Book Description
For decades the accepted wisdom has been that America's mainline Protestant churches are in decline, eclipsed by evangelical mega-churches. Church and religion expert Diana Butler Bass wondered if this was true, and this book is the result of her extensive, three-year study of centrist and progressive churches across the country. Her surprising findings reveal just the opposite—that many of the churches are flourishing, and they are doing so without resorting to mimicking the mega-church, evangelical style.
Christianity for the Rest of Us describes this phenomenon and offers a how-to approach for Protestants eager to remain faithful to their tradition while becoming a vital spiritual community. As Butler Bass delved into the rich spiritual life of various Episcopal, United Methodist, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, and Lutheran churches, certain consistent practices—such as hospitality, contemplation, diversity, justice, discernment, and worship—emerged as core expressions of congregations seeking to rediscover authentic Christian faith and witness today.
This hopeful book, which includes a study guide for groups and individuals, reveals the practical steps that leaders and laypeople alike are taking to proclaim an alternative message about an emerging Christianity that strives for greater spiritual depth and proactively engages the needs of the world.
Customer Reviews:
Christianity For The Rest of Us.......2007-09-18
This book had some intersting, informative points. However at times, it requires a supreme effort to continue reading in order to dig out the few nuggets the book offers; unless you also see the world through VERY liberal lenses.
A must read.......2007-08-06
Author did an excellant job on her research of mainline christianity and has a clear understanding of what individuals are looking for in the neighborhood church. The Author gives an insightful look at the ten signposts of healthy chruches. A good book for the membership of churches to read and study together.
Critique of Christianity for the Rest of Us.......2007-08-04
If there are made for TV movies this is a made for NPR book. (And I listen to NPR regularly. I recognize the genre.) Her anecdotes come from people who always laugh with a wry twist of self-deprecation or weep softly in joy over a newfound insight. I get the feeling she goes about her work with contrived naïve innocence. All of her characters are happy, well adjusted, mainline Christians in congregations that may have disagreements but never conflicts. And their spirituality is so above average. Apparently they never have to worry about declining budgets, loss of membership, and minister's health insurance and where to recruit Sunday School teachers. I genuinely wish we could have seen the congregational warts as well so that my real life pastors could draw some real life encouragement for transforming their real life congregations. My friends do not live in Pleasantville.
I wish I could say this book is worthwhile. Unfortunately it fails on very many levels. I wish I could use it in our pastor's development course. I cannot even put it on the suggested reading list, much less use it as a main source book.
The first problem is rather trivial. The subtitle for the book is How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith. That would be a wonderful study if indeed it is happening. But this is not a study of neighborhood churches. And many of these congregations are simply not transforming the faith. Many of them continue in their gradual decline toward closing the doors. If you are looking for book that will show you how to grow a neighborhood church, this book is not for you. Now on to the important issues.
The research behind this book is not a designed study by any academic or scientific standard. It is a collection of anecdotes from participants of carefully selected, perhaps cherry picked, congregations, assembled to support a particular predetermined premise. All the congregations shared an ethos and catalogue of best practices. Well and good. BB declares them therefore to be vital churches. However there is no investigation of other churches with similar ethos and best practices and whether or not they too are vital. That is to say, after reading the book, I have no idea whether or not implementing these ten sign post practices will turn around a declining congregation to spiritual and numeric growth. A similar subject was undertaken by Thom Rainer in Breakout Churches. Rainer sets criteria for health, identifies congregations that meet the criteria, and then studied their histories, ethos, and best practices. BB finds churches with a certain profile of ethos and best practices and declares them vital. The problem with this approach is that it becomes a celebration of her particular prejudices. And she has many prejudices.
During the course of the book she insults Roman Catholics, Pentecostals, and southern Christians in general.
"I heard quite a few stories from smart, well-educated - and clearly not Pentecostal - churchgoers about supernatural healings." P. 113.
" Memphis, Tennessee, conjures visions of southern religion. These two words, southern religion, evoke images of folks hootin' and hollerin' about God. Eternal damnation and hell. Sweating preachers thundering on about sex, drinking, and Democrats. Southern religion is all heart and fire, the blinding light of Jesus converting sinners to saints in a flash. This is what more reasonable Christians used to ridicule as "enthusiasm."
In Memphis, the Church of the Holy Communion, an Episcopal parish, stands in stark contrast to the fulminations of southern evangelical religion." P. 115.
Far and away the most frequent target of the vinegar is evangelicals generally and evangelical megachurches in particular.
