Spring Fever Bargain Books

I've been doing a bit of gardening lately (our veggies are mostly in and the cleanup of my herb beds is complete, but the flower beds still need (a lot of) work). So, naturally, I've also been browsing thru the gardening and cookbook sections on rainy days (like yesterday). Here are a few of the finds I've turned up.

The Heirloom Life Gardener: The Baker Creek Way of Growing Your Own Food Easily and Naturally ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Jere And Emilee Gettle [Hyperion]. If you raise veggies and have done any mail order shopping for seeds, you know who Baker Creek is; if you garden now or plan to, buy this book!

Book Description
Tired of genetically modified food every day, Americans are moving more toward eating natural, locally grown food that is free of pesticides and preservatives—and there is no better way to ensure this than to grow it yourself. Anyone can start a garden, whether in a backyard or on a city rooftop; but what they need to truly succeed is The Heirloom Life Gardener, a comprehensive guide to cultivating heirloom vegetables.

In this invaluable resource, Jere and Emilee Gettle, cofounders of the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, offer a wealth of knowledge to every kind of gardener—experienced pros and novices alike. In his friendly voice, complemented by gorgeous photographs, Jere gives planting, growing, harvesting, and seed saving tips. In addition, an extensive A to Z Growing Guide includes amazing heirloom varieties that many people have never even seen. From seed collecting to the history of seed varieties and name origins, Jere takes you far beyond the heirloom tomato. This is the first book of its kind that is not only a guide to growing beautiful and delicious vegetables, but also a way to join the movement of people who long for real food and a truer way of living.

The Dirt-Cheap Green Thumb: 400 Thrifty Tips for Saving Money, Time, and Resources as You Garden ($2.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Rhonda Massingham Hart [Storey Publishing]. Storey has been a source of gardening books that I've read for many years (long before ebooks were around) and several of today's picks are from this publisher. I suspect that if you can't save at least the price of the book by using it's tips, you weren't trying very hard.

Book Description
Now gardeners don’t have to choose between frugal and fantastic! In The Dirt-Cheap Green Thumb, Rhonda Massingham Hart provides practical, time-tested solutions that will stretch your dollar farther than you ever thought possible, even as they yield beautiful, bountiful plants. From starting seeds to preserving produce, from composting to conserving water, Hart's advice ensures that you won't waste a scrap of time or money. Perfect for everyone from novices to experts, whether you are growing food, flowers, house plants, or landscape plants.

Don't Throw It, Grow It!: 68 windowsill plants from kitchen scraps ($2.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Deborah Peterson [Storey Publishing]. If you've shopped for plants lately, you know that just saving the cost of one plant will pay for the book (not to mention: how often do you even see culinary ginger for sale?).

Book Description
Magic and wonder hide in unexpected places — a leftover piece of ginger, a wrinkled potato left too long in its bag, a humdrum kitchen spice rack. In Don't Throw It, Grow It! Deborah Peterson reveals the hidden possibilities in everyday foods.

Peterson, former president of the American Pit Gardening Society, shows how common kitchen staples — pits, nuts, beans, seeds, and tubers — can be coaxed into lush, vibrant houseplants that are as attractive as they are fascinating. With Peterson's help, a sweet potato turns into a blooming vine; chickpeas transform into cheery hanging baskets; the humble beet becomes a dramatic centerpiece; and gingerroot grows into a 3-foot, bamboo-like stalk. In some cases the transformation happens overnight!

Don't Throw It, Grow It! offers growing instructions for 68 plants in four broad categories — vegetables; fruits and nuts; herbs and spices; and more exotic plants from ethnic markets. The book is enhanced with beautiful illustrations, and its at-a-glance format makes it a quick and easy reference. Best of all, every featured plant can be grown in a kitchen, making this handy guide a must-have for avid gardeners and apartment-dwellers alike.

Vertical Vegetables & Fruit: Creative Gardening Techniques for Growing Up in Small Spaces ($2.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Rhonda Massingham Hart [Storey Publishing]. Other than some fruit vines kept on trellises, we've never really done any vertical gardening (and I HIGHLY recommend you install a much stouter support than a clothesline, if you are growing kiwis ... and pay closer attention to the 20' recommended distance between than I did!), so I haven't decided to get this one ... yet.

Book Description
At last, an innovative solution for urbanites, apartment dwellers, and anyone who wants to grow food in small spaces — grow up!

Vertical Vegetables & Fruit shows how easy and fun small-footprint food gardening can be. Low maintenance and big harvests are just two of the benefits of using teepees, trellises, cages, hanging baskets, wall pockets, stacking pots, and multilevel raised beds to grow vegetables and fruit.

Whether your soon-to-be garden is an alley, a balcony, a rooftop, or just a windowsill, master gardener Rhonda Massingham Hart provides expert advice for constructing the site, preparing the soil, and planting and caring for vegetables and fruits to produce a hearty harvest. From beans on a tepee to tomatoes on a wire archway, melons on a slanted fence to cucumbers on a trellis, kiwis on a clothesline to strawberries in a pot, there are simple growing guidelines here to fit every gardener’s favorite tastes and site.

For experienced gardeners looking to try new techniques as well as first-time growers with tiny growing spaces, Vertical Vegetables & Fruit is the space-saving, harvest-enhancing guide to producing a bounty of fresh food in any location.

The Veggie Gardener's Answer Book: Solutions to Every Problem You'll Ever Face; Answers to Every Question You'll Ever Ask ($2.51 Kindle, $2.99 B&N, Kobo), by Barbara W. Ellis [Storey Publishing], looks like the perfect starter book for beginners (and should be helpful even for "experts" ... unless you are already writing your own books on this subject).

Book Description
For all of your gardening questions, The Veggie Gardener's Answer Book has the answers, gathered together in a sturdy little book for handy in-the-garden reference. You'll find helpful information on everything from planning and planting a vegetable garden to improving soil, caring for crops, organically controlling pests and diseases, and harvesting.

