This inaugural anthology offers more than twenty new ideas for increasing our ability to live ‘green.’ Topics include eco-travel, transportation alternatives, rain gardens, permaculture, ethical fashion, animal partners, healthy home life and ecopreneuring.
The book is divided into four sections:
- ‘Lifestyles’ contains articles about a green wedding, starting an ecotourism business, ethical fashion, green mealtimes with children, raising chickens in the city and a look at green markets.
- ‘Sustainable Communities’ discusses permaculture, ecopreneuring, beekeeping, taking an electricity “fast” and residential turbine power.
- ‘Transit & Travel’ includes car culture, bicycle commuting and travel, and living in the desert.
- ‘On the Home Front’ finishes the anthology with a collection of articles on naturally green buildings, a residential rain garden, vermicomposting, healthy homes, green roof and walls and a guide to carbon-free living.
Throughout the anthology are black and white pictures, a nice upgrade from Llewellyn’s usual handmade drawings and something that will appeal to a wider audience.
Overall, this is a great collection of articles. The editor, Ed Day, did a good job of selecting articles with a high level of practicality and readability. I also found the fact that I didn’t recognize any of the authors refreshing – this is a group of entirely new voices.
Elizabeth Laskar’s “The Rise of Ethical Fashion: Can We Change the World Style?” stands out as a well-written discussion of options and the attitudes we unconsciously carry with us when we make clothing choices. Lisa Kivirist’s “Blowing in the Wind: Residential Turbine Power” was thought-provoking, and has convinced me to start considering it as an option for my future housing plans. Similarly, Stephen Collette’s “Naturally Green Buildings” and Scott C. Appell’s “An Introduction to Green Roofs and Walls” were fascinating looks at alternative housing options.
This is a great start to a hopefully long-lived annual. Highly recommended.
5 turbines out of 5
~review by Lisa Mc Sherry
Editor: Ed Day
Llewellyn Worldwide, 2008
