5 comments about Basic Butchering of Livestock & Game.

1. Other than the section on venison (which was very helpful), I have only skimmed this book, as I am not yet ready to actually butcher anything else. It seems to offer all the information and sketches that I will need, IF I ever need it ...



2. This is one of the best, if not the best, informational/instruction book I have ever read. It covers every step with great detail. Anyone who even considers cutting up thier own meat, ( and in these's days with all the tainted meat in the stores, who doesn't? ) should buy this book.
   I consider this a must for sportsman that hunt, as well as for anyone that raises thier own animals. We don't raise our own beef, however we do often buy a quarter, or a side from the butcher, and cut it up our self, thus insuring a clean environment, and safe meat. I also hunt, and have cut up my own venison for years, and still learned some valuable tips as to how to improve the process.
   I highly recommend BASIC BUTCHERING OF LIVESTOCK & GAME by John J. Mettler.



3. This book is just as packed full of information as the more expensive books. This is a great book for anyone who processes their own meat or who is wanting to learn how. However, there are some techniques in this book I don't completely agree with. Still, all in all it gets the job done.



4. Coming from a family of hunters, fisherman, as well as a family that has always grown much of their own food, be it a vegetable garden, or hens for eggs, angus for beef, the occasional pig, sheep, I firmly believe that women (I am one) should know as much about self sufficiency living as possible. This includes knowing how to raise healthy meat animals and how to slaughter them in the most humane and sanitary way possible. I like this book because its easy to read and follow and cover just about every domestic animal I have ever raised for meat, as well as most of the wild game I have had.



5. Great reference guide for the beginner butcher. Using instructions from this book I processed my own pig from the kill to the freezer in about 3 hours.

4 comments about Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean, And Fair.

1. Carlo Petrini gave a lecture at NCSU in Raleigh earlier this year. His talk was in Italian, but his ideas were universal: if we want happiness and peace, we're going to have to change the way we eat.
   
   The book is fantastic. It is beautifully written, powerful, and balances scientific data and understanding with cultural histories and sensible aestheics. His proposal of a new branch of science, gastronomy, is as revolutionary as Freud's proposal to study the human psyche or David Kelley's efforts to study design as a science.
   
   This book is The Inconvenient Truth for those who eat. But it is also a far more optimistic book, for the solution to the problem of industrial agriculture is to seek out good food, to meet and learn about the farms and farmers who grow it, and the reward is pleasure.
   
   The Introduction by Alice Waters is, like the food at Chez Panisse, a sensual as well as a sensible delight.
   
   This is a great book to buy, read, and then share with others, all around the world.



2. More than a reaction to Fast Food's arrival in Italy, Slow Food
   has evolved into a global movement encompassing many different actions to improve what we all taste and eat.
   It's not about eating well in the privileged, Michelin-starred table sense. It's about recognizing everyone's barriers to eating well and judging the quality of our food on three levels, asking whether it is good, clean and fair. (The book's original title is just that: Buono, pulito e Giusto).
   The movement's founder wrote this book to set out a new definition of gastronomy, enumerating some of the issues facing our food supply and helping to turn a thinking eater to positive action.
   Beautifully translated, Slow Food Nation is a cogent & readable introduction to what Slow Food is about. Highly recommended!



3. Carlo Petrini has been attempting to preserve a more traditional view of food for a long time, this book lays out his current thinking in a clear and concise layering of understanding food in culture (gastronomy), understanding quality (good, clean, fair food), and the tools to put these ideas to work in the world going forward.
   As we reconstitute a food culture based on transparency and quality in the USA and hopefully across the globe, this book provides key ideas related to respect for diversity of food products, respect for food in culture, and respect for the work associated with food that can serve to guide us. This book made me think and laugh, and I recommend it highly.



4. Let me start off by stating that I agree with the essential concept of this book. I think we should all try to slow down, buy locally grown, fresh, seasonal food and cook a few meals from scratch. However, while reading the book something kept striking me as odd. The wording seemed charged, like a propaganda piece meant to demonize modern agriculture and our fast paced society, though Mr. Petrini repeatedly admits that a return to subsistence agriculture could not possibly support the current world population. I thought that maybe it was just the translation then on page 187 I came across the statement, "We do not need the accumulation of wealth, but its redistribution..." Then I realized, it is meant to be bit of a propaganda piece which explains the rhetoric. And, I have to wonder about the first example in the book, the traditional peppers of Asti that are no longer grown in Asti. Peppers are a new world crop and could not have been in Italy much before 1500. Here in America that might seem historic, but in the land of the Roman Empire that is barely out of adolesence. I guess it is okay to pick and choose which local, traditional foods one chooses to wax rhapsodically about.

5 comments about The End of Food.