Starting Seeds: How to Grow Healthy, Productive Vegetables, Herbs, and Flowers from Seed ($2.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Barbara Ellis [Storey Publishing]. Despite the size of those several gallon potted tomato plants at your local Home & Garden store (which cost more, I suspect, than the tomatoes you'll get from them are worth), it's not to late to grow quite a bit of this year's garden from seed. It's a bit late for peppers, true, but just skip those sections now and read them this winter (when it is time to get those long-season plants started).

Book Description
Growing plants from seeds isn’t difficult; it just takes a little know-how. Now, gardeners of any experience level can get a jump on the growing season with this concise, straightforward guide. Expert gardener Barbara Ellis provides the basic information that you need and teaches you foolproof starting techniques for a variety of vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

Bargin Book Roundup

Using Agate Surreys great looking free cookbook as my inspiration today, I've picked all food and drink related bargains for tonight's post. It's not all cookbooks, although I've picked out several of them (quite a few from the same publisher, Agate), though, as I considered the title and cover image, along with the subject matter, in deciding which ones made the cut.

I bought Nancie McDermott's Southern Pies: A Gracious Plenty of Pie Recipes, From Lemon Chess to Chocolate Pecan ($2.99) last year and it's on sale again, just in time to find a few recipes to try out for the holidays.

Book Description
Ask any pie lover—the words "southern" and "pie" go together like ripe fruit and flaky pastry. And behind all the mouthwatering, light-as-a-cloud meringue peaks and the sticky dark butterscotch fillings lies a rich and delicious history. In Southern Pies, some of the South's most famous bakers share recipes for 70 pies. Perfect for bakers of all skill levels, these pies are made with simple, easy-to-find, and gloriously few ingredients. Featuring such classics as Sweet Tea Pie and New Orleans Creole Coconut Pie, this tasty homage will fill everyone at the table with Southern hospitality.

The Latte Rebellion ($1.99), by Sarah Jamila Stevenson

Book Description
Hoping to raise money for a post-graduation trip to London, Asha Jamison and her best friend Carey decide to sell T-shirts promoting the Latte Rebellion, a club that raises awareness of mixed-race students.

But seemingly overnight, their "cause" goes viral and the T-shirts become a nationwide social movement. As new chapters spring up from coast to coast, Asha realizes that her simple marketing plan has taken on a life of its own—and it's starting to ruin hers. Asha's once-stellar grades begin to slip, threatening her Ivy League dreams, while her friendship with Carey hangs by a thread. And when the peaceful underground movement spins out of control, Asha's school launches a disciplinary hearing. Facing expulsion, Asha must decide how much she's willing to risk for something she truly believes in.

Age Level: 12 and up

The Quiche of Death ($2.99) is the first title M C Beaton's long running and extremely popular Agatha Raisin mystery series.

Book Description
Putting all her eggs in one basket, Agatha Raisin gives up her successful PR firm, sells her London flat, and samples a taste of early retirement in the quiet village of Carsely. Bored, lonely and used to getting her way, she enters a local baking contest: Surely a blue ribbon for the best quiche will make her the toast of the town. But her recipe for social advancement sours when Judge Cummings-Browne not only snubs her entry—but falls over dead! After her quiche’s secret ingredient turns out to be poison, she must reveal the unsavory truth…

Agatha has never baked a thing in her life! In fact, she bought her entry ready-made from an upper crust London quicherie. Grating on the nerves of several Carsely residents, she is soon receiving sinister notes. Has her cheating and meddling landed her in hot water, or are the threats related to the suspicious death? It may mean the difference between egg on her face and a coroner’s tag on her toe…

Rule of Three ($1.99), the second title in Megan McDonald's The Sisters Club series, looks like a good choice for the younger set. And, although there is no food on the cover, The Sisters Club, the first in the series, is also on sale for $1.99.

Book Description
Alex has always been the Actor with-a-capital-A in the Reel family, and middle-sister Stevie has always been content behind the scenes. But when the school play turns out to be a musical, Stevie decides that she’s tired of being the Sensible One. Maybe, for once, she’d like to be in the spotlight! Soon the dueling divas—with little sister Joey egging them on—are in a fierce competition to see who has what it takes to play the Princess. Has Stevie broken the rules by going for what she wants, or will it be Alex who hands down the biggest betrayal of all?

Grade Level: 3 and up

The Greenhouse ($1.99), by Audur Ava Olafsdottir and Brian FitzGibbon (Translator).

Book Description
Young Lobbi was preparing to leave his childhood home, his autistic brother, his octogenarian father, and the familiar landscape of mossy lava fields for an unknown future. Soon before his departure, he received an awful phone call: his mother was in a car accident. She used her dying words to offer calm advice to her son, urging him to continue their shared work in the greenhouse tending to the rare Rosa candida. Prior to his mother’s death, in that very same greenhouse, Lobbi made love to Anna, a friend of a friend, and just as he readies his departure he learns that in their brief night together they conceived a child. He is still reeling from this chain of events when he arrives at his new job, reinstating the rare eight-petaled rose in the majestic forgotten garden of an ancient European monastery. In focusing his energy cultivating the rarest rose, he also learns to cultivate love, with the help of a film buff monk and his newborn daughter, Flora Sol.

Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs: A True Story of Bad Breaks and Small Miracles ($2.99), by Heather Lende

Book Description
The Alaskan landscape—so vast, dramatic, and unbelievable—may be the reason the people in Haines, Alaska (population 2,400), so often discuss the meaning of life. Heather Lende thinks it helps make life mean more. Since her bestselling first book, If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name, a near-fatal bicycle accident has given Lende a few more reasons to consider matters both spiritual and temporal. Her idea of spirituality is rooted in community, and here she explores faith and forgiveness, loss and devotion—as well as raising totem poles, canning salmon, and other distinctly Alaskan adventures. Lende’s irrepressible spirit, her wry humor, and her commitment to living a life on the edge of the world resonate on every page. Like her own mother’s last wish—take good care of the garden and dogs—Lende’s writing, so honest and unadorned, deepens our understanding of what links all humanity.

