ColumnA book about oysters teaches the real meaning of farm-to-table.

A month ago, a good friend put a copy of Shucked into my hands and said, “You have to read this.”

I looked at the cover. A watercolor painting of an oyster and a fork paired with the title of Shucked: Life on a New England Oyster Farm was intriguing.

“It’s about a woman food writer that decides to trade her city life for working on an oyster farm.”

While I have never expressed the specific interest in working on an oyster farm, I saw where she was coming from. Having grown up in the country, I have my personal organic farm and vineyard dreams, the kind of place where you can get your hands dirty and find a new appreciation for the food and drink that ends up in front of you every evening. A personal narrative about what farm-to-table really means was therefore right up my alley. What I didn’t realize before diving into the pages of Shucked was how much I would fall in love with oysters in the process.

Odd as it might seem to fall in love with a food via a book, author Erin Byers Murray opened up an entirely new world to me, one that involved saltwater, hard work, rain boots and oyster recipes.

A few months ago, I had scribbled in my worn Moleskine notebook that finds itself along on most food adventures, “Oysters are the new bread.” It was a comment induced by a weekend of overindulgence of seafood, but working my way through Shucked, I again realized that oysters were everywhere.

My brain full of words like bivalve and oyster farm, my eyes and ears sought out any mention of the seafood. Byers Murray’s descriptive personal narrative and informative approach to describing life at Island Creek Oysters made me feel like I too was working on an oyster farm, or at least had an intimate understanding of the industry and the food she and so many others were working hard to harvest.

Which is how I ended up at The Walrus and The Carpenter.

The oyster bar in Ballard, just north of downtown Seattle, Washington, had been recommended by two food enthusiasts: a food photographer that worked with a friend of mine, and a charismatic wine connoisseur at McCarthy & Schiering Wine Merchants, who on a chance encounter with their Saturday afternoon wine tasting, had launched into a long conversation on wine, food and beyond. “So, are you a food writer?” he asked. (Is it that obvious?) A mere nod got me a list of eight places to visit, all scribbled on the back of his business card. The Walrus and The Carpenter had a star next to it and the name of a server we were supposed to track down.

After a two hour wait, which no one at the oyster bar seemed to mind, we were seated on stools at the bar, watching as a man with a bright red beard that went all the way down to his collar line pulled oysters from various buckets full of ice and shucked quicker than I can type. A menu full of local seafood, the “least” local of the oysters coming from British Columbia, only a few hours north, our server pointed us in the right direction of some of the stronger tasting oysters. Always trust your server. Soon we were in the midst of shells from Effingham and Dabob Bay, and I had a newfound love for this bivalve shellfish.

I am not alone in oyster love, however. As it turns out, they really are everywhere.

“[Oysters are] actually making a comeback – they were this hugely popular a century ago but then oyster populations around the country were depleted or completely wiped out by over consumption, pollution, and other factors. But there’s been a real effort to rebuild wild stocks around the country along with a huge rise in popularity of oyster farming on both coasts. Essentially, there are more oysters on the market than there have been in decades and restauranteurs are finding them to be a popular menu addition. I’ve been to a few sports bars that now boast raw bar menus – it’s pretty incredible to see one food product cross over so many different tastes and styles,” says Byers Murray.

Oysters aren’t just a fancy delicious component of a dinner party, they’re also a key part of our ecosystem. When I asked Byers Murray what she thought the single most impressive thing about an oyster is, she responded with, “oysters can filter up to 40 gallons of water a day – imagine what that can do help clean up our waterways.”

Oysters may have struck such a personal chord because they play the key role in my home state’s economy. According to Geoff Menzies, Manager of the Drayton Harbor Community Oyster Farm, a project by the Puget Sound Restoration Fund to “engage community members in the actual act of growing oysters and getting muddy,” Washington State is actually the leading producer of farmed bivalve shellfish in the U.S., producing 61 million pounds of oysters in 2011 which accounts for $58 million. Menzies cites Rowan Jacobsen’s book A Geography of Oysters when he says, “No city is as oyster-mad as Seattle.” It’s like I was born to fall in love with them.

Looking at the efforts in the Pacific Northwest and the East Coast, it is clear that there is a significant effort to rebuild wild stocks, which is good for both the environment and our health. Oysters are low in saturated fat, contain Omega 3 fatty acids, and as Menzies points out, are “especially good sources of high-quality protein, minerals: Iron, zinc and copper, and Vitamin B12.”

