Agriculture Books

I absolutely love this book! It is full of just about everything you need to know about anything you need to know about being self sufficient.

This is an excellent reference book for a person just starting out in the back to the land movement. It lets you know how much you can do with your land, reviews the pros and cons of different livestock, gives recipes for soap and the like, explains how to slaughter your own animals (if you so choose), and the like. We've made great use of this book while starting out, even on a lot as small as an acre. Nice candid tone through out. A wealth of knowledge worth more than the price.

For someone who knew nothing of outdoor, independant living, I walked away from this book a wealthy, knowledgeable person after having read it. In a nutshell, please buy this book FIRST! You will find that after buying this book that you will need very few other books out in the market. This author addresses everything you need to know about various topics of outdoor, independant living, and if she doesn't have all the answers, she forwards you to other sources that will get you the specific info you need. This book is worth the money. I bought it to learn more about gardening, and came away learning so much more. This is a book that one MUST purchase as a staple in their book collection.

The Encyclopedia of Country Living

We have purchased twenty plus copies of this book each year for several years. It makes a wonderful gift for missionaries that are going to mission fields all over the world. It includes everything from how to milk a goat to almost anything you need to know, including numerous recipes. Feedback from missionaries has always been favorable. In addition, my wife finds it useful here at home. It's very handy for a homemaker.

Covers a lot of subjects, easy to follow. Pays attention to safety (like canning issues). Many subjects addressed.

Aside from the obnoxious title these books are actually quite informative. They break down the basics of ferret nature and care in a way that is easy to read and understand. I would, however, put a book cover on it before placing it on my bookshelf; there is no seen to announce to the world that I am a "dummie" in any area. ;)

I had previously owned 3 ferrets, who were quite a wonderful business to have. Now that I am a Stepmom, I am considering getting a ferret for my son. I called the local ferret rescue and spoke with the woman for about an hour discussing what we were looking for and what she had. She informed me that she would feel much happier if I purchased this book and read it with my son since it has been over 10 years since I have owned a ferret.

I purchased the book used and my 7 year old and I sat down and read a chapter a night. On this whole, this was a very good beginner's guide to owning a ferret, though I did have some minor problems with it. The over all information was fairly accurate and should give someone who has no clue what they are getting into, a better idea of what a ferret is.

What I would have liked to have seen that wasn't there:
1) This book reads an awful lot like a sales pitch, extolling the virtues of ferrets. Though I personally love them, they really are not the right pet for everyone, and I feel that a much more unbiased reality check on what a ferret is and is not should have been included to deter people from getting a pet that would not be right for them. The book glosses over the scent issue, saying "its not and worse than a dog or cat" well sorry to say, ferrets have a VERY distinct, musky odor and the room you keep them in is going to have that smell. It didn't bother me all that much, but I had friends who wouldn't even enter that room in my home when I had them in college. And I cleaned their litter box daily and cage weekly.
2) The Poo factor - ferrets create a LOT of poo, and unlike a cat, they aren't going to bury it so you need to scoop out their box daily. Also they like to dig, so there is a good chance that they will play in their litter box and you will find poo on the floor around the cage.
3) The colored poo factor - The book tells you that you can feed your ferrets cat food, which you can, but nowhere does it mention that if there is dye in the cat food their poo will contain all of the dye (I thought mine were dying because their poo was neon red) also the dye WILL stain anything the poo touches.
4) Deafness - Many ferrets with white heads are deaf, I had one, it wasn't a problem for me, but we didn't know he was deaf for a long time.
5) Baby ferrets WILL nip, you have to teach them not to, and it's not as easy as they imply in the book.
6) Ferrets have no fear and will commit suicide if you aren't careful. They will climb your bookcase and leap from the top, they will get under your oven, and they will end up in your neighbors apartment by climbing through a hole in the back of your cabinets that you didn't know was there. They CANNOT be left unattended - EVER.
7) There should have been a chapter on how to make appropriate toys for you ferrets, and more on what you should NOT give to your ferrets to play with (IE paper towel rolls can suffocate and kill them)
8) More on ferret proofing - IE pictures of places that almost all homes have which need to be taken care of, but that you may never notice until your fuzzy has made it known to you. Like little holes up under your cabinets, blocking off your kitchen entirely, holes where people have run their cable themselves, etc.
9) Updated section on ferret diseases, particularly warning signs. Too many people think of ferrets as giant hamsters that never need a vet visit.