Of Blood and Honey ($1.99), by Stina Leicht

Book Description
Liam never knew who his father was. The town of Derry had always assumed that he was the bastard of a protestant — his mother never spoke of him, and Liam assumed he was dead. But when the war between the fallen and the fey began to heat up, Liam and his family are pulled into a conflict that they didn’t know existed. A centuries old conflict between supernatural forces seems to mirror the political divisions in 1970’s era Ireland, and Liam is thrown headlong into both conflicts! Only the direct intervention of Liam’s real father, and a secret catholic order dedicated to fighting “The Fallen” can save Liam... from the mundane and supernatural forces around him, and from the darkness that lurks within him.

Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper ($2.99), by C. Marina Marchese

Book Description
In 1999, Marina Marchese fell in love with bees during a tour of a neighbor's honeybee hives. She quit her job, acquired her own bees, built her own hives, harvested honey, earned a certificate in apitherapy, studied wine tasting in order to transfer those skills to honey tasting, and eventually opened her own honey business. Today, Red Bee® Honey sells artisanal honey and honey-related products to shops and restaurants all over the country.

More than an inspiring story of one woman's transformative relationship with honeybees (some of nature's most fascinating creatures), Honeybee is also bursting with information about all aspects of bees, beekeeping, and honey—including life inside the hive; the role of the queen, workers, and drones; pollination and its importance to sustaining all life; the culinary pleasures of honey; hiving and keeping honeybees; the ancient practice of apitherapy, or healing with honey, pollen, and bee venom; and much more.

Recipes for food and personal care products appear throughout. Also included is an excellent, one-of-a-kind appendix that lists 75 different honey varietals, with information on provenance, tasting notes, and food-and-wine pairings.

The Healing Powers of Honey ($3.99), by Cal Orey

Book Description
Did you know?...

• Known as Mother Nature's "nectar of the gods," honey was praised for its healing powers as far back as 5,000 years ago by Egyptians.
• Eating honey can help lower the risk of heart disease, cancer , diabetes--even help reduce body fat and unwanted weight!--and increase longevity.
• Pure, raw, unprocessed honey is a healthier sweetener than table sugar and high fructose corn syrup. It's chock-full of antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins--and only has 21 calories per teaspoon.
• Super "bee foods" (including nutrient-rich bee pollen, propolis, and royal jelly) are used and touted for their healing powers by beekeepers and medical experts in the present-day.
• Honey can relieve a variety of ailments, including allergies, coughs, fatigue, pain, and stress, as well as boost libido.
• The honey bee pollinates about one-third of the food we consume (including nutritious fruits and nuts).

Drawing on the latest honey buzz and interviews with medical doctors, beekeepers, and researchers, this charming and enlightening book (sweetened with stories about honey bees and humans) reveals 30 healing honey varieties paired with cinnamon and teas, tells you how to incorporate honey into Mediterranean-style, heart-healthy recipes like Honey Custard French Toast, Honey-Glazed Game Hen, and Filo Pear and Honey Tarts, and provides more than 50 home cures that combat digestive woes to skin woes. You'll also enjoy Cleopatra's milk-and-honey beauty treatments and eco-friendly beeswax household uses--all made with the amazing honey bee's gifts!

Put 'em Up!: A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide for the Creative Cook, from Drying and Freezing to Canning and Pickling ($2.99), by Sherri Brooks Vinton

Book Description
PRESERVING IS BACK, AND IT’S BETTER THAN EVER. Flavors are brighter, batch sizes are more flexible, and modern methods make the process safer and easier. Eating locally is on everybody's mind, and nothing is more local than Heirloom Salsa made from vine-fresh tomatoes or a quick batch of Ice-Box Berry Jam saved from the seasons last berries. Even beginners who never made peach jam or dill pickles in their grandmothers kitchens are eager to pick up preserving skills as a way to save money, extend the local harvest, and control the quality of preserved ingredients.

The step-by-step instructions in Put ‘em Up will have the most timid beginners filling their pantries and freezers with the preserved goodness of summer in no time. An extensive Techniques section includes complete how-to for every kind of preserving: refrigerating and freezing, air- and oven-drying, cold- and hot-pack canning, and pickling. And with recipe yields as small as a few pints or as large as several gallons, readers can easily choose recipes that work for the amount of produce and time at hand.

Real food advocate Sherri Brooks Vinton offers recipes with exciting flavor combinations to please contemporary palates and put preserved fruits and vegetables on dinner-party menus everywhere. Pickled Asparagus and Wasabi Beans are delicious additions to holiday relish trays; Sweet Pepper Marmalade perks up cool-weather roasts; and Berry Bourbon is an unexpected base for a warming cocktail.

The best versions of tried-and-true favorites are all here too. Bushels of fresh-picked apples are easily turned into applesauce, dried fruit rings, jelly, butter, or even brandy. Falling-off-the-vine tomatoes can be frozen whole, oven dried, canned, or made into a tangy marinara. Options for pickling cucumbers range from Bread and Butter Chips and Dill Spears to Asian Ice-Box Pickles. Something delicious for every pantry!

How to Stay Alive in the Woods: A Complete Guide to Food, Shelter and Self-Preservation Anywhere ($2.99), by Bradford Angier

Book Description
HOW TO STAY ALIVE IN THE WOODS is a practical, readable-and potentially indispensable-manual for anyone venturing into the great outdoors.

Broken down into four essential sections, Sustenance, Warmth, Orientation and Safety, this enlightening guide reveals how to catch game without a gun, what plants to eat (full-color illustrations of these make identification simple), how to build a warm shelter, make clothing, protect yourself and signal for help. Detailed illustrations and expanded instructions, newly commissioned for this deluxe edition, offer crucial information at a glance, making How to Stay Alive in the Woods truly a lifesaver.

Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide: Everything You Need to Know to Make Great-Tasting Beer ($2.99), by Dave Miller

Book Description
In this comprehensive guide to homebrewing, Miller clearly explains the best techniques for every step of the entire brewing process. Clear enough for the novice but thorough enough to earn a home in the libraries of brewmasters, this is the essential volume on brewing great-tasting beer at home.

