5 comments about Petroleum Refining in Nontechnical Language Third Edition (Pennwell Nontechnical Series).

1. As someone who is fairly new to the oil & gas industry I wanted something to explain the essentials of refining and this is exactly what this book does. In easy to understand language with a minimum of math one is able to understand the basics of the refining process.
   
   I will want to go on from here to something that is much more in depth, but as a starting point this was exactly what I was looking for.



2. As an experienced chemical engineer new to downstream oil work, i.e., refineries, this book has been highly useful. I expect to use it as a quick reference years after mastering the field. William Leffler has written a simple, easy to read training program for engineers and non-engineers alike. If you are new to refineries or would like to know more about the subject, say from the perspective of ethanol refining, this is book for you. I suggest starting here and going on to harder material later.
   
   If this review was helpful, please add your vote.



3. Book is not bad, not much technical information in it. I would have liked to see more information written about the various process's. Just gives a very broad look at the refining units.



4. This is an excellent book to get insight about Oil Industry without going through the hassel of understanding the technical/chemical info.



5. Not going to be able to do process design of a petroleum refinery unit with this, but for other disciplines or general orientation, this book can't be beat. Even I find it useful for quick simple reference, and I am a Chemical Engineer with 15 years experience doing process design of petroleum refinery units.

5 comments about Soapmaker's Companion: A Comprehensive Guide with Recipes, Techniques & Know-How (Natural Body Series - The Natural Way to Enhance Your Life).

1. I have plans to start making soap in the near future and I was told this was the book to have. Lots of information here. I haven't started the project yet but this book will be right there with me when it happens!!



2. I am only just getting into soapmaking and found this book to be comprehensive and interesting for the most part. What I did not find helpful was the limited (and often dangerous) lack of direction that the author gives re: safety and soapmaking. References like, 'be ready to leave the room' or words to that effect, if you are overcome by fumes, is not my idea of dealing with safety issues, in a professional and sustainable way. Im still looking for information before I begin making soaps but this book did pique my interest even more. Limited what's available at present, finding a book on soapmaking that covers all bases, completely and accurately. It is a craft/business that is growing by leaps and bounds though, hopefully someone will write a book that really covers every issue in detail. Ill be ready to purchase!



3. I've been making soap for some time and have enjoyed this book immensely. It has lots of good suggestions and tons of excellent recipes.



4. The Soapmakers Companion has been in print for more than ten years now. My copy of this book is worn and stained from many soapmaking sessions. Despite the drift of time and my accumulated knowledge, this is one book that I return to frequently for review of all that pertains to Soapmaking. One of the strong points of this book is that it gets you up and running making soap. The recipes work their way from the relatively simple Soap Essentials Bar comprised of a basic coconut/olive/palm oil mixture to more elaborate recipes such as transparent soap and soap in the round. While Susan Miller Cavitch notes that this book is not that much of a basic book, yet I believe that even if one has never made soap before, this is an excellent book to start with.



5. I found her information very helpful and clear. My mother also uses this book and is the one who suggested it to me. She has been making soap at home for years and finds this book the best one she's seen.

5 comments about The Natural Soap Book: Making Herbal and Vegetable-Based Soaps.

1. I like this book because it gives recipes for smaller batches of soap instead of making enough for an army. It has clear and easy instructions, and easy to find ingredients.



2. As a soapmaking beginner, I found this book to be very helpful. It gives a good grounding in the basic knowledge, chemistry etc. that every soapmaker needs and takes you through the process step by step. There is also a lot of information about safety, working with lye that is important to know, though I can see that it might put some people off. Overall, I would recommend this book - its jam packed with useful information.



3. I have a couple other books on soapmaking, but found this book gives me information that has helped me understand the process much better.



4. I will try to make my own soap and this book is exactly what I was looking for : everything explained from beginning. Thank you Susan



5. Great book. I've been making soap for over ten years and this is the first book I purchased when I started. I consider it one of my best sources of information.