On the whole this book gave okay starter information on the colors of ferrets, their history, what kind of cage you should buy, and some basic diseases they can get. But in the end it felt more like a sales job to get people to purchase a ferret. And they do a great sales job, my hubby was against a ferret purchase, read the book and was suddenly sold on them. I hope that there will be a future version that is a little less like a sales pitch and a bit more informational.

We had just rescued a ferret and needed information quick. So we started with Ferrets for Dummies. It's a good book and it answered all our questions. Easy to read and understand.

I love this book just as much as the first one. Everything was excellent. The seller was terrific as well couldn't have been better.

I am so happy I bought this book! It was recommneded by some users on a ferret forum. What a good idea! So much information, I've referenced it a few times about my problematic ferret: he's a biter! Some useful information about switching diets, some recipes, ferret-proofing, etc. Good to have, excellend place to check for questions, and if you still have more- take what you learned to a ferret forum and they can answer your question more detailed! This is a must-have for any ferrent!

I bought this the other day for the bargain price of $4.62 through the Amazon marketplace. It arrived in under 7 days and in excellent condition.
The author is an experienced rabbit handler who has worked for years with the House Rabbit Society (Google same for their web site) to care for, and advance the cause of, rabbits.
In particular, Harriman does an excellent job accounting for the rabbits' needs, social as well as diet. She makes it clear that rabbit ownership is not at all like owning a pet turtle, and lays out clearly what you'll need to be ready to provide for them in terms of care and, for want of a better word, "mateship"--rabbits are intensely social animals that need to be involved in the life of a family.
We will probably be adopting our first rabbit in the next year or so. Harriman's book turned out to be an excellent primer, and I'd recommend it without hesitation!

As a first time rabbit owner, I found this guide very informative. It is a must have for any rabbit owner.

I'm not sure I understand why this book has received so many positive reviews. While the writer clearly has plenty of experience with and knowledge about rabbits, the information is not well organized and is often unclear. For instance, in the section on bunny-proofing your home, she never provides a simple list of the hazards and what to do about each. Instead, she opens with a list of questions and then transitions into a list of solutions--but the lists aren't coordinated. At one point, she mentions a solution for hiding hardwood floors and baseboards, but she never says what bunnies *do* to either. Chew? Scratch? How? I need a list of everything bunnies might damage followed by solutions for each. Another example: In the section about multiple rabbits, she focuses on introducing rabbits to each other but says very little about adopting a bonded pair. Is this better than adopting a single bunny? Why? Is it more or less work, and in what way?

My sense is that the author has been dealing with bunnies for so long that she doesn't quite know how to talk to a beginner--and that the editor doesn't understand the benefit of numbered and bulleted lists.

If you are only going to purchase one book about house rabbits this should be the one. I have purchased several and taken several out of the library and this is still the first one I pick up when I need information.

This is the single best written resource for people new to the world of house rabbits.

Fascinating and intelligent book that holds the key to sustainable practices that will help protect our drinking water supply. Why use 1.5 -5 gallons of precious drinking water to wash our poop away? It's a shameful and wasteful practice and this book provides the best solution to managing our excrement in a way that is healthy for us and for the planet.

I wish my parents had known about this so they could have taught me instead of me having to teach them. Shame on anyone that has discouraged this sort of creative thinking. Let the rigor with which Joseph Jenkins has researched this topic be a lesson to anyone who wants to make a claim about the validity of any of our social norms.

the true revolution is in our poop! its a great read and is a vital piece to the new sustainable culture we are growing. thanks joe!