Thirst ($2.99), by Andrei Gelasimov and Marian Schwartz (Translator)

Book Description
Masterfully translated from the original Russian by award-winning translator Marian Schwartz, Thirst tells the story of 20-year-old Chechen War veteran Kostya. Maimed beyond recognition by a tank explosion, he spends weeks on end locked inside his apartment, his sole companions the vodka bottles spilling from the refrigerator. But soon Kostya’s comfortable if dysfunctional cocoon is torn open when he receives a visit from his army buddies who are mobilized to locate a missing comrade. Through this search for his missing friend, Kostya is able to find himself.

How's Your Drink?: Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well ($0.99), by Eric Felten

Book Description
Based on the popular feature in the Saturday Wall Street Journal, How's Your Drink illuminates the culture of the cocktail. John F. Kennedy played nuclear brinksmanship with a gin and tonic in his hand. Teddy Roosevelt took the witness stand to testify that six mint juleps over the course of his presidency did not make him a drunk. Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Chandler both did their part to promote the gimlet. Eric Felten tells all of these stories and many more, and also offers exhaustively researched cocktail recipes.

Taste: A Life in Wine ($4.24), by Anthony Terlato

Book Description
Anthony Terlato's story is not simply the usual CEO narrative of achieving business success, nor i it the typical winemaker's tale of pursuing perfection in a glass. Straddling both of those stories, Terlato uses broad strokes to show how one individual had an enormous impact on Americans' wine-drinking habits. Wine journalist Linda Murphy described Terlato in the San Francisco Chronicle as "one of the most accomplished wine personalities on the planet," and readers of this account of a 50-year love affair with wine see this affable, intelligent man at his finest.

Wahoo Rhapsody ($1.99), an Atticus Fish novel by Shaun Morey

Book Description
Take one sea-loving captain, a drug-smuggling first mate, and a novice deckhand with a secret, and you have the motley crew of the Wahoo Rhapsody, a ramshackle fishing charter plying the Pacific’s waters off the coast of Cabo San Lucas. Captain Winston Weber makes an honest, if lean, living running fishing charters between Mexico and California, with no inkling of the fact that his first mate, Weevil Ott, is smuggling marijuana inside the yellowfin tuna stacked in the boat’s hold. But when Weevil decides to skim a small fortune for himself, goons under orders from the mysterious drug lord known only as “La Cucaracha” descend upon the Wahoo Rhapsody. What ensues is a madcap romp that will catapult readers from Cabo San Lucas to Tucson and San Diego, as Winston, Weevil, and an expat American lawyer by the name of Atticus Fish try to outrun La Cucaracha’s bloody reach. Fans of Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard will relish this rollicking satirical adventure from award-winning writer Shaun Morey.

Skinny Seafood: Over 100 delectable low-fat recipes for preparing nature's underwater bounty ($0.99), by Barbara Grunes

Book Description
Seafood eating is healthy eating. But preparing exciting and delicious fish and shellfish can be a challenge. Skinny Seafood meets the challenge with 100 new recipes that are as inventive as they are easy to make. Banish bland, ho-hum fish forever, and start enjoying the bounty of the sea for great taste as well as good health.

Skinny Seafood's recipes make it easy to prepare seafood. Most dishes require little cooking time, and fish is surprisingly economical when purchased fresh. All of the recipes employ simple preparation techniques to control fat, calories, and cholesterol. Likewise, the scores of creative sauces and accompaniments rely on herbs, spices, an fresh natural ingredients for flavor rather than fat-laden oils and butter.

Fish was never like this: Trout with Mango and Blueberry Sauce, Salsa Red Snapper, Sole and Shrimp with Tequila and more

Skinny Grilling: Over 100 inventive low-fat recipes for meats, fish, poultry, vegetables & desserts ($0.99), by Barbara Grunes

Book Description
The barbecue grill is an American icon. In suburbia it's a backyard fixture. In cities it appears on tiny balconies. At picnics and beach parties it's indispensable. Yet the food we usually grill has a fatty sameness that does justice neither to the cook's skill or the diners' good health.

Barbara Grunes, author of over 50 cookbooks and maven of grill cookery, puts an end to routine, fat-laden barbecues once and for all with Skinny Grilling's 100 exciting new recipes. This unique collection establishes grill cooking as a versatile culinary technique in its own right, no longer limited to chicken, ribs, and hamburgers.

Now home cooks can grill--easily and without fuss--delicious roasts, succulent seafood, smoked turkeys, bubbling pizzas, and dozens more main dishes. But that's just the beginning. Over the same coals, readers can quickly turn out juicy vegetables, creative salads, unforgettable smoked meats, oriental stir-fries in the wok--even fabulous desserts! Also included is a wonderful red-white-and-blue 5-course 4th of July feast.

Families and friends love the festivity and fun of cookouts, and Skinny Grilling will provide an inventive recipe collection to vastly extend any cook's grilling repertory. Even better, the food prepared from this book will be low in fat, high in flavor, and anything but routine.

Skinny Pizza: Over 100 healthy recipes for America's favorite food ($0.99), by Barbara Grunes

Book Description
Pizza is America's national fun food. And now--thanks to Barbara Grunes' innovative recipes--pizza qualifies as America's national good-health food, too. These 100-plus recipes trim away the excess fat, cholesterol, and calories that usually come with pizza, so families can enjoy all the great tastes without sacrificing good nutrition.

Starting with easy-to-make (and store) recipes for basic crusts and sauces, Skinny Pizzas shows you how easy it is to top pizzas with fresh, low-fat, high-fiber vegetables, dairy products, fruits, poultry, meat, and fish--everything from zucchini and pears to smoked salmon. From hearty one-dish meals to pizza snacks, appetizers, party dishes, and even desserts--all slimmed down for today's healthful lifestyle--home cooks can feel good about serving pizza any time and for any occasion.