"I immediately think of evangelical megachurches, with their huge congregations complete with doctrinal statements and Republican voting guides. Big yields, yes. But where is wisdom?" P. 147.
"Unlike in evangelical churches - where doctrinal uniformity is considered nonnegotiable - theological diversity shapes the daily life of most mainline churches." P. 146.
"Unlike conservative evangelicals who read the Bible literally, seeking out proof-texts for narrow moral or ethical readings of scripture, the Episcopalians at Redeemer approach the Bible "seriously, but not Literally." P. 188.
"However, there is still a rift in the ways that Christians view art. Some, usually those in evangelical churches, understand art instrumentally. Art is important because it proclaims a message, usually intended to convert people to the faith. ... Other Christian, however, engage art for the sake of mystery instead of a message." P. 213.
Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, and its viewers receive special attention. "Unlike the evangelical Christians who flocked to the film, mainline Protestants more thoughtfully engaged The Passion in its theology and as a spiritual product." P. 230. Anyone who dared to view "The Passion of the Christ" incurs her judgment. She comes close to saying that anyone who went to see "The Passion of the Christ" is an anti-Semite and a consumerist, a willing participant in economic sin.
"That is, of course, what happened with The Passion of the Christ: the primary symbol of Christianity, the cross, was turned into a marketing event." P. 233.
She was unnecessarily insulting to several individuals and their readers. For example she belittled Forty Days of Purpose (twice) and Purpose Driven Church, although several of her congregations described implementing Purpose Driven action items. If these two resources are so counterproductive why have they had such an impact on the lives of so many individuals and congregations. BB spent a whole chapter on the practice of discernment. So what is wrong with asking the purpose of a life or of a congregation? She came close to insulting Billy Graham. One wonders why an author of her talent feels a need do insult people. It may be true that Purpose Driven, etc., are the basics. But she comes off as a university mathematics professor belittling an elementary school teacher for teaching arithmetic to first graders. What purpose does this serve?
People who have a perspective different from hers and dare to speak it with conviction are thundering partisans. See page 238 and the southern religion quote above for examples.
I am very concerned as well over the makeup of the study group. Of the ten primary congregations eight were all white, one was Latino, and one was multiethnic. The multiethnic congregation had three African American staff members, two of whom are sextons. Do the math. Is this a prejudice or a coincidence? I honestly do not know. But either way I cannot recommend this book to any of our African American pastors.
Butler Bass also seems to misunderstand the place of evangelicals in mainline churches. Generally speaking she does not acknowledge that there are very many evangelical mainline congregations and even more evangelicals in congregations that are not totally evangelical.
"The most troubling division comes from the tensions within the Presbyterian denomination between the church's traditionally more liberal theological constituency and its vocal evangelical minority." P. 146.
One need look only at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and the upcoming exodus of evangelical congregations in the Presbyterian Church USA to see Butler Bass' misconception of mainline evangelicals. In one PCUSA presbytery 60% of the Sunday morning attendance was in Confessing Churches. Currently the PCUSA has entire presbyteries who wish to leave the denomination as a whole presbytery. The EPC is setting up a provisional presbytery to receive the congregations leaving the PC USA. Some projections estimate that the provisional presbytery will be as large or larger than the original EPC. Similar phenomena are occuring in the Episcopal Church, the Lutheran tradition, and the Methodist tradition. Indeed within a few years the PC USA will cease to be the majority Presbyterian voice in the United States given the current rate of change. That is to say there will be more Presbyterians who are not members of the PCUSA than those who are.
On page 2 BB writes, "Rather, I journeyed with a surprising group of contemporary pilgrims - those folks who gather in mainline Protestant congregations, communities that describe themselves as theologically centrist to liberal-progressive and are part of denominations that trace their lineage back to colonial America. I hung out with brand-name Christians - Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Congregationalists, and Episcopalians, ..." Does BB mean that only centrist to liberal-progressive Christians are mainline? What about centrist to evangelical, those just right of center but still in the center? What about those who are just plain centrist, for whom the evangelical/progressive divide is irrelevant. In the Presbyterian Church, USA I know many a minister who is just plain Presbyterian. Are they not mainline because they do not at least lean towards the progressive side?