1. THe funny thing about the modern era is how it has consistantly been shaped by the idea of the coming doomsday. The method (nuclear war, overpopulation, climate change) shifts with the wind, but the constant is a belief in the inevitable fall of our "evil" civilization unless we sign up for one political agenda or another.
   
   Paul Roberts is making a career in trading on fear. He was crowned as a genius for writing a book about an energy crisis (the end of oil) shortly before the crisis arrived. As a followup, he is selling on fears about food.
   
   This book is poorly researched, badly organized and doesn't quite understand what point it wants to make. It can't decide if it wants to be whiny book about how walmart for social changes in America because it sells cheap food or if it wants to trade in hysteria about rising food prices and diminishing food resources. He can't decide if he wants to complain about the efficiency of a meat diet or global warming or family social dining habits.
   
   And in the end, the book doesn't lead anywhere. It ends with Roberts putting out a political agenda about food. Ironically (in a sad sense),
   Roberts perscription for fixing his food "crisis" in the end are all the things that the world has been doing for the last 50 years. Bluntly, we need to apply brute force science to food production with a goal of increasing production regardless of consequences or costs.
   
   He pushes genetic modification as one answer. He pushes the elimination of meat production in favor of factory farmed fish as another. And he wants international planning to drive food production.
   
   In summary, he doesn't make his case or lay the groundwork for the changes he is suggesting. He can't construct an argument to save his life and depends on a shotgunning facts out as a substitute.



2. I had read Roberts' earlier "the end of oil" and had forgotten how difficult it was to read through. This book is slightly less interesting despite the more interesting topic, which in theory should be more malthusian than the end of oil, but Roberts treats every issue with a very vacillating, politician-like ambiguity. It's surprising for example that he doesn't make more out of the peaking of fossil fuels in relation to fertilizer for food production. Every time he comes near to making a point he hedges and describes the optimistic and pessimistic viewpoints without really taking a stand.
   Typical of his writing style as well is his tendency to travel all over the globe interviewing random peasants, farmers, executives, etc., as if a travelogue somehow makes the subject more accessible. Presumably this is because he is a journalist, not an expert per se in the issue of agriculture or food. But after so many round the world trips interviewing a farmer in china for ex. and his woes the reader begins to get tired of his peripatetic descriptions.
   In summary I found it hard to really get a grip on any of the issues he presents except in a very vague way and I found it equally hard to get all the way through to the end without giving up. And this is not because I don't find the issue serious-- if anything, I think he is far too optimistic: the lack of freshwater supplies, peaking of fossil fuels, lack of arable land, increasing loss of topsoil, increasing population pressures, will probably result in some kind of malthusian crisis.



3. Robert's "End of Food" includes a lot of good information, but there are probably 200 places where a good editor would've challenged the author to reword or tighten up the manuscript. I wonder whether his editor even read the book carefully, or whether he/she knew enough about the subject to properly edit it. A few examples of the issues I'm talking about:
   
   At the beginning of the book Roberts lays out a ridiculously simplified, linear reductionist theory of the role meat consumption played in man's history (except that he rolls it out as fact rather than no small amount of speculation).
   There are a number of factual inaccuracies that should've been caught or at least reworded. Example: He states that meat is easier to digest than plant foods, which in many cases is simply wrong. Cooked rice, for example, is half-digested before it's even in the stomach.
   
   Three times Roberts refers to soil as dirt. In 45 years I've never heard a farmer (or any agricultural specialist) refer to soil (in a field)as "dirt". This carelessness on Robert's part is enough to make thoughtful readers question whether he's been shoddy in other areas too. There are at least a dozen places where he refers to animal manure as poop, which is just plain silly, and makes Roberts sound like a goofball. Imagine if physicians referred to a laceration as a "Bo-Bo" in a medical report, not once, but 12 times? Could you take him seriously?
   
   Roberts is very very loose with his date references. Sometimes he's wrong. On p. 118 he states "By the late 1960s the U.S. was in deep economic trouble......having lost it manufacturing lead to low-cost rivals like Japan...." But in fact in the late 60s very little U.S. manufacturing had shifted to Japan. Roberts is only about 15 years off there.
   Then, on page 152 he writes, "...by the late 1980s....African output faltered;...The timing couldn't have been worse. Just as Africans were producing fewer bushels [in the late 80s], a new glut of grain , unleashed by Butz's "fence row to fence row" policy, sent prices plummeting". The problem with this is that Butz's fence row policy was implemented in 1971, almost 20 years before the African output faltered, which is many years too much lapsed time to have had a meaningful direct effect.
   
   Finally, what possible reason is there for a 26 page prologue in a general interest book such as this? 26 pages! Where was Robert's editor? If a writer's proposing a 26 page prologue, there's at least a chapter missing in the body of the book.
   
