Introducing... Garden of Stones by Sophie Littlefield

Introducing books through the first chapter or so...

Red Forrest lowered himself painfully into his desk chair, which was as hard, used and creaky as he was. The dark brown leather was cracked and worn, the brass nails, missing in places. when he found the chair in the alley, he thought it had a certain masculine appeal, like something a hotshot lawyer might own. But it hadn't take long for the thing to seem as shoddy as the rest of his office.

-- Garden of Stones by Sophie Littlefield

REVIEW: Homeowner's Energy Handbook by Paul Scheckel

Synopsis

Are you looking for creative ways to lower your energy costs, generate more of your own power, or become less reliant on the grid? Energy expert Paul Scheckel offers practical solutions for adapting solar, wind, wood gasification, biogas, and micro hydro power systems for home use. Step-by-step instructions show you how to build a wood gasifier, a solar heat collector, a bicycle-powered generator, and other energy-saving equipment; make your own transportation fuels, including ethanol, wood gas methanol, and biodiesel; convert kitchen compost into renewable natural gas; and more. Whether you want to live completely off the grid or just save some money on your fuel bills, this guide has the knowledge and skills you need.


Paperback, 288 pages
Expected publication: March 12th 2013 by Storey Publishing
ISBN 1612120164 (ISBN13: 9781612120164)



My Thoughts

When deciding to read/review this book, I was looking to just pick up some ideas on solar power and such. You know-- ideas for energy efficiency is suburbia. Well, I got a lot more than I bargained for!

This book educates you on energy efficiency, takes you through the process of figuring out what you want and why, and then how to get you there.

There was one section of the book that I found especially interesting. At one point, the author profiles the "Energy Action in Cuba", and I learned a lot I didn't know. Here in the US, we tend to view Cuba in a very negative connotation. Yet the author, who spent a week in Cuba with other energy professionals, shows that there is a silver lining to everything. He outlines how Cuba and Russia had maintained a close import/export relationship, and when Russia's economy collapsed it caused the Cuban economy to likewise crash.

The government immediately invested in public transportation, purchased one million bicycles, mandated energy-efficient lighting and refrigeration, upgraded its power grid, expanded the use of renewable energy, and developed electric rate structures that provided affordable electricity to meet basic needs while discouraging overuse.

Out of economic and practical necessity Cuba reduced its energy consumption by half over a period of four years. They have now become global leaders in practical, innovative approaches to energy efficiency, renewable energy, and community energy solutions-- and on a very tight budget...

...Throughout these struggles, every citizen has been provided with health care, a home, and education. But I'm not trying to put a happy face on all of this. Change is always a struggle, and there was substantial change on many levels. Not everything tried has worked. Many of those bicycles are now rusting away; despite good intentions, there was no infrastructure for repairing or even riding bicycles in many places. Also, the bicycles chosen were frumpy, single-speed, utilitarian clunkers rather than something one would actually look forward to riding.

Energy advances in Cuba were the result of dire circumstances that lead to a quantum shift in awareness, policy, behavior, and community level action. (pages 27-28)

The book includes some illustrations and instructions, such as how to build a "Bicycle-Powered Battery Charger". He has checklists for things like how to do your own energy audit, everything you wanted to know about insulation, how to monitor the energy usage of your appliances, and lots of info on solar, hydro, wind and biodiesel alternatives.


My final word: This book is chock full of information, and if anything it was a little overwhelming at times for a modest single female homeowner like myself. I was just looking to pick up some tips on "going off the grid" and generating some of my own power through solar and the like. This book would be great for the person who is looking to really make some changes to an older house, or the person who is building a new home and wishes to make it more energy efficient. If you are looking to learn everything there is to learn about home energy improvements, grab this one! The author is very knowledgeable on the subject, and has contained the information in an easy-to-read format.

Buy Now:

Amazon
Storey Publishing
 
My Rating:

Disclaimer:

I received a copy of this book to review through Netgalley, in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not financially compensated in any way, and the opinions expressed are my own and based on my observations while reading this novel. The book that I received was an uncorrected proof, and quotes could differ in the actual published version.

SHARING: 12 Minimalist Book Stands

TrendHunter has a bunch of very cool minimalist book stands. I really like the bee shelf idea. Check 'em out!

