Exploring the Nature of... Tunas and Billfishes of the World.

Tunas and billfishes are peak predators of the oceans. Their speed, grace, unique physiology, and diversity makes them important both ecologically and socioeconomically. Vital sources of food and income for many maritime nations, these exhilarating fishes are also highly desired and avidly sought by big game fishers across the globe.

This volume focuses on three families of fishes: Scombridae, the mackerels and tunas; Istiophoridae, sailfish and marlins; and Xiphiidae, the Swordfish. The 61 in-depth species accounts describe these fish and their habitats, summarize their diet and reproduction, analyze current fisheries, and evaluate their conservation status.

Illustrated with full-color, scientifically accurate illustrations by Val Kells, along with range maps for each species, this book is an essential reference on these majestic inhabitants of the sea.

Tunas and Billfishes of the World 

by Bruce Collette and John Graves

Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019

The Nature Pages
Nature Writing and Natural Histories
Fish and Seafood

A New Guide To... Bakery Design

As the baking industry has risen in exposure and profitability, so has the competition. It's increasingly clear that not just the quality of the food is attracting customers, but also the designs of bakeries that are creative and eye catching while still being functional. A well-designed store not only increases sales, but helps develop a brand identity. 

This book profiles fifty bakery designs from all over the world, with the designers responsible exhaustively examining their projects in order to illustrate the design process.

Bakery Design

by Athanasios Tzokas

Images Publishing, 2019

Outrider Reading Group
Pinterest
How To Do It

Book Stall Review: You Can Farm.

Less than a century ago farming was the most common profession in America; nowadays it's one of the most difficult fields to enter.

Joel Salatin, best known for his book "Pastured Poultry Profits," is on a mission to prove that it is possible to farm full-time in ways that are both enjoyable and lucrative.

You Can Farm

The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start and Succeed in a Farming Enterprise

by Joel Salatin

Reviews Archive
Pastured Poultry Profits
Farm Direct
continued in The Book Stall

Favorite Wisconsin Cheese Recipes

Known as "America's Dairyland" of its abundant dairy production, Wisconsin is famous for its cheese, especially cheddar. Locals have been cooking with cheese for almost two centuries now and have perfected these recipes included in Wisconsin Cheese: A Cookbook and Guide to the Cheeses of Wisconsin by Martin Hintz and Pam Percy

• Blueberry Ricotta Coffee Cake
• Wisconsin Three-Cheese Soup with Parmesan Croutons
• Wisconsin Buttermilk Blue and Asian Pear Salad
• Santa’s Wisconsin Cheese Delight
• Asiago Cheese Puffs
• Wisconsin Cheddar Scones with Smoked Turkey
• Hook’s Blue Cheese Cake
• Cherry Cheddar Crusted Pork Tenderloin
• Wisconsin Gruyère Fondue
• Fontiago Polenta with Tomato Basil Concassée
• Goat Cheese Fudge
• Milk Chocolate Cheesecake

Wisconsin Cheese

A Cookbook and Guide to the Cheeses of Wisconsin 

by Martin Hintz and Pam Percy

The Globe Pequot Press, 2008

Reviews Archive
Cheese
Outrider Reading Group

Now cooking with... Super Roots

Remedial food. It's a thing.
Got a tummy ache? There's chicken broth.
Feeling toxic? Try some Ginger Mapo Tofu.
Tired? Gado Gado.
Bloated? Bibimap Wraps.
This cookbook offers 60 health-enhancing recipes based on therapeutic dishes from the Far East cultures of Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, Indonesia and more.

Super Roots: 

Cooking with Healing Spices to Boost Your Mood by Tanita de Ruijt.

Hardie Grant, 2019.

The Book Stall
Cookbooks
Medicinal Plants and Seeds

testing Beehive Alchemy

This book is a continuation of Petra Ahnert's popular Beeswax Alchemy.

With this new book, readers learn about the benefits and attributes of beeswax, honey, propolis, and more alongside a full range of projects and techniques to process and harness the amazing gifts of bees. Inside, there are instructions to make hand dipped birthday candles, lip balm, the classic French dessert canele bordelais, Lithuanian honey spirits, honey butter, honey mustard, propolis salve, hair pomade and more.

Beehive Alchemy: Beehive Alchemy Projects and recipes using honey, beeswax, propolis, and pollen to make soap, candles, creams, salves, and more.

by Petra Ahnert

Quarry Books, 2018.

Travels with Foxfire

The Foxfire oral history project delivers another compendium of the collected wisdom of artists, craftsmen, musicians, and moonshiners in Southern Appalachia. In this volume we learn the secret origins of stock car racing, the story behind the formation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and how to gather wild ginseng.

More than thirty essays include the recipes of an award-winning cookbook writer along with profiles of bootleggers and bear hunters, game wardens and medicine women, water dowsers, sculptors, folk singers, novelists, record collectors, and even the world’s foremost “priviologist.”