   All in all I enjoyed the book, although it's not nearly as well-written as Pollan's food books.



4. I agree this is among the very best of this century's "Declinist Literature". Although the author covers a lot of problematic ground, from avian flu to bioengineering to obesity, what sticks with me the most is his urgent Cassandra alarm about the looming danger of worldwide famine.
   Those who poo poo Roberts as "Malthusian" should read more carefully the section with Malthus, who was writing his doomsday predictions at a time when the whole New World still lay there rich in topsoil, ripe for takeover by millions of starving European farmers. Sure, Malthus was proven wrong - at that time - but he would've been correct if the New World hadn't been quickly deforested/deprairied and farmed to feed teeming Europe. There is no frontier left, (the Amazon is the last big frontier left on Earth to be cleared and farmed, and we all know about that grim scenario),everywhere soils are massively depleted and threatened by flood, pests and drought from climate change, while our addiction to natural gas derived fertilizer is a recipe for major famines when the pipelines are cut off by war or peak oil. There is little water left in China, India and many other regions, which - as Roberts shows - import water indirectly in the form of grain from those that still have water. But anway, how is it "Malthusian" to point out rationally that fecund soil has peaked all over the Earth?
   Recommended to go with it is Eating Fossil Fuels: Oil, Food and the Coming Crisis in Agriculture
   Perhaps Roberts was hastily edited or not edited(for example, "eighteen hundred years ago" instead of "eighteen thousand years" in the section on Cro Magnon diet. Yet readers should realize that many major publishers no longer use copy editors and sometimes agents without training in editing are now asked to do the job without pay, so get used to errors and typos).



5. This is a most thoght-provoking book. I was introduced to it through an interview with the author on NPR and was intrigued because he had written The End of Oil a few years ago and was pretty much spot on about what has transpired. Food - its production, consumption, history, etc. - is so well-covered in this book that I can never, ever think about food in the same light, or not think about it for that matter.

5 comments about The Culture Clash: A Revolutionary New Way to Understanding the Relationship Between Humans and Domestic Dogs.

1. I have to begin by saying that when I first started reading the book I was very put off by a writing style that initially came across as a bit choppy, curt, rude and precociously academic... then suddenly, light began to shine and Jean Donaldson began tossing one brilliant idea, suggestion/method after another. - - My guess is that the book probably came about as a result of cutting and pasting previous writings of hers together... writings geared towards various audiences and appropriate to various situations... however, after this was done, the writings were simply never edited so they'd represent a cohesive whole... As a result, I have to agree with other critics that the book really needs to be edited and organized... still, I give it a 5 star rating... Why? Because as I said, it challenges you to think differently... and many of the pages are gushing with ideas and suggestions for problems facing all dogs... Whether or not you agree with everything, the book gets you thinking - - its not just a rehash of old dog training cliches (as many books are.)
   
   As for Jean Donaldson's basic approach- - basically its text book behaviorism, but with a compassionate twist. The central premise is that people expect their dogs to think and behave in the Walt Disney mold... and fail to take into account that dog's brains are the size of lemons... and further, wired different than people... in particular, dogs are masters at reading their environment... but don't have the abstract and logical thinking abilities of humans. In failing to recognize this, we often expect unreasonable things of dogs... and even worse, punish - - even summarily execute them for this. (Jean Donaldson specifically uses the word "execute" as opposed to euthanize in the case of many dogs who are put to sleep for aggressive behavior, when they were simply being dogs and their humans simply failed to socialize them.) -- - She uses this argument to poignantly argue the importance of socialization and repeatedly says, "Dogs are animals and animals bite..." Dogs who are not properly socialized bite not because they're abnormal... but simply because they were never trained to adapt to a human environment where biting, no matter how tempered can be considered a capital offense..... hence the dog remained dogs... ergo biting when seeing strange humans engage in behavior that any canine would have seen threatening. (Donaldson points out that in the wildnerness "fear of the novel" would have been understanding, as no adult dog would be able to live long enough to pass on its genes if it was programmed to simply walk up to explore anything new and novel. Dogs survive by running away from things that spook them... or making the thing that's spooking them run away... either/or...)
   
   The book covers a wide variety of behaviors which most humans find extremely annoying (barking, chewing and urinating) but Donaldson assures us are NORMAL, however, can be dealt with through proper socialization (and if the window is missed) conditioning. - - Methods typically involve exposure to situations, and reward for desired behavior... no alpha rolls, no choke collars, and no alpha wolf lead or be eaten/hang 'em by the choke collar babble... just time and patience... and a clicker and some treats.
   