SHARING: The 30 Best Places to Be If You Love Books

BuzzFeed has the 30 best places to be if you love books. Awesome!

TLC BOOK TOUR and REVIEW: The Secret of the Nightingale Palace by Dana Sachs

Synopsis

Struggling to move on after her husband's death, thirty-five-year-old Anna receives an unexpected phone call from her estranged grandmother, Goldie, summoning her to New York. A demanding woman with a sharp tongue and a devotion to fashion and etiquette, Goldie has not softened in the five years since she and her granddaughter last spoke. Now she wants Anna to drive her to San Francisco to return a collection of exquisite Japanese art to a long-lost friend.

Hours of sitting behind the wheel of Goldie's Rolls-Royce soften Anna's attitude toward her grandmother, and as the miles pass, old hurts begin to heal. Yet no matter how close they become, Goldie harbors painful secrets about her youthful days in 1940s San Francisco that she cannot share. But if she truly wants to help her granddaughter find happiness again, she must eventually confront the truths of her life.

Moving back and forth across time and told in the voices of both Anna and Goldie, The Secret of the Nightingale Palace is a searing portrait of family, betrayal, sacrifice, and forgiveness—and a testament to the enduring power of love.

Paperback, 336 pages
Published February 19th 2013 by William Morrow Paperbacks
ISBN 0062201034 (ISBN13: 9780062201034)


About the Author
from her website

Dana Sachs was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and spent her childhood there. Throughout those years, she thought Memphis was the most boring city in the world, but she changed her mind when she left for college and realized that not everyone got to grow up along the Mississippi River, tramping through Overton Park, eating peach cobbler at the Buntyn Café, and listening to B.B. King, Alex Chilton, and the Panther Burns.  Obviously, it takes traveling far away to realize the things you most love about home. Since leaving Memphis, Dana has learned to love (and happily reside in) other complex and captivating cities, including San Francisco, Hanoi, Budapest, and Wilmington, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband, Todd Berliner, and their two sons.

Dana began her writing career as a journalist, publishing articles, essays, and reviews in, among other publications, National Geographic, Mother Jones, Travel and Leisure Family, and The Boston Globe. Her first book, The House on Dream Street: Memoir of an American Woman in Vietnam (2000) was chosen as an American Booksellers Association Book Sense Pick (the precursor of the Indiebound Next List). Her first novel, If You Lived Here (2007) was also a Book Sense Pick and was chosen for inclusion in Barnes and Noble’s Discover Great New Writers Program. Her nonfiction narrative The Life We Were Given: Operation Babylift, International Adoption, and the Children of War in Vietnam (2010) resulted from a Fulbright Foundation Fellowship in Vietnam. She is the co-author, with Nguyen Nguyet Cam and Bui Hoai Mai, of Two Cakes Fit for a King: Folktales from Vietnam (2003) and co-translator of numerous Vietnamese short stories into English. With her sister, filmmaker Lynne Sachs, she made the documentary about postwar Vietnam, “Which Way is East.”

Check out the author's website
Follow the author on Twitter
Like the author on Facebook


My Thoughts

One Sunday in the spring of her thirty-fifth year, Anna Rosenthal opened her eyes, sniffed at the air, and stepped back into the world after being away for a long, long time. Later she would describe May 28, 2005, as the day she "emerged from hibernation".

Town/Location/Environment:

Most of this book took place in San Francisco, and a few moments were located in the Japanese Tea Garden.

 
Quick review:

 Did I enjoy the book?
-Yes, it was charming.

Is this the first time I’ve read this author? If so, would I read them again?  
-Yes and yes.

Did I like the characters?  
-Yes, for the most part. I particularly liked Goldie, the grandmother.

Did the cover grab me?  
-Yes, it's pretty and mysterious.

Was the ending satisfying? 
-Absolutely. I think it was even better than I expected.

Do I want to add this book to my permanent book shelf? 
-I'm not sure. While I enjoyed the book, my permanent shelf is for books I'll read over and over again.

Having lost her husband after a long illness, Anna has been living in something of a limbo. Her grandmother Goldie never approved of her husband, and their relationship has been strained for years. Now Goldie has persuaded her to drive her across the country to San Francisco, in order to return an art collection to an old family friend. 

This modest story started out a little slow for me, but probably about a quarter of the way through it picked up and got more interesting.