Travels with Foxfire

Stories of People, Passions, and Practices from Southern Appalachia

by Phil Hudgins and Jessica Phillips

University Press of Kentucky, 2018

Rural Delivery

Book List

Outrider Reading Group

Review: Bake Like a French Pastry Chef

Michel et Augustin is the pastry version of Ben & Jerry's in France, creating cookies and other desserts with a team of 100 employees in Paris, Lyon, and New York.

With the ambition of becoming "the first company on planet Earth to be 100% pastry-certified," this book compiles five years of employee training sessions to prepare for Certificat d'Aptitude Professionnelle exams that certify the ability to make good French pastries.

The lessons and recipes are divided into five pastry families (tarts, entremets, choux pastry, puff pastry and viennoiseries) with instructions on making doughs, creating fillings and exploring variations. There's a glossary of pastry terms from bain-marie and frangipane to pecher mignon and T45, an encyclopedia of essential ingredients, and a collection of templates for shaping Paris-Brest, Religieuse, Salambo pastries and more.

Bake Like a French Pastry Chef

Delectable Cakes, Perfect Tarts, Flaky Croissants, and More

by Michel de Rovira and Augustin Paluel-Marmont

Countryman Press, 2018

continued in The Book Stall

Reviews Archive
Pastry
The Book Stall

Reading the History of California Wine

This book tells the 200-year story of the heady dream that wines as good as the greatest of France could be made in California. A dream dashed four times in merciless succession until it was ultimately realized in a stunning blind tasting in Paris. In that tasting, in the year of America's bicentennial, California wines took their place as the leading wines of the world.

Here is the complete and dramatic story of the ascendancy of California wine in vivid detail. It also looks at the larger story of California itself through its singular wine history.

Crush

The Triumph of California Wine

by John Briscoe

University of Nevada Press, 2018

Out of the Past
Book List
History and American West Titles

Review: The Science of Enlightenment

This book is by American meditation instructor Shinzen Young, ordained in Japan as a monk in the Shingon tradition of Buddhism which attempts to reach eternal wisdom through symbolic gestures, mystical syllables, and mental concentration.

The title suggests a scientific study of meditation that reveals its inner workings and proves its benefits, but that's not what this volume is about. Young has collaborated with scientists looking at the effects of contemplative practice on brain waves and physiology, and makes mention of those studies when he describes his approach to teaching meditation as "informed by the spirit of science." But don't expect to find summaries of that research or references to peer-reviewed publications.

Instead, the author teaches the basics of meditation, explains various meditation practices, tells the history of Buddhism, relates inspirational tales, and uses scientific language to make meditative concepts more understandable and less mystical.

The Science of Enlightenment

How Meditation Works

by Shinzen Young

Sounds True, 2018

continued in The Book Stall
Prisoners of Our Thoughts
Reviews Archive

A Guide To... Jewish Travel.

This concise, easy-to-use handbook is for the Jewish traveler, or anyone interested in Jewish history and culture. Jewish sites and resources in major metropolitan areas as well as small communities throughout the United States and Canada are featured. It includes a directory of synagogues, community centers, kosher restaurants, Judaica shops, lodgings, and Jewish establishments.

The Jewish Travel Guide: Museums, Shops, Restaurants, Landmarks, Hotels and Other Sites
by Betsy Sheldon.
Hunter Publishing, 2001

The Book Stall
Guidebooks and How-to Titles
Book List

Review: North Wild Kitchen

"My understanding of Norwegian cuisine went from an unfortunate stereotype (meat and boiled potatoes) to a world filled with berry-infused moose sausage, fermented trout, wild nettle soup, rhubarb juice made from birch sap, home-brewed beer, and traditional cheeses and porridges made on the farm," writes food blogger Nevada Berg in the introduction to this exploration of her adopted land's culinary traditions.

Norwegian cuisine has been shaped by centuries of trade and migration and has much in common with the palates of its Nordic neighbors and northern Europe, but what makes it authentic is its use of locally sourced foodstuffs and traditional methods of smoking, curing, and preserving foods in a challenging climate.

Eight chapters explore separate parts of Norway's culinary culture - foraging (Sankingen), fishing (Vann), farming (Seteren), harvesting (Innhostingen), hunting (Katen), preserving (Stabburet), outdoor cooking (Balet), and baking (Jernet, Takken, og Ovnen). Each chapter includes correspondingly traditional recipes along with newer dishes well embedded in the culture. Notes on ingredients and equipment are included along with thoughtful essays and descriptions of each dish.

North Wild Kitchen

Home Cooking from the Heart of Norway

by Nevada Berg

Prestel, 2018

continued in The Book Stall
Reviews Archive

Now Exploring "Out of the Woods"

In this introspective collection of essays, Julia Corbett examines nature in our lives with all of its ironies and contradictions by integrating personal narratives with science and research.  Each essay delves into an overlooked aspect of our relationship with nature — insects, garbage, backyards, noise, open doors, animals, and language — and how we cover our tracks.