   All in all, like some other reviewers, I think it needs rewriting... but that said, there's so much in it, I'd say its worth every buck and then some whether or not you agree with each and every one of her theories or suggestions. To sum it up: this book definitely belongs in your library if you're serious about dog training or behavior...



2. When I read this book the first time, I really enjoyed it and felt that it had changed most of my ideas about dog training. Everything Donaldson says is correct and works for most behaviors, because she uses basic principles that can be applied to any animal. Basically, if you understand positive and negative reinforcement/punishment, there is no need to read this book. Her main point is that you can get dogs to do whatever you wish using positive reinforcement alone, and the use of aversives is unnecessary and a result of expecting our dogs to be smarter than they really are.
   
   She also gives some good insight into the behavior of dogs, such as bite thresholds, and it's very useful for people to know that just because a dog bites doesn't mean it is evil and should be put down - it's NORMAL dog behavior.
   
   Unfortunately, I could only give it one star because her theory is very limited and basic. It is helpful for someone with no knowledge of canine behavior, thought process, or pack mentality, and for the many people who misuse aversives and think it is normal for you to be able to punch a dog in the face and not have him bite you. It is a good starting place, and nothing more.
   
   But for the rest of us who wish to understand the true behavior and potential of dogs, her book is of little value. Clicker training and an endless supply of treats works great for training specific behaviors, but not for achieving harmony and balance in the bigger picture. Not to mention the many breeds who are not food or play motivated, which she never addresses. Also, for those true problem dogs who are aggressive or have other serious behavior issues, she never says how to address these problems, and instead recommends other books!
   
   There are countless better books out there that are much more in depth and educational. This book only detracted from my knowledge of dog behavior and training.



3. 
   
   Ms. Donaldson takes a judgemental moralistic view of owners (like me)who like that their dogs do not bolt through doors before them, or like to eat before their dogs, and like to be their dog's leader. She even goes as far as to call us *stupid*. Okay, I draw the line when I spend $15.00 to buy a book then the author calls me stupid in the first chapter.
   
   I train in AKC competition obedience so I am all for reward based training. Dogs do learn faster when rewarded for doing the right behavior as opposed to being corrected for the wrong behavior. However, it is incomplete advice when Ms. Donaldson tells people that dogs should never receive any corrections. Maybe those highly skilled behaviorists and professional dog trainers have the talent, time, experience to only train with rewards but the average pet owner will never be able to accomplish this without years of trial and error. I am sorry, but I do not want to spend 5 years just to train my dog to not bolt out the door or decide to chase a squirrel and possibly get hit by a car.
   
   She is far to extreme in one direction. Like everythig in life, there needs to be a balance. And by the way, I am not in Cesar's camp either with his flooding methods and overly simplistic dominance fix-all solution either. Like I said, you've got to have balance and adjust with each dog.
   
   If you interested in dog training and learning theory I liked Don't Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor much better. The author uses easy to understand human analagies to illustrate learning theory. I am a very literal and visual person so if I could understand it, anyone can.



4. This is the most significant dog book ever written -- yes, it's that good. Everyone who owns a dog should read it. I'll let you read the other reviews to hear why. But you should know that there is a revised edition (with 11,000 more words) available, though for some reason Amazon isn't selling it.



5. My dog-eared, worn-cover, beaten up copy of The Culture Clash, signed by Jean Donaldson Oct. 5, 1997, is one of my most prized books in my dog training library. I've had the great opportunity to attend her seminars and listen to her speak on a few occasions. It's a book that is required reading for any serious student of dog behavior. It's also great for anyone just interested in learning more about dog behavior and training. Let me explain why:
   
   1. The book opens with "Getting The Dog's Perspective - Walt Disney vs. B.F. Skinner" and goes on to explain that dogs are amoral animals, that they have no understanding of right and wrong. She adds that dogs don't spite us, get back at us or feel guilty for doing "bad behavior." When we believe that our dogs are getting back at us, or trying to spite us, they end up getting a lot of punishment.
   
   Think about it, you come home after a long day at work only to find your favorite $200 pair of shoes chewed to bits. If you think your dog did that to "get back at you" you would dole out a nice big dose of punishment. In reality, your dog was stressed at being left alone and chewed to relieve the stress. The next day you leave for work and your dog feeling stressed again, chews your kitchen chairs. You walk in the house and think, "He did it again to ME!" Severe punishment follows.
   
   If this happens again and again the behavior is likely to get worse. In reality, your dog is not associating the chewing with his behavior. The chewing is a direct result of your behavior. Your dog associates the punishment with your homecoming. You walk in the door and pound him - this sets up a behavioral history. When you walk out the door there is a good chance that when you come back in a beating will follow.
   
