Use the oldest, most available materials imaginable — earth, clay, sand, straw, and water — and blend them to redefine the future (and past) of building.

    Seuss.  Also included is poetry by Eve Merriam, Lilian Moore  and Gwendolyn Brooks; as well as stories, poems,  riddles and word games.An American Bookseller Pick of the  Lists.

    While focusing on agriculture, it also establishes the importance of integration between landscape and people. Permaculture is a step-by-step working manual providing a dozen design methods replete with map overlays, flow diagrams, and component, zone, and sector analyses.

    From eating less meat and dairy products to avoiding fur, leather and wool, to buying cruelty free products not tested on animals, here are 101 suggestions for ways everyone can make a difference.

    Darwin's ruminations on the Galapagos Islands, Melville's exploration of the "whiteness of the whale, " and Thoreau's communion with Walden Pond are monuments in the history of writing and thought. "The Norton Book of Nature Writing, " including 125 selections by 94 writers, is the fist definitive and comprehensive collection of the many voices of nature writing which have flourished in English and American over the last two hundred years.

    Now includes contemporary voices such as Seamus Heaney, Anne Carson, Czeslaw Miloscz, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Raymond Carver

    With more than 100,000 copies sold, and straw bale projects underway in most regions of North America, we've entered a new era. Even building-code officials and insurance companies now look favorably upon straw bale buildings, with their extraordinary energy efficiency and wise use of agricultural waste for construction materials.Bergeron and Lacinski's new book Serious Straw Bale is the first to look carefully at the specific design considerations critical to success with a straw bale building in more extreme climates-where seasonal changes in temperature, precipitation, and humidity create special stresses that builders must understand and address. The authors draw upon years of experience with natural materials and experimental techniques, and present a compelling rationale for building with straw-one of nature's most resilient, available, and affordable byproducts.For skeptics and true believers, this book will prove to be the latest word.Thorough explanations of how moisture and temperature affect buildings in seasonal climates, with descriptions of the unique capacities of straw and other natural materials to provide warmth, quiet, and comfort year-round.Comprehensive comparison of the two main approaches to straw bale construction: "Nebraska-style," where bales bear the weight of the roof, and framed structures, where bales provide insulation.Detailed advice-including many well-considered cautions-for contractors, owner-builders, and designers, following each stage of a bale-building process.This is a second-generation straw bale book, for those seeking serious information to meet serious challenges while adventuring in the most fun form of construction to come along in several centuries.

    The romance between cat and camera is charmingly apparent in this selection of more than 100 pictures by photographers, photojournalists, and humble snapshooters alike. There are rich, regal cats, like Cecil Beaton's, and poor cats, like the street cats of Weegee; cats in action, like George Balanchine's cat executing a grand jete for its master, and cats in repose. This delightful collection begins with the first daguerreotypes and continues to the present day -- including such greats as Erwitt, Atget, Kertesz, Cartier-Bresson, Weston, Cunningham, and even Avedon. In addition to the images, five engaging essays explore the relationship of the cat to the camera. Elegantly designed, The Cat in Photography is an inspired photographic history and a wry and intelligent gift for cat lovers.

    This fascinating reference includes 425 explanations.