Adam, a horticulturist, landscape designer, and author of Landscape Planning: Practical Techniques for the Home Gardener, offers a useful book of advice for new homeowners and others building their first gardens. The book initiates readers into the basics of designing, planning, planting, and maintaining a garden. Starting with a checklist for planning the garden, Adam includes an informative primer on fertilizers and essential tools. One section helps gardeners understand soil types and ways to improve soil quality. Perennials, shrubs, and trees are suggested to provide color through the seasons in North America. Hints on spotting diseased, neglected plants and other concerns are particularly useful when buying plants. The book is well organized and designed to allow the reader to find specific gardening topics quickly with thoughtfully designed diagrams, headers, sidebars and an index. Unfortunately, flora introduced in the book are not included in the index, making it difficult to retrace where particular plants were mentioned. Beautiful photographs and illustrations enhance the reading and learning experience. The author's advice will help beginners avoid costly mistakes, plan well, and tend to a thoughtfully designed garden that will add value to property and offer beauty for years to come. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 06/10/2016 | Details & Permalink

Author and stand-up comedian Demers (Vancouver Special) offers insight, both humorous and erudite, on topics such as "D for Depression," "F for Fat," "M for Motherlessness," and "U for Union-Busting" in 26 concise essays. Characterized by Demers's predominantly sarcastic tone, the essays strike a balance between the comic and the absurd, the political and the personal. Demers writes about his life and that of his family—including his mother dying from leukemia and his father coming out to his family as gay—with clarity, transparency and sensitivity. It is clear that politics have, from a young age, charted the course of Demers's character, and his socialist views are inextricable from his personality; many of the essays discuss them either intrinsically or as a side dish. In the second chapter, "B for Bombing," the author writes: "Success in comedy is just as unambiguous as failure." This is the ethos by which Demers's work succeeds—whether he's considering failure or success, his humor reminds the audience that life moves forward. Agent: John Pearce, Westwood Creative Artists. (June)

Reviewed on 06/10/2016 | Details & Permalink

This informative and entertaining tribute to the richness of the Cree language—inspired by a series of Facebook posts from McLeod, editor of Indigenous Poetics in Canada—arrives at a critical juncture when the reclamation and celebration of indigenous languages are becoming focal healing points for many First Nations communities. Ostensibly a storytelling dictionary, its brief two-to-four-page entries allow for easy reference, with memorable anecdotes that enrich context and definition. McLeod's concise and pointed translations of terms grouped by subject matter (such as place names, flowers, feelings, and household items) include personal stories as well as insights into Cree history, culture, spirituality, and sexuality (Cree is always "walking the edge of the risqué"). Terms that reflect serious concerns of land dispossession and poverty sit alongside colloquialisms for ordering at Tim Hortons coffee shops and translations of Johnny Cash songs. The guide does not shy away from difficult truths (pizza, it informs readers, is "the throw-up bread"). Linguist Wolvengrey provides an excellent guide to pronunciation, syllabic stress, and dealing with vowels and consonants (which would better serve readers if it were placed in the front of the book). McLeod's thesis that the Internet will help preserve endangered languages is amply supported with this loving and timely collection. (May)

Reviewed on 06/10/2016 | Details & Permalink

A desolate polar landscape comes to life in this memorable book chronicling McNeil's (Private View) period as writer-in-residence for the British Antarctic Survey, focusing on her four months in Antarctica. Having signed on to witness scientific research, McNeil struggles with her own insignificance in Antarctica's vastness. This is not a traditional explorer's diary, but rather, as McNeil explains, "an exploration of an inner as much as an outer landscape." McNeil uses this memoir to delve into climate change concerns and her own past, including some childhood trauma. When the author allows herself to roam freely in her experiences, the book is absorbing. Its fractured structure and time line —not "a single line, a narrative" but rather "a spiral"—can be jarring for the reader, as reference points and dates are not always clear. The book also lacks a traditional conclusion, but this may be a purposeful and maddening acknowledgment that for both personal trials and the greater environmental problems plaguing the earth, no satisfactory solutions have yet to be discovered. Overall, the book succeeds in bringing the issues of climate change out of the scientific and into the literary world, elegantly weaving factual information into a language more broadly understood. Agent: Veronique Baxter, David Hingham Associates. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 06/10/2016 | Details & Permalink

Essayist Eden and food writer Ford document the culinary contributions from Tajiks, Russians, Turks, Jews, Koreans, Caucasians, and Uzbecks who have settled in Samarkand, creating one of the world's most varied cuisines. Samarkand, a stopping point along the Silk Road, is located in the valley along Uzbekistan's Zerafshan river. It has hosted travelers from all over the central Asia region for centuries. This eye-opening collection of 100 dishes includes Koryo spicy carrots, a nod to Korean kimchi; Turkish beef shashlik kebabs with a tahini and pistachio sauce; roasted peaches with marzipan and rose syrup from the Caucasus; a Tajik bread salad that's a cross between a fattoush and a Greek salad; and the impressive "Buttered Rice Under a Shah's Crown," a variation of the Uzbekian rice pilaf standard known as plov in which chestnuts, rice, raisins, saffron, and apricots are encased in a layer of lavash and baked. Regional, flavorful ingredients such as pomegranates (used in spiced Afghani beef patties or a vodka sorbet), saffron, and rice serve as an undercurrent connecting the cuisines in unpredictable ways. The book's artfully curated recipes complement each one another, and Eden's essays help bind the feasts, flavors, and colors even more closely. Though readers may never find themselves traversing the Silk Road, this is a terrific way to replicate a key part of that journey. (June)

