Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: book giveaway

Welcome to the fifth and final day of green book week, where I'm giving away a green book a day. If you didn't see the previous posts, there's still time to enter the drawing for The Green Teen, Chickens in Your Backyard, The Transition Handbook and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegetable Gardening.

Today's giveaway is for the book Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff, by Fred Pearce. You may recognize him as one of the science writers for New Scientist as well as author of the climate change book With Speed and Violence.

According to Wikipedia, Pearce has been described as one of Britain's finest science writers and has reported on environment, popular science and development issues from 64 countries over the past 20 years. He specializes in global environmental issues, including water and climate change and frequently takes heretic and counter-intuitive views - "a sceptic in the best sense", he says.

From Publisher's Weekly:

Pearce's quest to discover the hidden world sustaining Western consumption habits is fulfilled with varying degrees of success in this, his third book. Tracking the routes taken by the items in his home — his coffee, cellphone, computer, green beans, chocolate, socks — from raw ingredient to finished product, the author presents fascinating firsthand investigations, as when he visits a group of fair-trade coffee farmers, follows the trail of his donated shirts to markets in Africa, visits Uzbek communities whose health, infrastructure and environment have been devastated by the cotton industry, and interviews female sweatshop workers who view their factory jobs as empowering.

To enter the random drawing to win this book, add your name to the comments of this post. You have until (tonight) Friday, October 2nd, at 6:00 pm PST to enter. The winner will be drawn and announced on Saturday.

Idiot's Guide to Vegetable Gardening: book giveaway

Welcome to day four of green book week, where I'm giving away a green book a day. If you didn't see the previous posts, there's still time to enter the drawing for The Green Teen, Chickens in Your Backyard and The Transition Handbook.

Today's giveaway is for the book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegetable Gardening written by a reader of mine, Daria Bowman. Now, I know many of you will argue that maybe I should actually be keeping this book as a reference given my gardening failures over the years, but this is a great book for someone getting into edible gardening.

It covers the essentials of getting started, planning, what to plant, how to keep it growing, troubleshooting and reaping the rewards, including seed saving, record keeping and tool care. From the back of the book:

With food costs - and food scares - on the rise, you know the healthiest, safest food is the fresh stuff you grow yourself. But you have trouble keeping houseplants alive, and your backyard is hardly "green acres."

Don't bury your head in the mulch! Master the basics of planting, weeding, and more with the help of the simple instructions and full-color photos... [In this book] you get:

Expert techniques for planning and plotting a garden

Down-to-earth instructions for growing vegetables, fruits, herbs, berries, and more

Foolproof tips on feeding, pruning, and harvesting

The basics of organic gardening, including weed and pest control

To enter the random drawing to win this book, add your name to the comments of this post. You have until Friday, October 2nd, at 6:00 pm PST to enter. The winner will be drawn and announced on Saturday.

The Transition Handbook: book giveaway

Welcome to day three of green book week, where I'm giving away a green book a day. If you didn't see the previous posts, there's still time to enter the drawing for The Green Teen and Chickens in Your Backyard.

Today's giveaway is for The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience, by the Founder of the Transition Movement, Rob Hopkins. Now, before you get all wrapped up in the peak oil/oil dependency stuff, let it be known that this book is an excellent reference for how to create a more local economy.

For those of you interested in supporting local businesses, farms, and basically having independence from the larger economy as a whole, you will be interested in this book, and what it has to say as well. Some of the reviews (this one from Library Journal) include:

Meant to be a guide and motivator, the handbook discusses how several U.K. towns are preparing for the twin threats of climate change and peak oil. Hopkins, a teacher of permaculture and natural building and a cofounder of the Transition Network, urges a community response—local sustainability made fun—in which groups grapple with issues like food, transportation, energy, building materials, and waste and even develop their own local currency.

So, if you want to learn how to respond to a low carbon future by thinking globally while acting locally, this book is for you!

To enter the random drawing to win this book, add your name to the comments of this post. You have until Friday, October 2nd, at 6:00 pm PST to enter. The winner will be drawn and announced on Saturday. Bonne chance!

Chickens in Your Backyard: book giveaway

Welcome to day two of green book week, where I'm giving away a green book a day. If you didn't see yesterday's post, there's still time to enter the drawing for The Green Teen.

Today's giveaway is for Chickens In Your Backyard: A Beginner's Guide.

If you have ever thought of getting chickens as pets, egg layers or meat, this is one fantastic book to start with. I've read quite a few books on raising chickens and this one was one of my favorites with easy to digest information and enough details to get you started without being completely overwhelmed.

