I was immediately drawn to the paradox of the title Meat: A Benign Extravagance, a book by Simon Fairlie published originally in the UK and then by Chelsea Green here in the US.

I eat meat myself, and luckily I live in an agricultural area in Colorado where we can get local grass-fed beef, lamb, and even yak, as well as locally raised organic chicken.

And that’s what we eat when we eat meat, for the most part. I am not drawn to eat meat where the animals may have been treated inhumanely, fed corn, or fed dubious feeds.

So this book turned out to be right up my alley. As the Chelsea Green webpage about Meat says, “Simon Fairlie presents in-depth research in favor of small-scale, holistic, and integrated farming systems that include pastured, free-range livestock as the answer to the pro-meat or no-meat debate.

“George Monbiot, for example, a well-known environmental activist and supporter of veganism, has retracted his support for veganism after reading Meat. This is a life-changing book.” Read the rest >>>

Big Green Purse is a very useful book for shopping greener!Not just that, it’s also all about living more ecologically in general.

I found a copy at one of the three public libraries I frequent, and have been working my way through it. It has inspired several blog posts I’ve written here. Diane MacEachern has done a massive amount of research, and the book is full of information, tips, websites, comments on how her family does things, and more.

Highly recommended! Click on the image to see more about the book at Amazon.

Hamlet’s Blackberry (Amazon link) is a book by William Powers which has a lot to say about simple living.  Subtitled  A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age, it talks about how hard it can be to be away from your online connections, through cellphones and computers both. And how easy it is for us to skip from one thing to another so quickly that we never have time to concentrate.

I didn’t realize how bad it can be out there in the big world! Living in a remote small town and having a home business that rarely involves any kind of clients, Kelly and I are pretty insulated.

Powers begins with a section called “The Conundrum of the Connected Life,” which includes a hilarious and thought-provoking tale of his falling overboard from the family boat. No problem, he can swim, but his mobile phone died, taking with it a lot of stuff he had meant to back up. Read the rest >>>

Many of the books on sustainable housing assume you are building a new home or can afford a bevy of solar panels. Here’s one for just about everyone. Its subtitle is 36 Remodeling Projects to Help Kick the Fossil-Fuel Habit, and that says it. — Zana

Description
You’ve read the stories and watched the documentaries. So you’re convinced–burning fossil fuels leads to global climate change; supplies of fossil fuels are diminishing in quantity and increasing in price. You’ve fretted and worried, but still go through your day consuming some quantity of non-renewable fossil fuels to accomplish nearly every task (and you may not even realize it). You want to do something besides worry but you are unsure where to begin.

Read this book–then grab your handsaw, tape measure, and drill, and get started! Read the rest >>>

The Human-Powered Home is not a book that everyone needs. But if you have a high-energy person in the family who might enjoy powering a lot of things around the house by pedaling a bicycle, take a look! — Zana

Description

“The Human-Powered Home is a level-headed book which focuses on informing and entertaining. There is no utopian hyperbole, just useful facts and anecdotes that provide the foundation necessary to take appropriate action. Dean has produced an accessible primer for novices in the area of people power as well as a book that is thorough enough to benefit even experienced tinkerers. – Joel Gillespie, Momentum Magazine Read the rest >>>

I haven’t read this one but it looks like really good background information.  Wondering why local food matters?– Zana

Description
Holy Cows and Hog Heaven is written by an honest-to-goodness-dirt-under-the-fingernails, optimistic clean good farmer. His goal is to: Read the rest >>>