Filed under: Books
Of course, this book is available at your local branch of the Des Moines Public Library.
This book was fairly thorough, but shallow, and had a distinct lack of directing readers to resources for further reading.
This book gets bonus points for pointing out the omissions of the German dishwashing study – you know, the one that said that washing in a dishwasher uses so much fewer resources than washing in a sink? (Namely, they didn’t take into account the process of making the dishwasher, plus they didn’t encourage the hand washers to conserve resources, only to get the dishes clean.) Also, for pointing out that front load washing machines are not always the better way to go, environmentally speaking. Those two things won me over to the book.
Now, for a series of my random thoughts while I was reading.
The authors sometimes give good alternatives to traditional, not so great for the environment products. But too often, the suggestion was just “buy organic,” as if organic is automatically awesome. Sometimes, the authors didn’t suggest any alternatives, leaving the reader ready to change their ways, but uncertain of how to do that. Frustrating.
I of course read the diapering section with keen interest, and was disappointed. The authors overestimated the costs of doing laundry (and apparently didn’t actually do any research on the subject). They also didn’t bother to look up statistics on potty training, settling instead for saying that cloth diaper advocates “claim” that use of cloth diapers results in earlier potty training. And the book was written right after G diapers came out, but before they had much market use, and the authors were just in love with the Gdiaper concept. (and who isn’t? but the practical use seems to be where most parents I know have found difficulty.)
I also, of course, found it odd that the authors continually encouraged using reusable, washable items like rags, and of course clothes… but not diapers. Odd.
Moving on, the authors barely mentioned buying local or knowing your suppliers as a way to ensure not only that you’re buying good products that are good for you, but as a way of increasing your eco-friendliness. They mentioned farmer’s markets, but that’s the extent of local shopping they talked about.
All in all, while the authors mostly avoided hype, they also didn’t totally explore some topics (for example, there are apparently no downsides to hybrid cars). Obviously, completely discussing every topic in depth would make the book impossibly thick, but clearly some sections could have been a little more balanced.
That said, this has been my favorite Eco book that I’ve read so far.
Filed under: Books
I found this one to be difficult to read. There were just too many words on the page or something. Also, it’s kind of a lengthy ad for Shaklee.
That said, there is some good information in the book, particularly for those looking for easy ways to get started living Green. The book is divided into pratical sections, like “Clean Body,” “Clean Baby,” and “Clean Food.” She talks about the surprising number of nasties in soap, laundry detergent, makeup, etc.
Many of the suggested solutions are just alternate things to buy. If you’re just looking for “instead of Ajax dish soap, buy a green brand instead” advice, you could probably get away without buying ANY books, and just go shopping at Campbell’s or New City instead. But she does suggest things such as just forgoing baby lotion (babies usually don’t need lotion if you avoid drying soap and too frequent baths), etc. (no mention of forgoing makeup, though!)
(I’ll note, she calls disposables “safer.” I’m not sure what she means by that. I have yet to see a cloth diaper explode or do anything that would make me think of them as “less safe.”)
Filed under: Books
Alright, I really didn’t care for this one. It’s too textbook-ish without giving any real information. Too much theory and “should” and “ought” with not enough practical steps. As with all of the Complete Idiot guides, there’s a lot of fancy formatting, lots of white space, and a serious dearth of good information.
I did, however, like the chapter on raising Green kids – none of that Scare The Pants Off Of Them stuff, and very focused on Teach Them To Appreciate Nature. A huge thumbs-up in my opinion.
So, though this is, like all the books I’m reviewing, available at the Des Moines library, it’s not particularly useful.
Filed under: Books
Another fine selection from the Des Moines Library.
This is not a particularly large book, but it’s jam-packed with bulleted lists. Almost overwhelmingly so. Some of the ideas are good ones, some are not so practical. Some make sense only when you consider that the book was published in Australia. Interestingly, it took me several times over the page talking about passive solar to figure this one out! (“Wait! Did they say to use north-facing windows to capture the sun?”)