On the other hand if mainline is defined as tracing their lineage back to colonial America, and centrist to progressive is a subset of mainline, why exclude the other subsets? One cannot read Presbyterian history in North America without seeing that there has always been tension in our antecedent denominations over this very issue. We have had Old School/New School, Old Light/New Light, Modernist/Fundamentalist, Liberal/Conservative, and now finally evangelical/progressive controversies. What is important to note about these controversies is that despite the formation of some splinter groups the majority of both sides remained in the denomination. Both sides remained mainline. In our current context there will be some splintering, with many congregations leaving the PCUSA and moving to the EPC. There remain many evangelicals who wish to remain in the PCUSA and to work through the difficulties. The Constitutional Presbyterians is such a group. And while many New Wineskins congregations will go to the EPC, many other NWAC congregations will remain in the denomination. Why then exclude such a large and healthy, and historically significant cohort, from the study? If this is progressive inclusiveness we need a different inclusiveness.
BB never addresses the fundamental question regarding mainline churches. Until the 70's American culture required church attendance. To be a good American one also had to be a churchgoer, if not a genuine Christian. Protestant was preferred over Catholic and Orthodox was a genuine peculiarity. Mainline denomination (meaning successor to a northwestern European tradition) was culturally more desirable than Southern Baptist or Pentecostal. Little League was never scheduled on Sunday morning. Mainline churches did not have to go out into the highways and byways and compel them to come in. We relied on our culture to do that for us. That has changed. Now our culture is not only not supportive of Christianity it is at best suspicious of and at times hostile to Christianity. Which means that for the churches to thrive they have to go to the world and interrupt people's lives with the Gospel. Her list of best practices is quite good. But it is not the main issue. If the congregations do not create their own new participants they will all die. Of all the personal anecdotes I read I was struck by how many quotes were from people who had been churched as children. I counted only two people who were adult converts, and one of those came to Christ through an evangelical Bible study, then moved on to one of the cohort congregations. BB rails against evangelicals. But were it not for an evangelical Bible study this young woman would not have become Christian. The study church certainly was not doing any evangelism. And this is the biggest problem with BB's book. It is all about baby boomers who were churched as children, left the church, and now are back. The issue we face now is how to reach people who were never churched. Yes, by all means, the depth discipleship described in the ten signposts is great. But it is almost, though not completely, inner focused. Even the testimony section is not about bearing witness to Christ to non-Christians. She has changed it to bearing testimony within the congregation for the benefit of the congregation.
The result of this Boomer propensity for navel gazing is a steep decline in worship attendance across the board. I had hoped that this book would help us see ways in which mainline congregations can address this very issue. Unfortunately this is not the case. Of the four Presbyterian congregations in her cohort three were stagnant or in decline. I say this not to pick on Presbyterians. Rather they are the easiest to get data from. So the long term question remains. If I am not replacing my losses in participation how will this congregation's ministry continue? If our ministry is good, but dies, who will take over the needed ministry? Who will host the tent cities?
Butler Bass' real issue is how can a liberal/progressive church survive, and maybe possibly grow numerically as an unanticipated but welcome side effect. If you think that the answer lies along the axis of "it is possible to have our old, traditional worship with a hymnbook and an organ prelude, with a cerebral Enlightenment/Modernist confessional approach to faith," you will be sorely disappointed. The congregations she studied have abandoned those things for the most part. Her ten signposts are all things that were not practiced in mainline Protestant congregations in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries in North America, as she very ably demonstrates. Her answer instead is that to survive as a mainline Protestant congregation you have to start doing the very things that her mainline village church never did. That is to say, to survive as a mainline congregation one must stop being traditionally mainline, or change one's definition of mainline, both of which violate her premise.
On p. 174 BB describes a "mainline" church that is not at all traditional mainline. "Combining elements of jazz, performance art, film clips and video, multimedia reflection, live-camera feed, testimony, readings, silence, contemplative prayer, and journaling, they christened this service The Studio." How is this traditional mainline? Simply because they still put Congregationalist on the marquis? BB never addresses this question. The congregations she describes are no longer "mainline" in practice, only in name and judicatory membership. That is exactly the issue.
Her study congregations are post-modern experientialists who are PC USA or UMC or UCC or Episcopal or Lutheran in name only. This is not necessarily a bad thing. But let's be honest about it. The Presbyterian, Methodist, and Lutheran ministers of the study congregations may be able to describe Reformed, Wesleyan, and Lutheran theology respectively. But she gives no evidence that the members understand or even care about it. And of course, denominational identity was a hallmark of mainline Protestantism. The congregations she worked with are not traditional mainline churches any more. The answer she arrives at is exactly the same answer the "evangelicals" arrived at. Traditional mainline Protestantism, based on northwestern European culture beginning in the early Sixteenth Century and founded on Enlightenment rationalism, no longer is a viable model for Church in post-modern North America.