Anna’s grandmother Goldie is an opinionated woman whose criticism can grate, and she has alienated her granddaughter years before when she made clear her opinions of Anna’s fiance. As Goldie and Anna embark on a cross-country trip together, the two couldn’t seem more different, but as the book carries on you begin to realize that they are more alike than Anna even realizes or would want to admit.

This book continually changes perspectives and performs time shifts as we go from Goldie during WWII as she was just blossoming into womanhood and discovering herself and what life held for her, and Goldie in her advanced years reflecting on the past with her granddaughter as they travel.

When touring through Goldie’s past, we are introduced to a whole other cast of characters, including Mayumi, the artistic Japanese woman who became Goldie’s best friend, and her somewhat stoic brother Henry, who were both sent away to a Japanese internment camp after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

In the current day, Anna has been living in limbo for two years, her heart damaged and scabbed over, after losing her husband to leukemia. She is hesitant to agree to her grandmother’s request for her to drive her from New York to California, so she can return some art to the Nakumura family. But in so doing, Anna learns as much about herself as she does about Goldie along the way.

I loved Goldie’s strength, although it often manifested in an abrasive and critical demeanor. Goldie believes that you don’t sit around waiting for happiness, but you make your own happiness. She is not one to brood on heartbreak, not one to be defeated. She is certain that if you aren’t invited to the party, then you just make your own party.

There is such great beauty throughout this novel. From the art collection Goldie is hoping to return to the Japanese Tea Garden that Mayumi and Henry’s father maintains, from the artistic storefront windows that Mayumi creates to the modern day graphical comics created by Anna, from the beautiful designer clothes that Goldie wears to the Rolls Royce that she drives, this book is filled with beauty. And it’s filled with hope.

This book follows two paths: One woman’s past being remembered, and another woman’s future being discovered.

In one flash, she remembered every single moment with Ford. In the next, she forgot him completely. (page 180)

My final word: There was a nice little twist in the end that I enjoyed and found very satisfying. I enjoyed the second half of the story more than the first, but the story in general was gentle, emotional, sentimental and affective. The characters were rich. Goldie is the true star of the story. Overall the book made me feel hopeful.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for allowing me to be part of this book tour.

Check out the master schedule on their website:

Tuesday, February 19th: Mrs. Q: Book Addict
Friday, March 1st: Jo-Jo Loves to Read!
Monday, February 25th: Cerebral Girl in a Redneck World
Tuesday, February 26th: Lisa’s Yarns
Wednesday, February 27th: Jenn’s Bookshelves
Thursday, February 28th: Books in the City
Monday, March 4th: Olduvai Reads
Tuesday, March 5th: A Patchwork of Books
Wednesday, March 6th: Queen of All She Reads
Thursday, March 7th: BookNAround
Friday, March 8th: Dreaming in Books
Monday, March 11th: Great Imaginations
TBD: Book Dilettante

Buy Now:

Barnes and Noble
Amazon
HarperCollins Publishers

Cover: B+
Writing Style: B+
Characters: A-
Storyline/Plot: A-
Interest/Uniqueness: B+

My Rating: 




Disclosure:

I received a copy of this book to review through TLC Book Tours, in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not financially compensated in any way, and the opinions expressed are my own and based on my observations while reading this novel. The book that I received was an uncorrected proof, and any quotes could differ from the actual finished copy.

Introducing...Philida by Andre Brink

Introducing books through the first paragraph or so...

Here come shit. Just one look, and I can see it coming. Here I walk all this way and God know that is bad enough, what with the child in the abbadoek on my back, and now there's no turning back, it's just straight on to hell and gone. This is the man I got to talk to if I want to lay a charge, they tell me, this Grootbaas who is so tall and white and thin and bony, with deep furrows in his forehead, like a badly ploughed wheat field, and a nose like a sweet potato that has grown past itself.

-- Philida by Andre Brink

BOOKCASE ENVY: Mandala Bookshelf

via apartmenttherapy.com

Beautiful "Mandala Bookshelf" located in a Venezuelan apartment.

ARTICLE SHARING: 31 THings We Learned from Laura Ingalls Wilder

BuzzFeed has cute list of things we learned from Laura Ingalls Wilder. Sweetly reminiscent for both fans of the book, and fans of the TV show.