Out of the Woods leads to insights into the products, practices, and phrases we take for granted in our everyday encounters with nature and encourages us all to consider how we might re-value or re-imagine our relationships with nature in our everyday lives.

Out of the Woods

Seeing Nature in the Everyday

by Julia Corbett

University of Nevada Press, 2018

Book Notes Wild
Nature Writing and Natural Histories
The Nature Pages

Reading the History: Battle of the Bulge.

In the winter of 1944–1945 , Hitler sought to divide Allied forces in the heavily forested Ardennes region of Luxembourg and Belgium. He deployed more than 400,000 troops in one of the last major German offensives of the war, which became known as the Battle of the Bulge, in a desperate attempt to regain the strategic initiative in the West.

Hitler's effort failed for a variety of reasons, but many historians assert that Lieutenant General George S. Patton Jr.'s Third Army was ultimately responsible for securing Allied victory. Although Patton has assumed a larger-than-life reputation for his leadership in the years since World War II, scholars have paid little attention to his generalship in the Ardennes following the relief of Bastogne.

In this book, Captain John Nelson Rickard explores the commander's operational performance during the entire Ardennes campaign, through his "estimate of the situation," the U.S. Army's doctrinal approach to problem-solving. 

Advance and Destroy

Patton as Commander in the Bulge

by John Nelson Rickard Ph.D.

University Press of Kentucky, 2018

Out of the Past
Book List
Artwork: General George S. Patton

Now Exploring "Elkhorn"

Driven by topophilia (love of place), former Kentucky Poet Laureate Richard Taylor focuses on the eight-mile stretch of the creek from the Forks of the Elkhorn to Knight's Bridge a few miles outside of Frankfort to provide a glimpse into the economic, social, and cultural transformation of Kentucky from wilderness to its current landscape. 

Taylor explores both the natural history of the region and the formation of the Forks community. He recounts the Elkhorn Valley's inhabitants from the earliest surveyors and settlers to artist Paul Sawyier, who memorably documented the creek in watercolors, oils, and pastels. Interspersed with photographs and illustrations ― contemporary and historic ― and intermixed with short vignettes about historical figures of the region, this book delivers a history that is by turns a vibrant and meditative personal response to the creek and its many wonders.

Elkhorn

Evolution of a Kentucky Landscape

by Richard Taylor

University Press of Kentucky, 2018

Book Notes Wild
Nature Writing and Natural Histories
The Nature Pages

Reading the History: Victorian Radicals

Starting with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and lasting through the dawn of the 20th century, the Victorian era's painters, writers, and designers challenged every prevailing belief about art and its purpose.

The full spectrum of the Victorian avant-garde is displayed in this book, accompanied by essays that illuminate issues the artists contended with, including the relationship to art and nature, questions of class and gender identity, the value of handmade versus machine production, and the search for beauty in an age of industry.

Characterized by attention to detail, vibrant colors, and engagement with literary themes and daily life, the paintings, works on paper, and decorative objects featured reveal the myriad ways Victorian artists and artisans made sense of a rapidly changing world.

Victorian Radicals
From the Pre-Raphaelites to the Arts & Crafts Movement
by Martin Ellis, Timothy Barringer and Victoria Osborne
Prestel, 2018

Out of the Past
Book List
History and American West Titles

Review: The Healing Code of Nature

The author of this book, Clemens G. Arvay, is the Austrian biologist who penned The Biophilia Effect examining the healing properties of nature, and forests in particular. This work is a sequel, reporting on the positive effects of plants and animals on the human immune system.

Arvay argues convincingly for the importance of trees in human nature. We evolved from forest-dwelling mammals, after all, and a verdant canopy of leaves is sown deeply into our genetic memory. He cites several clinical studies suggesting strong links between the presence of trees and human health.

"Our immune system is not strengthened by substances from trees," he asserts, "but it is rather weakened by the separation from these substances in modern life. Spending time in nature therefore does not lead to more defense cells; rather it brings their number and activity back to a natural level."

Separation from nature is as much a destroyer as any environmental toxin.

The Healing Code of Nature
Discovering the New Science of Eco-Psychosomatics
by Clemens G. Arvay
Sounds True, 2018

continued in The Book Stall
Health & Beauty

Farm and Garden Picks: In Business with Bees

This book takes serious beekeepers past the beginning stages and learning curves and offers practical, useful advice to move your passion into a part-time or full-time career with measurable results.

It includes in-depth advice on determining what facilities are needed and how to acquire them; getting and installing the right equipment; cooperating with other local businesses; stocking inventory and managing warehouse space; finding customers; raising and selling queens, packages, and nucs; expanding pollination, including contracts to protect you; making and selling peripheral products from wax, propolis, and honey.

