John Kinsella Books

Practical, straight-forward, simple approach to EMS implementation! We have used as part of our standard training with employee teams.

We have used this book as a training tool and as an appreciation gift for clients and staff. The book has a very practical approach. I've described the book as better than "Cliff Notes" but not a dissertation. We have clients requst bulk orders to use as training materials for their staff.

As an EMS project manager I found this book to very comprehensive with easy to follow case studies that were clear, concise and proved to be very valuable. So much of implementing an EMS deals with change management and this handbook lays out what changes an organization and skills a project manager needs to consider as it makes steps on this path toward ISO 14001 implementation. Another benefit is the excellent, easy to read examples created for each element of the standard providing a great starting point from which to take that leap! I recommend the handbook to others investigating environmental management systems.

This handbood explains the elements of ISO 14001 and how to implement them in a clear and concise manner. The authors make the reader feel confident that they can implement an EMS no matter what their industry.

I like how they step through each element of the standard, explain what it means and then show how others have addressed that element with real world examples. We hear from environmental managers in five companies (from a small, Midwest tool manufacturer to a mulit-national pharmaceutical conglomerate) how they implemented their EMS. Actual copies of policies, aspects lists, management meeting notes and cost data as well as tips and advice are, sprinkled throughout the book. There is also a list or resources and related websites listed in an appendix.

This is an easy read (a plus for anyone with limited time) and would make an excellent addition to an EMS training package. I will recommend it to my membership.

Curtis Lindskog, President, Pacific Industrial and Business Association

It is often the curse of wise, visionary ideas: When they're new and haven't yet gained widespread use or brand-name familiarity they somehow seem more complicated--and difficult to implement--than in fact they are. This "appearance" of complexity keeps well-meaning people or companies from moving ahead--and so progress stalls. For those directly involved, and for the rest of us.

Such is the case with ISO 14001, an elegant new way for organizations to bolster their bottom lines--and their communities' environments--at the same time. The ISO idea only seems complicated.

This book demystifies the seemingly arcane concept and makes environmental management systems readily accessible to smokestack industries, high-tech companies, even government organizations.

When I needed to understand the hows and whys of environmental management systems for a project I was working on, the straightforward language and clear design of this book made my education quick as well as thorough. It made what felt like a huge and complex undertaking seem not only manageable but worth doing.

Today, if I were implementing an EMS in an organization, I'd get copies of this book to all of my key people and make sure they had the time to read it and then discuss it together. I can't recommend this volume highly enough.

This book (and all in the portable poets collection from Everyman's Library) is wonderfully presented, bound, printed and the size is truly perfect for carrying around day to day or packing for a trip. The selection of Tennyson's work is broad - as such it is has something for everyone and every occasion, though if you have or desire a complete collection your money would be best spent elsewhere, unless you don't mind duplicates. As with all Everyman's Library publications it is hardcover with a nice cloth page marker, making it all the more portable.

This is one of the best collections of Tennyson's poems I have ever read. Tennyson's wonderful poems are artfully compiled into this book. I would recommend it to anyone who loves Tennyson's poetry or just wants to see what its all about.

According to Wikipedia , Tennyson is the second most quoted author in the English language, after Shakespeare. This collection provides a surprisingly broad survey of a poetic career spanning more than sixty years. The book is portable , attractively packaged and needing you, to take it on a trip to mountain or beach.( Or a mid-winter's read by the fireside.) The selections are often stirring and profound and there is an over-arching ambience of melancholia...." Come down , o maid , from yonder mountain height "...It's all high drama I tell ye.

In this remarkable book, Cambridge based Australian poet John Kinsella highlights what genre is and how genre works. Composed as one continuous, unbroken paragraph, the text suddenly switches gear, sometimes in mid-sentence, from science fiction to memoir, from art review to personal correspondance. Even the assesor's report to the publisher about this book turns up in the book. The conceit holding it all together is that there is an apartment building in which the occupants go about their business, the texts Kinsella splices together being thing they are writing, reading or just have lying around. With this conceit, Kinsella opens up a fascinating exploration of the way genre shapes our expectations as a reader.

The author is Professor (Emeritus) and Associate of Research Institute for Human Rights and Social Justice, London Metropolitan University and a consultant to the World Health Organization and the International Development Agency. He has worked in education and health in every continent. Written with great humanity and learning, this book is a passionate call for human decency.