Oysters also have a positive communal effect. “When a community is located next to a bay which supports commercial  oyster harvest, they benefit from all of the efforts of that business or nonprofit to restore and to keep marine waters clean. Oyster farmers need clean marine water in order to survive. Everybody benefits. They often lead the charge to reduce bacterial contamination from livestock farms and septic systems, which are often the leading sources of pollution that close shellfish beds,” says Menzies.

Take a step back, and oysters are a good reminder of all of the elements of the food system that are essential to keeping us and our communities alive. Byers Murray says that if there is one lesson she can take away from Island Creek it’s “that there is an enormous amount of human effort and energy that goes into our food supply and we should do everything we can to appreciate and support that effort.”

Ensuring that we are well educated about that supply chain is the game changer when it comes to food politics. “I think we need more transparency in the food system overall. The media has really picked up its game in terms of reporting what’s happening behind the curtain at some of these massive food producers. But so much more can be done at a more basic level, such as in our education system, to bring awareness to what we’re eating and where it comes from,” says Byers Murray.

Keeping all of this in mind, I savored my oysters at The Walrus and The Carpenter, with a new appreciation of what, for so long in my mind, had just been another shellfish. But as is clear with good food, everything we eat has a story. Nothing on our plates can be paired with the word “just.”

A place of production, people to produce it, a system for getting it to a restaurant or a store and lastly the people that prepare it for us, or the preparation that happens in our very own kitchens; that entire system happens with every single thing that we eat. Every. Single. Time. Discovering that story is part of enjoying and appreciating what we’re eating, and putting us on a path to better food and food system.
Erin Byer’s Murray Drink and Oyster Preparation Recommendations

• Drink: It depends on the oyster but for an East Coast oyster like an Island Creek, I’d go with an ice cold Pilsner or a glass of mineral-ly white wine.
• Preparation: One of my favorite methods is throwing them on the grill until they pop open. You quickly pull the tops off, then add a pat of butter and a dash of Mexican hot sauce, like Cholula. Let the butter melt just slightly and serve.

Want to win a copy of Shucked?! We’re giving one away! To enter to win, leave a comment below telling us why you’re committed to local food. 

Image: samantha celera, The Walrus and the Carpenter, Geoff Menzies, Anna Brones

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Christiane Lemieux’s new book Undecorate breaks all the rules.

I follow the rules. I don’t park in emergency zones, I wait for my seating section to be called before boarding, and I always sort my recycling. But sometimes I color outside the lines. In fact, I break all social conventions and rules when it comes to design (remember my diatribe against furniture suites and homogeny?), so my heart pitters, patters, and flutters at the notion of Undecorate ($40), by Christiane Lemieux (the founder and creative director of DwellStudio). In this fresh new take on interiors, Lemieux explores spaces that challenge tradition with an eclectic, “love of imperfection and penchant for surprise and unusual juxtapositions.”

The premise of Undecorate sanctions taking hold of your space and taking the liberty to infuse your taste. If you find something you love, it belongs inside your walls – regardless of color, style, function, etc. Embracing diversity among your objects results in a unique aesthetic analogous to Bohemian whimsy.

Here’s an excerpt to ponder from the introduction of Undecorate.

“What does it mean to undecorate? A fine question.

It’s mixing fine antiques with your collection of Cher Barbie dolls, as Harry Heissman does in his description-defying apartment in Brooklyn Heights. It’s leaving temporary party decorations up for years because they just somehow seem right, as Erica Tanov does in her ridiculously beautiful California house. It’s wedging antique columns into a suburban house, or parking your cars in the living room, or building your own alter, or hanging vintage advertising posters in your toddler’s bedroom. Undecorated is following your instinct, even when it’s telling you to do something a little crazy, a little different, something against the rules.

Undecorating isn’t haphazard style; it’s not thought-free. It’s about being guided by something other than the traditional constraints – whether it’s your commitment to the environment, or your love of polka dots, or the fact that you want to feel like you’re in Paris when you live in Peoria.”

What’s not to love, right? I’m off to order my copy here. May I suggest you do the same? And don’t let it linger on your coffee table alone, set it beside one of these beautiful bound pictorial creations.

Images: Melanie Acevedo for Undecorate

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ColumnThe new 2,438 page Modernist Cuisine cookbook might just be a food lover’s dream.