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

1. The book is similar to "how to brew like a monk" in it's mission to describe the styles and to give you an idea of how to create that style while stopping short of providing any specific recipes. I think that's the best part about this book. Daniels actually teaches you something about brewing a particular style and why you should add each ingredient instead of what you should add. That knowledge gives you the freedom to design your own brew that will stay within the intended style while giving you the chance to be creative. It's a great book and one that i'll be referring to many times as I attempt to create my own signature beers.



2. Admittedly, I've not finished reading this yet. The book is broken out into two sections: The first gives a rather thorough and dense description of each ingredient and its effect on the final product: beer. The second is a recipe section of sorts, that outlines many popular beer styles and how to make a representative of the style.
   
   I got into homebrewing to be creative, and make some "great beers". Then I found out about all of these... numbers. If you're looking for a book to read in bed, the first half will certainly assist in slumber. All of these... formulas, numbers, and science. It's dizzying, and I want to skip it altogether, but I'm sure there's great information in here.
   
   I bought this book to find out what hops go well together, what hops to use in each style, and other fill-in-the-blanks kind of information that new homebrewers don't quite have their head around. I've skimmed the second section, which looks more to what I'm looking for.



3. When I first got this book I didn't like it much. Why would I need all of this "data" when my BeerSmith program does all of the calculations for me? But as you perfect your style and technique--you find that you want to know "why" as much as "how". This book is GREAT for that. It is almost compulsively detailed and falls somewhere between a casual brewers how-to book and a full blown textbook of beer. Especially cool are the comparisons of the evolution of different styles; the grain bill comparisons for contest winning examples of styles; and the various graphs and charts which illustrate many of the intricacies of bringing beer within your BJCP guidelines.
   
   I would say that this book is nearly indispensible for the intermediate homebrewer. Once you have figured out how to keep your equipment clean and the basics of brewing, this book is the next logical step. It does not replace a good brewing software program (like ProMash or BeerSmith) but it does let you know what is going on "behind the scenes" in those programs (how is it calculating my lovibond? how is it getting an ABV? why is that a style paramater?).
   
   Get. This. Book.



4. This is a really great book overall that gets down and dirty into tons of info on specific styles. The beginning goes over the basic ingredients and techniques, but it's the style chapters that really shine. Daniels has done a ton of research and complied a ton of data to break down exactly what goes into different styles of beer and gives a fantastic building block for designing your own version of the style.
   I dock one star for what is missing. There are no mentions at all of the fantastic beers of Belgium, or the American "hybrid" styles like cream ale or amber ale. I love his methodical style of breaking down the beers, and I would really like to see this applied to these styles, especially the Belgians! Also there are a lot of simple grammar errors that any copy editor should have caught that get a bit distracting. I'd say time for a second edition with more beer styles!



5. It is a very technical book with lots of graphs and charts. If I ever have any technical homebrew questions, I will pull out this book. I might need to go back to college and get a masters degree to understand it, but I do now own it. Until I need it, it will just collect dust as part of my homebrew book collection.

5 comments about Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum Geology, Exploration, Drilling and Production (2nd Edition).

1. This is the best book available if you want to understand the petroleum industry without all of the techy details (or the engineering that comes with it). An excellent overview & reference.



2. Very well written and formatted for those of us with very little or no previous oil and gas related experience. Covers all the bases and allows the reader to see how prospects are identified and analyzed and the hydrocarbons recovered and marketed. Recommended for all those wanting to learn more about the industry.



3. I am a graduate geologist and I found this book ideal in my circumstances as an introduction before I got some petroleum work experience.It is very well written ,even a layperson could get a good appreciation for the wide encompassing subject matter.It is not aimed at specialists or those with a lot of experience in the petroleum geoscience.However, it is one of the best text books I have read.



4. I was looking for a book giving a comprehensive overview ofthe petroleum industry Upstream processes.
   
   I found it. This is a great book with a practical sense and the figures and tables needed to build Your own frame of information.
   
   If You need a practical understanding of the industry to build a business case, or figure out Oil Co needs. This is where to start



5. Well done Norman J Hyne, what an excellent edition. You explain how this complex industy works in very easy to understand chapters and supporting diagrams. Well worth the price.

5 comments about Biodiesel Basics and Beyond: A Comprehensive Guide to Production and Use for the Home and Farm.