   Everyday you leave and your dog learns that when you come home he is going to be punished. It's all very stressful. How does the dog relieve stress - CHEWING!
   
   Jean Donaldson explains this process so well and really gives you insights into why your dog is behaving a certain way.
   
   2. Chapter 2 continues with the fact that dogs are predatory animals, that they are hard wired to search, stalk, rush, chase, bite/hold/shake/kill, and to dissect and eat(prey). This chapter is particularly important because of the writing on tug-o-war, the most misunderstood game in "dogdom".
   
   In addition to tug-o-war, she discusses alone training, chew training and a lot more.
   
   3. Chapter 3 on Socialization, Conflict Resolution, Fear and Aggression goes on to give some of the best advice for new puppy owners. The sections on bite inhibition, timid puppies, dog-dog socialization, food bowl exercises, object exchanges, and the bite threshold model is a must read for any new puppy owner.
   
   4. Chapter 4 - Its All Chew Toys To Them, starts off with the story of The Gorns. The Gorns is an excellent story of putting us in the position of dogs. Humans are kept as companion animals to a more intellectually sophisticated species.
   
   Imagine living on a planet with a Gorn and this Gorn punishes you for doing normal human behavior like: Shaking hands, sitting on couches, eating anything but "Human Chow," etc.
   
   Think about dogs, they get punished for sniffing each others butts (human equilevlent to shaking hands), sitting on the couch, trying to eat anything other than the food from a bag that we feed them. This is a very eye-opening chapter.
   
   5. Chapter 5 is the one chapter that I think makes a lot of people upset - "Lemon Brains But We Still Love Them." The first paragraph of this chapter she states:
   
   "The enmeshment between dog owners and Walt Disney has been too tight to allow behaviorism in. We've been clinging to the wish that dogs might just have big, convoluted, melon brains like humans and have a natural desire to please. The fact of the matter is dogs have little, smoothish lemon brains and are looking out for number one. I personally still like them."
   
   It's an excellent chapter that goes on to explain how behaviors are taught. Much of what has been taught on dog training is false. For years dog owners have been told that when a dog does NOT do the command the dog is being dominant. The dog owner is then instructed to be "The Alpha" and apply appropriate force, setting up a negative situation between dog and owner. If we truly believe that the dog has a natural desire to please, then the dog should want to do it for us.
   
   On the other hand, if we take a realistic view and understand that as Jean states, `They are looking out for number one," we figure out what the proper motivation is to teach the dog to do the command.
   
   6. The final chapter finishes up with instructions on how to teach your dog obedience commands starting with kindergarten levels and working up to PhD levels.
   
   The relationship between dogs and humans is a long one. It's time that we stop expecting our dogs to think like us and learn to think like our dogs.
   
   Is it any reason that we have 56 million dog bites every year in the United States? The only way were going to make that number go down is to read books like Jean Donaldson's book, The Culture Clash.

5 comments about Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles.

1. This book is concise and broken into two major sections, the science and the styles.
   
   The first part, dealing with the math & science of brewing, goes through all of the critical calculations for creating your own recipes, and provides and excellent reference for hitting a target gravity or a desired hop level.
   
   The second part goes through the major styles of beer (focused on the styles as they are seen in competitive brewing), giving a history and summarizing each style as to major constituents (from a grain & hops perspective) as well as good target gravities, bitterness & characteristics.
   
   This book has helped me to create many batches of excellent beer. At this point, I've forgone recipes not my own...



2. This book is best regarded as a recipe guide for the competitive brewer. While the styles presented are regrettably limited, the styles that are presented are wonderful. Each style section presents the ingredient incidence and range of ingredient percentages for both commercial examples as well as 2nd round National Homebrew Competition entries. There are very helpful comments on each style as well - mash approaches, comments on the different malt bills, etc. I have to stress the notion that this is a recipe guide - no actual recipes are presented. Rather, the focus is on the different approaches commercial brewers and homebrewers use to brew to style as well as how they are perceived in judging.
   
   As an example, for Scottish Ale, you'll find comments on the use of smoked malts - right down to rauch vs. peat-smoked, roast malt vs crystal, residual sugar levels in different style sub-types, etc. What you won't find is a suggested malt and hops bill along with a mash schedule. Thus the audience is the competitive brewer looking to divine what his competitors are doing, how, why, and how it's being perceived in judging.
   
   The shortcomings of the book are its limited style and sub-style coverage. I also found the upfront chapters (i.e., those preceeding the style sections) of limited value. Finally, I'd like a lot more on mash schedules. The information presented in the style sections is priceless, however. If you are interested in even a single style or two in the book - two primary styles interested me - it's well worth the price. To my knowledge, the comparative recipe information is found nowhere else.
   