• Tomato-based pizzas: Shrimp, mushroom, chicken, spinach, tuna, peppers, artichoke, eggplant, and more.
• Non-tomato-based pizzas: Teriyaki, salmon, bok choy, goat's cheese, clam, turkey, stir-fry, zucchini, and more.
• Pizza on the grill: Fajita, vegetarian, Thai-flavored, salsa, olive, ratatouille, mango, barbecue, and more.
• Specialty pizzas: Creole, Szechwan, smoked turkey, scallop, focaccia, crab cake, nacho, English muffin, and more.
• Dessert pizzas: Apple, mint brownie, cheesecake, strawberry yogurt, rum-raisin, and more.

All recipes include diabetic exchanges and nutritional specifics on fat, cholesterol, sodium, calories, and percent of calories from fat. Recipes conform to the American Heart Association guidelines regarding the percent daily intake of calories from fat.

Speedy Suppers Cookbook: Simple meals for a family-on-the-go, all in about 30 minutes or less! ($2.99), by Gooseberry Patch

Book Description
Simple meals for busy families! Speedy Suppers cookbook features delicious dishes that are ready in 30 minutes or less like baked ziti supreme, quick-as-lightning enchiladas and easy, breezy caramel brownies. 224 pages.

Good Eating's Best of the Best: Great Recipes of the Past Decade from the Chicago Tribune Test Kitchen ($0.99), edited by Carol Mighton Haddix

Book Description
In this, it's first new cookbook in more than a decade, the Chicago Tribune offers 50 of the very best recipes from the pages of the paper’s weekly Good Eating section. The Tribune remains one of the few newspapers in this country with its own working test kitchen, which ensures that the recipes are accurate and reliable. Each year, staff members choose their favorites. Now, the best of those winning recipes are compiled in a book that reflects how we having been cooking--and eating--over the last decade.

The book features recipes from across the wide range of common kitchen offerings: starters, meat and poultry dishes, seafood, pasta, rice, side dishes, salads, baked goods, and desserts. In addition, a section on menu planning offers readers ideas for entertaining.

Good Eating's Seasonal Salads: Fresh and Creative Recipes for Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall ($3.99 pre-order), by the Chicago Tribune Staff

Book Description
Good Eating’s Seasonal Salads is a collection of 90 delicious recipes from the Chicago Tribune’s Good Eating section that are perfect as exciting side dishes or full, healthy meals. Making use of fresh in-season ingredients, this eclectic assortment of salads features flavorful options for every month of the year. Salads range in style and substance, from practical and quick to creative and gourmet, light and simple to hearty and robust, and from classic stand-bys to unique innovations.

Each recipe provides a series of healthy eating tips and is grouped into categories based on its main ingredients, including greens, vegetables, potatoes, eggs, poultry, meat, seafood, rice, grains, beans, pasta, fruit, and dressings. Especially useful is the book’s broad selection of winter salads, including delicious whole-grain salads and tips on seasonal produce. Each section is introduced by an entertaining narrative passage informing readers on topics such as the rise in popularity of Romaine lettuce and kale or the history behind the Caesar and Cobb salads. Good Eating’s Seasonal Salads also offers the culinary creations of several experienced cooks who provide their own perspectives and voice to the recipes.

Salads are versatile and healthful options for snacks or meals, lunch or dinner, summer or winter, and they let home cooks save money by creatively using leftovers in refreshing ways. Good Eating’s Seasonal Salads is ideal for novice and expert home cooks alike who are looking to prepare healthy, inexpensive, and appetizing salads using the freshest year-round ingredients.

Grant Achatz: The Remarkable Rise of America's Most Celebrated Young Chef ($1.99), by the Chicago Tribune Staff

Book Description
Grant Achatz's career as a chef has been built around beating the odds—from his humble Midwestern beginnings and rise to stardom in Chicago; his iconoclastic vision of the American dining experience; and his life-threatening battle with cancer that temporarily stripped him of his ability to taste. In all these situations, Achatz defiantly and definitively surmounted innumerable obstacles to become—and remain—one of the world's most recognizable and respected chefs.

Grant Achatz: The Remarkable Rise of America's Most Celebrated Young Chef, a collection of articles taken from the Chicago Tribune, is an up-close examination of Achatz's personal history and international impact in the culinary world. Included are rare interviews on Achatz's humble beginnings as a young chef and modest lifestyle, stories from his stint as executive chef of Evanston, Illinois's four-star restaurant Trio, long-unseen restaurant reviews, as well as features on his innovative restaurants Aviary and Next, which play with Achatz's trademark concept of molecular gastronomy and the importance of presentation and memory in fine dining.

In the middle of all this success, Achatz was diagnosed with stage-four squamous cell carcinoma, a rare cancer afflicting the tongue that completely eliminated Achatz's sense of taste. Told he would die if he did not have his tongue surgically removed, Achatz tenaciously clung to the belief he would be able to regain the sense most vital to his extraordinary talent. While undergoing experimental treatment to regain his sense of taste, Achatz continued to manage Alinea and even improved it despite his professionally debilitating condition. Miraculously, Achatz made a full recovery and regained his ability to taste while going on to open one of the culinary world's most discussed and praised new restaurants: Next.

Grant Achatz tells the story of the man at the forefront of modern culinary trends and the world's top-rated restaurants, as seen through both his own eyes and the journalists who have been covering his fights against the odds from the beginning.

The Italian Slow Cooker ($2.99), by Michele Scicolone, is one that I bought last year.

Book Description
Finally a book that combines the fresh, exuberant flavors of great Italian food with the ease and comfort of a slow cooker. Michele Scicolone, a best-selling author and an authority on Italian cooking, shows how good ingredients and simple techniques can lift the usual “crockpot” fare into the dimension of fine food. Pasta with Meat and Mushroom Ragu, Osso Buco with Red Wine, Chicken with Peppers and Mushrooms: These are dishes that even the most discriminating cook can proudly serve to company, yet all are so carefree that anyone with just five or ten minutes of prep time can make them on a weekday and return to perfection.