Reviewed on 06/10/2016 | Details & Permalink

Sullivan and Reynolds, food writers and stylists, provide an invaluable guide to stocking the perfect pantry for delicious, fuss-free meals with little advance planning. The authors put forth two simple steps: stock the shelf and the fridge with essentials, and then pick up two ingredients from the store. From there, it's easy to create a variety of quick and satisfying meals, as their recipes show. They advise following the recipe closely the first time around and then changing things up the second time, which builds confidence and lets cooks tailor the meal to individual tastes. Each chapter starts with a basic recipe with three variations to show how easily adaptations can be made. The authors also include 30 recipe "heroes," staples that have a multitude of uses and are must-haves for every kitchen: canned tomatoes, flour, eggs, chocolate, and more. They also advise on spices and herbs to stock and equipment to keep on hand. Chapters are broken out by hero ingredients and recipes are varied and appealing, including sausage, chickpea, and kale stew; Greek spinach rice with feta; shrimp and tomato curry; and baby eggplant with spicy peanut dressing. While building meals around canned staples may not sound appetizing, the authors demonstrate how humble ingredients such as coconut milk can be transformed in recipes such as their coconut chicken soup; rice and peas with spiced pork loin steaks; and coconut and lime meringue pie. Home cooks will appreciate the time-saving techniques the authors offer and their families will delight in the tasty, fulfilling meals. (May)

Reviewed on 06/10/2016 | Details & Permalink

Mother Helene and daughter Jacqueline pair up to chronicle Helene's storied life from historical and culinary perspectives. Helene, the famed owner of the House of An, would tell her children the stories behind the many meals she cooked. Traditional Vietnamese recipes are passed down orally, so Jacqueline sought a way to permanently record her mother's story and recipes as well as to depict the lifestyle of a forgotten time. Together, they tell Helene's story through food, sharing traditional recipes and modern takes on American dishes with Asian touches. They tout the healthiness of Vietnamese cuisine and seek to demystify this way of cooking. The authors highlight common cooking techniques, their favorite ingredients, and the secrets to cooking perfect rice. Cornerstone classic dishes include oven-roasted lemongrass chicken, beef pho, and spicy chicken and shrimp ramen in cognac XO sauce. Gorgeous full-color photos will leave readers craving their stunning slow-roasted pork with ginger balsamic glaze; coconut spare ribs; and caramelized lemongrass shrimp. Part biography, part history lesson, and part celebration of the crisp freshness of Vietnamese cuisine, this superb collection will attract and entice a new legion of cooks who seek healthy and flavorful food. (May)

Reviewed on 06/10/2016 | Details & Permalink

Katz (The Macho Paradox) looks at presidential elections with the provocative thesis that they can be seen as "competitions not only between divergent political ideologies but also between two (or three) distinct versions of masculinity." Since 1972, conservatives have profited from emphasizing a masculinity associated with white, middle-class men, and painting liberals as softies only concerned with "abortion, amnesty, and acid." The author takes the reader through the elections chronologically, focusing on instances when gender stereotypes figured most prominently, either in reinforcing or challenging patriarchal assumptions. In discussing the 2008 primaries with Obama and Clinton, he says, "each candidate had adopted a style—whether it came naturally or not—that their gender and race seemed to require, as they embarked on terrain that had previously been reserved for white men." He analyzes Trump's appeal and Clinton's challenges in the current election as well as the influence of Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talk radio hosts. Thoroughly researched and documented, this book illuminates the intersection of gender, race, and politics. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 06/10/2016 | Details & Permalink

Actress Henner's (Wear Your Life Well) thoroughly entertaining mix of autobiography and self-help book, cowritten with Brown, her husband, engages readers from the first page. After a series of failed relationships, Henner and Brown picked up their relationship several decades after they first met as students at the University of Chicago while Brown was dating a friend of Henner's. A few months later, Brown was diagnosed with bladder cancer, and then with lung cancer—but after all of those years, Henner wasn't about to lose the love of her life. Having seen the light about healthy living in the late 1970s, Henner began by weaning Brown off of his unhealthy lifestyle. The couple went on to choose a course of treatment for him that emphasized immunotherapy, and ended with his cancers in remission. Henner and Brown don't hold back about the mistakes they've each made along the way, choosing instead to embrace them as learning experiences. Their frank, engaging style offers hope to others with similar diagnoses, along with a behind-the-scenes look at a beloved actress. Agent: Mel Berger, William Morris Endeavor. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 06/10/2016 | Details & Permalink

Whole Foods employee Ross weighed more than 400 pounds when he was invited to participate in an all-expenses-paid weeklong health immersion retreat sponsored by his employer and facilitated by physician Stoll. This inspiring text alternates between co-authors Ross and Stoll, with Stoll sharing retreat lectures on such subjects as diabetes, exercise, a plant-based diet, and food addiction. Ross shares his history of overeating and then takes readers day by day through the experience of joining with nearly 150 others in Naples, Fla., to partake in a challenging lifestyle shift; by day three he is experiencing "feelings of withdrawal from salt, caffeine, and sugar," as are many other attendees. By day four, however, he has lost weight, his blood pressure is lower, and he feels more energetic, has bonded with other participants, and is committed to lasting change. Many will relate to Ross's history of struggle with weight. His personal story also connects readers to his wife and son, and to his sunny and humorous outlook (e.g., his moniker is "Big Sexy"). Stoll's lectures are informative and science-based, clearly revealing the dramatic benefits of a healthy lifestyle and plant-based diet. The only ingredients missing from this detailed week of transformation are specific recipes for the enticing veggie-based meals served on Ross and Stoll's healthful sojourn. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 06/10/2016 | Details & Permalink