In his foreword John Gibson writes of "the parlous and preventable state of the health of millions in the Third World and the injurious effects of neoliberal economic policies in world trade and global finance ... unless we evaluate alternatives to existing structures to bring about qualitative change in health outcomes in the developing world, environmental disaster fuelled by war and international chaos is our probable destiny." In 1995 the World Health Organization stated that poverty is the major cause of disease.

Chapters cover the UN's mandate of human rights; global finance and human rights; UN agencies' global impact on human rights; the worsening access to safe water; inequalities in global wealth distribution; poverty and primary healthcare; transnational corporations; gender equality; children's rights; literacy and education; the global impact of HIV/AIDS; malaria, TB and other infectious diseases; the exclusion of minorities; environmental sustainability; and the possibility of a global right to health.

MacDonald recounts how, at international trade talks, the EU, led by trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, always presses the less developed countries (LDCs) to import more goods, services and foreign companies, especially to `marketise' health and education. The EU demands that countries cut their export subsidies, but not their domestic subsidies, so the EU and the USA can keep the huge domestic subsidies on their products, while forcing LDCs to slash the subsidies on their exports. The EU's Common Agricultural Policy funds rich EU farmers to dump their products onto world markets, ruining Third World farmers.

MacDonald shows how the EU policy of Private Finance Initiatives is wrecking our National Health Service. He also details Labour's policy of poaching nurses and doctors - expensively-trained, scarce, skilled workers - from the Third World, first directly by the NHS, then by private agencies. It costs an LDC $60,000 to educate a doctor, $12,000 to educate a nurse. Britain now has 44,000 overseas nurses and 38% of the doctors working in hospitals qualified outside Britain. The LDCs are subsidising First World healthcare by $500 million every year. UN Resolution 2417 bans the poaching of specialist professionals.

He writes, "WTO rules legitimise the actions of global banks, MNCs, etc., in destabilising Third World institutions, bankrupting their producers and taking over the economies of small countries." Africa paid $255 billion in interest in 1980-2000, four times its original 1980 debt. In 2000, the net outflow from Africa was $6.2 billion, in 2003, $8.6 billion. When the major capitalist states `cancelled' two-thirds of Nigeria's $30 billion debt, British banks managed to make $3 billion out of the deal.

MacDonald proves in detail the links between profit and child slavery, profit and people-trafficking, profit and gender inequality. `Neoliberal financial globalisation', i.e. capitalism, doesn't work, it doesn't provide prosperity and equity for most, it generates vast and growing inequalities and it doesn't cut poverty and inequality. He writes, "Prosperity, even for the majority of the world's people, let alone all of them, under neoliberalism has to be an empty promise. ... Like any competition, it produces winners (and that is its attraction), but it must also produce losers, and they are as integral a part of the system as the winners." Solving the problem of global inequities in wealth would largely solve the problem of global inequities in health.

They tell us that there is no alternative, yet socialist Cuba, even under US-EU blockade, is one of the very few countries to reach the Millennium Development goals of health and education for all. Should we just live with capitalism, as Prince Charles' friend Jonathan Porritt advises? MacDonald concludes, "There are certainly no reasons at all for believing that the very best system we can come up with is one that guarantees the perpetuation of marginalisation, exploitation, exposure to pandemics, warfare and fear." Health for all is a possibility, not a dream.

A must-read for anyone with any semblance of intellect. The poetry of Jennifer Schalliol, in particular, simply blows one's mind, among other things. How could such great creativity be issuing from such a small person? It is the eternal question, as this splendid poetry will live eternally in the pages of Salt and in the hearts of readers like us.

Good, but a bit too technical for the average layman (I am an R.N.)

This book, gave me the knowlege to go to my Dr and tell him I was not going to take anymore perscriptions as no matter what i had been taking, including, neurontin, messed my brain up even though it might have helped with the pain. I noticed how so many said vitamin B was such a help and I am now using vitamins to combat my problem. Thank you for putting the book together and giving us hope that we are not alone in this fight within our own bodies. The Dr's comment with a smile was"Congratulations, you've graduated! You don't need to come back for six months"

A great book. A must for all who have neuropathy. Very Glad I bought it. Thanks Linda

This is an excellent book. The author,who has neuropathy, puts together a good listing of clinical trials involving vitamins and minerals, mostly in Europe and Asia. He successfully tries to be objective - he is not a medical person, and does not pretend to be one. Listing of clinical trial results does not take a medically trained person and so this doesn't bother me. Towards the end he does list a couple of vitamin and mineral programs that he put together as recommendations. Again, these are based on the clinical trial results.