Butler Bass spent many years as an evangelical, and an eloquent one. She has left that behind and moved into the progressive fold. Well and good. But in leaving the evangelical fold she feels the need to castigate her former colleagues. Martin Luther ultimately affirmed, "I am not!" Perhaps this book is her "I am not" to her evangelical sisters and brothers. I hope that as her service to the church continues the evangelical stage will be her thesis, the progressive phase will be her antithesis, and that she will find somewhere and somehow the peace of a synthesis.
I still have hope. Tonight I start reading Dr. Butler Bass' The Practicing Church.
Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith.......2007-08-04
Ms Bass is a wonderful writer that makes this topic easy to read and understand and she gives such insight that it triggers great discussions.
A book to give us confidence.......2007-07-09
Diana Butler Bass writes with a style that pulls the reader in. She is clearly a religious realist. Her categorization approach is useful to others, even those who do not have the technical tools to examine their churches formally. If one is honest, one can look at the hospitality (for example) in one's own church and see if it is an effective area of ministry. Looking through these categories allows a problem-oriented approach to be adopted. It may be a little more difficult to build on strengths, but that is because of our enculturation, and not because of this book! I thoroughly enjoyed this book, have recommended it to our pastor, and will read it again to pick up things I may have missed the first time. I came away from this book saying, "We can do these things, and we can grow!"
Average customer rating:
- Good Stories, but Too Disconnected
- Inspiring Seedfolks
- A Garden of Love
- A Book for Building Community
- Good reading for children
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Seedfolks (Joanna Colter Books)
Paul Fleischman
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Out Of The Dust (Apple Signature Edition)
ASIN: 0064472078
Release Date: 2004-12-14 |
Amazon.com
Sometimes, even in the middle of ugliness and neglect, a little bit of beauty will bloom. Award-winning writer Paul Fleischman dazzles us with this truth in Seedfolks--a slim novel that bursts with hope. Wasting not a single word, Fleischman unfolds a story of a blighted neighborhood transformed when a young girl plants a few lima beans in an abandoned lot. Slowly, one by one, neighbors are touched and stirred to action as they see tendrils poke through the dirt. Hispanics, Haitians, Koreans, young, and old begin to turn the littered lot into a garden for the whole community. A gift for hearts of all ages, this gentle, timeless story will delight anyone in need of a sprig of inspiration.
Book Description
A vacant lot, rat-infested and filled with garbage, looked like no place for a garden. Especially to a neighborhood of strangers where no one seems to care. Until one day, a young girl clears a small space and digs into the hard-packed soil to plant her precious bean seeds. Suddenly, the soil holds promise: To Curtis, who believes he can win back Lateesha's heart with a harvest of tomatoes; to Virgil's dad, who sees a fortune to be made from growing lettuce; and even to Maricela, sixteen and pregnant, wishing she were dead.
Thirteen very different voices -- old, young, Haitian, Hispanic, tough, haunted, and hopeful -- tell one amazing story about a garden that transforms a neighborhood.
Chosen as a state and citywide read in communities across the country:
Vermont
Racine, WI
Tampa, FL
Newburgh, NY
Boca Raton, FL
Customer Reviews:
Good Stories, but Too Disconnected.......2007-05-31
It all started with one little girl. Kim's father died before she was even born, and she is afraid that he might not know her as he looks down from heaven. So she decides to do something to make him recognize her and to make him proud. He was a farmer back in Vietnam, so she takes a handful of bean seeds to a trash-covered vacant lot near her inner-city apartment and plants them. When he looks down and sees them, he will know she is his daughter.
Someone looks down from a window and is intrigued by this girl who keeps visiting the vacant lot in secret. Upon investigation she sees what is going on and decides to clear a little patch of land for a tiny garden of her own. Others observe and like the idea, and soon the vacant lot is covered with a patchwork of gardens from all sorts of people living nearby. Someone is able to bully the city into moving the trash off of this land. People who usually avoid eye contact at all cost are suddenly meeting neighbors and relating to one another. Through this garden project, a neighborhood of strangers becomes a real community.
I liked the characters in this story. They were all very vivid and their stories were well thought out. I also liked being able to see the different perspectives on this garden, and the different reasons people decided to plant things here.
I didn't like that each person's story was just dropped after it was told. I wanted the author to go back and write what the people were thinking. What did Kim think when her garden idea caught on? Was Sam able to stop the segregation he saw developing in the garden? I wanted some followup to each story.