The last few weeks have been very productive, if by productive one means rationalizing reasons to spend $625 on a cookbook.

I agree that this number appears irrational, but the brain behind Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, is Nathan Myhrvold, a former chief technology officer at Microsoft. Myhrvold has put together a work of art that I can only drool over from the comfort of my computer.

Disappointingly, there is no “cookbook slush fund” in my budget. I did find it for $461 on Amazon, but really, I don’t even have the shelf space to store a five-volume book that’s 2,438 pages and weighs 40 pounds. Still, nothing can stop me from lusting over the encyclopedic fantasy of it.

It took 36 people four years to put Modernist Cuisine together, which is a feat in and of itself. And with that kind of research and devotion, this is not just a cookbook; it’s a documentation of how food works, and a feast for the eyes and senses.

An article in the New York Times last year taught me that to make perfect hash browns, you have to use clarified butter. Hash browns are not something I make frequently, but the explanation of why you can cook with clarified butter at a higher heat without scorching your dish (because you’ve removed the milk solids that eventually burn) stuck with me. It’s a tidbit of cooking science I’ve logged in my culinary memory and it has served me well for a variety of other kitchen adventures.

As we spend more time talking about what we’re eating, where it comes from and how we got it – organic, from the farm 30 miles outside of town, and at the local, independent market – we’re inevitably more intrigued by what we do with our food. As we should be. Not everyone is fascinated by food (I do not trust these people), and some could care less about following recipes, but having a sound understanding of why certain foods go together and what chemical reactions occur make our favorite dish taste the way it does is appealing.

You might be tempted to think a cookbook that has over 2,000 pages is pretentious – who’s going to have time to go through all of that? But such a book is sure to be a treasure to the foodie with imagination and a geek streak, as a scientific understanding of food leads to more creativity in the kitchen. Knowledge makes us more conscious, enabling us to put real thought into dishes instead of haphazardly whipping something together or turning to processed foods, and that increased level of awareness is what’s needed in the food movement and on the dinner table.

That, and the pictures are absolutely striking – food porn at its best.

And that’s why I’m hoping someone sends me a check for $625 dollars. Or a review copy. It’s sure to be put to good use.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, taking a conscious look at what’s bubbling in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

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Even when the writer isn’t Mark Twain, changing someone’s words is tricky business. I’ve always said the best editors are the ones who are so subtle that you can’t tell what they change in your copy, and yet your piece is better. So, when considering the new version of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” that eliminates the prodigious use of the “n-word” throughout the novel, there are two big problems out of the gate: One, if we can agree that Twain is an American literary treasure, it’s probably no one’s business to give his work what’s referred to as a “heavy edit.” And two, the man’s dead. Game over. If he’s not part of the discussion (and he’d want to be), it’s cheating to have it.

That said, Twain and his work are part of our nation’s living culture (the story was even covered by Entertainment Weekly) and there are bigger issues at play here than simple editing ethics. One is straight-up censorship. The other is laziness regarding our relationship with young adults – the target group for the two options being offered here: The reworking of Twain’s text for “innocent eyes” or kicking the book upstairs to only be taught at the college level (proposed by Lorrie Moore last weekend in her NYT op-ed, “Send Huck Finn to College”).  Both impulses are well-meaning, but are wrongheaded disservices to our youth and ourselves.

Regarding censorship, taking shots at book banning is easy when the would-be banners are reactionary thugs concerned with thought-policing our culture by ensuring that so called subversive reads (from “Catcher in the Rye,” to “Lolita,” to “The Communist Manifesto”) remain unavailable. Taking on attacks by science deniers and bible thumpers that would cut us off access to scientific facts is also a no-brainer bailiwick for anti-censorship types. (A friend who works in publishing recently showed me an excerpt from a faith-based children’s science textbook used for Darwin-free schooling. Oh dear.)

But it’s a lot more difficult when attempts at information control come from those concerned with issues having to do civil rights, be they about race or sex. (I’m recalling now a professor who once hurled a copy of Homer’s “Odyssey” across a college freshman classroom, symbolically excommunicating it from the canon because of its hideous maleness. This same person later refused to be a reader on my thesis on Kerouac. Doing so would be playing a role in legitimizing what she said was his texts’ misogyny.) The “Huck Finn” controversy is a tough one, to be sure. I cringe when I read the n-word in the novel today as an adult, just as I did when I was young. Likewise, as a Jew, Ernest Hemingway’s great “The Sun Also Rises” has always provoked winces at certain ugliness. I do understand the instinct to get the word out of the classroom.  (The term “injun,” it should be noted, is also dispensed with in the new edition.)