   I give it 5 stars for its unique information. I'm tempted to downgrade it for its limitations, particularly since there are some really egregious style omissions, but it's just too valuable in terms of what it does cover.



3. Actually, I bought this book when it originally came out. The pages are in tattered now, but I can't live without it and all the notes placed in the margins. It's a superb guidebook for brewing.
   
   I recently purchased a new copy for a friend, a fellow homebrewer. Why? Because, if you are a serious homebrewer, this is the best reference I know of. It takes a while to get the formulas cross-referenced and the graphical choices for what you are brewing in line, but the math works. I really think you will live by these rules for all your brewing. The second plus is the reference to award winning recipes in the last half of the book. They are all excellent brews.
   
   If you want consistant results, hit target recipes, be on the marks, you have to buy this book. Extract the formulas and adjust the graphs for the grain bill available to you and you can get the perfect brew. If you experiment with brewing, this is how to know what you're doing. Daniel's book is the best gift you can give to a brewer outside of a hops farm in Moravia.
   
   A Dark and Stormy Knight, Harmonics, Orphan Records



4. Ray Daniels' Designing Great Beers was my second book - after John Palmer's How To Brew. Though I have since read many more brewing books, this is by far my favorite. I read it in a week - and three more times in the following months. It is well written, well organized, and an overall joy to read. Being a bit of a beer history and styles buff, I very much enjoyed well-referenced sections on classic beer styles. One could build a complete library from the references in this book. Well done, Mr. Daniels.



5. This book is an excellent, in-depth resource on the subject of homebrewing. It is an incredibly detailed and well-researched book, and doesn't shy away from simple math, as many others on the subject do. For those brewers that aren't as mathematically inclined, the equations presented are tabulated, so that they never HAVE to be used. Daniels carefully explains the factors that affect important brewing parameters, such as OG, IBUs, extraction efficiency and water quantities and chemistry, and describes how to quantify them for your particular system. Many may argue that this level of detail is not required. Why worry about the effect that already-dissolved iso-alpha acids have on the solubility of more? Well, as Daniels explains early in the book, his goal is to help you predict as precisely as possible the character of your finished beer, so you won't be disappointed. If you are thinking about brewing your first batch of beer, this book is NOT for you. However, if you have a couple of batches under you belt, and want to dabble in partial- or all-grain brewing, a copy of this book belongs on your shelf.

5 comments about Let it Rot!: The Gardener's Guide to Composting (Third Edition) (Storey's Down-to-Earth Guides).

1. Great book for those who have a compost system going. We are on Cape Cod and recycle everything! This book tells us how to compost everything.



2. Composting, in case you aren't terribly familiar with it yet, is simply the practice of allowing waste matter to rot and decompose until it's fit to be tilled right into the soil. However, while the basic concept is as old as mother nature and often very easy to execute, it also helps to know more about it. What materials should you compost, and which should you avoid? Do you have to worry about animals or flies in your compost? How do you make sure your compost will turn into dirt and not a slimy, stinky sludge?
   
   While nearly every gardening book these days has a section on composting and most of these are enough to get you by, Stu Campbell's Let It Rot! is an entertaining, folksy and in-depth take on the art that will see you through nearly any foreseeable difficulty. I was certainly able to successfully compost with the simpler directions in other books, but there's information in here I wish I'd had back when I first started. For instance, now I know the cobweb-like stuff that I feared was mold was the natural activity of Actinomycetes, a part-bacteria, part-fungus organism that aids decomposition in certain parts of a compost pile.
   
   Mr. Campbell's book also introduces a great many different types of compost piles and composters that you can use, depending on what you're trying to accomplish, what area you have to work with, or what you're trying to decompose. He also suggests many ways to use compost in and around your garden, and how to get the most out of it. I'm glad I picked up Mr. Campbell's book, because I learned an incredible amount of new material!



3. I bought this for my husband as he went crazy on composting. I read it as well. And it provided more info. A must read for anyone wanting to start or even seasoned rotters. Good book to leave on the table gets lots of funny looks



4. This book is a quick crash course on composting. I learned things about composting that I never new before. The other great thing, it is an easy to read book! Totally satisfied!



5. I have never tried composting before, so I wanted the big picture. I researched online and this seems to be the undisputed classic book on the subject. It seems to tell ALL you need to know to manage your composting, and in as few words as possible.

5 comments about Fundamentals of Biochemistry: Life at the Molecular Level.

1. Overview:
   
   I am reading this book in preparation for Biochemistry I and find it to be full of gross errors. Simple definitions like that of osmosis are incorrect. Table 4-1 is terrible, and there are other tables and figures (Figure 3-6 for example) that require much more attention than they have been given. I am seriously concerned and disappointed about the authors, editors, and long list of professionals that reviewed this book because of missing basic "fundamental" pieces of information.
   