Everyone should read this book, even if they have no intention or ability to use a humanure composting system. It provides a wealth of information on a subject that has been ignored for too long...human waste - how to dispose of it in a sensible, sustainable, practical, useful manner. We haven't flushed a toilet in this house in eight months, since we got this book and built our own sawdust toilet and composting box out back. We had a serious drought here this summer and our well was REAL low, but we had no problems because we weren't FLUSHING FOUR GALLONS OF CLEAN DRINKING WATER UNDERGROUND each time we went in the bathroom. I always wondered why we eliminate in water, anyway. And it doesn't stink, the compost box doesn't stink, it's simple and straightforward and clean and the humanure toilet's time has come! Everybody who comes in our house gets dragged into the bathroom by my husband to meet our new humanure toilet! Then I drag them outside to meet my wonderful compost box! So far we've had one convert, a couple with a camp who were using a stinking old outhouse, and they are just thrilled with the idea of using a humanure toilet next summer when they move back to camp. As a bonus, our electric bill dropped substantially, just because the water pump doesn't have to kick on every time a toilet is flushed. Buy this book, read it, start using a humanure toilet, tell all your friends, lend the book to your friends, do it now! Then read Joe Jenkins' other book, "Balance Point."

Due to a plumbing fault in the house, my family have been composting in the back garden on a daily basis for over a year. What a bonus to stumble upon this book and find out that our actions have been helping to preserve the future of our planet! A number of residents in our street have complainined that the local environment has been suffering from some kind of unpleasant air pollution of late, so we feel proud to be putting something back.

This book, like the Little House books, gives a true look at what life was like in the past. I was amazed at what such a seemingly young boy was able to do. Kids really did grow up a lot faster then.

The story tells about farming, raising cattle, cowboys (real cowboys), making do, being neighborly, dealing with not-so-neighborly people, taking responsibility for your actions, and so much more.

The author tells a story that is believeable and satisfying. This is a great read-to-yourself or read-aloud. Please note there is some 'cowboy language' but nothing horrible and you can easily substitute other words in their place.

This book was read to our class when I was in the 6th grade. I loved it! When our kids were growing up, I read all of the series to our kids as we traveled. Because I am a speed reader, sometimes I would "read" a funny part and start laughing, before my out loud reading would be there. Who would think that modern-day kids would be entranced with stories about early 1900 kids, but they were. Ralph Moody caught the imagination as we could see this kid getting into situations before he was there. These are marvelous. Every child in America should read them. This is the stuff of the sturdiness, resiliency, & character we come from. Adversity happens, it is happening right now...the question is can we face it with strength and imagination. Laugh until you cry. Love greatly. This is a splendid series.

I just finished this book tonight. I laughed and cried and couldn't put it down. Every family in todays society needs to read and reread this book as it is all about character and goodness. I am a better person because I read this book. I will read it to my kids immediately!

Oh I am speechless. This is a book full of grace, character, This is the writers real life boyhood and apparently thought he could make a good book out of it. Boy was he right! I could read this book about three hundred times and then maybe think about putting it down! This man had such a life as a kid! man you would think it was fictional but when you know its not it makes you well... Speechless!

This is a wonderful look into how life was... I found myself thinking about the work load on children back then and thinking "and I worry that unloading the dishwasher and keeping their bath clean is too much to ask?!?" Well not any more. A great "classic"

I went from a solo plant, maybe an oz harvest last year, to a harvest I can't even mention on here this year. I bought this book in January and read it cover to cover, what I learned has changed my technique, my appreciation, and my SUCCESS RATE!!!!!!! Cop the DVD's too, you won't be able to watch em just once, I guarantee. Buy this book, learn something, and enjoy a great harvest.

It just keeps me NORML!!!!!

I love this book. I was very surprised this book is so in depth and awesome. I have grown before, but there is info that I never imagined that would be in a Marijuana horticulture book. It's perfect for anyone. VERY New grower friendly, It's great knowledge for the people getting into growing, and it's great for the experienced growers too: this is a great book to learn more from. There is even a section on how to make Hash! I highly recommend this book, awesome info, packed with awesome helpful pictures, and all I could hope for in a Marijuana horticulture book. ^.^

If you want to know anything and everything about growing, this is your book. Seriously, this guy goes in depth to explain things without making it overly complicated.

It's simple, thorough, worth the buy.

I can't grow the divine weed where I live; I bought this book because it is absolutely the most in-depth, easy-to-understand book in the gardening world! I use it constantly for advice about soil, water, diseases, pests, growth stages, light requirements, etc.--for my tomatoes! Best book out there for weed *or* tomato gardening!