Simmered in the slow cooker, soups, stews, beans, grains, pasta sauces, and fish are as healthy as they are delicious. Polenta and risotto, “stir-crazy” dishes that ordinarily need careful timing, are effortless. Meat loaves come out perfectly moist, tough cuts of meat turn succulent, and cheesecakes emerge flawless.

The Everything Soup, Stew, and Chili Cookbook ($1.99), by Belinda Hulin, is another one I bought last year.

Book Description
Creamy New England clam chowder. Hearty beef stew. Fresh vegetarian chili. Soups, stews, and chilies are comforting meals the whole family enjoys; and to top it off, they’re inexpensive to create! This cookbook includes information and cooking tips, as well as 300 mouthwatering recipes, including:

• Smoked Duck and Squash Soup
• Ginger Beef Soup with Dumplings
• Creamy Asparagus Soup
• Sirloin and Black Bean Chili
• Mixed Bean Vegetarian Chili
• Warm Apple-Cranberry Stew
• Blackberry Stew with Sweet Biscuits

Whether you are in the mood for a chilled fruit soup on a warm summer day or a comforting meat-and-potato stew on a cold winter night, this book has everything! No matter what the season or occasion, you will find a choice that hits the spot.

Eat, Sleep, Ride: How I Braved Bears, Badlands, and Big Breakfasts in My Quest to Cycle the Tour Divide ($9.99), by Paul Howard, isn't discounted, but looks to be a good read. I've downloaded a sample and will probably stick it on my wishlist, to keep an eye on and consider as a holiday gift.

Book Description
For Paul Howard, who has ridden the entire Tour de France route during the race itself—setting off at 4 am each day to avoid being caught by the pros—riding a small mountain-bike race should hold no fear. Still, this isn’t just any mountain-bike race. This is the Tour Divide.

Running from Banff in Canada to the Mexican border, the Tour Divide is more than 2,700 miles—500 miles longer than the Tour de France. Its route along the Continental Divide goes through the heart of the Rocky Mountains and involves more than 200,000 feet of ascent—the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest seven times.

The other problem is that Howard has never owned a mountain bike—and how will training on the South Downs in southern England prepare him for sleeping rough in the Rockies? Entertaining and engaging, Eat, Sleep, Ride will appeal to avid and aspiring cyclers, as well as fans of adventure/travel narrative with a humorous twist.

Free Book - Composting Inside & Out (K/N)

Composting Inside & Out: The comprehensive guide to reusing trash, saving money and enjoying the benefits of organic gardening, by Stephanie Davies, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble, courtesy of publisher Krause.

Book Description
Rethink Your Refuse

Hundreds of millions of tons of solid waste are produced in the U.S. annually, and the landfills simply store it, not eliminate it. Recycling diverts significant amounts of waste, but the fact remains that the majority of landfill space is occupied by organic material. The good news is composting is a natural and beneficial way to eliminate this waste, and anyone can do it.

Whether you live on a farm, in the suburbs or a city apartment, composting is possible. Composting Inside and Out will introduce you to the essentials and explore various methods of indoor and outdoor composting to help you find the perfect fit for your lifestyle.

Whether you create a compost heap, bury your scraps, ferment them, tumble them or feed them to the worms, you too can be successful with composting. Use the fruits of your labor on you houseplants, your lawn, your flowerbeds or your garden. Put your waste and your energy to good use. Reclaim the benefits of participating in the planet's health through composting ... its rewards are simply miraculous.

Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

Well, the free book promotion at AllRomance is over for another year and the audiobook download of Walden has changed into a streaming listen only (it's still free elsewhere, see below), but there are still plenty of free ebooks around. In fact, you can still get the Walden audibook - Tantor read the blog post, saw that you were wanting to download it and gave us a link to get zip file.

Here are a few that have become free in the US Kindle store, that were previously UK only, or that have been added to additional ebookstores as free selections.

• Walden
• RX from the Garden
• Generation Rising
• Griselda Takes Flight
• How to Make Money Marketing Your Business with Tumblr
• Let's Go Europe 2011!

Since today is Earth Day, I've picked out some bargain books that are relevant to the occasion. Note that if you go to Kobo, coupon code KoboSpring1 will get you $1 off and redtag2 should get you $2 off (both unlimited use for non-Agency titles) and giftread gets you 25% off, where a quick search turned up some interesting titles: Organic Gardening For Dummies is $7.89 with the coupon code, Gardening For Dummies is $1.89 and Organic Gardening For Dummies® Mini Edition is free (in fact, all the Mini Editions are free with the coupon code). Below are a few more I found at Amazon.

Green Made Easy: The Everyday Guide for Transitioning to a Green Lifestyle ($0.99), by Chris Prelitz, was briefly (and apparently mistakenly) free at Amazon UK, but is a great deal on a relevant title (with almost all 5 star reviews and enough that they can't all be friends of the author).

Book Description
In Green Made Easy, author and green pioneer Chris Prelitz shares how to be both environmental and economical at the same time. Going green is not only good for our planet, it’s good for your pocketbook. For over 20 years, Chris has been helping businesses, home owners, and corporations lower their monthly expenses by going green. Chris and his wife, Becky, share a green solar-powered home in Laguna Beach, California, which Chris designed and built. Most months they produce more power than they use and receive a credit from their power company instead of a bill!

In this book, Chris shares personal experiences, lessons learned, and reflections that humorously touch the heart and inspire the spirit. The chapter “Busting Green Myths” will sway even the most cynical person toward better eco-choices that will also save money. Chris says, “We’re rediscovering that it’s so much healthier, more lucrative, and better for every living thing to transition away from wasteful, polluting technologies and make choices that work in harmony with nature.”

Green Made Easy is written in a friend-to-friend, conversational style and examines our daily lives from personal care and cosmetics to solar-energy systems. This book will delight and inspire any and all who dream of making a difference and wish to create a thriving, healthy future for generations to come.

A Guest in the Jungle ($3.99), by James Polster, was originally released in 1987 and is credited with creating awareness of rainforest destruction.