Filed under: Books
I really liked this book. It’s basically written in a casual, conversational style, as though Ed was just chatting with you about all the things he thinks are important when choosing to live green. He includes things that are easy to do (like turning down your thermostat) and things that are more challenging (solar panels). There are some places I would have preferred more statistical evidence, but that’s not really what the book’s about.
He also got me all stirred up to get an electric bike to enable me to get further distances while towing both kids. (like the library, which is out of reach on the bike) I just don’t have that kind of scratch, though!!
My favorite part of the book was easily his discussion of transportation choices. Clearly, for Ed, his electric car is the best option – he recharges it with his solar panels. But his discussion of biofuels vs hyrids (hybrids win) and driving vs flying (driving wins) were interesting.
All in all, the book gets into several Green topics, all in a light conversational tone that conveys good information without sounding textbook-y.
This is a super fun book, and would make a good gift, as well.
Filed under: Books
This is a fun little book. It is basically an alphabetical listing of various items – toothbrushes, appliances, zippers – and ideas of how to reuse them, how to extend their useful lives, or how to recycle them. It’s an interesting read and a great reference.
The Des Moines Library has it, I highly recommend checking it out!
Filed under: Books
I’ve borrowed several Green-ish books from the library and will be sharing my thoughts on them on here. First up is Raising an Earth Friendly Child by Debbie Tillsworth.
I will say, I’m about halfway through and I’m very disappointed. The book seems to take the same tired approach of “Scare Your Kids To Death and then Encourage Them To Do Something.” I personally do not agree with this approach at all, so activities like having my kid make a Play-dough city and then drowning it in the sink while telling him that his relatives on the coasts will all die when the oceans rise unless we turn off the faucet when we brush our teeth is completely out for me.
If we rule out all of those types of activities, the ones that are left are an interesting assortment. Many of them would be great for families wanting to make a transition to being more earth friendly with their chidren ages 4-10ish. Establishing an ecology cop, able to write tickets for pre-established offences, for example.
Many of the other activities would really come up naturally if a family is already living green – having a child help with recycling, for example, and talking about why we recycle. Getting rid of toxic cleaners and other items. Using cloth diapers.
Some of the activities are good ideas for any family – volunteering with a group that cleans up highways or rivers, for example. (I didn’t see cleaning up trails or parks in the book, but those are good activities, too. I know of a family who combines geocacheing with garbage picking up.) One activity suggested ways to help children understand the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources.
And there are some real gems in there, too. One is a diaper experiment where you take a disposable and a cloth diaper outside and bury them and mark their graves and then dig them up 6 months or a year later to compare. Wally will totally lose interest over the 6 months, but I think it’d be fun!
So, it’s really a mixed bag. Families just starting on their journey to being more green and wanting to get the kids involved would probably benefit the most from this book. Just, please, avoid tactics that make your child feel helpless or ridden with guilt – or fearful for his life.
Filed under: Books
Squeaky Green: The Method Guide to Detoxing Your Home
When this book arrived on my doorstep, I was completely prepared to hate it. I really detest the way advertising is creeping into our everyday lives – product placements on TV shows, informational brochures that are really just ads, etc. – and I thought this book would be more of that.
But as I read it, I really started to like it. Sure, it is published by Method, and it does mention Method products on occasion, but it’s not just a 157 page ad for Method. It’s actually informative.
The book is divided into sections – one for each room or area of your home – and then walks through the potential hazards in each area. For example, in your bedroom, there’s the flame retardants in the mattress, the pesticide residue in your sheets, dust mites on the floor and in your bed, etc. Then it gives you ideas on how to eliminate or reduce your exposure to these hazards.
It’s a great book for someone who is remodeling, redecorating, or building a new house – kind of an overview of the major areas of concern – and would also be good for just anyone who is wanting to reduce their exposure to unhealthy toxins in their home. Their suggestions are all achievable for normal, regular people.