In Business with Bees by Kim Flottum
How to Expand, Sell, and Market Honeybee Products and Services including Pollination, Bees and Queens, Beeswax, Honey and More

Husbandry
Farm and Garden Books
list your book on Buy Direct Directory

Healthy Advice for the Common Cold.

Ah-Choo! The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold by Jennifer Ackerman.

Explains what, exactly, a cold is, how it works, and whether it's really possible to "fight one off."

Ah-Choo!

The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold 

by Jennifer Ackerman

Twelve, 2010

Health & Beauty
Good Weight
Health & Fitness Magazines

Good Guides: Cleveland's Catalog of Cool

From polka bands to popcorn balls, the more recently bumbling Browns to the thankfully no- longer- burning river, Michael Murphy shares his Cleveland. Raised in The Land, Murphy returns to see that the quirky character of his hometown is no longer mocked, but celebrated (mostly). The city, where high cuisine used to be Manners Big Boy or the Woolworth’s lunch counter, has turned into a culinary hub with multiple James Beard Award- winning chefs. There are now boating festivals and kayaking clubs on the once polluted Cuyahoga River. Cleveland has become a place that people actually intend to visit, not just get stuck in when the airport is snowed in.

This foodie guide mixes contemporary with vintage stories and profiles of essential Clevelanders, past and present, like the well- known like Jimmy Brown and Chef Michael Symon, the late Harvey Pekar, and, of course, the most quintessential of all Clevelanders, Ghoulardi.

Cleveland's Catalog of Cool

An Irreverent Guide to the 'Land

by Michael Murphy 

Countryman Press, 2018

Guidebooks and How-to Titles
Food and Drink Magazines
The Book Stall review archives

Good Guides: Exploring Wisconsin Trout Streams

Drawing on years of conservation and angling experience, Steve Born and Jeff Mayers tell you about great fishing opportunities unique to Wisconsin. They profile twenty streams, from the bucolic Green River in the southwest to the historic and wild Bois Brule in the north.

This new edition includes updates throughout, new photos, and a new chapter detailing improvements in fishing opportunities since the mid-1990s.

Exploring Wisconsin Trout Streams
The Angler's Guide
by Steve Born, et al
University of Wisconsin Press, 2014

Guidebooks and How-to Titles
The Nature Pages
Nature Writing and Natural Histories

Reading the History: Ten Tea Parties

Everyone knows the story of the Boston Tea Party, in which colonists stormed three British ships and dumped 92,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. But who remembers the Philadelphia Tea Party of December 1773? How about the York, Maine, Tea Party of September, 1774? Or the Wilmington, North Carolina, Tea Party of March, 1775?

Ten Tea Parties is the first book to chronicle all these uniquely American protests.

Ten Tea Parties

Patriotic Protests That History Forgot 

by Joseph Cummins 

Out of the Past
Book List
History and American West Titles

Now Exploring "Meet the Southwest Deserts"

An introduction to the Southwest's deserts and their life forms by Philip Welles.  Illustrated with photos by Marvin H. Frost, Sr. Published by Dale Stuart King, 1973.

Now Exploring "A Place to Which We Belong"

This anthology of nearly fifty short essays by Wisconsin writers explores a personal sense of place. Wonderfully wide-ranging yet united by a common theme, the chapters include both intimate contemplations of lakes or gardens and big-picture overviews of science, politics, and land use. Whether outdoor writers, journalists, storytellers, farmers, social commentators, spiritual leaders, scientists, or conservation activists, the contributors ask, What gives us a sense of place? What make a place worthy of protection and respect?  What binds us to places that somehow touch our minds, hearts, and souls?

A Place to Which We Belong

Wisconsin Writers on Wisconsin Landscapes

edited by Dennis Boyer and Justin Isherwood 

University of Wisconsin Press, 1998

Book Notes Wild
Nature Writing and Natural Histories
The Nature Pages

Reading the History: Lincoln's Final Hours

Kathryn Canavan takes a magnifying glass to the last moments of the president's life and to the impact his assassination had on a country still reeling from a bloody civil war. With vivid, thoroughly researched prose and a reporter's eye for detail, this fast-paced account not only furnishes a glimpse into John Wilkes Booth's personal and political motivations but also illuminates the stories of ordinary people whose lives were changed forever by the assassination.

Lincoln's Final Hours
Conspiracy, Terror, and the Assassination of America's Greatest President
by Kathryn Canavan

Out of the Past
Book List
History and American West Titles

Reading the History: Rethinking the Civil War Era.

Arguably, no event since the American Revolution has had a greater impact on US history than the Civil War. This devastating and formative conflict occupies a permanent place in the nation's psyche and continues to shape race relations, economic development, and regional politics. Naturally, an event of such significance has attracted much attention from historians, and tens of thousands of books have been published on the subject. Despite this breadth of study, new perspectives and tools are opening up fresh avenues of inquiry into this seminal era.