Way too much info on how to grow 100 plants a month. I feel illegal just thinking about it.
I am just a normal person, Card Carrying Medical Marijuana Pt, who can't afford the $300 - $500 a month for Med grade Cannabis. ( My Pharm Meds are $1200... but my insurance Co. pays that scam! ). The Cannabis works ALLOT better!
I want to grow 1 plant every 3 months, like 99% of the legit patients. I would destroy any excess I overproduced... personally.

Obviously, this Author is beyond expert and is an authority on the subject. I would love a Medical Growers Bible for your "PERSONAL" Med crop. With a strict recommendation for personal use only. If you sell ANY, you are just a dealer... so, keep it clean... is the book " I " want. My personal opinion.
Regardless of your personal view.... respect the spirit of the law and intent of the society and community you live in. It is the flow.
Freedom Rocks!
215 and 420 set the rules. Just follow them and every one is happy.

Great book on the plight of unwanted and abandoned animals and the humans who care enough to do something about it by rescuing them and finding homes for these homeless pets.

I thought it was an okay book, but as I was reading, I found myself skipping through all the blah blah blah to get to the actual animal stories. The stories about the animals were great, but you have to wade through a lot to get to them.

Terri Crisp is a dinosaur and hopefully she has been replaced by more enlightened people. She randomly euthenized every feral cat she came across, proclaiming that ferals are not adoptable and are basically a scurge. Obvioulsy she has never heard of T.N.R. programs. I was very disappointed in this book and in Crisp's actions and can only hope people will NOT use it as a guide to animal welfare. It is just one uneducated womens accounts of her exploits.

This is in response to the post about Terry Crisp's organization being investigated by California's Attorney General's office. This is what's posted on her website:

Noah's Wish Board of Directors, March 26, 2007

We are writing to inform you that Noah's Wish is in the midst of an ongoing civil investigation by the California Attorney General's office concerning funds received by Noah's Wish during Hurricane Katrina. The California Attorney General has taken the position that certain funds donated to Noah's Wish during this period, and its immediate aftermath, are restricted and may only be used for the animal victims of Hurricane Katrina, rather than the animal victims of other disasters or for general disaster preparedness. Noah's Wish disagrees with the Attorney General's position with respect to those funds, but is working cooperatively with the Attorney General toward a timely resolution of the dispute.

In response to the California Attorney General, Noah's Wish has set aside the disputed funds and agreed not to use those funds pending final resolution of the investigation. Noah's Wish is unable to predict when the matter will be resolved. Because Noah's Wish does not presently have access to the disputed funds, it is unable at this time to continue with its efforts to provide disaster preparedness services and volunteer training.

We will provide you with an update once we have resolved this matter.

We appreciate your patience and also wish to express our gratitude for all that you have done to support Noah's Wish in carrying out our charitable mission.