REVIEW: Backyard Foraging by Ellen Zachos

Synopsis

You don't need to trek into the forest to forage edible plants. Ideal for first-time foragers, this book features 70 edible weeds, flowers, mushrooms, and ornamental plants typically found in urban or suburban neighborhoods. You'll be amazed by how many of the plants you see each day are actually nutritious edibles. Full-color photographs make identification easy, and tips on where certain plants are likely to be found, how to avoid pollution and pesticides, and how to recognize the plants you should NEVER harvest make foraging as safe and simple as stepping into your own backyard.

Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC (March 26, 2013)
ISBN-10: 1612120091


About the Author
from Amazon

Ellen Zachos leads foraging walks and currently teaches at the New York Botanical Garden, where she received her certification in Commercial Horticulture and Ethnobotany. She writes two blogs, which can be found at downanddirtygardening.com and gardenbytes.com and has written numerous gardening books and contributed to publications including Horticulture and Better Homes & Gardens.


My Thoughts

I am forever interested in ethnobotany ("The scientific study of the traditional knowledge and customs of a people concerning plants and their medical, religious, and other uses"), and this book gives a glimpse into that world. Filled with beautiful pictures, it teaches you about plants that are commonly found on vacant lots, parks and even in your own backyard.

It is filled with little bits of information, like the fact that any berry with a five-pointed crown on the top is safe to eat (think of a blueberry). It teaches you how to look for plants based on your surroundings (are you on a mowed lawn? by a stream or lake? in a wooded area?) It tells you how to use those treasures that you find...

Grate a few magnolia buds for an unusual spice and leave the rest to flower in your garden.

The tart leaves of oxeye daisy make an excellent salad green.

...and the nutritional benefits (Purslane is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids). It is chock full of little bits of information you probably didn't know, like the fact that while tomatoes are a beloved fruit, the tomato plant itself is poisonous.

The book lists each plant individually, with a handy key at the top that indicates what season to look for it. It tells you what it is, where to find it, how to harvest it, what parts are edible, and how to eat it.

The back of the book has some recipes, and my favorite part is the fact this book is absolutely filled with beautiful photography.

My final word: The greatest honor I can bestow on an ARC (advanced reader's copy) that I read is the desire to buy the book and add it to my "permanent shelf". This book has made it into that prized category. If you are interested in learning about edible plants that could be found in your neighborhood or your own backyard, grab this book!

Pre-order Now:

Amazon

My Rating:

Disclosure:

I received a copy of this book to review through Netgalley, in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not financially compensated in any way, and the opinions expressed are my own and based on my observations while reading this novel. The e-book that I received was an uncorrected proof, and quotes mentioned here could differ in the finished copy.

GIVEAWAY: Follower Love Giveaway Hop

It's been awhile since I was involved in a giveaway hop, and I think it is way overdue! This giveaway hop is hosted by I Am a Reader, Not a Writer and The Reader's Antidote.

This giveaway is all about showing your followers some love, and for this one I am joining forces with Henry Holt & Co. to offer up not one, but TWO copies of their newest book Autobiography of Us by Aria Beth Sloss, which releases 2/5/13!

Synopsis

A gripping debut novel about friendship, loss and love; a confession of what passed between two women who met as girls in 1960s Pasadena, California

Coming of age in the patrician neighborhood of Pasadena, California during the 1960s, Rebecca Madden and her beautiful, reckless friend Alex dream of lives beyond their mothers' narrow expectations. Their struggle to define themselves against the backdrop of an American cultural revolution unites them early on, until one sweltering evening the summer before their last year of college, when a single act of betrayal changes everything.  Decades later, Rebecca’s haunting meditation on the past reveals the truth about that night, the years that followed, and the friendship that shaped her.

Autobiography of Us is an achingly beautiful portrait of a decades-long bond. A rare and powerful glimpse into the lives of two women caught between repression and revolution, it casts new light on the sacrifices, struggles, victories and defeats of a generation.


Check out the author Q&A that was posted Saturday.

Today the publisher has generously offered to give away two copies of the book to a single winner-- one for you, and one for a friend. Or you can share the two copies with your book club for a book club discussion. What a great way for you to share the love during the month of love! 

For your chance to win, just enter through the Rafflecopter form below. (Sorry, but this giveaway is for US residents only.) Then use the linky list at the bottom of this post to visit the next blog participating in the giveaway. 