In this timely and thoughtful book, Paul D. Escott surveys the current state of Civil War studies and explores the latest developments in research and interpretation.

Rethinking the Civil War Era

Directions for Research 

by Paul D. Escott 

The University Press of Kentucky, 2018

Out of the Past
Book List
History and American West Titles

Farm and Garden Picks: Gardener's Log Book.

This waterproof log book is designed for recording work in the garden. Use this journal throughout the seasons, from building catalog wish lists early in the year, to noting the first signs of spring, to recording what vegetable crops are planted and their yield, to organizing bulb planting in fall, to, finally, putting the garden to bed for the winter.

A five year grid at the beginning of each month offers space to note annual garden cycles over time, and journal entry pages are lined for notes or graphed for diagramming plantings.

Gardener's Log Book

A 5-Year Planner

by The New York Botanical Garden

Home Grown
Growing Guides
list your book on Buy Direct Directory

Now Exploring "Frog Pond Philosophy"

In this wide-ranging volume, philanthropist and philosopher Strachan Donnelley (1942–2008) traces the connections between influential figures such as Aldo Leopold and Charles Darwin, as well as lesser-known but original thinkers that he met during the course of a full life―ministers at his church, friends with whom he fished, and colleagues who shared his passion for research and writing.

He grounds his work in classic philosophers such as Descartes, Spinoza, and Whitehead and reinterprets their writings about the natural world to develop a conservation-centered philosophy, which he dubs "democratic ecological citizenship."

Frog Pond Philosophy

Essays on the Relationship Between Humans and Nature

by Strachan Donnelley

University Press of Kentucky, 2018

Book Notes Wild
Nature Writing and Natural Histories
The Nature Pages

Now Cooking with Raising The Heat

This work provides a range of recipes from around the world which contain a variety of spices. They include: Creole crab soup, Moroccan spiced leg of lamb, Mexican squid fajitas, Lebanese avieli rice and English horseradish sauce.

Raising The Heat

Cooking with Fire and Spice

by Paul Gayler

Lyons Press, 2001

Cookbooks
Recipe Archive
Farm Kitchen

What's Cooking with Burgoo, Barbecue, and Bourbon

Award-winning author and chef Albert W. A. Schmid serves up a feast for readers in Burgoo, Barbecue, and Bourbon, sharing recipes and lore surrounding these storied culinary traditions. He introduces readers to new and forgotten versions of favorite regional dishes from the time of Daniel Boone to today and uncovers many lost recipes, such as Mush Biscuits, Kentucky Tombstone Pudding, and the Original Kentucky Whiskey Cake. He also highlights classic bourbon drinks that pair well with burgoo and barbecue, including Moon Glow, Bourbaree, and the Hot Tom and Jerry.

Featuring cuisine from the early American frontier to the present day, this entertaining book is filled with fascinating tidbits and innovative recipes for the modern cook.

Burgoo, Barbecue, and Bourbon
A Kentucky Culinary Trinity
by Albert W. A. Schmid
University Press of Kentucky, 2017

Bourbon
Soups, Stews, Chili and Chowder
Outrider Reading Group

The Nature Pages: The Naturalist's Notebook.

This book is both a guide to nature journaling and a calendar for recording events and observations by date over a five-year period. Inspired by the garden calendar of Gilbert White in the 18th century, it is designed to accommodate brief periodic natural history observations that evoke an "immersion in the familiar" that assure "all is right with the world."

The text suggests ways to become a more attentive and observant naturalist. It explains how to record and organize observations of the natural world so as to better analyze them and recognize subtle patterns. And it describes simple experiments like putting a plastic bag over the buds on a tree to see if it hastens budding. Or changing the mix or quantities of seed in birdfeeders to see what difference it makes in the birds that come to dine.

The Naturalist's Notebook

An Observation Guide and 5-Year Calendar-Journal

by Nathaniel T. Wheelwright and Bernd Heinrich. 324 pp. Mariner Books, 2017.

continued in The Nature Pages

The Nature Pages
Reviews Archive
Outrider Reading Group

Review: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner

Author and Wisconsin homesteader Ann Larkin Hansen compiled this homesteading planner that outlines the seasonal chores needed to maintain a healthy and productive, garden, orchard, woodlot, beeyard, and farmstead.

"Doing a thing in its proper season - when it would naturally occur, or when conditions make the job most efficient and comfortable - is how you spread the work more evenly through the year," she explains. "This is what makes it possible to get it all done and still have some leisure time."

Her planner is divided by seasons, beginning with Midwinter and Late Winter and continuing through to Early Fall and Early Winter of the same calendar year. Suggested chores and priorities are presented in each time period along with tips and primers on weaning animals, constructing wetland crossings, butchering chickens, drying herbs, mulching, planting a garden, and more.