Inspiring Seedfolks.......2007-04-25
Seedfolks is a book about a vacant city lot in Cleveland, Ohio that is abandoned until one day a Vietnamese girl decides to plant some beans as a way to become connected to her father who died before she was born. It tells the story of 13 different people who come together by this garden. They are all different ages and have different ethnic backgrounds and jobs. Somehow this garden brings them all together and means something different to each of them. The individual stories are interesting and touching.
My favorite part of the book is Gonzolo's Tio Juan story. He came to the U.S. with Gonzolo's mother and brother. Because he didn't speak English and couldn't work he would wonder around all day long with nothing to do and had to be baby sat by Gonzolo who who referred to him as a baby. One day he went off on his own in the neighborhood and came across the garden. The next day he went back and started working in the garden and planting seeds. Back in Guatemala he used to be a farmer and this gave him life again and he went from being a baby back to a man again.
I would recommend that you read Seedfolks. I think you will be touched by the 13 different people who are brought together through this community garden. In Reading Gonzolo's story it made me think about my Mom's parents who are immigrants from Portugal and how they too must of felt like Gonzolo's Tio Juan when they first arrived in the U.S., like they were babies and didn't know anything.
A Garden of Love.......2006-05-11
Seedfolks is a 69 page book, an easy read. Seedfolks is a book that shows that all different races, religions, cultures, and ages can come together to make something nice and beautiful and have meaning. They took a dump-like place and made it into something beautiful.
Some things I liked about this book were, that you can see how the author makes it so everyone of different backgrounds and stuff come together and do something together as one whole. Another thing that I liked about the book was that the author demonstrates how you can except people for who they are. In this story it seems like everyone is the equal and stuff like that. Like for example there was thing young girl who was pregnant and when this book was written it was like a big deal if you were pregnant at an early age but when she went to the garden no one judged her or anything like that. Another good thing about the book is that there is like no anger or anything bad in it, it seems like when everyone goes to the garden all there problems go away and most people go there to relax and just have fun.
Some things I didn't like about the book were that you cant really get to know one character because the character only has like 3 or 4 pages and there is 13 characters in the book so there really isn't one main character. Also in this book there was no plot, climax and there wasn't that big of a problem I mean there was a little one but it really didn't have a lot to do with what was going on in the book. Another bad thing about the book is it wasn't very interesting I'm the type of person who likes to read a book that you cant put down that you get really into but with this book I didn't feel that way. Overall I think Seedfolks was a decent book.
A Book for Building Community.......2006-04-25
This small book (69 pages) contains thirteen vignettes, each written from the point of view of a different person. Although the people begin as strangers from various ethnic backgrounds, they become acquainted as each cultivates a part of a vacant lot. As the lot becomes a place of beauty, individual lives are transformed as well -- and a community is created.
_Seedfolks_ is an excellent tool for building community among people with diverse backgrounds -- perhaps especially among educators, parents, and students.
Good reading for children.......2006-04-25
This is a good book for children who does not understand the meaning of working together. Also, this book was structured very intelligently; so that any reader can follow the same story but from other people point of views. In addition; the way the author painted colorful pictures of the city was very unique.
Book Description
Gardening can be a political act. Creativity, fulfillment, connection, revolution--it all begins when we get our hands in the dirt. Food Not Lawns combines practical wisdom on ecological design and community-building with a fresh, green perspective on an age-old subject. Activist and urban gardener Heather Flores shares her nine-step permaculture design to help farmsteaders and city dwellers alike build fertile soil, promote biodiversity, and increase natural habitat in their own "paradise gardens." But Food Not Lawns doesn't begin and end in the seed bed. This joyful permaculture lifestyle manual inspires readers to apply the principles of the paradise garden--simplicity, resourcefulness, creativity, mindfulness, and community--to all aspects of life. Plant "guerilla gardens" in barren intersections and medians; organize community meals; start a street theater troupe or host a local art swap; free your kitchen from refrigeration and enjoy truly fresh, nourishing foods from your own plot of land; work with children to create garden play spaces. Flores cares passionately about the damaged state of our environment and the ills of our throwaway society. In Food Not Lawns, she shows us how to reclaim the earth one garden at a time.