Thanks for stopping by!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Q&A with Aria Beth Sloss, author of Autiobiography of Us

A Conversation with Aria Beth Sloss about

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF US   

—from Autobiography of Us

1. In a recent interview about the novel with Publishers Weekly, you mention that the book is about a group of women “caught between two eras.” What interested you about this group of women? How did you come to write about them?

At a certain age I became aware that my mother was older than my friends’ mothers (I’m the youngest of three by six and nine years). Because of a margin of no more than a few years, everything about her experience as a young woman differed from theirs. She didn’t protest Vietnam; she didn’t go to Woodstock: in short, she didn’t match the vision of American youth during the 1960’s I’d pieced together from my friends’ parents’ photographs and stories. As I got older, I became fascinated by the idea that there was an entire pocket of women history had passed over. My mother’s generation was born late enough to glimpse opportunities for women beyond marriage and motherhood, but they were also, cruelly, born too early to benefit from second- wave feminism and the changes that swept the country in the late 1960’s on into the 1970’s. By the time leaders like Gloria Steinem and Germaine Greer appeared on the horizon (not to mention NOW and the Equal Rights Amendment), it was too late: my mother and her friends were married with children, settled into lives that turned out to look very much like their own mothers’ lives. So much changed over the course of that one little decade. All it took was graduating college a few years earlier, and the world into which you entered was a very
different one.

2. How did the story for your book originate? You’ve mentioned that you used your mother’s life as inspiration—how personal was the endeavor of writing this book? Did you learn anything about your mother in the process?

Autobiography originally grew out of that same curiosity about my mother, who was raised in Pasadena during roughly the same timeframe as the book’s main characters. Though I grew up in Boston, my family flew to California every year to spend time with my maternal grandparents, so from a very young age I knew Pasadena as the place where my mother had grown up. I think it must come as a shock to all children, that moment when you realize your parents were once young. Suddenly, they’re people. With that peoplehood comes a past. I could say something nobler drove me, but the truth is that I started this book – a book which explores women coming of age during the era in which my mother came of age – out of sheer frustration with what I perceived as the limitations facing the young women of my own era. In many ways, Autobiography is less about my mother than it is about me.

3. You capture amazingly vivid details of the time and essence of 1960s Pasadena, California including: how people dressed, what they ate, how they interacted socially, their worries and joys, the highlights in the news, and the social practices. What kind of research did you do for AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF US? Did anything surprise you?

I used two types of research while writing the book. One involved looking up news headlines and double-checking dates, making sure I had all the facts down right – what time did the sun set in May of 1962? Was I remembering the correct kind of palm tree for that area of Southern California? The other kind of research relied on sheer imagination. It’s always important to get the facts straight: as a fiction writer, you’re building a dream, and that dream needs to progress without any logistical snags, or you risk the reader getting nudged awake. But the crucial truths in story-telling are emotional. And to my way of thinking, a lot less changes from decade to decade in terms of what people want and regret than we’d like to think. It’s made me happy to hear women of that era say that the struggles the main characters face in the book ring true, but, sadly, it hasn’t surprised me.

4. This story is ultimately about a friendship between two women who have grown up together. Did you rely on any of your own experiences with girlfriends to articulate the ins and outs of their relationship?

I tend to deliberately avoid using specifics from my day-to-day in my writing: I find the hard facts of my own life distracting when I’m trying to create a world with its own truths, its own peculiar climate. That said, Rebecca and Alex’s relationship is undoubtedly a mish-mash of dozens of different friendships I’ve witnessed and experienced, particularly during adolescence. There’s a fluidity to teenage girls and their sense of identity that makes those intense friendships so many women have during those years possible. Over time, that intimacy is generally (and quite naturally) replaced by romantic relationships. It occurred to me as I worked on Autobiography that it would have to be both an extraordinary friendship as well as an extraordinary set of circumstances to break that natural progression. There was so much about these two women and their lives that seemed to me to create the perfect storm of disappointment and desire, exactly the kind that might allow a relationship like theirs to continue to carry so much weight. In the end, I wasn’t surprised to find myself writing
about a friendship that looked a lot more like love.