Since it focuses on backyard chickens (rather than starting your own poultry farm), it takes into consideration your space limits and other issues you might run into. From the back cover:

Your backyard can be the source of the best eggs and meat you've ever tasted. The answer is chickens - endearing birds that require but a modest outlay of time, space and food.

As they learned to raise chickens, Gail and Rick Luttmann came to realize the need for a comprehensive but clear and nontechnical guide. Their book covers all the basics in a light and entertaining style, from housing and feeding through incubating, bringing up chicks, butchering, and raising chickens for show.

Throughout the book, the Luttmanns express their wonder at the personalities of chickens - the role of brash protector played by roosters, and the instinctive motherliness of the hens. Given some freedom and attention, these birds can become much more than the egg-and-meat machines of commercial hatcheries and broiler factories. Chickens provide backyard farmers with enjoyable pastime, as well as a supply of good food.

If you want to enter the random drawing to win this book, add your name to the comments of this post. You have until Friday, October 2nd, at 6:00 pm PST to enter. The winner will be drawn and announced on Saturday. Good luck!

The Green Teen: book giveaway

I'm feeling much better, but I'm still slightly addled so it's a great week to give away a bunch of books! Since I haven't done this in a while, today begins green book week, where I'll be giving away one book a day. And, this time I promise to actually mail them out to the winners in a timely manner.

Today's book is The Green Teen, written by the venerable Jenn Savedge. I reviewed this book back in June. But, for your benefit, I'll repeat it here, since clicking back is too much work.

It's been a while since I've been a teenager, but I can certainly appreciate their concerns about the environment. Back when I was a teen, the biggest issues that kept me up at night were nuclear war and holes in the ozone. Well, that and Don Johnson. Kids today can add environmental destruction to the list of things to preoccupy themselves.

Having a teenage niece, I was interested in doing a review of The Green Teen: The Eco-Friendly Teen's Guide to Saving the Planet, written by Jenn Savedge, a fellow Green Mom.

The book contains super salient information about being environmentally friendly, yet geared for a younger audience. It starts off with a global warming primer and then gets right into tips for how teens can green themselves (food, clothing), their homes (turning off water, lights) and school (lunch, recycling programs). The final sections describe what they can do to get more involved and even prepare themselves for a green collar job, for those teens already planning for their future career. Well, one that doesn't involve living on a sailboat with an alligator named Elvis and hanging out with an overacting partner named Tubbs. But, I digress...

If you know a teen who is interested in green or, really, any color, surreptitiously leave this gem around the house in some inconspicuous (but obvious) spot for them to find. Because, you know, if they discover it and find out the information on their own, it's way better than you telling them to turn off the lights, shut off the water when they brush their teeth, recycle their cans, etc.

Okay, if you want to enter the random drawing to win this book (it makes an excellent gift for your Buy Hand for the Holidays Challenge), add your name to the comments of this post. You have until Friday, October 2nd (my hubby's b-day!) at 6:00 pm PST to enter. The winner will be drawn and announced on Saturday. Buena suerte!

Hey Mr. Green winner!

The winner of the book, Hey Mr. Green is Angela White from Breastfeeding 123.

So, Angela, email your mailing info to me at crunchychickenblog@gmail.com.

Congratulations, Angela!

For those of you who didn't win, there's still time to enter the book giveaway for Enlightenment for Idiots.

Enlightenment for Idiots - book giveaway!

Let me be the first to admit that I'm not exactly prone to reading chick-lit. And, for the most part, I'm fairly intolerant of most current fiction writers - I'm still working my way through 19th Century fiction. So, when the opportunity came across to read Enlightenment for Idiots, I figured, what the hell, why not?

This is, not exactly a green book, but it is a book. And it pokes fun at the whole yoga, meditation and search for enlightenment craze that seems to have inflicted itself upon Westerners. For that alone, it's worth a read because it is quite amusing. It's a real quick read - something I polished off in roughly 24 hours.

Anyway, in spite of a few plot holes and a couple of deus ex machina style interventions, I really enjoyed this book and wished it could go on forever. Okay, maybe not forever, but for longer at least. This is the writer's first work of fiction (she normally writes for Yoga Journal, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and her essays have been in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, O: The Oprah Magazine, Salon.com and the like).

So, if you are looking for a light read, then I highly recommend this book. It has been equated to Eat, Pray, Love, but with more of the pray part. As such, I'm giving this book away so that one lucky reader has the chance to read it for themselves! As usual, if you want to enter the random drawing, put your name in the comments. The drawing ends this Sunday at 6:00 pm PST. Good luck!