But I turn to Katie, the teen liaison at the local library who’s completing her master’s degree in library science with a focus on Young Adults. Katie’s an old-school liberal, feminist, anti-sexism and anti-racism, solid citizen of the best sort. Here’s an excerpt from a paper she recently wrote about a decision she made that she thought was best for young girls:

“I recalled my decision to remove a popular magazine, Seventeen, from [the local library’s] Young Adult collection and replace it with another publication. As I made that decision, I was aware that I was wielding control in an undemocratic way, but I didn’t see my actions as “censorship.”… I was in denial about my act of censorship because I thought I was right. … [But] It didn’t matter that I had a litany of ‘good’ reasons for wanting the magazine removed – I was putting my personal opinion ahead of patrons’ wants and needs. That prioritization is never acceptable and is in direct conflict with my personal philosophy of affording information access. … I saw how, on a practical level, I must be ready to defend access to material I personally find abhorrent. This is my duty as a librarian and a youth advocate.”

This is the type of (sometimes counterintuitive) vigilance we must display to make sure high school students have access to work that, like “Huck Finn,” some of us might find distasteful. I know we’re talking about curriculum here and not a teen magazine – but we’re also not talking about Nazi propaganda. Keep in mind young adults’ access to material is consistently under attack and it is specifically here that we need be on guard to defend our rights to information. Most efforts to ban books are focused on this part of the society’s population under the guise of protecting innocence.

The second option, being floated by Moore and others, is that we suspend teaching the book until college and adulthood. “The remedy,” she says, “is to refuse to teach this novel in high school and to wait until college – or even graduate school – where it can be put in proper context.”

Refuse? This is an example of the laziness of our approach not only to engaging and teaching this age group, but also to understanding and respecting their cognitive sophistication, and to owning up to the sometimes uncomfortable world in which they live and form opinions. Until graduate school? What does that say about ourselves as adults and our ability to think and learn?

No one would advocate handing material on complex subject matter to young students without teaching it. Try this on: Material regarding safe sex has unsettling terms and concepts that teenagers can’t “get” on their own. Best not to teach it. Doing so might create a (gasp!) uncomfortable classroom situation. Come on, people. Our job is to teach our children – to offer them context. This is not always a comfortable task – for them or us. In this case, we’re talking about our nation’s legacy of slavery, racism, judgment and hatred. The notion that high school kids aren’t ready for important subject matter is really an indictment of our own lack of creativity, if not indifference. And for those teachers who are (so unfortunately) intimidated by these ideas, there are myriad aides especially designed to teach this book and the controversies it elicits. Go ahead, type it in: “Twain Finn Teaching Controversy Lesson Plans.” A child can do it.

As parents and teachers, we do have to make some choices about material that is and isn’t appropriate to teach young people. No one’s saying that “Tropic of Cancer” or “Lolita” should be part of standard high-school curriculum. But these books are not “Huck Finn,” and regardless, if kids are reading them, we best should be ready to teach them. Tossing them under the rug and saying “see you in college” is simply irresponsible.

If we want our kids to grow up to be conscious adults, we have to teach consciousness in dynamic and intelligent ways. We can reopen the arguments around what Twain was trying to accomplish in his great work, why he chose the terms he did and his possible motivations (good or bad) behind their use. But I’m going to leave that to the thousands of teachers who have successfully taught the book and the millions of high school students who have read it, were taught it and learned great lessons about our culture and compassion from Twain’s masterpiece.

Image: khrawlings

The post Teachers Teach, Parents Parent, But Leave Huck Finn Alone appeared first on EcoSalon.

Victoria Klein is a green mover and shaker who knows just about all there is to know about going green – and in her new book 48 Things To Know About Sustainable Living, she proves that.

Written as an open introduction to an audience just ready to start getting greened up, Klein paints the sustainable picture to be a comfortable place where we can all, most certainly improve.

I caught up with her recently on her blog tour where today, EcoSalon was slotted to host.

Here’s what she had to say.

Why 48? If you had to throw out 47, what would be your top tip for sustainable living?