The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner

What to Do & When to Do It in the Garden, Orchard, Barn, Pasture & Equipment Shed

by Ann Larkin Hansen

Storey Publishing, 2017

continued in The Book Stall

Reviews Archive
The Book Stall
How To Do It Books
Artwork: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner

Farm and Garden Picks: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner

This planner offers expert advice on what tasks to do around your farm and when to do them — no matter where on the planet you call home.

Author Ann Larkin Hansen sets the priorities for each area of the farm, including the barn, garden, orchard, field, pasture, and woodlot. For every critical turn of the year (12 in all), Hansen provides an at-a-glance to-do list along with tips and a more in-depth discussion of key topics for the season.

Easy-reference charts, checklists, and record-keeping sections help you keep track of it all.

The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner

What to Do & When to Do It in the Garden, Orchard, Barn, Pasture & Equipment Shed

by Ann Larkin Hansen

Storey Publishing, 2017

Home Grown
Farm and Garden Books
Animal Husbandry Books
Plants & Seeds

Now Exploring "The Naturalist's Notebook"

Biologist Nathaniel T. Wheelwright and best-selling author Bernd Heinrich teach nature lovers of all ages what to look for outdoors no matter where you live, using Heinrich’s classic illustrations as inspiration. As you jot down one observation a day, year after year, your collected field notes will serve as a valuable record of your piece of the planet.

This deluxe book, with a three-piece case, gilt edges, a burgundy ribbon bookmark, and a belly band with gold foil stamping, is a perfect gift for all nature lovers.

The Naturalist's Notebook

An Observation Guide and 5-Year Calendar-Journal

by Nathaniel T. Wheelwright and Bernd Heinrich

Storey Publishing, 2017

Book Notes Wild
Nature Writing and Natural Histories
The Nature Pages

Now Cooking with The Historic Kentucky Kitchen

from
The Historic Kentucky Kitchen
Traditional Recipes for Today's Cook
by Deirdre A. Scaggs and Andrew W. McGraw
The University Press of Kentucky, 2013

According to authors of The Historic Kentucky Kitchen, this 1897 soup recipe packs a lot of flavor, considering how simple it is and how few ingredients are in the recipe. To make the soup more elegant and add texture, reserve the tips of the asparagus spears after poaching to use as a garnish.

full recipe in The Recipe Archive

Artwork: Asparagus Soup
Recipe Archive
Farm Kitchen
Asparagus
Cookbooks

Farm and Garden Picks: Storey's Illustrated Breed Guide to Sheep, Goats, Cattle and Pigs

From the large-tailed Karakul sheep to the floppy-eared Gloucestershire Old Spot pig, North America is home to an extraordinary array of livestock.

Storey’s Illustrated Breed Guide to Sheep, Goats, Cattle, and Pigs features full-color profiles of 163 livestock breeds. Whether you’re looking for a gentle domestic backyard animal or are hoping to introduce a rare heritage breed on your farm, you’re sure to find an animal that’s perfect for your needs.

If you need solid, up-to-date information on common domestic animals or you are hoping to introduce a rare heritage breed to your farm, this definitive guide has the information you need on the animals that interest you.

Storey's Illustrated Breed Guide to Sheep, Goats, Cattle and Pigs
163 Breeds from Common to Rare
by Carol Ekarius
Storey Publishing, 2008

Animal Husbandry Books
Husbandry
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Farm and Garden Picks: Grow Native.

Learn how to transform your yard into a beautiful landscape using native plants. In master gardener Lynn Steiner's book you'll find guidance for planting stunning gardens using native species that support your local ecosystem. Organized in an easily accessible way, the book offers instructions for planting, maintenance instructions, helpful tips about soil, watering and fertilizing as well as gorgeous photography. With guidance about how to weave native plants into your landscape and replacing common ornamentals with natural plants, this book should have a place on every gardener's bookshelf.

Grow Native combines inspirational garden shots of native landscapes with plant specific chapters and photos.

Grow Native
Bringing Natural Beauty to Your Garden
by Lynn M. Steiner
Cool Springs Press, 2016

Home Grown
The Book Stall
Farm and Garden Books

Now Cooking with The Scout's Deck of Outdoor Recipe Cards

Packed in a heavy-duty cardboard box, this Campsite-Cooking Card Pack contains 64 trail-tested and Scout-approved recipe cards for every meal and snack that both boys and Scout leaders will love come chowtime.

Also, inside each box, pre-wrapped in its own plastic bag, is a rugged metal carabineer.

Each Campsite Recipe card comes a pre-punched corner hole so Scouts and pick and choose what recipes they’ll enjoy on a camping trip, clip them together on their carabineer, and have a ready-made meal plan and ingredients list.

The Scout's Deck of Outdoor Recipe Cards
by Christine and Tim Conners
Falcon Guides, 2015
Cookbooks
Recipe Archive
Outgoing

Good Guides: The Backyard Field Guide to Chickens

This is a guide for backyard chicken keepers in search of chickens that best fit their needs.