Customer Reviews:
An inspired 40-something.......2007-09-04
Food Not Lawns speaks to my heart and has inspired me in my home gardening. I bought copies for two dear gardening friends who are in their 20's and 30's, and they are also excited by the ideas presented in the book. The author takes a holistic view of community and gardening, of working with Nature as an orchestra of forces influencing each other and working collectively together. Heather Flores encourages us to think out of the box and some might find that uncomfortable, but I still think her vision and sense of hope is so needed in our world today. Share this book with family and friends!
completely false advertising.......2007-07-05
I see that this books appears a hit with many reviewers, but I am unfortunately going to dissent. I was excited to read this book when it arrived and was subsequently dissappointed in the overall quality of the work as a whole. First and foremost, Flores leaves out a great deal of detail with regard to the actual work involved in any form of agriculture, be it animal husbandry, permaculture, or anything between. I say this not only as an avid reader, but also an environmental studies major reviewing the work for a class as well. Second, Flores' method of combining the topics of agriculture and social change is facetious at best, with no real segway from the former to the latter. In other words, this is literally two unconnected books sharing the same binding. Finally, and most disheartening of all, the work gives faulty advice at best, especially with regard to her advice on dealing with numerous aspects of gardening (traditional and permaculture), pending jail time, and conflict management strategies(with latter are potentially dangerous). I will also note that I resold this book immediately upon completion due to the above. Those interested would be better served to read The Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing, or other such related books by other reputable authors such as Joseph Jenkins, Eliot Coleman, Louise Riotte, or John and Martha Storey. In short, do not purchase this book if you are serious about either agriculture or social change.
if you are over 40 skip it... so gen X.......2007-05-25
This is a very shallow book by the new generation of writers that find fault with everything done in the twenty years before they were born,
Its very shallow, big type and very preachy.
If you are interested in gardening, try Giaas garden, a much more serious study of permiculture.
In this rambling book, the aurthor boasts of not making over 8 k a year, but inherited the money to buy her farm!
I liked camping living until I was thirty, now I am 45 and really like my freezer and new stove.( yes, I have my own three hens and belong to a CSA)
I know a number of the original flower/farm people, and as they got older they liked having a few more comforts.
So this is one of the new gen X books, shallow to a fault. Nothing but sound bites.
the aurthor sems all hyped about third world living, but I am not sure she has ever been to a third world and seen how hard that style of life is,,it is easy to glamorius the distant!!!
Not just Gardening--A guide to Activism and Environmentalism.......2007-01-23
I picked up this book to learn practical application of permacultural principles applied to urban yard scales--and there is a wealth of such information here. However, I do feel like Flores preaches just a little too much about the environmental destruction and political problems currently plaguing our country. In my view, anyone picking up a book called Food Not Lawns probably is already well-versed in such issues, and Flores is essentially preaching to the converted. That said, this book DOES have tons of practical information, and I would recommend it as an excellent counterbalance and companion book to Toby Hemenway's Gaia's Garden.
Keys to change any reader can use........2006-12-14
For activist readers who believe activism is a political pursuit, FOOD NOT LAWNS: HOW TO TURN YOUR YARD INTO A GARDEN AND YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD INTO A COMMUNITY offers a different viewpoint, maintaining that growing food where you live is a key method of becoming a food activist in the community. Chapters advocate planting home and community gardens with an eye to drawing important connections between the politics of a home or community garden and the wider politics of usage, consumption, and sustainability. Another rarity: chapters promote small, easy changes in lifestyles to achieve a transition between personal choice and political activism at the community level, providing keys to change any reader can use.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Average customer rating:
- Mixed results for an unevenly written book.
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- Rockin Good Time
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Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood
Michael Walker
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Release Date: 2006-05-16 |
Book Description
In the late sixties and early seventies, an impromptu collection of musicians colonized a eucalyptus-scented canyon deep in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles and melded folk, rock, and savvy American pop into a sound that conquered the world as thoroughly as the songs of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had before them. Thirty years later, the music made in Laurel Canyon continues to pour from radios, iPods, and concert stages around the world. During the canyon’s golden era, the musicians who lived and worked there scored dozens of landmark hits, from "California Dreamin’" to "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" to "It’s Too Late," selling tens of millions of records and resetting the thermostat of pop culture.
In Laurel Canyon, veteran journalist Michael Walker tells the inside story of this unprecedented gathering of some of the baby boom’s leading musical lights—including Joni Mitchell; Jim Morrison; Crosby, Stills, and Nash; John Mayall; the Mamas and the Papas; Carole King; the Eagles; and Frank Zappa, to name just a few—who turned Los Angeles into the music capital of the world and forever changed the way popular music is recorded, marketed, and consumed.