Some more usual information for neuropathy sufferers laid out in an easy to understand and follow format. This book in the series does not have so many other personal case histories as the other two publications and was not as useful to me.

Shoeless Joe is an inspirational novel about a baseball fanatic from a small town in Iowa. Ray Kinsella the main character, is a struggling farmer economically. One night Ray hears a voice while on his farm saying, "If you build it they will come". Ray the dreamer he is, decides to knock down his valuable crops and build a baseball field, in hope of bringing back his favorite player Shoeless Joe Jackson. So Ray follows the voices and goes on a long journey from Iowa to Boston to Minnesota in search of answers to finally find the answers to his dreams and his economic problems.

If you are a fan of dreaming and hope then this book is for you. This book is very similar to the movie, Field Of Dreams. However, in the novel W.P. Kinsella elaborates a lot more on the settings and it is a lot more enjoyable. If you are a fan of non-fiction I do not reccomond this novel. The events in this book are farfetched but really inspiring.

The theme in this book mistaken by most is not baseball. Kinsella brings up the idea of hope, father-son, and to not give up on your dreams.

Well it's supposed to be about dreams, magic, life and not about baseball...wrong it's about baseball and an American understanding that baseball is a way to unlock dreams, magic, and life.

But I am not an American follower of Baseball so along with Underworld by Don DeLillo it went over my head (although DeLillo's books first chapter was a stunning, lyrical depiction of the centuries' baseball World Series final moments). So is Shoeless Joe...stunning, lyrical writing? No, assume wooden, workaday.

Think I am being harsh? Well I look forward to a story based of a brickie who puts a goal up in Norfolk. George Best then appears to help him build the football pitch and gradually all the world ** players appear (Lev Yashin as goalie, Carlos Alberto Torres, Nílton Santos as full backs, Franz Beckenbauer, Bobby Moore as centre backs etc for one last game with the Brickie's long lost father as the ref. That I would understand so Nick Hornby get writing it.

But for the moment I am sticking to the film of the book-Field of Dreams. And making a mental note to be wary of any book that has a sports theme!

** run past me again how in Baseball one country = a world series whilst the 2006 World cup has 198 counties competing and over 700 million people watched the actual finals

For anyone who loves baseball, and good lord I do, and for anyone who values the history of baseball, this novel holds a mirror up to us and explain to us why we love this game the way we do. The reader cannot help but feel identification and empathy with all of the wonderful characters Kinsella creates. Even those who do not really understand this whole baseball fascination will gleen an insight or two into why that is.

Mr. Kinsella has crafted a unique story, written in eloquent prose that speaks to the reader's heart. All of the facets of the human condition are explored in conjunction with this snapshot of baseball love.

The book is filled with so many wonderful scenes. It is much better and more fulfilling than the film, "Field of Dreams."

Baseball season or not, this is a perfect book to read when you have some free time.

Imagine listening to Peggy Lee singing "Is That All There Is" and feeling like you need to sleep for a week to escape the inane, predictable world. And then imagine youself feeling inspired by a short but magical novel that seems to say that just about anything is possible. If you're in the doldrums and tempted to become a cynic, read W. P. Kinsella's SHOELESS JOE. Peggy won't sound so convincing after you're finished.

Yes, of course, the plot is slightly different from the movie's, but not by much. A few scenes from the book are omitted for the sake of pacing, and Hollywood made J.D. Salinger into bestselling writer Terence Mann for legal reasons in case the recluse got his shorts all bunched up. But the storyline of FIELD OF DREAMS is quite faithful to the novel. So why read the book, you ask.

First, Kinsella's style is quite poetic. Although it becomes a bit saccharine in spots, it nevertheless has an easy feel to it. The paragraphs flow with a descriptive grace that is a bit magical in itself. There are some very long digressions, but even these are interesting as they slip nicely into Kinsella's tale of baseball as the saving grace of America--and one man in particular: Ray Kinsella.

The best reason to read this book, however, is to have the author's original words, as opposed to the resulting screenplay, sink into your soul so that you can feel the magic of the prose-poetry at a deeper level, where it can take root.

Kinsella manages to do two things in this novel: he speaks of the importance of the simple things in life: a farm, a pitcher of lemonade, a kiss, baseball. Simultaneously, he implies that there is a magic woven into the very fabric of reality, a magic that can happen to anyone. Paradoxically, it is this magic that ultimately makes the simple things accessible to us. Maybe that's why kids can have fun with rocks, sticks, and carboard boxes--kids who also believe in magic and baseball.