Each breed of chicken listed in the field guide is thoroughly described and is illustrated by color photos. The book tells you all about the bird, detailing each breed's particular usefulness, adaptation to climate, coloration, number of eggs typically laid, foraging ability, temperament, and unique qualities.

Chicken Breeds for Your Home Flock
by Christine Heinrichs
Voyageur Press, 2016

Animal Husbandry
Guidebooks and How-to Titles
How To Do It Books

Review: Red 4WD Tractors

"All the colors of tractors and the people who made them have good stories, and those stories share a common thread: innovative farm boy geniuses who built solutions to a problem rooted in the growing American farm," writes Lee Klancher in his introduction to this substantial history of high-horsepower four-wheel-drive tractors manufactured by International Harvester, Steiger, J.I. Case and Case IH.

This history covers six decades from the winter of 1957 -- when Douglass and Maurice Steiger converted a Cat DW-15 scraper into a high-horsepower farm tractor in their dairy barn in order to make their Minnesota family farm more efficient -- to the present day.

Red 4WD Tractors

by Lee Klancher

Octane Press, 2017

continued in The Book Stall
Reviews Archive
Tractor Books
Tractors and Tractor Parts
Artwork: Case IH Steiger 620 Quadtrac Tractor

Farm and Garden Picks: Red 4WD Tractors

In this book, the story of the four-wheel-drive tractors built by Steiger, International Harvester, Case and Case IH is told in dramatic fashion. Starting with the development of early four-wheel-drive systems at International Harvester, it traces the evolution and design some of the most powerful and capable tractors of the 20th century.

The book includes the complete story of Steiger tractors, which were originally built and designed in the barn of John, Douglas and Maurice Steiger located near Red Lake Falls, Minnesota. With interviews with more than 50 of the people who built Steiger from a barn to a world leader, Red 4WD Tractors traces the evolution of the lime green Steigers in engrossing detail. .

Red 4WD Tractors

by Lee Klancher

Octane Press, 2017

Outrider Reading Group
The Book Stall
Tractor Books

Reading the History: Talking Machine West.

This book brings together for the first time the variety of cowboy, cowgirl, and Indian music recorded and sold for mass consumption between 1902 and 1918.

In the book’s introductory chapters, Michael A. Amundson explains how this music reflected the nostalgic passing of the Indian and the frontier while incorporating modern ragtime music and the racial attitudes of Jim Crow America. Hardly Old West ditties, the songs gave voice to changing ideas about Indians and assimilation, cowboys, the frontier, the rise of the New Woman, and ethnic and racial equality.

In the book’s second part, a chronological catalogue of fifty-four western recordings provides the full lyrics and history of each song and reproduces in full color the cover art of extant period sheet music. Each entry also describes the song’s composer(s), lyricist(s), and sheet music illustrator and directs readers to online digitized recordings of each song.

Talking Machine West

A History and Catalogue of Tin Pan Alley's Western Recordings, 1902–1918

by Michael A. Amundson

University of Oklahoma Press, 2017

Out of the Past
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History and American West Titles

Farm and Garden Picks: The Beekeeper's Problem Solver

Whether you're a newcomer or an old hand, this book provides the information you need to nip problems in the bud and, better still, avoid them in the first place. Longtime bee keeper and apiary expert James E. Tew guides readers through 100 common problems faced by beekeepers, spelling out in clear and simple terms what the underlying cause is and how to solve it. Each one is tackled in depth, with photographs and diagrams, as well as a wide range of practical tips and useful insights. The problems are divided into ten chapters covering the main areas of beekeeping, from health to housing and parasites to predators. A subject-specific index is also included for easy reference.

The Beekeeper's Problem Solver

100 Common Problems Explored and Explained

by James E. Tew

Quarry Books, 2015

Outrider Reading Group
Animal Husbandry Books
Homegrown Honey Bees

Farm and Garden Picks: The Backyard Field Guide to Chickens

Fueled by the local and organic food movements, as well as a sea change in local ordinances, backyard chicken keeping is booming. Anyone who's decided to join the new wave of chicken keepers knows that the poultry breeds available are dizzying in their variety.

This is a guide for backyard chicken keepers in search of chickens that best fit their needs.

Each breed of chicken listed in the field guide is thoroughly described and is illustrated by color photos. The book tells you all about the bird, detailing each breed's particular usefulness, adaptation to climate, coloration, number of eggs typically laid, foraging ability, temperament, and unique qualities.

The Backyard Field Guide to Chickens

Chicken Breeds for Your Home Flock

by Christine Heinrichs

Voyageur Press, 2016

Outrider Reading Group
Animal Husbandry Books
Husbandry

A New Guide To... Extreme Coloring: Tatoos.

This unique adult coloring book is from the Extreme Art series of high-quality, lavishly packaged, and specially commissioned artwork to color that will challenge, entertain, and stimulate.