Book Description
When Pittsburgh attorney Whitehill begins his vacation, he is anticipating a leisurely jaunt across South America. But he gets more than he bargained for when a sightseeing trip goes awry, leaving him stranded in the heart of the Amazon jungle. Whitehill isn’t exactly the outdoorsy type—he hikes in Brooks Brothers pants—so he is relieved when he meets a scientist perusing the jungle for medicinal plants and insects. Of course, the good doctor’s true motives are less than altruistic, and Whitehill soon finds himself being forcibly marched through the rainforest en route to certain death. When he escapes, with the help of some hungry vampire bats, Whitehill falls in with an English-speaking Indian whose tribe is at the heart of a raging land conflict. Trapped in the jungle, Whitehill must gather what little courage he has to stop an Indian war and preserve a vanishing culture from rapacious developers. Along the way, he has a fling with a gorgeous native, narrowly survives being sacrificed to the gods, and is rescued from a bombing by a pair of hard-drinking American expats. A Guest in the Jungle is a smart, engrossing, and uproariously funny novel about the power of one man to make a difference in the world.

Kidnapping the Lorax ($0.99), by Patricia K. Lichen, obviously has a bit of an agenda, but might be an interesting read nonetheless (at least five people thought so, but that may be just the author's agent, close family and friends).

Book Description
Three young environmentalists kidnap the Secretary of the Interior and take her to the Pacific Northwest woods to reeducate her, in the belief that when she returns to D.C., she will begin making correct, informed decisions for the land.

Greening IT ($0.99), edited by Adrian Sobotta, Irene Sobotta, John Gøtze and Connie Hedegaard, is a large volume on paper, but bargain priced as an ebook. It's also free on their web site, as a PDF (there is a "low-res" and "hi-res" version, which seems to apply just to the included images, as the text is readable in either version).

Book Description
The IT sector itself, responsible for 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions, can get greener by focusing on energy efficiency and better technologies - we call this Green IT. Yet, IT also has the potential to significantly reduce the remaining 98% of emissions from other sectors of the economy - by optimising resource use and saving energy etc. We call this the process of Greening IT.

This book explores the great potential of greening society with IT - i.e. the potential of IT in transforming our societies into Low-Carbon societies. This is a global problem and demands a global solution, and in the spirit of this fact, this creative commons-licensed book is the result of an internationally collaborative effort by a number of opinion leaders in the field of Greening IT.

The foreword is written by European Commissioner for Climate Change Connie Hedegaard.

Foreword - By Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action
Chapter 1 Prologue
Chapter 2 Our Tools Will Not Save Us This Time - by Laurent Liscia
Chapter 3 Climate Change and the Low Carbon Society - by Irene N. Sobotta
Chapter 4 Why Green IT Is Hard - An Economic Perspective - by Rien Dijkstra
Chapter 5 Cloud Computing - by Adrian Sobotta
Chapter 6 Thin Client Computing - by Sean Whetstone
Chapter 7 Smart Grid - by Adrian Sobotta
Chapter 8 How IT Contributes to the Greening of the Grid - by Dr. George W. Arnold
Chapter 9 The Green IT Industry Ecosystem - by Ariane Rüdiger
Chapter 10 Out of The Box Ways IT Can Help to Preserve Nature and Reduce CO2 - by Flavio Souza
Chapter 11 From KPIs to the Business Case - Return on Investment on Green IT? - by Dominique C. Brack
Chapter 12 Computing Energy Efficiency - An Introduction - by Bianca Wirth
Chapter 13 A Future View: Biomimicry + Technology - by Bianca Wirth
Chapter 14 Greening Supply Chains - The Role of Information Technologies - by Hans Moonen
Chapter 15 Epilogue

Oceans: The Threats to Our Seas and What You Can Do to Turn the Tide ($3.86), by Jon Bowermaster

Book Description
This unique tie-in to the major motion picture Oceans—coming this April from Disney & National Geographic—explores the health of our oceans, and what we can do to improve it.

More than 75 percent of the globe is covered by the oceans. It is sometimes difficult to understand why it is called Planet Earth rather than Planet Ocean. Since half the world’s human population lives within a stone’s throw of an ocean coastline, the oceans’ health is increasingly important. Rich with resources and potential—as a source of renewable energy, new drugs, drinking water—for years we have treated them as both infinite and undamageable. But they are not.

Over-fishing, climate change, pollution, acidification, and more have put the world’s oceans and marine life at great risk.

Oceans gathers some of the most insightful visionaries, explorers, and ocean lovers— marine biologists, politicians, environmentalists, fishermen, sportsmen, deep divers, and more—in a unique anthology, in which each speaks to a unique aspect of our world’s most dimly understood dimension.

Getting Back ($2.99), by William Dietrich, is one of three backlist titles from this Pulitzer Prize winner and natural history correspondent for the Seattle Times that are bargain priced.

Book Description
Getting Back is a futuristic thriller, an eco-fable with a touch of 'Survivor,' Mad Max, and Avatar. The world's population has doubled. Wilderness exists only in old movies. Every region on Earth has been explored, organized, and tamed. But in this brave new age one secret organization promises the most forbidden pleasure of all: a true outdoor adventure. The price is a year's salary. The destination is a continent that disease has put off-limits. And the catch is that on this expedition, you may never return...

In the belly of a shimmering 21st Century pyramid, Daniel Dyson occupies Cubicle 17 and fantasizes about love and escape. By day he pursues petty ways to subvert his overly programmed life. By night he flirts with a shadowy group that dares him to rebel and reclaim his autonomy. Then he stumbles onto Outback Adventure.

Outback doesn't advertise and keeps its Internet site heavily encyrpted. Yet Daniel, partly to seek deeper meaning in his life, partly to find a woman who doesn't want to be found, soon finds himself taking a perilous trek across the forbidden continent of Australia. There, Outback has promised he will find out what it means to be truly alive, to test his limits, and to understand real survival. What he and his two dozen fellow adventurers don't know is that all their high-tech gear and all their plans haven't prepared them for what lies ahead. Because this journey will not only plunge them into a stark desert and through a gauntlet of natural dangers, it will force them to face the most dangerous creatures on earth: their fellow humans.

