you vent, treat yourself and get in touch with nature.

★ Rage Baking

Indeed it is a cookbook, but Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford’s Rage Baking is also a genius idea—the very text that we, an army of citizen bakers, have been waiting for. Among more than 40 contributors to this feisty and inspiring collection of recipes, essays and interviews are luminaries Ruth Reichl, Ani DiFranco, Dorie Greenspan and Rebecca Traister. There are recipes like “Power Muffs” and “No More Sheet Cake.” The recipes, like the women behind them, represent diverse culinary traditions, from cornbread to bulgur flatbread to challah to focaccia. But they all share one ingredient: “I am anger wrapped in hopelessness wrapped in despair wrapped in more anger,” writes Tess Rafferty. “And when I can’t stand it anymore, I cook.”

$9 Therapy

I’ve seen many a self-care book, but this one struck me as fresh. First, there’s the catchy title: $9 Therapy. But the subtitle is the clincher: “Semi-Capitalist Solutions to Your Emotional Problems.” What do co-authors Megan Reid and Nick Greene mean by that? First, what it’s not: “a guide to getting your shit together.” What it is: funny at every turn and packed with small, practical hacks and crafts—DIY sheet spray! DIY makeup brush cleaner!—that will cumulatively make you a more functional human being. A book that perfectly, humorously captures a corner of the zeitgeist is always a win—even if, alas, it doesn’t retail for $9. Buy it anyway, along with a gallon of white vinegar. 

Close to Birds

Truly one of the most breathtaking titles I’ve explored in a long time, Close to Birds, first published in Sweden, achieves the delicate balance of jaw-dropping photographs and thought-provoking text. Authors Mats and Åsa Ottosson didn’t set out to create a traditional bird-watching book, a guide for seekers of the most elusive specimens. Instead, among the birds featured in stunning color against white backgrounds are an ordinary mallard, a common sandpiper, a Eurasian sparrow and a common starling. “Being receptive to birds is both much simpler and much bigger than [determining species],” the authors write. “It’s not a hobby; rather it can be seen as a loving receptivity to the larger we to which humans are lucky to belong.” You’ll learn, gasp and see birds anew.

Susannah Felts is a Nashville-based writer and co-founder of  The Porch, a literary arts organization. She enjoys anything paper-related and, increasingly, plant-related.

Three new lifestyles books to help you vent, treat yourself and get in touch with nature.

★ Rage Baking

Indeed it is a cookbook, but Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford’s Rage Baking is also a genius idea—the very text that we, an army of citizen…

NatureCrafts, Hobbies & HomeCookbooks

Lifestyles: March 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

This month’s best new lifestyles books teach you how to enjoy the simple things in life, understand a new language and cook with a song in your heart.

★ Meals, Music, and Muses

“Cooking without a song—in your heart, if nothing else—is like cooking without salt and pepper,” writes chef Alexander Smalls in Meals, Music, and Muses. Here, recipes grounded in the culinary traditions of the African American South are grouped according to the “seven styles of African American music that set the bass line for this medley of meals.” Fried sweet white corn and a salad of field greens and black-eyed peas are among the “green things” that Smalls associates with gospel music; rice, pasta and grits are the stuff of spirituals. Roast quail, pan-fried rabbit, pork loin roasts? Divas, all. There are biscuits and beans and pie to the tune of jazz, opera, jukebox music and serenades (sweet endings), with the pleasure of Smalls’ storytelling along the way to deepen the flavor.

How to Wash the Dishes

How is it that reading a book on washing the dishes could offer such pleasure? How to Wash the Dishes, by Seattle design and architectural bookstore owner Peter Miller, is a tiny, perfect book that offers just what its title proclaims, with a side dish of calm. In serene and measured prose, Miller reminds us that “washing the dishes in a sink, with clean, warm water, is a luxury” and “a task of order and of health and hygiene.” Also, to no small degree, “every time you wash the dishes is an opportunity to practice mindfulness and to reduce waste.” Great satisfaction can come from holding fast to these truths and focusing on the task at hand, not rushing, not thinking too much of other things.