Though I already was familiar with most of the concerns they raised in the book, one fact caught me by surprise – dryer sheets and fabric softeners. We don’t use them anyway, but the book claims that the secret ingredient that makes the clothes soft is beef fat (tallow). Uh, nasty.
It does have its drawbacks. It doesn’t back up anything it says with references. I happen to know that their assertions about the hazards of common household chemicals and residues of things found in every day items are based on fact and can be backed up by studies. But to not publish their references is a bit shady.
It also misses several obvious do-it-yourself ideas, in favor of urging you to buy a product. (For example, it discusses fabric softener and how gross it is, then encourages you to use vegetarian-friendly versions of dryer sheets instead, completely ignoring the fact that vinegar is nontoxic and makes a great fabric softener.)
Dr. Bob Sears has a new book out called The Vaccine Book. I haven’t seen or read it – and I likely won’t, at least not until a copy appears at Half Price Books – but those still in the midst of deciding what to do about vaccines might want to check it out.
Dr. William Sears and his son, Dr. Bob, are – I believe – in favor of routine childhood vaccinations. I recall reading somewhere, though, that Dr. Bob at least in the past advocated the use of an altered schedule, and using single vaccines instead of combined ones.
I am a big fan of the Sears family, and all of their books, but I have not seen this one so I can’t comment specifically about it.
- Giving Birth by Catherine Taylor.
This was quite good. Catherine decided, between pregnancies, to write a book on midwifery, so devoted a year to following some midwives around and documenting her observations. Hospital-based midwives, homebirth midwives, lay midwives, certified nurse-midwives, midwives of all types and personalities. During the course of her research, she got pregnant, and she weaves in the story of her own pregnancy and birth with the stories of the women she’s observing.
The most interesting part of the book for me was how Ms Taylor herself changed over the course of her year of research. She started out very pro-hospital birth. A midwife in a hospital working under a doctor is the best of both worlds, she thought. (And I know many who share this opinion.) But by the end of the book, she’s decided to have her own baby at home, in the water, with two CNMs onhand, and seems convinced that, for women who are comfortable at home, it’s the best place for a normal delivery. The book’s purpose is not to convince anyone of anything, but rather to give some insight into the world of midwifery, the variety of midwives out there, how they are similar to and different from one another and from OBs, the different settings in which they practice, and their differing beliefs about how birth should progress.
It’s a very easy read, written in a leisurely narrative. I finished it off in just over one day.
I marked a few particularly interesting (to me) passages.
1) Ms. Taylor has just asked one of the hospital midwives about the increased use of epidurals. After commenting on a few other things, the midwife says “I think increased epidural use might have something to do with the fact that we don’t think that we should have pain in this modern world. Most of the women we see don’t generally challenge themselves physically. They are sedentary, and they aren’t familiar with physical pain. But I think a lot of it is that we’re all so stressed out that we just can’t handle any more pain. It’s funny, at a time when there are so many conveniences, why are we all so stressed out?” Then later, she comments, “The increase in analgesia and anesthesia use may be related to our own pain as midwives as careivers. It would be interesting to do a study that tried to see if epidural use was in part because we, and the nurses too, don’t want to deal with mothers’ pain. I’m not proud of this, but it’s true. When you’re with a laboring woman, sometimes it is hard to bear her pain. And we see so much, volume-wise. It gets to you. So now, with epidurals, we don’t have to bear their pain.” (p59)
2) Ms. Taylor is now talking to a homebirth midwife, who says, “The moms come out with these stories like ‘Oh, my birth was so great. They let me walk around.’ And I mean who’s in charge here? Look at where the power is in that sentence. ‘They let me use the bathroom.’ ‘They let me hold my baby.’ But to the women, that was a wondeful birth experience, because in their last one maybe they got cut with no one asking her permission, or they weren’t allowed out of bed, or they had to be catheterized, or their baby was taken away immediately. For me, it’s hard. I know in one part of my heart that that’s progress, but I’m also kind of sickened by how little progress that is, and I’m sad that women put up with it.”