So "is that all there is"? No, Peggy. There is a mysterious world in the cornfields of Ray Kinsella's farm, a world that can touch our own if we allow ourselves to once again believe in dreams and possibilities.

Somewhere along the road the phrase 'if you build it, they will come' has come to signify a sort of brainless reassurance. In fact, the message of the book is that if you build something with a clarity of vision and purity of heart, there will be results worthy of your effort.

Reading this beautiful book about baseball (and make no mistake, it's really about baseball)will liberate you from the power of that cliche. It will also give you a haunting, beautiful model from which to build your own fields.

Lynn Hoffman, author of the novel bang BANG

Not many books of poetry are enacted as vividly in the cinema of the mind as John Kinsella's "Peripheral Light." Nearly 150 pages of poems, arranged without any overt sense of chronology or categorization into "new" and "selected," spool out a brocade of violence, labor, danger, natural presences, hardship, and beauty in (primarily) rural Australia. Poems set later in the book also make jagged forays into political and linguistic territory, although these generally tend to leave less of a strong impression on the ear and inner eye.

Kinsella's strengths-narrative pacing, internal echo, startling images dense with subtext, a reserved irony and skepticism, and lush, lucid description-combine most effectively in poems that focus on the difficulties of hacking farms out of the voracious outback, where one misstep-one overlooked skeleton weed or wild radish-can ruin generations: "One year the farmer asked us if we / felt guilty for missing one & hence ruining / his would-have-been bumper crop. . . . Speaking for myself, / I've included in my lexicon of guilt / the following: what I feel today / will I feel tomorrow?" ("Skeleton weed/generative grammar"). Salt, sheep skulls, screaming black cockatoos and red dominate a landscape all the more intimidating for its poising on the brink of surreality. It would be less troubling if it were simply not real, but there is no evading its perfect naturalness: "The orchard, canker-bound and fading-Australian / Gothic. A bladeless windmill remonstrates / with a warm wind as it singes / oranges scattered in bitter wreaths / of deadwood, scale, and vitrified leaves." ("Black Suns"). Or, in "Warhol at Wheatlands": "outside, in the / spaces between parrots & fruit trees / the stubble rots & the day fails / to sparkle." Or, in "Wheatbelt Gothic or Discovering a Wyeth": ". . .a mat of hay spread over the ooze / of a dead sheep that is the floor / of the soak (blood-black beneath the skin, / bones honeycombed), crystallised with salt." In such a place, humanity is backed into desperate corners, and grief, bickering, and sacrifices of questionable efficacy seem to rule ("The Silo", "Why They Stripped the Last Trees from the Banks of the Creek", "Anathalamion").

Kinsella does not simply sing elegies and gothic lays, however. He opposes structuring energies against the threat to survival, especially light, memory, and family: "Sometimes I sit on Deep Water Point jetty / and remember the time we spent / considering what lies below / the glistening surface. . . having to answer to no more / than the weather, / small fish, and an urge to be free" ("Approaching the Anniversary of my Last Meeting with my Son"); "Prayer goes somewhere / and is not lost and expects nothing back. . . . Most of the family is there and words are said / and those who can't attend wait for news of the dead / as now it is all about memory" ("Funeral Oration").

Although he crafts wonderful rhymed stanzas in many poems, Kinsella also employs a kind of free-verse form that fails into the superfluity of his subjects. On first reads, these poems seem strangely unfinished to an American eye, but they reveal, in their open structure, an asymmetry that parallels the overabundant energies of the natural world. Taken singly, any of these poems might seem quite strange, but in this worthy collection they act as mirror-slivers in a vivifying mosaic. Part John Clare, part Gary Snyder, part Derrida, Kinsella's work is powerful and distinctive.

What truths and what lies can be found in any relationship? Of course, one built on truth will likely survive and ones established in a lie will likely reach their demise that much sooner. Nonetheless, I found myself rooting for the relationship between Fleur and Richard, the two main characters of the novel, to succeed in spite of their shaky start.

Fleur is an excellent con-artist and Richard is looking to be loved. When Fleur shows him affection after years of a loveless marriage, he can't help but be sucked into Fleur's web. The characters are written in such a way to make them realistic in their emotional voids; Fleur has a bravado to hide her true feelings and Richard's stoicism slowly dissolves.

Unlike flightier books by her pen name, Sophie Kinsella, The Gatecrashers has a darker side. Some of the character development is weak, with the side members of the family rather predictable in action and words. A decent read for those who like chick-lit with an edge.