1. WOW!!!
   
   I've been looking on the web at making fuel for some time and never felt I was getting the whole picture. This is ALL the info you will ever need on the subject. From system setup throught dealing with waste, this book explains it all in laymens terms. It shows that making fuel is not going to be the easyest thing you ever do. In the same breath, it shows that its within reach of us "normal" people.
   
   It really a very informative but light read. Not only the process is reviewed, but also the economics and history. Definitly worth the read weither you want to make fuel, or just learn more about the subject.



2. This book was purchased to get a better understanding of the biodiesel production process and industry. It also goes into great detail in how to build your own quality biodiesel plant. The author also dispells the fact from fiction involving quality biodiesel production. It is a good book for the person very interested in building a plant and is wanting to make an educated decision before he builds the plant. Overall, Great Book!



3. This book is great and details exactly how to make and use your own biodisel. It also covers saftey and logistical aspects of creating it which I thought was quite nice. The only reason though that i gave it 4 stars was becuase it is a bit wordy. There is a lot of information in this book and it can be overwhelming but overall it is very good and useful.



4. After researching most of the books available on the market on the subject of BIO-DIESEL I eventually settled for this book.
   It is well-written and covers every aspect of the manufacture of bio-diesel that the smaller-scale individual would look for in a book. The author is well-versed in his subject and is a definate must-have book if you are looking to get into this field.
   Definately worth 5/5 stars from me.



5. This book was very well written and researched. The book is detailed but still very interesting. I felt lead by some suspense. I was thinking, "Given all the hard truths, Can he really make it work for the home scale producer?!?" - and in the end, he does.
   I wish he'd said a little more about using SVO but that's not what this is about.

5 comments about Perfumes: The Guide.

1. This book is a delight to read. Both writers know thier stuff and make a convincing case for taking perfumes seriously, and when not to take them so seriously! They are lyrical when reviewing masterpieces, and deliciously catty when confronted with a dud.
   
   I will certainly take this book with me next time I go to the perfume counter.
   
   I would have liked some more comprehensive indexing, and it would have been handy to group perfumes by type, rather than strict alphabetical order.
   
   Apart from that this is both an essential reference guide for getting exactly what you want in a perfume purchase, and a pleasure to read in and of itself.



2. This is a delightful and truly fascinating book. My husband and I took turns reading it aloud (he said, "It's like wine, isn't it?") and it even got him interested in one of the five-star Masterpiece feminines-to-be-worn-as-masculines. The idea of smelling like a Vietnamese beef-mint salad ("Diorella") is just too appealing for him... Myself, I'm tickled by the fact that "Stetson" is a heady feminine floral oriental (in a box bearing a photo of a rumpled Tom Brady in shearling) and "Anais Anais" (pitched to lissome teenage girls in the late '70's) is dry enough to be a suitable masculine. Turin and Sanchez's enthusiasm for this little-explored subject is contagious and they are not total snobs -- they like "Vanilla Fields" better than "Lalique", "Lady Stetson" better than "Chanel No. 22," "Old Spice" better than "Polo Black." Their writing is witty, erudite, and downright Nabokovian when they are sufficiently moved to wax eloquent about a Masterpiece. Be prepared to take an immediate trip to the mall (as I did, bearing a little notepad with all the interesting scents with pithy tags like "hot rubber" and "cilantro floral") and get a headache from sniffin' all the stuff. This book made me seek out scents from the past that I would have otherwise avoided, like Estee Lauder's "Knowing", Dior's "Dune", and Clinique's "Aromatic Elixer" (all 80's Masterpieces which deserve a second chance), and venture into the new world of artisanal fragrance. I ended up exchanging phone numbers with the perfume lady at Barney's after an intense 20 minute powwow with Le Labo and Lutens. And at Neiman's, I experienced the divine confluence of Chanel's "Cuir De Russie" on my right arm and Serge Luten's "Five O'Clock Au Gingembre" on my left, both of which lingered deliciously all night long. What fun! And I'm someone who formerly was fine with a drop or two of lavender oil here and there... My only complaints are for the lack of a proper index and I'd like to know what these guys think of the popular thing of mixing and layering different scents (such as a client of mine who smelled like a luxurious Lutens-something which was the result of "CK One" and patchouli oil *yikes!*). Does it ever work and if so, how and with what? And okay, yeah, I can see how someone could be a little miffed if these guys dismissed their personal favorite as "total crap." I am by no means in agreement with all of their recommendations (you couldn't pay me enough to wear a Masterpiece like "Opium") but still they seem to know what they're talking about... so I'm looking forward to Volume 2 for all the rest (like Roget and Gallet's "Lotus Bleu", Aveda "Love", "Kai", Caudelie's "Eau du Vigne",etc).