Getting Back is a novel of survival and a search for meaning where both have gone extinct - a thriller that asks us whether getting back is the object of the game, or the punishment for losing...

The Collected Works of John Muir (Unexpurgated Edition) ($1.99) is a popular collection from Halcyon Classics. This edition is DRM free, includes an active table of contents for easy navigation and errors and omissions have been corrected (versus scanned editions available free).

Book Description
This Halcyon Classics ebook collection contains nine works by California conservationist John Muir (1838-1914). Scottish-born Muir was an early advocate of Conservation in the United States; his activism led to the establishment of the Sierra Club. Muir is perhaps best known for his efforts to preserve the Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park, and his unsuccessful attempts to stop the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley near San Francisco.

Contents:
Studies in the Sierra (1874)
Picturesque California (1890)
The Mountains of California (1894)
The Grand Canyon of the Colorado (1902)
Stickeen: The Story of a Dog (1909)
The Yosemite (1912)
The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913)
Travels in Alaska (1915)
Steep Trails (1919)

Green Living For Dummies®, Mini Edition ($0.99), Organic Gardening For Dummies®, Mini Edition ($0.89) and Green Building and Remodeling For Dummies®, Mini Edition ($0.99) are just a few of the For Dummies®, Mini Editions that are under a buck at Amazon.

Green Living For Dummies®, Mini Edition
Minimize your impact on the world and enjoy a green lifestyle

Whether you want to repair, restore, or reuse, this practical guide is packed with realistic ways to help the environment and create a better home for you and your loved ones — from reducing energy use and waste to scaling back reliance on your car to making a difference in your diet.

Open the book and find:

• Ways to work greener transportation into your lifestyle
• The best ways to eat locally and organically
• How to rid your life of clutter
• Tips for conserving water and energy in your home today

Organic Gardening For Dummies®, Mini Edition
Grow a bountiful garden without harming the environment

Whether you're cultivating fruits and vegetables or growing beautiful flowers, this handy guide shows you how to work with nature, not against it, to create and maintain an organic garden your whole family will enjoy.

Open the book and find:

• How to beat weeds at their own game
• Tips for keeping pests away without chemical pesticides
• Ways to buy or make compost and build healthy soil
• How to work with, not against, your soil

Green Building and Remodeling For Dummies®, Mini Edition
Your hands-on, practical guide to the materials and construction methods of green building

Want to build responsibly and help preserve the environment? This friendly, step-by-step guide introduces you to key facets of green building and remodeling, from looking at long-term costs to working with green professionals to reducing energy and water use.

Open the book and find:

• The benefits of going green
• Green material substitutions
• Where to locate green professionals
• Ten green things you can do in your home today

Green Living by Design ($3.99), by Jean Nayar, is even greener than the recycled paper of the paperback edition, when read as an ebook.

Book Description
What if someone told you that you could make your home look gorgeous, be more energy and cost efficient and be kind to the environment at the same time? With the help of Jean Nayar and the experts at PointClickHome.com now anyone can remodel, renovate, or decorate their home, all without hurting the planet.

Filled with easy, insider tips on everything from insulation, carpentry, lighting, and complete renovations to simple projects like redecorating; Green Living by Design is the source for anyone who wants their home to be chic and eco-friendly.

Chapters include information on furnishings, fabrics, water use, choosing locally made products, harvesting and controlling sunlight, composting and disposing and energy-efficient appliances.

Laid out in an easy-to-follow format with step-by-step instructions, special tips and hints and material guides, this book makes it easier than ever to follow your conscience while protecting the earth.

The Quarter-Acre Farm: How I Kept the Patio, Lost the Lawn, and Fed My Family for a Year ($9.87), by Spring Warren and Jesse Pruet, is a bit above my usual cutoff (as is the next one), but is one I'm sampling and may make an exception for - if it saves me $5 on food, it's back to bargain priced and might save me hundreds (or maybe at least one), if it improves the production from our garden this year.

Book Description
When Spring Warren told her husband and two teenage boys that she wanted to grow 75 percent of all the food they consumed for one year—and that she wanted to do it in their yard—they told her she was crazy.

She did it anyway.

The Quarter-Acre Farm is Warren’s account of deciding—despite all resistance—to take control of her family’s food choices, get her hands dirty, and create a garden in her suburban yard. It’s a story of bugs, worms, rot, and failure; of learning, replanting, harvesting, and eating. The road is long and riddled with mistakes, but by the end of her yearlong experiment, Warren’s sons and husband have become her biggest fans—in fact, they’re even eager to help harvest (and eat) the beautiful bounty she brings in.

Full of tips and recipes to help anyone interested in growing and preparing at least a small part of their diet at home, The Quarter-Acre Farm is a warm, witty tale about family, food, and the incredible gratification that accompanies self-sufficiency.

Urban Agriculture: Ideas and Designs for the New Food Revolution ($9.99), by David Tracey

Book Description
Urban Agriculture is packed with ideas and designs for anyone interested in joining the new food revolution. First-time farmers and green thumbs alike will find advice on growing healthy, delicious, affordable food in urban settings. From condo balconies to community orchards, cities are coming alive with crops. Get growing!

About the Author
David Tracey is a journalist and environmental designer who operates EcoUrbanist in Vancouver. A certified arborist specializing in organic fruit trees and edible landscapes, he is also the Executive Director of Tree City Canada, a non-profit ecological engagement group. David is the author of Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto, and an advocate for all those reclaiming our right to great food through urban agriculture.

Last, but not least, today's Magazine bargain is a one-year subscription to Hobby Farms for $5.00, valid today only.

Description
The ultimate owner's manual for rural enthusiasts, Hobby Farms embraces the growing segment of the population that is returning to farm life in search of a more meaningful existence. Hobby Farms is ideal for everyone from pocket farmers looking to make a profit from their part-time farming endeavors to hobby farmers who have a passion for farm life.