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed all the Sophie Kinsella novels, I decided to try the Madeleine Wickhams. So far I've read Cocktails for Three and The Gatecrasher. Although they are not as light in tone, they are enertaining and are quite fast reads. Her older books are harder to find in stores and online at the moment.

I must admit to having mixed feelings about Fleur. I can understand why she is so obsessed with money, given her background, and I can sympathize to an extent. Some of the men she had been associated with must have been difficult to live with, so she had no scruples about taking what she could. But I cannot understand why she isn't willing to embrace a live of love and simple pleasures with a good man and his family, all of whom truly appreciate her. She doesn't have to wear plaid trousers or learn to play golf.

On the positive side, Fleur is stylish, chic, sympathetic (to a point), and has a joie de vivre that she conveys to Richard Favour (a very aptly named character) and the rest of his family. The "sainted" Emily, it turns out, was a mean-spirited tyrant who denied her sister the trip of a lifetime, trod on her daughter's ego and forced her to marry a man who was truly unworthy (but whom Emily must have seen as a kindred spirit to herself), and hated her son's strawberry birthmark so much that she wanted him to wear an eyepatch to cover it. Richard never knew any of this; he would have been appalled if he had.

Negatively, Fleur is a user. She sympathizes with Phillipa but then ignores her when she is in real need of a friend. Her treatment of her daughter is abominable. The child is anorexic and a pot smoker. If Fleur had called her poppet one more time, I would have reached inside the book and slapped her. She is a young girl, not a doll. To think that Fleur cared so little that she had nowhere for Zara (named after Princess Margaret's daughter, I'm sure!) to go after her term ended!

But, like Fleur or not, she changed Richard and his family for the better. Zara, however, gets the credit for the change in young Anthony; I believe he changed her as well. It's amazing that she turned out as well as she did!

The ending was not what I had hoped, but, given Fleur's character, it rang true. I'd have liked an epilogue set a few years later, but it wasn't to be. However, I'm glad I enjoyed the book, and I do recommend it for a pleasant way to pass a quiet evening or two.

It took me a little while to get into this story, but once I did I really enjoyed it. It is about a woman name Fleur who attends funerals attempting to find rich men to stay with for a while and eventually take some of their money and move on to the next. She finds a widowed man named Richard whose family had been in a sad, hurt routine by the silent hurt of the mother who had recently passed. Fleur takes the family and brings them all out of their shells and changing their dynamic for the better. There are a lot of unanswered questions and the ending is exactly what you'd expect, but it was a cute story.

Fun, fast, and entertaining! She is one of the best ever!
A plane ride or beach trip will fly by when reading this book

If you are thinking of purchasing this book in hopes that it will hold you over until the next Kinsella book, understand that when reading a Madeline Wickham book you are in for a totally different experience! The Wickham books do not have the same laugh out loud humor that her Kinsella books do but I find they are still a lot of fun.

In 'THE GATECRASHER' we meet Fleur Daxeny a woman on a mission. She needs financial security for her and her daughter Zara and the only way she knows how to insure that is by scamming rich, vulnerable men out of thousands. Fleur makes it her job to cling to unsuspecting widowers and be everything that they need until she can get away with the cash. However, once she meets Richard Favour and his family she finds that she actually likes them and their cozy little life, complete with the charming house in the gated community & country club membership but can she leave behind her gold digging ways permanently?

I enjoyed this book from page one. The story line was original and the pacing was great, but what I loved most was that you really had no idea where the story was going to take you. Fleur was so flawed that the reader never really knew how the story was going to end until the last page. I only wish that the ending had been fleshed out a bit more but that is a small gripe with an otherwise highly enjoyable book!

This book is not worth the price! It is light on the educational aspects required for successful and SAFE sausage making. The art of sausage making is not difficult, but some of the techniques can be challenging for a beginner to understand without examples, such as drawings, photos, etc . . . this book contains VERY FEW illustrations, and NO PHOTOS. This book appears to primarily be a recipe collection, of which I've noticed that a number of the recipes are strikingly similar to those found in other, far superior books available. I would highly recommend either 'Great Sausage Recipes & Meat Curing' by Rytek Kutas, or my absolute favorite, 'Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing' by Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn over this book. Either of the alternative titles would be a much better match for someone just venturing into, or expanding on their skills in sausage making or any other type of charcuterie.

I was pleasantly looking forward to this book, since there are not many books that cover this subject. Sadly, this one is rather inadequate. The explanations and essays are scatterbrained and perfunctory, although I thought the recipes were `interesting'. I do not recommend this book, unless you are already knowledgeable on the subject and are only looking for recipes and can distinguish good recipes from bad.