3) Ms. Taylor is at this point visiting at a women’s clinic in Taos, NM. (which was interesting since I finished this book the day before heading to Taos myself!) The midwife in charge at the clinic has fought tirelessly for years to improve the birthing woman’s experience in her community, and she has made progress, but it’s been difficult. In a twist on the usual, her midwifery clinic has recently hired two OBs to work for them. (Normally, of course, doctors hire midwifes to work under them.) Her name is Elizabeth. “Elizabeth insists that, as a nation, we need to be asking some basic, logical questions. ‘Why don’t we care that mothers and babies are dying at greater rates in the United States than in so many other places? If we know that outcome-based care does reduce maternal and infant mortality, can we talk about why we refuse to go there? Do we care about mothers and babies?’
“Elizabeth is confident that change will come, slowly but surely, through education, saying that it isn’t a matter of opinion vs science, but of making the data known. ‘I mean, obviously, the science isn’t improving across the board,’ she says. ‘In 1989, our maternal mortality rate in the United States was around 8 deaths per 100,000; it has actually risen to 10 per 100,000! Some people would argue that we’re counting it better, but in any case, we haven’t improved. Not only have we not improved, but nobody’s objecting. Maybe they don’t know. Maybe they don’t know that, statistically, you should have your baby in Japan or Spain if you want a better outcome.’”
I really liked this book, but it does have one major hole in it – there is hardly any mention of certified nurse midwives who practice independently at hospitals and in homes. Ms. Taylor follows CNMs who work for hospitals and HMOs, and she follows lay midwives who work independently. But there is no mention of CNMs who work independently, beyond Elizabeth and her clinic in Taos. Maybe Des Moines is unique in this aspect, that we can choose among CNMs who are employed by a hospital, CNMs who work independently and do primarily homebirth, CNMs who work independently and do primarily hospital birth, and lay midwives who do only home birth. We have a wealth of choices here, when you stop to think about it. (The only thing we don’t have, that they do have in the book, is lay midwifes who are acknowledged by the state and allowed to practice legally.)
If you want to get a copy of this book, our local chapter of ICAN is selling it as a fundraiser.
- A Midwife’s Story by Penny Armstrong and Sheryl Feldman.
Another good book, an easy read, written in a gentle narrative format and very short chapters. And another story of a woman’s transition from preferring birth in a hospital setting to seeing birth as normal and uneventful and perfectly suited to a home setting. Penny Armstrong completed her midwifery training in Scotland and worked there for a while before coming back to the US and completing a training program here to obtain her US credentials. After looking down at homebirth for a number of years, one day a call came to the hospital where she worked that a rural doctor wanted to hire a midwife for his clinic. On a whim, she took the job, which involved helping the largely Amish population of the rural Lancaster County, PA deliver their babies at home.
The book is largely just what the title suggests – the story of one midwife, and also of the women whose babies she delivers. It also provides wonderful insight into the world of the Amish as Ms. Armstrong slowly adapts to their ways and comes to admire and respect the Amish people with whom she works.
One of my favorite passages in the book has really nothing to do with birth. Ms. Armstrong is explaining about how the Amish think about technology. (Her story will then relate to a situation that arose with the birth of one of her clients.) She says “Most of all, an Amishman wants to protect his faith, keep his family close, keep his ways, keep humble before God, be a steward of the land, and make a living. If ne needs a technology to allow him to continue, then maybe, he’ll say, taking a long time to decide – debating the matter with his brethren – maybe he’ll use it; but if it gets in the way of faith, family, and stewardship, then he’ll stop thinking about it.”
We could all stand to put technology in that light, I think.