The Complete Language of Flowers

Flower lovers will marvel at S. Theresa Dietz’s The Complete Language of Flowers, an A to Z of flowers and plants listing symbolic meanings, possible powers, folklore and facts. The flowers are alphabetized by Latin name, which lends this volume an air of the exotic, but the book’s handy index is probably where you’ll start when you want to find out what your snake plant might do for you (protection) or what bluebonnets represent (forgiveness, self-sacrifice and survival). This guide could be helpful for writers and artists seeking to infuse their work with floral imagery, or for designers and gardeners planning a project. But it’s also simply a gorgeous conversation piece, the perfect addition to a spring coffee table vignette.

This month’s best new lifestyles books teach you how to enjoy the simple things in life, understand a new language and cook with a song in your heart.

★ Meals, Music, and Muses

“Cooking without a song—in your heart, if nothing else—is like cooking…

NonfictionNatureCookbooksArts & Culture

Lifestyles: April 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

Whether you want to be educated, inspired or deliciously distracted, these releases can help.

★ Earth Almanac

The internet’s useful and all, but have you picked up an almanac lately? Ken Keffer’s Earth Almanac is a fine specimen, focused on phenology, the interconnection of living things through seasonal change. Each of its 365 entries explores a particular natural creature, phenomenon or feature; on the day of this writing, Keffer looks closely at the “twittering flights of the American woodcock,” aka bog sucker, mud bat or brush snipe. Beautifully illustrated, Earth Almanac makes a delightful daily read-aloud with family. Keffer’s generalist approach offers encouragement to budding naturalists, inviting us to action as field data collectors and advocates for the earth. “People are more likely to protect what they are familiar with and what they care about,” he writes.

How to Be an Artist

In 2018, Jerry Saltz, senior art critic for New York magazine, wrote a piece on how to live more creatively, featuring 33 “nodes and nubs of advice.” It proved wildly popular, so Saltz kept going, thinking more deeply about how to make art a part of one’s life—and what is art, anyway? The result is the trim, brilliant How to Be an Artist, which combines color reproductions of famous works with inspiring directives, pep talks and juicy reflections on art-making and sustainable creative practice. Whether you’re a proud amateur or a frustrated expert, these are words worth taking to heart. Saltz’s knowledge veins run deep, and his voice is crisp, frank, intimate and urgent. 

Procrastibaking

As I polish off this column a day past my deadline, you can bet that I’m loving a new cookbook with chapter headings like “Better-Late-Than-Never Brownies and Bars,” “Late-for-Everything Loaf Cakes” and “Sorry-for-the-Delayed-Response Savory Bakes.” This is Erin Gardner’s Procrastibaking, and it is giving me life. Never mind that I absolutely want to try every delicious-sounding recipe, of which there are more than 100, and most of which are making a successful appeal to my sweet tooth. I also want to nail the word search, mazes and other games that are sprinkled throughout the book like finishing sugar. But first I must finish this column . . . or must I ? After all, the majority of these treats can be turned out in under 50 minutes, I’m told.

Whether you want to be educated, inspired or deliciously distracted, these releases can help.

★ Earth Almanac

The internet’s useful and all, but have you picked up an almanac lately? Ken Keffer’s Earth Almanac is a fine specimen, focused on phenology, the interconnection of living…

NonfictionWomen's HistoryNatureFood & DrinkAnimals

Lifestyles: May 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

Solace, refreshment (with chickens!) and a breath of fresh air await readers of these delightful books.

★ Keep Moving

A while back, during a difficult divorce, poet Maggie Smith began posting daily affirmations and directives on Facebook, ending always with two words: Keep moving. Her words have since provided solace and inspiration for countless readers, and now they’re compiled in Keep Moving, along with brief essays. In a season of unprecedented uncertainty, Smith’s book has arrived just in time. Open it to any page, and chances are you’ll find reason to reflect in a productive way. 

Drinking With Chickens

I’m having a fine time imagining the pitch meeting for Kate E. Richards’ Drinking With Chickens.

“It’s a haute cocktail book . . . but with chickens.”

“So we’ll give them luscious photographs of gorgeous cocktails . . . and chickens?”

“Yes. Garden-to-glass stuff, and herbal infusions. But with store-bought cheats, too, because after you’re done cleaning the coop, who has time for all that?”

“This isn’t, like, just for chicken owners though, is it?”

“Hardly! Like Kate says, ‘You don’t need to own them (cough, cough . . . be owned by them) to live the Drinking With Chickens life. Go forth into the world, my friends, and find chickens to drink with.’ ”

“Love it. Love it. It’s the perfect spring title. Someone mix me up an Early Strawberry Syllabub, pronto.”