Starting right off in the Preface, the author steps into the proverbial cow-pie. `We wanted to address the professional chef, student, and the dedicated amateur-anyone, in fact, who wants to explore the art and practice of fine charcuterie'. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is not nearly enough educational material for an `amateur' let alone `anyone'. Page ix has a long winded essay on nutrition, yet the writing is laughably circumspect, vague, and non-committal.

The author makes a number of statements that I have serious issues with. I will dismiss them as a simple difference of opinion, but I believe the author to be simply wrong. IMHO, this book is not a source of unimpeachable information on charcuterie or anything else.

The entire issue of fresh charcuterie, cured charcuterie, drying, brining, and smoking is a critical subject that all must thoroughly understand before undertaking any recipe in this book, yet all the author devotes to the interweaving of these important subjects is a couple of confusing sentences on page 51. The author does not demonstrate why curing is necessary, what the difference is between wet and dry brines, when to use each one, or what changes in the meat occur, but just skips ahead to discussions of Prague powder and different types of injection needles. The author does not describe why meats were smoked in the first place, why it is still done today, and even if you really have to smoke your charcuterie if you really do not want to or cannot do so because you do not have the proper equipment or expertise. He cannot even bother to describe sodium nitrate, what it is, what it does, and why it is necessary (answer: it is not necessary, but if you leave it out your meats will be various, unappealing shades of grey or brown, and not the happy pink people expect).

The information on safety and sanitation is brief, inadequate, and lacking in practical particulars. This can actually be dangerous, since the uninitiated may attempt the recipes without knowing the necessary precautions required in all charcuterie, cured or otherwise (listing various types of bacterial poisoning and their symptoms is nice, but worthless unless you also describe how to avoid them in exacting detail; even here, the author fails: he does not mention Listeria, a much more common and serious bacterial contamination than the ones he lists, ditto for E. Coli).

The first 75 pages are devoted to essays, explanations, and information. Yet, the author does not go into any subject in any depth. The material tends to be vague and perfunctory, sort of like brief excerpts randomly pulled from a student's lecture notes. About the most charitable thing I can say about this section is that it might serve as refresher material for a foodservice professional who may have forgotten some aspects of charcuterie. It is certainly not adequate enough to serve as an educational or learning resource by itself.

Happily, I did like the recipes very much. There are some 150 recipes, presumably tested, professional ones from a cooking school. Most, but not all, recipes are for sausages. Sadly, even here, there is a serious format problem. They are listed in alphabetical order, not very helpful. It would have been more useful (and educational) to have them categorized: cooked, cured, fresh, wet brine, dry brine, hot smoked, cold smoked, hams, sauces, etc. Also useful would have been a complete listing of all recipes and pages numbers in the beginning of the recipe section.

Perhaps the recipes for simple, fresh sausages are within easy reach of any home cook, but a better source is a cookbook devoted entirely to the subject: Bruce Aidells's Complete Sausage Book : Recipes from America's Premium Sausage Maker is specifically aimed at the average home cook.

Even in the recipe section, however, I have some doubts about; based on the first 75 pages, I found it difficult to take the recipes seriously. Many of the fresh sausages seem to have too much added liquid and not enough fat. There is no mention that chunks of meat should NOT be trimmed of fat, or that extra-fatty pieces of meat work better in sausages than lean ones. The recipes do not list the expected fat % of the finished product, nor is there advice anywhere in the book about controlling the fat content of sausages. Many recipes use soy protein concentrate, but the author does not cover this ingredient in his essays; this is a serious deficiency, as few people, even professionals, have ever used it or even know what it is, much less know why it is included in various sausages or how to handle it.

This is quite an advanced book. If you are looking for something suitable for the home kitchen, see if you can locate a copy of Jane Grigson's <>. It's out of print, but readily available used at Amazon.com.

Oh my god I just read Thomas kellers book it's the Best!! This book on the other hand, is mediocrity at best. The author takes up countless pages of out dated equipment and definitions of things like what a crushed red pepper is. I can only say that as a Professional chef this book is a total disappointment. Don't spend your money on the Rytek book either the only book is Thomas Kellers

I particularly like the spice combinations presented in the different recipes. It covers sausages from around our planet. Procedure-wise, methods can change depending on where we are in the globe but this book is an effective guide to charcuterie-making as a whole !!
... I really do not know what the other reviewers were looking for in a charcuterie book, though !!