5. How did you first become interested in writing?

Like most writers, I spent my childhood buried in books. I think of those years now as the seed that would eventually appear above ground as this, my life as a writer. I never consciously considered writing books of my own; in fact, I spent the first twenty-odd years of my life training to be a musician. I suppose what I was searching for all those years was a way to communicate – I just had the medium wrong. When, in my mid-twenties, I realized I didn’t have the talent to achieve what I wanted to through music, I went back to my childhood love. I had the wild idea I might be able to speak through words the way I couldn’t through music. Luckily, it was the first of many endings that turned out to be a beginning.

Autobiography of Us releases tomorrow, 2/5/13. Come back then for a chance to win not one, but two copies for you and a friend!

REVIEW: Starting Seeds by Barbara W. Ellis

Synopsis

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.

Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC (January 15, 2013)
ISBN-10: 1612121055
ISBN-13: 978-1612121055


About the Author

Barbara Ellis is an experienced and knowledgeable gardener and former Rodale editor. She has several books to her credit, including Covering Ground, The Veggie Gardener’s Answer Book, Deckscaping, and Shady Retreats. She lives in Kent County, Maryland.


My Thoughts

I have tried growing vegetables and fruit before, without luck. I've tried growing plants in the summer as they recommend. I've tried growing from seed in little peat pots and starting mix, only to have the little seedlings die after a couple of weeks.

Well, I think I've figured out part of the trouble. I was following general instructions, which talk about the ideal growing season being the summer. Trouble is...I live in Florida. I've come to realize that it's just too stinkin' hot down here to grow anything in the summer! Our ideal growing times are fall and spring, with a lot of our growing happening in the winter as well.

So I decided to try my hand once again, this time with the help of Starting Seeds by Barbara Ellis. It is chock full of good information for beginners wanting to learn about growing from seed. One tip: don't include garden soil with potting soil when growing from seed.

Avoid adding ordinary garden soil to potting mixes used to germinate seeds or grow seedlings, because it contains fungi and other organisms that can cause rot and other diseases.

I also learned about self-watering seed starters, which would probably have saved me last time I tried growing herbs from seed. I simply could not keep the peat pots properly moist, and my seedlings didn't survive.

There are lots of great lists included, like "Easy Vegetables for Starting Indoors", "Easy Annuals for Starting Indoors", and "Easy Vegetables to Direct Sow". 

I learned about "special-needs seeds" that may need things like "scarification" in order to have success in germinating them.

You also learn how to test seeds for viability, and how to pregerminate, which are both basically the same processes.

I have some old seeds I won back in 2008 and never used (due to my poor success in trying to grow something from seed), and I didn't know whether they'd still be any good. So I decided to test some of them. I followed the instructions in this book for germinating the seeds in damp paper towels to look for signs of sprouting.

And after about 10 days, I had a great success rate with my beans and peas, as well as some tomato sprouts.

So I had to ask myself: what now? What do I do with all of these sprouted seeds? I hated to just throw them away. So, although it was a little early down here for beans and peas, and a little late for tomatoes, I decided to go ahead and try potting them.

I stuck two bean sprouts on the sides of this window box, and I put bean seeds across the back and pea seeds across the front.

And this was that pot a couple of days ago. Success!

I was curious to see how the sprouts would compare to the seeds directly sowed. They are only slightly bigger. (I know I probably have too many plants in too small a space, but this is all an experiment for me at this point. However these plants are all "dwarf" plants.)

I also put some various bean and pea sprouts across the back of one of my deck planters, along with some Brandywine Tomato sprouts that I stuck around the outside of my tomato cage. This was them about a week ago.

The Brandywine Tomatoes are getting larger.

So I picked up a lot of great tips from this book, and so far I'm having success. I have some lettuce seeds pregerminating right now, although it is the end of our lettuce growing season, so I don't know what kind of luck I will have. But at least I am learning which of my old seeds seem to still be viable. Today I will try potting radishes, sunberry and my lettuce sprouts.

This book also has some great resource links in the back, including a website which shows pictures of common weeds, to help you figure out what are veggie and flower seedlings, and what are weeds.

My final word:

Looking to learn more about growing from seed? Pick this book up today!

Buy Now:
Amazon
Cooking.com

My Rating:

Disclosure:

I received a copy of this book to review through Netgalley, in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not financially compensated in any way, and the opinions expressed are my own and based on my observations while reading this novel. The book that I received was an uncorrected proof, and quotes could differ in the actual published version.