3. Tentoone's excellent review says it all about this book. I bought it. I read it. I should not have bothered. Go to an online perfume sales company and read the buyer reviews. It's free and more useful in judging the perfumes. This book is a collection of this married couple's personal opinions. Ho Hum.



4. This book was a secret vice to me, almost like sneaking exotic candy behind doors, so you will have to share with no one else. I don't know any of the scientific babble; I only know I love beautiful smells. The mechanics of them leave me cold, frankly. But...this book was so compelling, and pure fun to read--of course I hurriedly looked up all my favorite scents first, to see how they were rated. I was thrilled to see some of my favorites with 4 or 5 stars, but nearly reduced to tears (!) to see one of my all-time favorites garner not only a 1, but jeering derision as well. I felt personally stung...but no matter, the reading of the whole thing was still a garden of delight. I actually wrote Luca and Tania a 'fan letter', and I will include some of it here: "...due to life-long financial difficulties, I've never been able to access much in the way of expensive perfumes...but your book was the 'unbreak my heart' key to my unrequited love of perfume. I could not embrace my own affair, but I got to look through a peephole at the avid lovers. What a feast! Your lyrical, outrageous, hysterical, insane descriptions spoke to my soul like David's harp--I could almost smell them vicariously...." I did find a website that sells "minis" and I picked out the ten most delectable scents in the book (to me, by description) and ordered them. What a banquet of riches. I am still caught up in smelling them all and deciding daily what I shall wear...oh, heaven! And I also discovered what will always be my 'signature scent' from this day forward--Tocade. Sweet dreams, perfume lovers.



5. Isn't the first movement of Brahm's 2nd Symphony in D Major the most melodic symphony ever written? Or would it be the Friar Lorenzo movement of Prokofieff's Romeo and Juliet? Or Tschaikowsky's 1st Piano Concerto?
   
   To the naive listener, a music critic's judgement and description would be helpful. To the urbane listener, such critique is interesting. Often critics will discern something that the casual listener has missed. It is why we need thoughtful, experienced, educated critics. Not because we always agree with them, but because they inform the debate.
   
   And so it is with "Perfumes - The Guide". The authors perform a stupendous service in reviewing hundreds of scents in lively detail. For the reader who is new to perfume (or has simply used what his parents used), this book is a must for the reference shelf. Eventually, the reader will have a significant other and run out of gift ideas: have this book at hand. There is no other similar compendium available. And while the authors have strong biases (good for them!), they are, at least. their own norm. The book is called a "guide"; it is not called "the RULES". All such compendia have biases, if only what is included and what is left out.
   
   The brief descriptions and ratings of perfumes are extremely helpful, but only perhaps if you have some experience with some of the scents. Fortunately, expense is not one of the authors' biases. I have used Tabac for years and it is very cheap. Dr. Turin rates is highly (4 out of 5). And I must confess, that I agreed with most of his choices for men's colognes (Eau Savage, Guerlain's Imperiale, Homme Dior), so perhaps I am favorably inclined toward this book. But, like the authors, I have been sampling scents for over 40 years, so I was able to conjure up the smells as they described them. This would be a distinct advantage in reading this book.
   
   
   If you have never been to a symphony hall, you will not recognize the description of the music when reading the review in the morning paper. Similarly, if you are new to perfumes, it will be difficult to understand some of the terminology. That noted, the rating guide serves as a good filter to avoid expensive mistakes. If you just noted the 4 and 5 star perfumes and made a point to experiment with them, you will connect the terms to the scents pretty quickly. A middle C on a timpani and a piano are the same note, but reading about them does not demonstrate the difference in sounds. And so it is with scents. This book will help guide you through the amazing variety of them.