By the way, I guarantee if you read this book you'll be craving chai tea like crazy. Here's a recipe to satisfy the urge (and save you money):

Masala Chai

1.5 inch chunk of cinnamon stick
6 cardamom pods
8 whole cloves
1 star anise
10 whole black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon any unperfumed loose black tea (such as Darjeeling or Assam)
Sugar to taste

In a mortar, crush cinnamon, star anise, cardamom and cloves (or use a coffee grinder). Put water and spices in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover, turn heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the milk and bring to a simmer again. Add the tea leaves and simmer for 3 minutes. Strain the tea, add sugar to taste and serve immediately.

Book week - Hey Mr. Green giveaway

Here's to another exciting green book week! This week I'll be focusing on book giveaways, book club posts, book reviews and the like. So, if you like books, this is your lucky week!

Since I'm torturing you all with sweaty butt cracks and not allowing you to buy anything, I thought I'd feed your desires with a giveaway of the book, Hey Mr. Green: Sierra Magazine's Answer Guy Tackles Your Toughest Green Living Questions, by Bob Schildgen. From the publisher:

When is the right time to replace an old refrigerator? Is it more environmentally correct to buy your beer in bottles or cans? And is it okay to knit a sweater with acrylic (petroleum-based) yarn?

For several years, Bob Schildgen (aka “Mr. Green”) has been answering real-world questions in his Sierra magazine column. Readers know they’re getting up-to-the minute, authoritative responses, because all information is backed by the research and experience of Sierra Club. But Mr. Green’s legions of fans have also come to expect a refreshing dose of common sense — and often a laugh, too — because Bob is a funny guy with his feet on the ground.

Now the editors of Sierra magazine have distilled the best of “Mr. Green” into this enormously useful and entertaining book, organized for easy access: “At Home” offers tips on staying cool, cleaning up, and other domestic details; “Food for Thought” focuses on how to eat and drink better while spending less; “Out and About” covers getting around, fueling up, and enjoying the great outdoors; “The Three Rs” shows you how (and why) to reduce, reuse, and recycle almost everything; and “The Big Picture” considers how the environment, politics, religion, and other issues intersect — often at the dinner table.

Bob Schildgen writes the popular “Hey Mr. Green” environmental advice column for Sierra magazine, where he was managing editor and book review editor for many years.

To sign up for the random drawing, just add your name to the comments. The drawing for the book will be held this Friday at 6:00 pm PST. Good luck!

Green Book Week - winners list!

Thanks to everyone who entered the green book giveaway contests.

I'm glad that so many of you are interested in reading these great books! I encourage the winners to pass along the books to interested friends or family, their local library or hold their own giveaway on their blogs.

So, without further ado... congratulations to the following book winners:

Affluenza - Winner: The Things You Didn't Do

In Defense of Food - Winner: BerryBird

Simple Prosperity - Winner: Going Green Mama

Green Chic: Saving the Earth in Style - Winner: Sweetpeas

I'll have one more book review and giveaway this month for Hey, Mr. Green, published March 2008 from Sierra Club Books. Stay tuned!

Winners - please email me at crunchychickenblog@gmail.com with your mailing info.

Green Book Week - Green Chic review and giveaway

It's Friday. It's time for a fun green book giveaway. The book, Green Chic: Saving the Earth in Style, by Christie Matheson was just published in March 2008 and was featured in Glamour Magazine's April issue.

According to the press release:

Green Chic is a perfect resource for women who want to start making a difference in their environment, but think that it may ruin their chic lifestyle. In fact, this book shows that going green is inherently stylish. Written from the perspective of someone who does not recycle, who doesn't wear hemp clothing and who loves to take long showers, it's informative and entertaining style will relate to anyone who wants to live more environmentally friendly.

Unlike other books on the subject, it's not about buying your way to being green—or just appearing green—it's about shifting your mindset, changing your attitude, and developing a personal style that is green. And being truly green is, surprisingly, inherently chic. With Green Chic, consumers can discover exciting, efficient, and effective ways to be environmentally conscious, and take the stylish path toward saving the planet.

Based on that description, I fully expected the book to focus on fashion and home decor. In fact, I was rather excited to read a different take on environmentalism, kind of an Organic Style meets Natural Home and Garden, but more fashion and more green.

Unfortunately, I didn't find it to be any more chic or stylish than the seemingly dozens of other green books that have been published in the last year. It's mostly about how to incorporate green living into your daily life, not unlike The Green Book.

However, if you are just starting out greening up your life, it makes for a decent reference guide or if you have someone you gently want to convert, it is a suitable read. My one gripe with the book is her treatment of reusable menstrual products.

If you are interested in entering the book giveaway, add your name to the comments for a chance to win this book. The contest ends today, Friday, May 2nd, at 6:00 pm PST. I'll announce the winner on Saturday. Time's up!

Green Book Week - Simple Prosperity giveaway

For those of you hedging your bets on winning a David Wann book, here's your chance at another one.