Writing Wild

If you’re a fan of nature and environmental writing, you may believe it’s something of a boys’ club—a forgivable assumption, as so many dudes get the attention in this genre (we see you, Thoreau). In Writing Wild, Kathryn Aalto sets the record straight with biographical profiles and brief introductions to the work of 25 women who have worked in this literary vein. Here are Vita Sackville-­West, Mary Oliver and Gretel Ehrlich; here, too, in brief roundups at the end of each profile, are still “More Early American Voices” who have taken on some aspect of the natural world in their writing. This book is a wonderful jumping-off point for anyone who loves the outdoors and wants to know more about the many talented female writers who have made it their work’s focus.

Susannah Felts is a Nashville-based writer and co-founder of  The Porch, a literary arts organization. She enjoys anything paper- or plant-related.

Solace, refreshment (with chickens!) and a breath of fresh air await readers of these delightful books.

★ Keep Moving

A while back, during a difficult divorce, poet Maggie Smith began posting daily affirmations and directives on Facebook, ending always with two words: Keep moving.…

NonfictionNatureFood & DrinkCrafts, Hobbies & HomeCookbooks

Lifestyles: June 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

Cook with a surprise ingredient, understand modern-day manners and build an herbal arsenal with the help of these three engaging reads.

★ The Duke’s Mayonnaise Cookbook

My first thought upon discovering The Duke’s Mayonnaise Cookbook was: an entire cookbook devoted to . . . mayonnaise? Risky business. My second thought was: But . .  . it’s Duke’s, a brand with a cult following—especially in the American South, where I live. And when you’ve got a following like Duke’s, you do what you want—like show up in a recipe for peppermint fudge brownies. Ashley Strickland Freeman makes a strong case that Duke’s belongs in brownies, as well as in many other seemingly unlikely recipes, because mayo is “a beautiful emulsification of eggs and oil and a touch of vinegar for acidity, all ingredients vital to cooking and baking.” Her cookbook makes my mouth water, with crowd-pleasers such as bananas Foster bread with browned butter-rum glaze, pimento cheese grits and firecracker shrimp tacos. And of course, there’s elote—delicious Mexican street corn slathered in mayonnaise.

Minding Miss Manners

In Minding Miss Manners, Judith Martin’s arch, acid wit laces every lesson on behaving with propriety in a culture where monstrous jerks are, more than ever, on parade and in power. “A new era of freedom to be loutish, pushy, vicious, and hateful is upon us,” she writes. “That an etiquette-free society would be a joyous, or even livable, one must be the biggest social hoax since it was declared that Americans’ basic problem was sexual puritanism, and if all were acting freely on their desires, everyone would be happy, and there would be no more sex crimes. We are now forced to see how that has played out.” Ahem! This book is bracingly funny and full of pitch-perfect truth bombs for our very weird and wooly times. 

Plant Magic

For Christine Buckley, herbalism is more than just the process of using plants for their beneficial properties. It’s a way of being in the world—more in tune with the earth and mindful of one’s own interconnected mind, body and spirit. In Plant Magic, Buckley takes us deep into the practice of herbalism, showing us how to cultivate a meaningful relationship with the plant life around us. Her “herbal arsenal” details 21 of the most useful and accessible plants, such as cinnamon, thyme, lemon balm and ginger. Roost makes gorgeous books, and this one is no exception

Cook with a surprise ingredient, understand modern-day manners and build an herbal arsenal with the help of these three engaging reads.
NonfictionCrafts, Hobbies & HomeCookbooks

Lifestyles: July 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

Three books invite you to bake delicious, vegan treats; learn to walk more lightly on the planet and travel by tent with children in tow.

★ Perfectly Golden

Angela Garbacz makes her cookbook debut with Perfectly Golden, a trove of treats from her popular bakery, Goldenrod Pastries in Lincoln, Nebraska. Garbacz became devoted to dietary-­inclusive baking after developing a dairy sensitivity, and her bakery uses nondairy milks exclusively (almond is her go-to). Here she reveals her top tricks for delicious sweets that are also gluten free and vegan, including decadent buns, cakes, cookies and more. (You can make any of the recipes in the traditional way, too, using cow’s milk and eggs.) While this bright and cheerful cookbook is decidedly contemporary in its methods, Garbacz bakes from a strong family tradition, and she includes tweaked versions of old favorites, such as her mom’s turtle cookies: cooked in a waffle iron and dolloped with peanut butter frosting. It’s truly a guide to sweets for all tastes and preferences.