The 48 number of things is arbitrary, it doesn’t have any sort of special eco-meaning. 48 is simply how many things the publisher wanted. If I had to throw out 47 Things from the book, my #1 tip would be the very first tip in the book: learning the difference between a “want” and a “need.” There are so few things that we need, and when given the opportunity to live with littler more than we truly need, our lives are not only more sustainable, but also more enjoyable.

Talk about moving around so much since the age of 9 and how that helped cultivate an appreciation for planet.

Oh wow – all that moving had a major impact! In fact, the moving isn’t over; my husband joined the Marine Corps this year & we’ll be moving around for the next 20 years while he is in the service. If you’ve ever moved even once, you know how much of a huge affair it can be and how quickly you realize just how much junk you have (shocker). Moving every year or two has not only forced me to live with less (both materially and financially), but I’ve come to have a great appreciation for the few things that I do have. Own less, live more.

What do you think is the hardest challenge for most people when it comes to living sustainably?

One word: change. In our culture, change is the ultimate fear. In terms of sustainable living, many people fear that they are going to have to significantly alter their entire lifestyle – which is total bull-honky. Big changes are great, but small changes matter too. Drinking tap water & turning down your thermostat (among the many other simple, small changes) have a noteworthy impact over time. It’s akin to simply living a healthier lifestyle. Some folks try to change their entire diet & work out every day. Instead, start by drinking more water, eating fruit after every meal and taking a walk after dinner. Starting small can help you gain confidence and a new found comfort in not only benefiting your family, but also the entire planet.

Your first book was about yoga and concentrating on self. Do you feel like after a person takes care of themselves emotionally and physically then they can be ready for what real sustainability means in their lives?

Exactly – I couldn’t have said it better myself. When you take control of your own emotional and physical health, you are learning to truly appreciate the amazing experience of being human. This is the body and the soul you have, make the best of it. Many people are often introduced to sustainable living through their food choices, which have not only an overall environmental impact but also a direct impact on your individual health. Could I walk to Washington D.C. and force the government to make 50 MPG the minimum standard for all automobiles? No, but I can do my part as an individual by eating local and organic foods, eating less meat, drinking more tap water – and that’s just the beginning! As you improve your own health (emotionally, physically), you naturally influence others via your conscious actions.

In your book you offer tips for everything from energy efficient appliances to clothing to make people’s lives easier while making the transition but people will still make excuses why this change will be too hard to do. What do you think the tipping point is to make people think differently of themselves and their role on our planet?

It’s financial, money is the tipping point. People have the strongest reaction when they are impacted financially. Why pay more when I can get the “same” product for less money? There has to be a monetary benefit to living a sustainable life, whether it is saving money on utilities, tax breaks, or simply spending less at the grocery store. Of course, since the sustainable “market” is still young (compared to the rest of the industrial-driven world), some things cost more. Convincing people to spend more money for a long-term positive impact (instead of instant benefits/savings) is a tough sell in our culture.

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For some people, a good book makes life better. It’s that excited feeling of discovery that usually hits somewhere around the first chapter – you’ve found a page turner, and you’re not going to stop until you’re finished. A good book means you get to step away from the computer, hang your feet over the edge of a chair, and lose yourself completely for as long as you can spare.

The only problem? Sometimes, it is finding the next book. We’ve already rounded up 28 books that will forever change how you see the world, eco fashion books we love and the best books for your home.

This list of our favorite tomes is compiled for the modern woman and those who admire her. Inspired by our friends at The Art of Manliness, check out the texts that helped to shape our lives and easy chairs.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin Kate Chopin’s 1899 masterpiece tells the tale of Edna Pontellier, a wealthy Creole woman lost in her own search for meaning. Chopin’s heroine who eschewed convention so disturbed critics that the novel was banished for decades, only to be revived during the modern feminist movement. Simply, it is exquisite.

Beloved by Toni Morrison Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for literature, Morrison’s classic looks at antebellum slavery, motherhood, and racism through a dense and complex web of subtle revelation. We follow the tale of Sethe, a former slave, who slowly gives up her horrifying past in a way that will stay with you for a long time.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood In the Republic of Gilead, once the United States, the extreme right has massacred Congress and is in control. Women are unable to read, hold jobs, or even have their own name. You are a chaste Wife, a domestic Martha, or a Handmaid – and your sole purpose in life is to bear children you will hand over immediately after birth. Feminist nightmare? Definitely. A must-read? Absolutely.