Customer Reviews:
Mixed results for an unevenly written book........2007-09-11
In the summer of 1972 forces that had been building for decades coalesced to give us the opening strains of the Eagles' "Take It Easy" and Country-Rock went from being a musical undercurrent to being a pop phenomena that affected music, fashion and the culture of young adults for the rest of the '70s. Strangely, in the early '80s this musical phenomena vanished much more quickly than it had appeared leaving little to mark its passing until the Eagles reunion in 1994. Now, over 30 years later there are any number of books telling the story of how Folk, Country, Rock and (to some extent) Blues all came together in LA's Laurel Canyon to make LA the musical promised land which bred this phenomena. Likewise, these books explain how it all collapsed into a heap as cocaine inflated egos clashed and creativity was overtaken by monetary concerns and other realities.
Of the books I've read on the subject of the LA music scene in the '60s and '70s this one perhaps best explains the poisonous effects of cocaine and other vices on the whole scene yet he seems to resist the conclusion that the absolute freedom of the times opened the door to its eventual demise. Michael Walker refers to the culture of the '50s as if it were a nasty communicable disease and he seems genuinely surprised that the free spirits of Laurel Canyon weren't able to change the world to their liking and eventually they too had to conform to reality just as their forebears did.
This brings me to my greatest problem with this book, it seems to be written from the viewpoint of someone who wishes he was there and feels as if he missed out. While he is honest in pointing out that drug-related crime and prostitution surfaced in spite of the tidal wave of idealism that existed at that time he seems to write from a viewpoint of wistful nostalgia for something he never actually was a part of. He seems to believe in the fantasy even though he is chronicling its failure. Accounting for the fact that the author is a Chicagoan that relocated to Laurel Canyon helps to explain this; at least to me. The author (and this book) seem divided; one foot rooted in the past "glories" of the era he writes about while the other foot cautiously treads the reality of the present. It's as if part of the author is wishing that some of the old crew would show up in his yard and start partying while the other half of him would call the police in a heartbeat if they did.
I wouldn't warn anyone off of buying this book, it is in fact very informative, but it is nonetheless uneven. It is a book I would recommend to a true afficinado of the subject but not as a sole purchase if you want to read about Country-Rock. A few other books you might enjoy are: Desperados: The Roots of Country Rock, Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends and To The Limit: The Untold Story Of The Eagles.
It's the 60's Again.......2007-09-06
The 1960's music scene in Los Angeles comes vividly alive in this account of the rock world that thrived in Laurel Canyon. This is a must-read for anyone (like me) who grew up listening to CSN&Y, Frank Zappa, the Mamas and the Papas, Joni Mitchell and others. It's amazing to think that all this talent and more converged in one place at one special time. Michael Walker provides a thorough accounting of the birth and death of Laurel Canyon as a rock colony in a captivating and insightful way. You can almost smell the marijuana wafting from the book! These truly were the good old days, probably never to be seen again. A great read!
Better than "White Bicycles".......2007-08-22
Put on your wire-rimmed granny glasses when reading "Laurel Canyon", an affectionate and breezy evocation of the area that virtually birthed the "laid back" California musical sounds of the 60's and 70's.
Author Michael Walker painstakingly constructs a portrait of this sequestered piece of real estate, with its narrow, winding roads, quaint bungalows, and eucalyptus trees. It came to serve as a refuge, salon, and social laboratory for the Western fringe of the Woodstock generation.
A whole rogues' gallery of rock stars, groupies, club owners and passers-thru is recreated, to accurately reflect the milieu of people that interacted, "back in the day." You'll get a ringside seat at Frank Zappa's audition of Alice Cooper, see David Crosby careening down the road, cape flying, on his motorcycle, and find Arthur Lee of "Love" tripping on a hill top.
It's heady stuff. And don't believe the snide comment about "a magazine piece" from Publishers Weekly. Yes, there may be a resemblance to the kind of recreations of times and places that "Vanity Fair" publishes... but I view that as a GOOD thing. The writing in "Laurel Canyon" is crisp--it's juicy and it flows. It has flair, it's not prosaic, and that's what you want in a book about places where great music originated. Grab a glass of vintage wine and enjoy.