In this volume, there are a whole range of detailed tattoo illustrations accompanied by descriptive copy that will intrigue and inform as they are colored. Perforated pages allow for sharing creations, which include intricately detailed dragons, spectacular angels, incredible wolves, a rising phoenix, a serpent-headed Medusa, and exotic orchids.

Extreme Coloring Tattoos

Relax and Unwind, One Splash of Color at a Time

by  Carlton Publishing Group

Barron's Educational Series, 2017

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Artwork
Book List

A New Guide To... Gardening in the Green Mountain State.

The Vermont Gardener's Companion tells how to get the most out of Vermont's short gardening season and details how readers can use organic methods to improve soil, deal with diseases and pests, and get better results with their plants in a state where “winter temperatures plunge far below zero and rocks left by the glaciers pop out of the ground each spring like bread from hyperactive toasters.”

With good humor and a natural teacher's gift for explanations, Henry Homeyer makes gardening fun and readily accessible to all.

The Vermont Gardener’s Companion is the only guide focused on the challenges of cultivating a successful garden in the Green Mountain State. Whether you are an experienced green thumb or a curious novice, whether you live in the Green Mountains or along Lake Champlain, this easy-to-understand guide will help you grow bountiful vegetables, abundant flowers, and lush lawns.

The Vermont Gardener's Companion 

An Insider's Guide to Gardening in the Green Mountain State

by Henry Homeyer

Globe Pequot Press, 2016

The Book Stall
Guidebooks and How-to Titles
Farm and Garden Books

Reading the History: Wild Spaces, Open Seasons.

This book traces the theme of hunting and fishing in American art from the early nineteenth century through World War II. Describing a remarkable group of American paintings and sculpture, the contributors reveal the pervasiveness of the subjects and the fascinating contexts from which they emerged. In one important example after another, the authors demonstrate that representations of hunting and fishing did more than illustrate subsistence activities or diverting pastimes. The portrayal of American hunters and fishers also spoke to American ambitions and priorities.

In their depictions of the hunt or the catch, American artists connected a dynamic and developing nation to its past and its future. Through the examination of major works of art, this book brings to light an often-overlooked theme in American painting and sculpture.

Wild Spaces, Open Seasons

Hunting and Fishing in American Art

edited by Kevin Sharp

University of Oklahoma Press, 2016

Out of the Past
Book List\
History and American West Titles

A New Guide To... Virus.

This book provides a rare window into the amazing, varied, and often beautiful world of viruses. Contrary to popular belief, not all viruses are bad for you. In fact, several are beneficial to their hosts, and many are crucial to the health of our planet. Virus offers an unprecedented look at 101 microbes that infect all branches of life on Earth -- from humans and other animals to insects, plants, fungi, and bacteria.

Featuring hundreds of color images throughout, this guide begins with a lively and informative introduction to virology. Here readers can learn about the history of this unique science, how viruses are named, how their genes work, how they copy and package themselves, how they interact with their hosts, how immune systems counteract viruses, and how viruses travel from host to host. The concise entries that follow highlight important or interesting facts about each virus.

Virus

An Illustrated Guide to 101 Incredible Microbes

by  Marilyn J. Roossinck

Princeton University Press, 2016

The Nature Pages
Guidebooks and How-to Titles
Out There
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Reading the History: Drawn to Yellowstone

Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Remington, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and dozens of other artists braved difficult conditions to capture the splendors of Yellowstone in many media, from delicate watercolors and pen-and-ink sketches to powerful oils and popular lithographs.

Peter H. Hassrick traces the artistic history of the park from its earliest explorers to the present day in this new edition of Drawn to Yellowstone, a richly illustrated account of the artists who traveled to and were inspired by Yellowstone.

Drawn to Yellowstone

Artists in America's First National Park

by  Peter H. Hassrick

Buffalo Bill Center of the West, 2016

Artwork: Grand Canyon of Yellowstone by Thomas Moran
Out of the Past
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History and American West Titles

A New Guide To... Amphibians and Reptiles.

Known for its natural beauty, Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area is the largest inland peninsula in the United States. Consisting of 170,000 acres of forested and protected public land between Kentucky Lake (Tennessee River) and Lake Barkley (Cumberland River), this scenic sanctuary is visited by more than 1.4 million nature lovers annually and encompasses many diverse habitats, each supporting a particular community of plants and animals.

This is your guide to some of the often-overlooked residents of this unique ecosystem. The authors offer detailed descriptions and stunning color photographs of the salamanders, frogs, toads, turtles, lizards, and snakes found in the region. Each entry includes the species' scientific and common names as well as information on its distribution, habitat, and natural history. An extensive glossary assists readers in identifying the animals.

Amphibians and Reptiles of Land Between the Lakes

by  David H. Snyder, A. Floyd Scott, Edmund J. Zimmerer and David Frymire

University Press of Kentucky, 2016

The Nature Pages
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