5 comments about The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century.

1. The book was interesting and informative. There were a lot of facts, ideas and concepts brought up that made it very worthwhile to read.
   
   As would be expected, there were a few points where I disagreed with the author, but that is to be expected in any controversial book.
   
   I highly recommend it.
   
   Jerry Minchey



2. Having read the book in 2008, and knowing that Mr. Kunstler wrote it 4 years earlier, the writer is very astute in correctly forecasting the sub-prime/debt crises and the oil price increases.
   
   He does a credible job of explaining why oil may not be there for all time. Unfortunately, his treatment of the alternative fuel and new technologies is rather brief and he seems to dismiss any solution, as it would interfere with his relished doomsday scenario.
   
   Kunstler brings up valid points, but his suggested outcome (a return to a version of an 18th century rural lifestyle) is rather far fetched and does not do justice to mankind's creativity and tenacity in addressing the real energy challenges we are faced with.



3. Whew boy! After catching Kunstler on the radio, I bought his book, and read it with great fascination and mounting alarm. As a scenario for disaster, this book should please fans of fiction writers like J.G. Ballard. Only it is not fiction - Kunstler predicts the coming collapse of all human civilization, and he provides dark, witty descriptions of how this will come to pass. He makes a strong, compelling case, and I found myself fervently hoping that he is completely wrong. But we ignore this kind of prediction at great peril. For too long people have complacently accepted the status quo without looking to the future, and the leaders of American business and government are among the greatest offenders.
   
   Kunstler sees a coming collapse and severe contraction of the world economy. When the cheap oil begins to run out, our severely overpopulated world and its global consumer economy will begun to fall apart. Violence, disease, and much lower standards of living are coming to the world's strongest countries, and the developing world will never develop. We will all be taking giant steps backward, and there is no cure, no new technology that will bail us out. Already (in 2008), much of what Kunstler predicts here appears to be taking shape.
   
   As a polemicist and writer, Kunstler is very impressive. He is a good phrasemaker and possesses a sharp, dry wit. However, he is not a first-rate scholar. There are hardly any footnotes and references, and no bibliography. He makes broad predictions without referring to anything that buttresses his views, no political or sociological or scientific or historical studies of any kind. He dismisses all alternative energy technologies, yet he is not a specialist in this area. He offers little in the way of solutions, and instead sketches out a series of inevitable disasters that lurk in the near future. He also presents a brief history of the USA in relation to oil consumption that can no doubt stimulate some discussion. He basically sees the rise of the USA, improvements in world agriculture, and all the technological advances of recent decades as being completely dependent on cheap oil.
   
   It is important to remember that this is a man who dislikes contemporary American civilization and may, in fact, look forward with relish to its collapse. His region by region description of the USA lurching painfully backward towards the 1800s would be amusing if it were not so disturbing. He may be right that American suburbia is the greatest misallocation of resources in history, but his blatant hatred of it may also color his views a little. He certainly possesses the biases of many liberals of his generation, such as viewing the American Southeast as a land of ignorance and stupidity, despising big box stores, and disliking big business in general - but that does not automatically mean he is wrong.
   
   I would recommend this book, but I would also recommend reading it critically and taking into account the views of other writers on the subject. It is now unquestionable that action needs to be taken on his central issue - the dependence of American civilization on imported oil. Personally, I look forward to exploring more of Kunstler's works. His views are pretty extreme, but they make for very interesting reading, and his sharp, cogent writing makes them easier to digest.



4. This was the second Peak Oil book that I had the pleasure of reading and I wish it was the first. By and large, I would classify this text as a classic. Kunstler's begins his treatment of this topic by viewing the current socioeconomic climate as filled by a populace blinded by certain assumptions that make the coming (or present) oil crisis all the more severe. He then goes on to treat the rise of our modern industrial civilization and its roots in cheap energy (oil) and how the geopolitical nature of oil has shaped international trade and events.
   