State probe forces animal-rescue nonprofit to close
Queries $8M raised in wake of Katrina
Sacramento Business Journal - March 30, 2007
by Kelly Johnson
Staff Writer
A local animal-rescue nonprofit that gained national attention for its work after Hurricane Katrina, sparking more than $8 million in donations, was shutting down this month amid a state investigation into how it used that money.
Noah's Wish, which rescues and cares for animals in disasters, was preparing this week to close its El Dorado Hills headquarters. About a dozen workers have resigned or been laid off since late last year.
The California Attorney General's Office has been investigating the organization since last summer, examining how Noah's Wish used donations that might have been designated for relief efforts in the hurricane-ravaged area. The probe led to most of the nonprofit's funds being set aside in accounts where they couldn't be used for other operations.
The nonprofit contends the funds were used properly and said it is cooperating with investigators.
The group received millions in donations after news stories showed its efforts in an area devastated by the August 2005 hurricane. Former Noah's Wish insiders allege those millions were intended to relieve suffering in the storm-battered zone but were improperly used for other purposes.
According to documents obtained by the Business Journal from a former employee, an accounting firm hired by Noah's Wish to examine its books concluded that it would be impossible to conduct a reliable audit because so many records were missing from the period when the group and its volunteers were working on the ravaged Gulf Coast.
Documents filed by the nonprofit or provided by the former employee indicated Noah's Wish had about $210,000 in revenue in the year ended June 30, 2005, and almost 40 times that much -- $8.4 million -- in the next six months.
Expenses shot upward, too, from about $212,000 in 2004-2005 to more than $2 million in the last six months of 2005, including almost $400,000 to purchase vehicles. In early 2006, the group bought a storage building in East Alton, Ill., for $65,125 and leased office space in New York City, according to documents provided by the former employee.
Terri Crisp, founder of the group and its executive director until this week, was paid $6,200 in 2004-2005, tax records show. The documents supplied by the former employee covering July through December 2005 indicated Crisp received compensation of almost $141,000.
The nonprofit's board this week acknowledged the investigation on the group's Web site. "The California Attorney General has taken the position that certain funds donated to Noah's Wish during this period (of Katrina), and its immediate aftermath, are restricted and may only be used for the animal victims of Hurricane Katrina, rather than the animal victims of other disasters or for general disaster preparedness," a letter posted online said. "Noah's Wish disagrees ... but is working cooperatively with the Attorney General toward a timely resolution of the dispute."
Noah's Wish has agreed not to use the disputed funds while the investigation is pending, and the nonprofit cannot continue its work without access to the money, the letter said.
A spokesman for the state's top lawyer would not confirm or deny an investigation.
Ralph Nevis of Downey Brand Attorneys LLP in Sacramento, who represents the group, would not discuss the nature of the inquiry.
Founder was asked to leave board
Staff members are being paid through April 11, but this week only the office manager remained at the El Dorado Hills headquarters to close things down over the next couple of weeks.
At one point, the nonprofit had 15 employees working at offices in El Dorado Hills and New York City and from homes in other states. The three-person office in New York closed in January.
"They've reduced the staff because of funding. It's everybody," Crisp said Wednesday. She said she's taking her remaining days as sick leave, but by Wednesday evening a message on the group's Web site said she was no longer connected with Noah's Wish.
Crisp also served on the organization's board of directors from its founding in 2002 until February. She's no longer on the board, she said, "partly because it's a conflict of interest." The Attorney General's office "had asked for me not to remain on the board."
Because she's no longer on the board, Crisp said she did not have the latest information on the investigation or details about what it covers. Investigators, she said, have not interviewed her and were working only through the nonprofit's attorney and its board chair, Amy Maher.
Maher did not return calls Wednesday. Board members Lyn Kendrick, Gail Monick and David Lesser declined to comment on the investigation; another, Heather Hathaway, did not respond to a request for an interview.
Asked about allegations that the nonprofit inappropriately used money, Crisp said, "I don't know of any misuse of funds."
Lori Polk, chair of the Noah's Wish board during Katrina, left it the month after the hurricane. Before and after Katrina, she said, she voiced concerns about "the organization and the allocations of the donations we were collecting." She said she felt she was "fighting a losing battle trying to maintain my fiduciary responsibility to the organization."
The group "did not make decisions based upon board approval," she said, and made "expenditures without approval."
The former employee, who would only speak on condition of anonymity, said that "the amount of money that was spent by the organization was unbelievable."
The Attorney General's authority over charities includes investigating the loss of substantial funds during one year, illegal use of funds, diversion of funds from their intended purpose and excessive amounts paid for salaries, benefits, travel, entertainment, legal and other professional fees, according to the agency's Web site.
Raising money last month
Noah's Wish was soliciting funds as recently as February. In a letter to potential donors, Crisp wrote the nonprofit had "made a concerted effort to only ask for donations when the need truly exists, and not become a pest with repeated appeals."
Later, the letter said, "So why am I contacting you now? Noah's Wish is prepared for the next disaster, but lately this has become increasingly challenging." Because 2006 was a "fairly uneventful year," Crisp wrote, donations declined significantly.
Tax documents for Noah's Wish obtained by the Business Journal reported revenue of $8.4 million, almost all of it from contributions, between July 1, 2005, and Dec. 31, 2005. Some $4.8 million was in unrestricted assets and $1.5 million in temporarily restricted assets at the end of that year, financial documents indicate.
In June 2006, the accounting firm engaged to audit the books wrote the board that it could not express an opinion on the 2005 financial statements, according to documents provided by the former employee.
"A significant portion of corroborating evidence such as vendor invoices, receipts, deposit slips and other supporting data were not maintained during the period that the organization was responding to the needs of animals during Hurricane Katrina. The records that remain are not sufficient to permit the application of auditing procedures that would be adequate for us to express an opinion on the accompanying financial statements," according to the letter from John Waddell & Co. CPAs.
For the second half of 2005, Noah's Wish paid $405,948 in salaries and compensation, according to the Form 990 supplied by the former employee. Of that, Crisp received $140,900, while the second-highest compensation went to Sheri Thompson at $118,125, the tax documents show.
If the numbers are correct, it appears the compensation for Crisp and Thompson is well above the norm for nonprofits of this size, said Ann Lucas, executive director of the Nonprofit Resource Center. The annual median base salary for the executive director of a nonprofit of this size is $130,000, according to the 2006 Compensation and Benefits Survey of Northern California Nonprofit Organizations, which is produced by the Center for Nonprofit Management in Los Angeles.
Noah's Wish committed $1 million to the city of Slidell, La. for construction of a new animal control center; the old one was severely damaged by Katrina. The city has not received any of those funds, Slidell City Attorney Tim Mathison said.

