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.The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

by: Michael Pollan

August 28, 2007
I am going to write a review here that I am sure that will get pummeled and give me nothing but nasty comments and a billion negative votes. So let me say some good things first. Pollan is a gifted writer, is engaging and entertaining to read. The book and it's premises though are a sure recipe for global disaster. Pollan is more even-handed and fair than most of the books trumpeting the perils of industrial farming, but let me please try to explain why these arguments are dangerously flawed. I will try and give and intelligent and considered response and those of you who must blast back at me, I only ask that your comments are equally considered.

Many people are scared of industrial farming, the inputs that are used, and the genetic ... Read More:
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.In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

by: Michael Pollan

January 01, 2008
Michael Pollan's sage advice, "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants," is now what I tell my patients who ask me about losing weight. Its embarrassing that most medical schools offer less than a day of education to nutrition when patients are constantly concerned with their food habits-- and for good reason. Pollan has put together the ultimate book on eating in America. This is what your doctor should be telling you.

His sagely and researched approach to the American national food disorder should be mandatory for all of us-- the chronic dieters, the fast food lovers, and those of us wondering which fats are the good ones these days.

The icing on the refined-sugars cake is that Michael Pollan, while educating, is also ... Read More:
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.The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World

by: Michael Pollan

May 28, 2002
In style and substance this is one of the best books I've read in recent years, as well as one of the most enjoyable. It also broadened my perspective in several areas. I highly recommend.
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.Second Nature: A Gardener's Education

by: Michael Pollan

August 12, 2003
That's not entirely fair, but...this is a book of essays, not a natural history or gardening book. It is about Pollan's perceptions of nature and landscape, through the gateway of his garden. He does only enough research to flesh out his musings with historical fact and literary reference - and he is very selective. He leans heavily on Thoreau, and neglects wider scholarship. His essays bog down in pedantic and turgid language (he abuses at least one 5-syllable word per essay). The writing is much like Bill Bryson's, about whom, I'm also kinda lukewarm. I didn't love it, although there are good bits - the story of his first rose plantings was interesting, and inspired me to drop a few snobby old roses in the sod.
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.Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn

from: Metropolis Books

February 01, 2008
This book reads more like a book report, or maybe a master's thesis than a full-blown book. You can get through it in an hour or two, and although it is an interesting read, it's not something you'll turn to again and again. Honestly, I haven't thought about it since I read through it weeks ago. Thankfully it's not as mind-numbingly verbose as Slow Food Nation, but it also doesn't have the depth of, say, a Pollan book.
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.A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder

by: Michael Pollan

February 09, 1998
Wonderful, wonderful book. I am inspired to find some land and build my own little haven... I guess that makes this the most expensive book I've ever bought.
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.Voices of the Land

from: Chelsea Green Publishing Company

2004-03
What does it mean to really know the land, or a wild space? The essays compiled and edited by Jamie Crelly Purinton for Voices Of The Land go well beyond commercial or economic values to consider the ecological and social meaning of land stewardship, from getting to know the underlying ecology of a projected building site to moving beyond concepts of land possession. Each individual chapter offers articles and reflections by builders, landowners, ecologists, students and others from different walks of life. Gorgeous, reflective pieces abound in Voices Of The Land from beginning to end.

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.The Omnivore's Dilemma A Natural History of Four Meals

by: Pollan Michael

2006
This book is a major eye opener. You will learn the best reasons for eating grass fed meats and resorces to purchase them.
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.We Made a Garden (Modern Library Gardening)

by: Margery Fish

February 19, 2002
Margery Fish must have loved her Walter very, very much to have put up with him all those years. Her account of the garden they made despite each other is one of the great triumphs of the "garden memoir" genre, and vastly more interesting than most such works.

The book is haunted by the presence of Walter, and his likes and dislikes, and right ways and wrong ways to do anything. You can't help but feel Mrs Fish must have breathed the world's biggest sigh of relief at his passing, since it finally allowed her to get on with her gardening.

Here's a sample: Walter would smother her seedlings by putting too much manure around HIS roses, he decorated the outbuildings with bought mounted animal trophy heads (until they rotted), and he would ... Read More:
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.Omnivore's Dilemma

by: Michael Pollan

2006
Margery Fish must have loved her Walter very, very much to have put up with him all those years. Her account of the garden they made despite each other is one of the great triumphs of the "garden memoir" genre, and vastly more interesting than most such works.

The book is haunted by the presence of Walter, and his likes and dislikes, and right ways and wrong ways to do anything. You can't help but feel Mrs Fish must have breathed the world's biggest sigh of relief at his passing, since it finally allowed her to get on with her gardening.

Here's a sample: Walter would smother her seedlings by putting too much manure around HIS roses, he decorated the outbuildings with bought mounted animal trophy heads (until they rotted), and he would ... Read More:
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Used Price: $22.95