   As in other texts on the subject, Kunstler examines the potential alternatives to oil, and how even if combined, the most they are likely to do is soften the fall. Unlike other books however, there is an extensive treatment of the environmental component of the dilemma that other books fail to address. Kunstler wraps up the Long Emergency by forecasting Peak Oil's effects on the economy and what living in the "long emergency" may indeed be like.
   
   Across the board, I enjoyed Kunstler's writing style and presentation. His voice adds to the rising tide of those that herald the awareness of Peak Oil. Like Heinberg, his writing rises to the top and demands the attention that few can or deserve. This is an essential book that is strangely, given the subject nature, enjoyable to read.
   
   For more Peak Oil reviews: http://www.peakoilresources.com



5. Kuntsler's got it right regarding the challanges we face in the not too distant future. His wit and sarcasm combined with a clear writing style make this work a most enjoyable read.
   
   Kuntsler also presents his case cogently in a video entitled The End of Suburbia. I have been influenced by his work, and have actually made lifestyle changes ranging from the use of compact florescent lightbulbs to an investment in a sustainable living community to help me to cope with the coming difficulties that Kuntsler predicts.
   
   There is one point that I would like to add. I see a ray of hopefulness in recent advances in lithium ion battery technology, that will allow the production of electric cars that are actually usable. Theses advances had not been achieved prior to the writing of this book, and therefore are not included in Kuntsler's vision of The Long Emergency. Thank you James Kuntsler for making us aware of the implications of the unsustainable lifestyle arrangements we have created.

5 comments about The Prize : The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power.

1. Yergin's opus is a compelling read but the plot falls apart in the paperback version - literally! The pages start to separate from the binding before you're 100 pages into your read. If your goal in purchasing a paperback is transportability the loss of entire sections actually makes the book a bit easier to carry around, but don't plan on lending it after you're done.



2. Daniel Yergin made is his name as an oil industry analyst by writing this book. As far as I am aware, this book is the best history of the oil industry ever written.
   
   It is comprehensive and begins prior to the start of the modern oil industry, discusses the U.S. oil industry when U.S. oil production on U.S. soil was a major player in global oil. It then proceeds to the rise of middle east production, the formation of ARAMCO (Saudi American Oil Company), and winds its way to the modern dominance of the oil and gas fields in and about the Persian Gulf. You may need to check for an updated edition - if there is one - or supplement this book with the history of the oil industry within the last ten years. This supplementation is just a function of when this book was published. The book has not been superceded in its field.
   
   This is required reading for any student of the global oil industry.



3. Mr. Yergin undoubtedly deserved the Pulitzer Prize for this masterpiece on the history of oil industry. He succeeded in covering about a century and a half of discoveries and developments providing accurate information on historical events, national and international politics and key players, achieving to write a reference book on the subject.
   Certainly no author whomsoever can be impartial - and throughout the reading one may well notice that Mr. Yergin is writing from a North-American standpoint. However, partiality is subtile and does not jeopardise his work's strict conformity to facts. Actually, it is only now and then - as in the case of Mossadegh and Nasser - that one might notice that the author could have stepped forward into a less contained critique of Washington's inertia and refrained from a more stark appraisal of Western European role.
   Nonetheless, Mr. Yergin is probably the best historian of the subject, faithful to facts, besides being able to imprint a light and entertaining style into his narrative.



4. This book was written when energy, not terrorism, was the most pressing domestic problem. Oil is so essential to the survival of our economy. "The Prize" traces the history of oil from its humble, entrepreneurial beginnings in the hillsides of western Pennsylvania, to the shrewd domination of the industry by John D. Rockefeller, to the breakup of Standard Oil, and through the discovery of oil in the farthest flung corners of the globe.



5. One of the few books that I enthusiastically have recommended. Great historical information for history buffs. Great economic information and how it effects us even today. It will truely help you understand the dynamics of war, politics, oil.

5 comments about Alcohol Can Be a Gas!: Fueling an Ethanol Revolution for the 21st Century.