I have always needed one of these now I have one. I am so glad I really needed it.

The product was delivered as promised in new/as new condition. The book is very informational for machinists and engineers alike.

I AM A DESIGNER/ DRAFTER AND I HAVE TO SAY THAT THIS BOOK HAS ADVANCED MY KNOWLEDGE GREATLY IN MECHANICAL DESIGN.

I got the handbook because it was required for one of my classes, and I am glad i got it because we can use it on tests and and while we are doing assignments.

It is hard to describe how indispensable this book becomes once you own it. Extremely rich reference for all things mechanical. Not only tables, very interesting reading material too.
I've been reading it as a bedside book for a month, and the knowledge within seems endless.
I got the small print version, no complaints about that. Maybe in 20 years it will make a difference, though.
The only issue are units: some info in metric system, other imperial. But A++ still.

The hero is a pragmatist in a Godless world. The protagonist, Frank Cassidy, had not had a day off in two years when he quits his job in New Jersey to go the the Upper Peninsula, Michigan for reason of a death in the family. He steals a car and later robs a man named Melvin. Frank's brother-cousin and his wife, Norman and Martha, dread the arrival of Frank and Honey and Robert Lee and Ernie, the children.

In the boarding house where they stay there is a hint of opulence. It is learned that the body of the deceased uncle, Ward, is being held by the authorities. Honey feels they should try to get jobs in the town. Frank works as a security guard and Honey in the business office of a college undergoing a transition from a community college to a four years residential college with a Great Books curriculum.

For Thanksgiving it is decided to eat at Cedar Lodge and stay there through the long weekend. Listed winter activities are ice skating and ice fishing. In a telephone call Frank learns that his cousin Norman is collapsing. Norman upended the sheriff's car when served with papers of foreclosure. Frank and his family go to Norman's place where it is discovered the dairy herd has been killed. In the end Frank uncovers and clarifies mysteries that have always surrounded his boyhood. The atmosphere created by the author matches the subject of the search for meaning by being indeterminate, foggy, bewildering. The children are presented in interesting realistic detail.

This is an unusual book, strange in so many ways I'm going to have trouble listing them all. I'll try, though. I will say that at some level I enjoyed this book, and if you can overcome the shortcomings that I'll list below, you may enjoy it more than I did.

For one thing, there's the issue of the author's name. This *isn't* the Michael Collins who was the first president of Ireland (of course not, he's been dead for 80 years) though the author was born over there. He's also not the astronaut who stayed on Apollo 11 while Armstrong and Aldrin wandered around on the moon. And he's also not Dennis Lynds, who has a series of detective novels featuring a one-armed private eye named Dan Fortune, and who writes novels under the pen name Michael Collins. This is the other other other Michael Collins. Very weird.

The plot of the book is pretty complex. All of the plot takes place in the late 1970s, a strange choice for the author. It works at some levels, though. Frank Cassidy is a small-time next-to-nothing, working at a burger joint, married to a woman who is at first a dispatcher for a trucking company. They have two kids, though the older one is from her previous marriage. Frank gets word that his uncle has died, and he decides to return to his hometown for the funeral. However his cousin and the cousin's wife are very angry at this.