An Almost Zero Waste Life

You probably think that a zero-waste life sounds appealing. You may also think it sounds exhausting to achieve. I’m with you on both counts, but after exploring the solutions offered by Megean Weldon in An Almost Zero Waste Life, I’m newly enthusiastic about my family’s ability to slash our trash. Weldon is practical in her guidance, and she urges readers to use up their disposables before replacing them with sustainable alternatives. After that, small changes start to add up: Snip old T-shirts into rags, start composting and cook more homemade food. I especially like Weldon’s weekly menu examples, designed to cut vegetable waste, and her section on holidays, which includes a list of 101 zero-waste gift ideas.

See You at the Campground

Though See You at the Campground was published earlier this spring, I think it deserves a shout-out now as we enter prime camping season. Parents and podcasters Stephanie and Jeremy Puglisi lay out the pros and cons of vacationing via tent, RV or cabin and are forthcoming about their missteps as they learned to navigate the great outdoors with their three sons. Now seasoned experts, they share packing lists, choice campgrounds, campfire grub, campground etiquette and advice for exploring national parks. Armed with this book, even the most avid camper will be better prepared for the next adventure with children in tow.

Three books invite you to bake delicious, vegan treats; learn to walk more lightly on the planet and travel by tent with children in tow.

★ Perfectly Golden

Angela Garbacz makes her cookbook debut with Perfectly Golden, a trove of treats from her popular bakery, Goldenrod…

NonfictionReligion & SpiritualityNatureFood & DrinkCrafts, Hobbies & HomeCookbooks

Lifestyles: August 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

Investigate the power of habit, make delicious Chicano food or ponder a new approach to your lawn with this month’s trio of lifestyle reads.

★ The Power of Ritual

The “sacred” may seem conceptually distant from our increasingly secular lives, but it shouldn’t, says Casper ter Kuile in The Power of Ritual. He argues that any habit or practice can become sacred through ritual, allowing us to develop our own modern versions of spiritual life. Here he explores how reframing habits as rituals can help us build connection on four interweaving levels: with ourselves, other people, the natural world and the transcendent. “What I propose is this: by composting old rituals to meet our real-world needs, we can regrow deeper relationships and speak to our hunger for meaning and depth,” he writes. In a world that can frequently feel upside-down and precarious, this well-researched book may provide vital ballast.

Chicano Eats

Esteban Castillo grew up near Los Angeles, making frequent trips to his parents’ homeland of Colima, Mexico. When he later moved to Northern California, he found Humboldt County seriously lacking in the cuisine of his family, so he started a blog to celebrate that food culture. Chicano Eats brings his work to print in festive color, highlighting the ingredients, kitchen tools and playful hybridity of Chicano cooking—Mexican cuisine shaped by immigrants to America over generations, reflecting a community “who’s neither from there or here.” The perfect pot of beans, arroz rojo and salsa molcajete will get you started, and then it’s off to botanas (snacks) such as carnitas poutine, lots of tacos, several versions of pozole (a stew made with hominy and pork) and much more.

Lawns Into Meadows

Americans love lush, green lawns. But the truth is, all those manicured yards are hard on the environment. They guzzle water, chemicals and fossil fuels and do nothing to encourage a biodiverse ecosystem of pollinators, wildlife and microbe-rich soil. In Lawns Into Meadows, Owen Wormser shows us how to forgo grass in favor of native plant meadows, a more climate-friendly option for your green space. Wormser suggests 21 hardy, easy-to-grow perennials that will fill out in no time, like black-eyed Susan, golden­rod and purple coneflower, along with meadow-­making designs to suit a variety of yard sizes. If this is a topic that interests you, there are many more guides in the nifty Citizen Gardening series from Stone Pier Press.

Investigate the power of habit, make delicious Chicano food or ponder a new approach to your lawn with this month’s trio of lifestyle reads.

★ The Power of Ritual

The “sacred” may seem conceptually distant from our increasingly secular lives, but it shouldn’t, says Casper ter…

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