1. I am one person that is truly going to make ethanol for gas, whether or not I continue this adventure is another question. But where we live in Europe we pay about $8 per gal for diesel- just so you know what is coming your way USA. I also happen to live in the corn belt of Europe- so it's dumb not to try and we have a small farm. Therefore I am so thankful that I bought this book. I would also recommend for further study [...]



2. This book is Huge! Full of really great information, everything from the history of alcohol fuels to how to convert any gas engine to alcohol. This is a must read for those that want to get off foriegn oil.



3. I purchased this book with the primary intention of learning how I could convert all the waste fruit I generate in my grove into alcohol. The author is well educated and does know his stuff and shares his experience in creating alcohol to be used as fuel. However, the book includes chapter after chapter of political information (and mis-information) which really hurts the books ability to inform. When will people realize and understand that mixing in your political beliefs into a "how-to" type book just doesn't work. Like most people that would but this book, my primary goal is to learn how to make alcohol to use for fuel. I could care less about how evil the Bush administration is or how big oil is ruining our lives or how almost every topic he covers seems to always come around to blame someone for something ie. global warming.
   
   It is unfortunate that Mr. Blume could not control himself enough to hold back his bias and simply write a cookbook style how-to book. He would have saved a ton of paper if he would heed my advice and drop the political stuff. The book would be about a third of the size it is now.
   I wish that Mr. Blume would have taken his publisher's advice and wrote two books; one for his political agenda and the other that teaches how to make and use alcohol as a fuel. Then he would have a winner.
   
   In conclusion, please strip out the political stuff which does nothing to advance your ideas and only causes more divisiveness. Think of it this way: if you limit your audience to only those that agree with you politically, the only people that will read your book are you and your mother. Make it universal by making it neutral.



4. I am an environmental educator at the Ecovillage Training Center at The Farm community in Summertown,Tennessee and author of Shutdown: Nuclear Power on Trial (1979); Climate in Crisis: The Greenhouse Effect and What We Can Do (1990), and most recently, The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook: Recipes for Changing Times, from New Society Publishers and Amazon.
   
   Arriving in Sao Paulo, Brazil for the International Permaculture Conference in 2007, I checked the online schedule and saw that the organizers had set me down for a morning session on "making money from tree planting." Caught by surprise, I had to scramble to prepare a powerpoint and one of the ideas I thought to explore was biofuels. Conventional wisdom has it that "agrifuels" are in competition with food production and climate remediation. I dashed off an email to David Blume asking for an example of "permaculture fuels."
   
   He replied, "Well to take a page from the book. In semiarid areas where the temperature goes no lower than 0 degrees F you can plant an overstory of mesquite to provide both 340 gallons of alcohol per acre from the pods and fuel the plant with coppiced branches from the tree. In the understory you plant perennial Opuntia (nopales) thornless cactus, and between there and the dripline and beyond you plant the starchy root crop, Buffalo Gourd, for a total yield of far over 1000 gallons per acre without irrigation."
   
   There you have it, a polyculture for food and fuel. But what about climate change? I wrote him back, "Would you say the guild above is a net carbon sink?"
   
   He responded, "It is absolutely a massive carbon sink. Pretty much all arid country crops put the majority of their growth underground and have a robust mycorhyzzal feeding regime. Perhaps 80+% of carbon produced in the top growth is exuded for rhizosphere associates. Mesquite is unique in that a large portion of its root burrows deep to support it with water extracted from far below. There have been recorded instances of mesquite going down 160 feet for water."
   
   And that, in a nutshell, is Farmer Dave's permafuel thesis. That he takes several hundred pages to flesh it out, in Alcohol Can Be a Gas! Fueling an Ethanol Revolution for the 21st Century, is an enduring blessing for permaculturists everywhere. This six-volume set, bound into one thick paperback, is both required reading and a standard reference on a par with A Pattern Language and David Jacke's Edible Forest Gardens.
   