This is where things begin to get strange. It turns out that Frank's wife, Honey, was married before, and her husband killed two people and is now on Death Row. She beats the son she had with the first husband. Frank, meanwhile, steals cars and money in order to finance their trip back home. As the novel progresses, there's not a single solitary character in the whole plot who's truly honest, good-hearted, and/or selfless. Everyone's out for themselves, dishonest, and nasty. It's sort of a cross between American Beauty and The Grapes of Wrath.

One point I think worth making is that the author isn't an American. You've got to wonder what these guys are thinking (I'm thinking of the guy who wrote American Beauty) when they move here in order to write stuff and tell us what jerks we are. I wonder if an American could move to Britain or Ireland and write a novel like this, and get it published, let alone receive awards. Needless to say, all the gushing blurbs on the back of the book are from British and Irish newspapers, which all insist (of course) that it reveals "America's long malaise".

The author *can* write, though. There's not that much of a plot, unfortunately. Instead, we get a bleak, desolate account of Middle America a quarter century ago. While the author isn't positive about anything, it's interesting to watch the characters wander through the plot. The mystery angle isn't (as is traditional) important to the book, and the solution, when revealed, seems rather forced and quick. Luckily, as I said, it's not that significant.

I enjoyed this book within these parameters. I might recommend it, but you've got to be aware of how annoying it can be at times.

This is where things get weird, however.

This book is a pleasure to read. The writing style is effortless - Mr Collins is a skillful and inventive writer.

The story follows a 1970s family who return to the Frank Cassidy's hometown for his dad's funeral. As the mystery around the death unfolds, other themes are also addressed. In a couple of generations Frank's family has moved from primary industry, mining and farming, into the service econony (flipping burgers). The novel shows the impact on families, on men and women and their ideas of their place in the world. Some people can survive in the modern world of corporate farming, of colleges which free people from their tie to the soil. It is not an easy journey but the ability of people to survive shines through, especially when the benefits of education are used to change for the better. In the background the impact of a war fought overseas is also in the air.

Ultimately, a novel about hope. Perhaps even an update of the American dream? Great book, deserves more recognition.

Frank Cassidy lives on the fringes of society in a succession of demeaning jobs, a wife with an ex-husband on death row in Georgia, an angst-riddled stepson waiting for his father to be executed and an innocent pre-schooler, obsessed with his toy dinosaurs. Frank's edge-of-desperation lifestyle can be traced back to his childhood, his father and mother killed in a fire that erupted on the family farm when Frank was five-years old. His memories of that time are dim, shaped by the overwhelming presence of his uncle, who raised him as one of his own, and the psychological evaluations the doctor hoped would unlock Frank's fragmented memory of the night of the conflagration.

As soon as he is old enough, Frank leaves the farm behind, along with all family connections, to make his way in a hostile world with no patience for an emotionally damaged survivor. His life since then has been a series of misdemeanors, an anti-social approach to the rest of mankind. Frank views his occasional petty crimes as the natural evolution of a careful society, like car theft, his deeds "preordained statistical probability", but refuses to believe that "stupidity and desperation equate to evil". When he reads of his uncle's murder, Frank gathers his family and heads for the past, a dark trek from New Jersey to the vast, empty cold of the far north in Michigan.

Along the way, Frank telephones his cousin at the farm, arguing about the purpose of the trip and the resolution of a shattered history. For Frank, this journey is like poking a stick at a bad tooth, as painful memories surge, taunting and confusing his every action, his haunted youth returning with savage intensity. He makes his way back to the kind of town nobody would willingly return to unless called by tragedy or loss. People here live in despair, inhabiting days frozen in minimal needs and obligations, waiting to thaw. At each phase of his odyssey, Frank is beset by images and memories, the flickering light of a television screen in a starless night, black and white reruns the backdrop for a tragedy buried in his subconscious that fills him with a vague sense of guilt, a mistrust of his own motivations.

Thirty years after the traumatic events that stole his childhood, Frank is called back into the chaos of his youth, the self-destruction that has defined every rebellious action since. Both distressed and comforted by a suffering family he can barely provide for, Frank plunges into what remains of his world, forced to redefine time and place, to make a stand in this frozen wilderness, drawing courage from his own need for resolution and the love of his dysfunctional family. He does so with consummate grace, a tragic character cart-wheeling through free-associative hell on a collision course with the truth. The prose is shadowed and disturbing, a painful view of the underbelly of American life, where the have-nots gather around a burning trash can in hopes of warmth in an indifferent landscape. Luan Gaines/2005.

