This was originally posted to: Guemes Island Library

New Books In The Library

These three gardening books were donated in memory of Margene Merrow from Book Club.


The Pruning Book
by Lee Reich

Every gardener knows that pruning makes plants healthier, more fruitful, and more beautiful. But most gardeners wince at the thought of pruning. In The Pruning Book, master horticulturist Lee Reich provides a remedy for "fear of pruning," making this dreaded task almost fun. In easy-to-read, engaging language, Reich gives specific methods for pruning hundreds of species from the cold climates to the tropics. He covers every type of plant, from ornamental bushes, evergreens, ornamental vines, and edible fruit and nut trees to houseplants. For those with special pruning interests Reich also gives time-tested advice for bonsai, topiary, espalier, and pleaching. He even takes a fresh look at such routine chores as mowing a lawn, including his own strategy for creating "lawn nouveau." With this witty and useful reference, any gardener can learn to like pruning.

 

Perennials for the Pacific Northwest
by Marty Wingate

"This is the A-List of flowering plants recommended for Pacific Northwest gardens–updated to include the current crop of available perennials–in a lavishly photographed and definitive guide, which will aide in selecting the best perennials to build a successful garden."

 

Garden Blessings
by June Cotner

May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers

Our gardens grow us, and this moving collection of readings takes us through every season and down a path of pure pleasure. Garden Blessings is a one-of-a-kind treasury of uplifting prayers, prose and poems that share a common appreciation for the love of gardening and the many blessings that gardens bring to our lives. June Cotner, a bestselling inspirational author, has gathered a bounty of gifts from the garden here, offering gems of wisdom that remind the reader and gardener in all of us just how much we learn from nature.

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
—Dorothy Frances Gurney

 

No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State
by Glenn Greenwald

In May 2013, Glenn Greenwald set out for Hong Kong to meet an anonymous source who claimed to have astonishing evidence of pervasive government spying and insisted on communicating only through heavily encrypted channels. That source turned out to be the 29-year-old NSA contractor Edward Snowden, and his revelations about the agency’s widespread, systemic overreach proved to be some of the most explosive and consequential news in recent history, triggering a fierce debate over national security and information privacy. As the arguments rage on and the government considers various proposals for reform, it is clear that we have yet to see the full impact of Snowden’s disclosures.

Now for the first time, Greenwald fits all the pieces together, recounting his high-intensity ten-day trip to Hong Kong, examining the broader implications of the surveillance detailed in his reporting for The Guardian, and revealing fresh information on the NSA’s unprecedented abuse of power with never-before-seen documents entrusted to him by Snowden himself.

Going beyond NSA specifics, Greenwald also takes on the establishment media, excoriating their habitual avoidance of adversarial reporting on the government and their failure to serve the interests of the people. Finally, he asks what it means both for individuals and for a nation’s political health when a government pries so invasively into the private lives of its citizens—and considers what safeguards and forms of oversight are necessary to protect democracy in the digital age. Coming at a landmark moment in American history, No Place to Hide is a fearless, incisive, and essential contribution to our understanding of the U.S. surveillance state.

 

Count Down: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?
by Alan Weisman

In his bestselling book The World Without Us, Alan Weisman considered how the Earth could heal and even refill empty niches if relieved of humanity's constant pressures. Behind that groundbreaking thought experiment was his hope that we would be inspired to find a way to add humans back to this vision of a restored, healthy planet-only in harmony, not mortal combat, with the rest of nature.

But with a million more of us every 4 1/2 days on a planet that's not getting any bigger, and with our exhaust overheating the atmosphere and altering the chemistry of the oceans, prospects for a sustainable human future seem ever more in doubt. For this long awaited follow-up book, Weisman traveled to more than 20 countries to ask what experts agreed were probably the most important questions on Earth--and also the hardest: How many humans can the planet hold without capsizing? How robust must the Earth's ecosystem be to assure our continued existence? Can we know which other species are essential to our survival? And, how might we actually arrive at a stable, optimum population, and design an economy to allow genuine prosperity without endless growth?

Weisman visits an extraordinary range of the world's cultures, religions, nationalities, tribes, and political systems to learn what in their beliefs, histories, liturgies, or current circumstances might suggest that sometimes it's in their own best interest to limit their growth. The result is a landmark work of reporting: devastating, urgent, and, ultimately, deeply hopeful.

By vividly detailing the burgeoning effects of our cumulative presence, Countdown reveals what may be the fastest, most acceptable, practical, and affordable way of returning our planet and our presence on it to balance. Weisman again shows that he is one of the most provocative journalists at work today, with a book whose message is so compelling that it will change how we see our lives and our destiny.


Written In My Own Hearts Blood
by Diana Gabaldon

In her now classic novel Outlander, Diana Gabaldon told the story of Claire Randall, an English ex-combat nurse who walks through a stone circle in the Scottish Highlands in 1946, and disappears . . . into 1743. The story unfolded from there in seven bestselling novels, and CNN has called it “a grand adventure written on a canvas that probes the heart, weighs the soul and measures the human spirit across [centuries].” Now the story continues in Written in My Own Heart’s Blood.
 
1778: France declares war on Great Britain, the British army leaves Philadelphia, and George Washington’s troops leave Valley Forge in pursuit. At this moment, Jamie Fraser returns from a presumed watery grave to discover that his best friend has married his wife, his illegitimate son has discovered (to his horror) who his father really is, and his beloved nephew, Ian, wants to marry a Quaker. Meanwhile, Jamie’s wife, Claire, and his sister, Jenny, are busy picking up the pieces.
 
The Frasers can only be thankful that their daughter Brianna and her family are safe in twentieth-century Scotland. Or not. In fact, Brianna is  searching for her own son, who was kidnapped by a man determined to learn her family’s secrets. Her husband, Roger, has ventured into the past in search of the missing boy . . . never suspecting that the object of his quest has not left the present. Now, with Roger out of the way, the kidnapper can focus on his true target: Brianna herself.

 

Thrive
by Dan Buettner

In the first book to identify demographically proven "happiness hotspots" worldwide, researcher and explorer Dan Buettner documents the happiest people on earth and reveals how we can create our own happy zones. Detailing extraordinary new discoveries and meticulous research on four continents, Buettner observes happiness in unlikely places and gleans surprising insight into what generates contentment and what it means to "thrive." Intriguing studies debunk commonly believed myths. Think life was happier in the good old days? To the contrary —data show that people flourish more in modern societies than in traditional, agrarian ones. Marriage, parenthood, gender equality, sociability —you'll be astonished at how (or whether) these factors figure in the happiness equation. Given Buettner's strong media presence and previous success with The Blue Zones, these revelations will generate lots of media attention and catch the interest of health-conscious readers everywhere.

 

Good Life Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation
by Rimpoche Nawang Gehler

Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? How do we get there? Many have asked these questions, and many have attempted to answer them. But there is another question Good Life, Good Death asks us to contemplate: how does the idea of life after death affect how we live our lives? Gelek Rimpoche tells stories of the mystical Tibet he lived in, as well as the contemporary America he is now a citizen of, and shares the wisdom of the great masters. He asks us to open our minds and see if we can entertain a bigger picture of life after life, even for a moment. He makes the connection between powerful emotions such as anger, obsession, jealousy and pride, and our past as well as our future.

Tags: GIL Library Books