Ines of My Soul by Isabele Allende As Bookmarks Magazine writes of this novel, “If Inés of My Soul isn’t among Isabel Allende’s best novels, it still tells a remarkable, ambitious, and heretofore untold story about one of the first female conquistadors of the New World. Allende finds so many surreal subplots in Inés’s own story that the author’s imagination, rather than magical realism, prevails in her attempt to recreate the 16th-century Americas.”

Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi Faludi argues that women in the 1980s were the victim of a powerful backlash against the 1970s feminist movement. Publisher’s Weekly says “this eloquent, brilliantly argued book should be read by everyone concerned about gender equality.”

Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation by Leora Tanenbaum Tanenbaum compiles a revealing look at slut-shaming through several first-person narratives, all detailing how 50 different women survived shaming in a world ripe with double standards. As one reviewer put it, “Her social critique is solid, but it’s the personal accounts of emotional abuse – and, thankfully, perseverance – that will thoroughly convince you that the current tolerance of slut bashing is simply unacceptable.”

Eat Pray Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert Love her or hate her, Elizabeth Gilbert knows how to pull you in. At the age of 31, Gilbert swaps a husband and life in the suburbs for adventure and east in Italy and beyond. It’s a funny, relatable tale of a woman’s search for self-discovery. And the best part? No one has to die for it in the end.

Intercourse by Andrea Dworkin Germaine Greer called this “The most shocking book any feminist has yet written.” Dworkin looks at sexual intercourse as a tool of societal oppression and declares women are less able to “assert their humanity” because of the breaching of boundaries during the act of sex. It is alternately extremely controversial and absorbing.

Living My Life by Emma Goldman This one review says it all: “Forget all those New Left memoirs: for readers who want to know what it is to be a revolutionary in America, this is the book to read. At the turn of the 20th century, Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was probably the most hated woman in her adopted country. (She emigrated from Russia at age 17.) It was bad enough that she was an anarchist, accused of complicity in the 1901 assassination of President McKinley. But her vehement espousal of women’s rights, including birth control, really enraged upright citizens.” And then there’s more…

“The Laugh of the Medusa” by Hélène Cixous Cixous is considered a mother of post-structural feminist theory. In her essay “The Laugh of Medusa,” she writes: “Woman must write herself: must write about women and bring women to writing, from which they have been driven away as violently as from their bodies. Écriture féminine places experience before language, and privileges the anti-linear, cyclical writing so often frowned upon by patriarchal society.”

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank Anne Frank’s intensely moving account of her rise into womanhood while hiding with her family from Nazi Germany is not only a memorial to the Holocaust, but a testament to the strength and grace of the human spirit.

Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by Bell Hooks Hooks looks at the history of black women from the seventeenth century onwards and how they have been oppressed by men and white women alike. As one critic writes, “Illustrating her analysis with moving personal accounts, Ain’t I a Woman is deeply critical of the racism inherent in the thought of many middle-class white feminists who have failed to address issues of race and class.”

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton Wharton’s Lily Bart lives in New York City during the Gilded Age, but she finds life amongst convention and appearances to be her greatest struggle. As Wharton writes, Bart lives “as though she were a captured dryad subdued to the conventions of the drawing room.” Her fall from grace from a world built on superficial conformity and double standard reflects the narrow confines of womanhood of the time.

Crescent: A Novel by Diane Abu-Jaber As one reviewer writes, “Abu-Jaber (Arabian Jazz) weaves the story of a love affair between a comely chef and a handsome, haunted Near Eastern Studies professor together with a fanciful tale of a mother’s quest to find her wayward son in this beautifully imagined and timely novel, which explores private emotions and global politics with both grace and conviction.” Others call it “a positive relief to read a novel that treats Iraqis as real people.”

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 1811. Two sisters, two ways of looking at the world. There’s dashing men, English countryside, and expensive pianofortes. Need we say more?

Heartbreak: The Political Memoir of a Feminist Militant by Andrea Dworkin Legendary feminist Andrew Dworkin shares the account of her “political formation.” If you want to see what makes a modern-day feminist and anti-pornographer, then pick up her tome.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See Set in 19th-century China, See’s graceful novel tells the story of Snow Flower and Lily, lifelong friends bound together by the strict conventions places on women of this time. It reveals nu shu, which is a secret written phonetic code among women. And it leads the reader most vividly through the excruciating process of foot binding, where the idea of “you must suffer for beauty” takes on a whole new meaning.

Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher As Publisher’s Weekly writes, “From her work as a psychotherapist for adolescent females, Pipher here posits and persuasively argues her thesis that today’s teenage girls are coming of age in a girl-poisoning culture. Backed by anecdotal evidence and research findings, she suggests that, despite the advances of feminism, young women continue to be victims of abuse, self-mutilation, and consumerism and media pressure to conform to others’ ideals.” A must-read for anyone who knows a young girl.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez As one review wrote, “Reading this book was like talking to the friend that went on the same trip as you, only the week before.” Alvarez’s tale tells the story of four Dominican daughters in exile in New York City and how they rebel against the older generation.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Alcott’s classic tells the tale of four other American daughters, but these live in mid 19th-century New England. Epitomizing the four tropes of womanhood, timely yet still applicable today, are Domestic Meg, Independent Jo, Angel Beth, and Artistic Amy. Alcott fashioned a classic for women of all time.

Image: eflon

The post 20 Must Read Books for Women appeared first on EcoSalon.

Garbage on the side of the road makes my heart flutter, especially large bulky garbage. Let me explain my adoration for lovely litter. I was lucky enough to experience the “˜sidewalk exchange’ culture of Honolulu for five years. There is an unspoken and widespread commodity swap that is constantly taking place within the tangle of residential sidewalks. The rules are flexible and the standards are low. If you find yourself owning anything you no longer wish to own, gracefully set it along the side of the road. Your neighbors will do the same.

At any one time, a gathering of furniture and household appliances is lounging along sidewalks. Couches, dressers, lamps, fans, microwaves, mattresses, tables, and chairs in all stages of pristine condition and complete disrepair are waiting to be adopted. Someone who thrives on possessions with “˜history’ and loves nothing more than a bargain, like me, is in ecstasy. My husband used to avoid certain roads (well known for sidewalk “˜embellishment’) for fear that I would drag him around picking up “˜items with potential’.

Though I no longer have the proximity to scour sidewalks, my fervor for reclaiming and refinishing has not faded. I get my fix in antique stores, thrift stores, and bound hardback muses. The Recycled Home by Mark & Sally Bailey is one hundred and sixty pages of ways to incorporate recycled and salvaged furniture and accessories into your home. The gorgeous photography of Debi Treloar depicts interiors and vignettes with antique rust and masculine charm. The text offers insight to both design elements and specific spaces.

The notion of recycling makes the resulting space intimate and personal. There is something innately satisfying about finding and creating something unique. After you take a look through this book, you will yearn to find some sidewalk refuse yourself. If you appreciate the concept of reclaimed decor, but desire a little more urban edge in your home, check out this interior by Jimmie Karlsson.

(All photography by Debi Treloar, as seen in The Recycled Home).

The post The Recycled Home appeared first on EcoSalon.

We do love our green gadgets. But though we do profess more than a passing degree of eco-acumen, the reality is (shhh!) it sometimes takes an inordinate amount of time for us to truly understand what we’re talking about. (I’m talking about me, really, but I’m passing the buck here to the entire EcoSalon team. Again, shh.) So I’ve found a book for “us”! Green Gadgets For Dummies.

Part of the now classic “Dummies” series, the book covers “everything from iPods to energy-efficient home entertainment devices to solar laptop chargers and crank-powered gizmos.” It’s written by New York Times Green Inc. blogger Joe Hutsko, who’s also contributed some seriously non-dummy stuff to Fortune, MSNBC.com, Wired, the Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, Macworld, PC World and others. His personal blog, JOEyGADGET, is also pretty cool.

The book’s basically a primer on researching and purchasing green gadgets, and also provides pointers on using what you already have in smarter, more environmentally friendly ways. It includes info on financial savings, reducing your carbon footprint and even ways to avoid “greenwashing” – being deceived by BS green PR and marketing practices. There are also chapters on green lifestyle, computer energy savings specific to both Mac and Windows, mobile phones and recycling.

The book is now a part of the EcoSalon reference library, for all of us (well, for me) to use when needed.

The post One for the Reference Section: Green Gadgets for Dummies! appeared first on EcoSalon.