~ Frank Cassidy learns in a newspaper of the death - possibly, murder - of his uncle, and goes back to North America to investigate any possibility of inheritance; to find out why his uncle died; and to sort out loose ends left in his head from a fire at his family farm in his childhood...

This book starts off quite promisingly. The writer evidently knows the mechanics of how to write well. But the book lacks sufficient plot after about the first hundred pages (of a 360-page book) to keep the reader very interested in continuing with it. The journey to the end of the book becomes boring, too unstimulating, too slow, too drawn out, with too much description and detail just for the sake of giving description and detail, too much describing of humdrum life, with the reader wondering if the book is going to go anywhere sufficiently interesting to be worth going on turning the pages. The characters in the book aren't made particularly interesting in themselves. The story ceases to be interesting. The reader is left in the dark for too long as to where the book is heading to, or why all the details are supposed to be interesting, or what the point of the book is supposed to be. Whilst what really happened many years before, in Frank's childhood, is revealed to us in the last fifteen pages of the book, by the time the reader gets there, he will probably have lost interest in the tale anyway.

A few specifics in the plot that didn't really seem to fit together well:
1. It seemed odd for Frank just to dump Juniper, the family pet, in someone else's car, and for that action then just to be accepted by the rest of the family.
2. It seemed odd for Frank to go back home with specific personal missions in his mind, but yet then never actually to get round to meeting up with Norman and Martha face to face for the whole time he was up there.
3. It seemed odd for Norman and Martha just to run away without saying more to anyone, after their herd was slaughtered.
4. Why Chester Green was suddenly being referred to as 'the Sleeper' didn't seem to be explained.
5. It seemed odd for Frank, not rich, not to want to salvage any possessions from either house before they were bulldozed.
6. It seemed odd and too convenient for Frank suddenly to be interrogating Baxter, his new co-worker, for information, which was forthcoming, as soon as he met him.
7. It seemed odd for Frank just to be allowed to be left alone with Chester Green in a hospital unsupervised, particularly in later visits after he had already been suspected of trying to harm or interfere with Chester Green earlier on.
8. Why Baxter suddenly ended up in the sanatorium following the window-smashing incident and ended up getting ECT treatment wasn't very clear.
9. Frank suddenly realising his mother had died in a fall many years ago, by listening to tapes, didn't really ring very true.
10. The detail at the end of the book (page 357), of Frank killing the paralysed 'Chester Green' in the sanatorium, seemed to be a detail borrowed straight out of 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest', where the huge red indian suffocates the comitose Jack Nicholson at the end of that film. That conclusion seems to be borne out by a reference to 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' in this book, just a page later (page 358).

All in all, this was not a very satisfying book, for a variety of reasons - mainly lack of interesting plot and lack of interesting characters.

This book is not for everyone. The first half as the author refers to it is a science book in every meaning. Details, facts, vocabulary are all present. I've had a fair amount of science in college but never in this area. I'll admit it was a bit slow at the start. But once you get to the second half it all falls into place. When he starts to discuss different composts, you understand what is in them, what purpose they serve, because he's already given you the background.

Cons not for everyone.

A beautifully written book. This book is simple and highly informative. It is a must read for everybody who is interested in organic gardening. Once you have read the book you will have a deep appreciation and understanding of soil.

This is a detailed description of organisms in the soil, what kind you need for different types of plants, and how to get and keep them. It explains why organic gardening is more efficient, and eventually an easier way to grow. It is well written and informative.

I love this book! I raise red wiggler worms and lecture on worms and composting. This book has added to my interest and fascination with worms and now with worm/compost tea. I will use it as part of my lectures and recommend it in my classes and lectures.

Despite the short length of this book, it was packed with lots of good information and was easy to read. It brought to my attention aspects of fungi versus microbial activity that I was never aware of and how these affect soil quality for gardens versus shrubs. The book has had an immediate payback for me, as I am a novice composter and now know how to do that better. It also described compost teas which I was only vaguely familiar with. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in gardening in an earth-friendly way or to those who have relied solely on inorganic fertilizers and need to learn their true effects.