   Professors:
   
   If you are a professor who is thinking of using this text in class, I would suggest you DO NOT! Your students could be a hazard in the end if they plan to got to medical school or into pharmacology.
   
   Students:
   
   If you are a student currently using this text for class, please find other resources. I am catching only the errors that I know to be false, but there could be many more.
   
   DO NOT USE THIS BOOK!!!
   
   Further Comments:
   
   My professor will be using the third edition of this book in class, and I can only hope that in the third edition Voet got it right.



2. The title of the book is a very succinct description of the content. This is a solid text with alot of good, basic information. As a course text, I think the success with which this book may be employed depends a great deal upon the employer. If all you require of your students is that they skim the chapters and hear your lectures, the book will seem simple and lacking in detail to the student. If you require your students to memorize the diagrams, tables, reaction mechanisms, molecular structures, pathways, etc... (as my biochem professors did), then the book will seem very difficult, convoluted, and complicated. Unfortunately, when you get to a course like biochem with so much information for the students to absorb, and for which every text looks like an encyclopedia, I'm afraid a person's opinion of a textbook actually depends more upon the instructor who presented them with the text, rather than on the text itself. So I suspect many of the reviews on this page are actually reviews of professors who taught the reviewers and not of the book. Just something to keep in mind.
   
   That said, I enjoyed learning from this text and I did well in the course (a notoriously difficult course at my school).



3. Be advised, this item does not come with access to WileyPlus, the online program that accompanies the text. I noticed the item description has changed since I bought and returned the text, so Amazon must have gotten complaints.



4. They charged $174.57 even though I didn't order this item..
   If I ordered it, I should've gotten a confirmation e-mail..
   However, I didn't get anything like that..
   Also, they sent it with a different receiver name.
   I want my money back as soon as possible!



5. The product was in almost perfect condition except for a little dent on the edge of the cover, however it was a used book so that's understandable. The book came within a week and all in all I have nothing bad to say about the seller :)

5 comments about Fundamentals of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry.

1. It's a great edition of the book, and I appreciate it very much! I'm very happy with the shipping and condition of the book, and it was great overall!



2. I received this book promptly and in excellent condition at a reduced price than the local college bookstore.



3. This book is a very good and comprehensive view of the basics in general, organic, and biological Chemistry. I also like the fact that the book gives many examples and problems to work with. I recommend the study guide which can be purchased separately to go along with this book as it has been a very useful tool for me in my effort to complete this course.



4. I'm glad I checked Amazon instead of buying this book from school. I saved a lot of money. The book came super fast and was in like-new condition, better than I expected!



5. This is a great book. I am using it to review for the DAT. It is very helpful and worth the money. The book is easy to read and has great questions after every chapter.

5 comments about Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System.

1. A very digestible read for the consumer that's liable to provoke dyspepsia in the bellies of food giants and governments alike.
   In taking a moralistic view of starvation and obesity, our media, governments and many NGOs have condemned those suffering to more of the same. While the institutional causes remain unaddressed - in large part thanks to public sector responsibility being abdicated to private sector interests - we can only expect more headlines about food riots and editorials on farmer suicides, just as diabetes (II) continues apace.
   The resounding conclusion is that `free market' policies remain accountable only to shareholders - not to farmers, not to consumers, and certainly not to the governments that unleashed them.
   But Stuffed & Starved is as prescriptive as it is diagnostic. By identifying the grassroots organisations that have come to terms with the problems and begun to enact the social changes necessary for remedy, Patel brings to the page a message of hope and understanding with great clarity. To his credit, he is no less objective or critical in examining these social movements (as they struggle to develop) than he is of the corporations, WTO, and World Bank.
   If you're interested in a comprehensive overview of what's behind the headlines, of what's causing the paradox of starvation at the same time as an epidemic of obesity, this is the book.



2. I won't cover the same ground as Mr. Vannoni did. His review is spot on. I wish I had seen it before I bought this book.
   
   Readers should know first that the book's title is cleverly misleading. The book is only tangentially about the unhealthy make-up of the modern diet and the agribusiness oligopolies that have created it.
   
   Instead, author Patel seems to be mainly concerned with fixing blame for the world's food problems, and that blame rests almost exclusively with Britain and the U.S. We are told over and over that even when they were seemingly doing good, it was with evil motives. He "proves" this by selective quotations which he dredges up and takes as representing whole nations, and by assuming that if multiple motives are possible, only the worst one can be true. Thus, for example, it was with wholly evil intent that the U.S. led the Green Revolution (which much of the world enthusiastically followed) by developing high-yield fast-growing crop strains. The rich and well-off are always bad, and the poor are always innocent and good. And if governments of poorer countries do wrong by their people, it is only because the rich bad countries made them do it. These are not unlike the views I had when I was 15. But when you grow up you learn that the world is a much more complex place than that.
   