   The six books contained in one are, in order, Understanding Alcohol: Visions and Solutions (including "busting the myths," polyculture and photosaturation, and Brazil's national program dissected), Making Alcohol: How to Do It (including 30 odd feedstocks from algae to whey, the sugar method, the starch method, fungal and bacterial enzymes, fuels, and distiller construction), Co-Products from Making Alcohol (animals, aquaculture, mariculture, mushrooms, methane, etc.), Using Alcohol as Fuel (carburetion, injection, small engines, flex-fuel conversions and cogeneration of heating, lighting and cooling, and typical conversions), The Business of Alcohol: Hands-On Advice (legal and economic considerations and case studies); and A Vision for the Nation (state and federal incentives, Community Supported Energy and permaculture).
   
   Just exactly what is the appropriate role for alcohol fuels is an old, but ongoing discussion, and it has been known to get heated at times. The Tortilla Rebellion in Mexico, catastrophic overplanting of maize and soya, gene splicing by multinationals for cellulosic substrate alchemy, forest clearing worldwide -- these are serious concerns.
   
   Recently, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to increase ethanol production by giving generous subsidies to the U.S. farm belt. The Act mandates the use of 15 billion gallons of biofuels annually by 2015 and 36 billion gallons by 2022 (up from 8.5 billion subsidized gallons now). Nearly all of this would be corn ethanol, taken from grain stocks, with the stover burned or plowed in. Beginning in 2016, the government would ask farmers to add the corn stover, along with switch grass or wood chips, to make annual increases of 3 billion gallons in "cellulosic" ethanol. This legislation passed over the opposition from Big Oil and food manufacturers, but is just the kind of massively soil-destroying, economically bankrupting, petro-addicted type of legislation that was ideal for harvesting votes in the Iowa caucuses.
   
   By showing how ethanol can be ethically produced in combination with food, soil, carbon sequestration and other objectives for healthy system design, Blume provides a rescue remedy for our planet at a time when it could scarcely be needed more.
   
   Loek Boonkamp, who studies agricultural trade and markets for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, estimates replacing just 10 percent of the world's current petroleum use with biofuels would consume about 30 percent of all the grain, oilseed and sugar produced in the U.S., Canada, the European Union and Brazil, not to mention a huge volume of water. Blume takes Boonkamp's argument head-on.
   
   The US has 1500 million acres of agricultural land and uses 70 million -- about 5 percent -- for corn. Mesquite covers 70 million acres of desert land. Harvesting mesquite pods would yield more alcohol than corn without any inputs of soil, fertilizer or water. The US could achieve similar yields from the lawn clippings coming off suburbia on any given Saturday (30 million acres at last count). There are dozens of these examples in the book. Moreover, one has to consider how much of that corn produced in the US is actually used as a food, and how much is used in floor wax, plywood, crayons and other products.
   
   But then, why use farmland at all? Why not harvest ethanol from cattails or dried seaweed? Willows and bamboo planted on berms separating long canals of cattails, with greywater, spent mash and fermentation carbon dioxide returned to the roots could yield 10,000 gallons of ethanol per acre.
   
   The Chinese are getting 4.8 dry tons per acre off seaweed from coastal waters, and the Vietnamese, who farm shrimp from April to September, harvest algae from the same shallow lagoons and estuaries the rest of the year. Kelp grown on nets can cover hundreds of acres of ocean and provide bread flours, carrageenan, agar and other ethanol co-products while also restoring health to over-nitrified "dead zones." Blume estimates the energy return on marine ethanol is on the order of 15 to 1, significantly better than current returns on petroleum exploration and production.
   
   Alcohol Can Be A Gas! goes beyond helping the mechanically adept convert their internal combustion engines to ethical fuels. It provides clear operating manuals for the farmers who will grow those fuels, the fermenters who will build and operate the stills, and the artisans who will create and trade myriad co-products.



5. This book delves into the kind of information that could help us avoid making the same mistakes over and over. If it can help create awareness of how susceptible the public is to being flim-flammed by the Oil Industry experts and its sycophants imbedded throughout the government and media we could clean this mess up. The book shows that it was the oil interests who politicized energy not the author of this book.
   
   Contrary to the specious complaints of some, this book doesn't pretend to be a "How To" book on making alcohol out of fruit... which is plain from a quick look at the table of contents. Try a brewers store. Besides it is illegal to make alcohol in any useful quantities without an expensive license...ever heard of the ATF? ...good grief