This makes for a great follow-up to the book Affluenza.

"Simple Prosperity reads like a well-loved novel, engaging and educational. David Wann offers creative solutions to the challenges of over-consumption and makes it a thoroughly enjoyable read." Jill Cloutier, Producer, Sustainable World Radio

In his bestseller Affluenza, David Wann and his co-authors diagnosed the debilitating disease of over-consumption. In Simple Prosperity he shows readers how we can overcome this disease by investing in a variety of real wealth sources. To recapture a more abundant and sustainable lifestyle, try:

*Creating a richer life story through personal growth incentives
*Forming higher-yield friendships and stronger bonds through social capital
*Taking preventive healthcare measures to build up wellness reserves
*Balancing the biological budget through "greener" currency
*Caring for people, not just cars, to improve your neighborhood wealth index
*Resolving that pesky carbon conundrum through energy savings
*Celebrating instead of desecrating! Cultural prosperity futures value the earth as a sacred place

As usual, add your name to the comments for a chance to win this great new book from David Wann. The contest ends Friday, May 2nd, at 6:00 pm PST. I'll announce the winner on Saturday! Time's up!

Bonus Note: If you are starting the Extreme Eco Challenge today, I haven't totally forgotten about you! I'll be posting about it soon...

Green Book Week - In Defense of Food giveaway

If you aren't submitting your name to this giveaway of the book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto you:

1. Already own and have read the book
2. Have a copy from the library and are reading it
3. Have a copy on loan from a friend and are reading it
4. Are completely insane

From Publisher's Weekly:

Examining the question of what to eat from the perspective of health, this powerfully argued, thoroughly researched and elegant manifesto cuts straight to the chase with a maxim that is deceptively simple: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. But as Pollan explains, food in a country that is driven by a thirty-two billion-dollar marketing machine is both a loaded term and, in its purest sense, a holy grail.

The first section of his three-part essay refutes the authority of the diet bullies, pointing up the confluence of interests among manufacturers of processed foods, marketers and nutritional scientists—a cabal whose nutritional advice has given rise to a notably unhealthy preoccupation with nutrition and diet and the idea of eating healthily.

The second portion vivisects the Western diet, questioning, among other sacred cows, the idea that dietary fat leads to chronic illness. A writer of great subtlety, Pollan doesn't preach to the choir; in fact, rarely does he preach at all, preferring to lets the facts speak for themselves.

Enough said. Add your name to the comments for a chance to win this fantastic new book from Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma.

The contest ends Friday, May 2nd, at 6:00 pm PST. I'll announce the winner on Saturday! Time's up!

Green Book Week - Affluenza giveaway

Have you been following along with the Affluenza book club discussion posts, itching to get your grubby paws on a copy but didn't want to buy it for yourself because it goes counter to the whole message from the book?

Have you been dutifully participating in April's Buy Nothing Challenge and want to read more about how consumerism affects us all?

Did the reader submitted interview with David Wann (one of the authors of Affluenza), make you desperate to read his seminal work before diving into Simple Prosperity?

Are you ready to read more from this life-changing book? Are you ready for me to stop asking so many goddamned questions?

Well, now's your chance to get a copy of the book, guilt-free. Sure, it's a mildly used copy (I'm real gentle on my books), but isn't that better than buying it new?

All you need to do to enter the giveaway is add your name to the comments section of this post. The contest ends Friday, May 2nd, at 6:00 pm PST. I'll announce the winner on Saturday! Time's up!

Green book week!

Since my husband starts his stem cell transplant chemo today (three days of super high dosages), I'll be pretty busy and won't have much time for in-depth posts. So, I'm designating this week as Green book week! Hopefully, a little book fun and merriment will break up the excitement of twelve hour infusions, hair loss, nausea and vomiting...

Anyway, last week we finished off the discussion posts for the book, In Defense of Food, and next Tuesday I'm hoping to put up the final discussion post for Affluenza. As such, today there's a poll about the book club.

The rest of the week will be green book giveaways! If you are participating in Green Bean Dream's Bookworm Challenge in May, now's your chance to get the book you're signing up for for free!

Here's the book club giveaway schedule:

Tuesday: Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, by John de Graaf, David Wann and Thomas Naylor

Wednesday: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, by Michael Pollan

Thursday: Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle, by David Wann

Friday: Green Chic: Saving the Earth in Style, by Christie Matheson

All giveaways will be randomly chosen. You can enter one or all of them by adding your name to the comments for the book you are interested in on the day I announce the giveaway (in other words, don't enter them today). The contest closes for all the giveaways on Friday, May 2nd, 6:00 pm PST. I'll announce the winners on Saturday, May 3rd.

The following poll is multiple choice, so you can pick your top 3 or whatever you want.