   Patel grossly misuses statistics. Everything is twisted to support a predetermined result. He calls this "teasing out" the truth. Twisting is more like it. The book is basically a collection of whatever he can find, however obscure, to support his agenda, while ignoring or twisting anything that contradicts his view. Thus he tells us Mexicans living near the border are less healthy because they are now compelled to eat processed junk, while at the same time he notes that they are better off economically the closer to the border they are. It never occurs to him that they are eating junk for the same reason people in the U.S. do: not because they have no choice, but because, just like us, they like cheap fatty sugary unhealthy junk food.
   
   This is not to say that Mr. Patel is wrong about everything. Far from it. But he has an agenda and it isn't to inform. It's to inflame, and that spoils the book. I read half of it before I decided that there are better books I can read, and since I won't live forever, I'll spend my time on them.



3. Daniel B. Schuster says:
   I was entranced by this book. Mr Patel discusses the micro effects of our agriculture system as well as the macro effects and shows their interaction.. On both farmers and consumers. Every claim or fact in the book is footnoted. And the graphs. The geek part of me could finally understand relationships between farmers, processors and consumers based on the charts of Mr Patel. I've read several books that tried to explain this but failed. Mr. Patel was able to take a complex topic and break it down step by step. Great book.
   
   I agree with the previous reviewer - this book will cause indigestion with mega producers of food.



4. I picked up this book during the Slow Food Nation event and couldn't put it down. Incendiary, smart and endlessly thought-provoking, Stuffed and Starved should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand more about the politics of food. I've read Omnivore's Dilemma and lots of recent nonfiction on food politics, but wasn't familiar much of Patel's subject matter, like Via Campensina and related peasant farm movements.



5. A great documentary story of how we in the better off world end up living off the rest of the world and keep repeating that its for the common good.
   Books like this are invaluable in all aspects of the human condition today because it joins the dots to show the economic motive force for many things that happen whether its food, healthcare or wars.
   I hope many people read this and mull over the thoughts when they next walk into a Starbucks under the delusion that they are participating in a Dylanesque "cafe" moment from the 1960's or think of MacDonalds as a cheap meal

5 comments about The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty.

1. This is a great book to read if you have interest in the Mondavi wine business. My interest was piqued after a recent trip to the Napa/Sonoma wine region and visiting the Opus Winery, amongst others. Mondavi is a legend in the California wine business and after reading Robert Mondavi's book entitled Harvests of Joy: How the Good Life Became Great Business I was further drawn to learn more about the family story. In Harvests of Joy: How the Good Life Became Great Business Robert Mondavi tells his side of the story but in this meticulously researched book the big picture is further explained and goes deep into the demise of the wine empire. The ins and outs of the busines, complete with sordid stories, success and faillures, makes this book an epic tale of a family in turmoil. The conflicts between the elder brothers, the Robert Mondavi heir brothers, Michael and Timothy is given an impartial reporting that is refreshing. The book does focus primarily on the fall of the Mondavi empire but it is done in such a way that the background information on the rise of the empire puts everything into perspective. The contributions to the wine industry cannot be denied and the author acknowledges the innovations and techniques the Mondavi family brought to making wine, as well as making Caifornia wine world renowned and mass consumed. The expansion of the business to other parts of the world is quite interesting. It is a tragic story in the end as big business takes over the Mondavi name but not before many years of drama, which Julia Flynn Siler so eloquently describes. If you are interested in the Mondavi story this book is without question the one to read. The book has two sets of pictures that put faces on the characters in this real life soap opera. It is a very satisfying read that leaves you thirsting for more every time you stop reading it. Check it out, highly recommended, especially if you are a wine enthusiast or a person involved in business.



2. THis is a great book about the early fine wine industry in California. The TV show "Falcon Crest" pales when compared to the real life story of the Mondavis. This book was a best-seller for a reason. Read it an enjoy.



3. An interesting in-depth review of a famous family, from success to downfall. This book navigates the ascendacy of this dynasty to the top of the California wine industry, hindered by the breakdown of personal relations and the final fiasco of the business. Sad, but fascinating.



4. Anyone that is big into Wine and has been to Napa knows Mondavi Winery is one of the biggest player in the Valley. It was very interesting to read how the winery came about and the split up of the family....Charles Krug winery.



5. I often prefer fiction, yet this packs California wine history into an enjoyable read. It even educates about wines without being heavy handed. And we get to "taste" some intriguing vineyard personalities. For those in family businesses, there are valuable cautionary lessons as well. Definitely worth my money and my time.