***Recommended cds to accompany reading:
"Ladies of the Canyon", Joni Mitchell
"Deja Vu", Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
"Blues From Laurel Canyon", John Mayall
"Forever Changes", Love
"Permanent Damage", the GTOs
"Jackson Browne" ("Saturate Before Using"), Jackson Browne
Interesting look at L.A. and Hollywood in the 1960's - 1980.......2007-08-12
Laurel Canyon is a good two sitting read that offers the reader an insightful perspective into the world of West Hollywood and LA over a roughly 20 year period. The writing style seemed odd at times, but overall not a great obstacle. For some reason Walker finds it necessary to elevate the importance of the LA music scene and culture while purposely downplaying or omission of the San Francisco Bay Area's colossal influence on 1960's musical and cultural significance with such bands as The Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Country Joe and The Fish, Sly and The Family Stone, Blue Cheer, Quicksilver Messenger Service etc.). Walker seems to consider "L.A Citizen" Janis Joplin more of a fixture of LA than San Francisco despite Janis' extended stay and musical development with Big Brother and The Holding Company and shacking up with the Grateful Dead in the Haight. The music scene and draw to LA/Hollywood was largely reciprocal to the movie industry presence there where as the cultural development in San Francisco in the 1960 was he next phase of the 1940-50's Jazz and Beat movements - think Kerouac. From the famous Psychedelic light shows (Glenn McKay and The Brotherhood of Art at the Fillmore and Winterand (The Last Waltz) Cow Palace (Rust Never Sleeps movie), Candlestick Park (Last Beatles Concert) to the 1960's rock art; Stanley Mouse, Robert Crumb (keep on truckin'), Golden Gate Park (first love-ins), Electric Kool-Aid acid test, Purple Haze (Stanley Owsley (bear)) etc.. All roads lead to San Francisco in the 1960's ..
Rockin Good Time.......2007-08-11
This is a fascinating book and the author ties in history and anecdotes to make an interesting story of the tie between Southern California and Rock and Roll in the late 60s and early 70s. I saw many of these bands perform in those years and it was nice to learn the "story behind the story." Mama Cass Elliott put Graham Nash in touch with Steve Stills and David Crosby and the rest is musical history, as they say. Graham Nash has many kind words to say about her. Nice book, but short on details about individual bands and their artistry.
Average customer rating:
- Missing One Element
- intesrest concepts
- Breezy enough to enjoy, thorough enough to learn from.
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Casa y Comunidad: Latino Home and Neighborhood Design
Manufacturer: BuilderBooks
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Binding: Paperback
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Building An Affordable House: A Smart Guide to High-Value, Low-Cost Construction
ASIN: 0867186135 |
Book Description
Are you prepared? Another 2 million Latino families will enter the housing market by 2010.
This ground-breaking publication takes the first-ever look at the growing and increasingly prosperous Latino community and their housing needs. Casa Y Comunidad: Latino Home and Neighborhood Design helps prepare all segments of the housing industry to truly understand and work with Latinos.
Henry G. Cisneros, former HUD secretary and champion of affordable workforce housing, brings together a dozen contributors—builders, developers, planners, designers, and financiers—who share their expertise and experiences on the challenges and solutions for serving the millions of Latinos who want to own a home.
This well-balanced and comprehensive resource provides information on Latino culture, housing and neighborhood design, financial habits, consumer preferences, and much more. Packed with colorful photos, data, and success stories, Casa Y Comunidad: Latino Home and Neighborhood Design provides you with strategies for reaching and doing business with Latino home buyers.
Sponsored in part by Freddie Mac.
Customer Reviews:
Missing One Element.......2007-07-13
The book was very informative but I feel that it left out a key element.
In our area ( Dallas Texas) many of the Latino population perfers to buy a used mobile home that they ca get paid off as fast as possible. Being debt free is important to the Hispanics I've worked with. Many do not like to use banks and prefer to deal in cash. So financing can be challenging. Overall, a very good book.
Jackie Lange
[..]
intesrest concepts.......2007-05-25
A good read... nothing very groung breaking as far as information
looks at home building froma different perspective
Breezy enough to enjoy, thorough enough to learn from........2006-10-22
I have been selling houses to Latino families 20 years. What I know, I found reflected in these pages and learned new details of Latino buying habits, family life and demographic distribution. Although the book aims to inform real estate and homebuilding professionals, it is really universal book about doing business with America's largest minority. Read this book, and you will never look at a Latin in the same way again, even if you are one. It's an eye opener that delights and occasionally drops your jaw as you realize the overwhelming impact of Latino growth on every aspect of business, politics and culture.
Amazon.com
The titular neighborhood of Frank Pellegrino's Rao's: Recipes from the Neighborhood is Manhattan's East Harlem, home to an Italian immigrant population. The area also boasts Rao's, Pellegrino's Southern Italian restaurant that was discovered by local "worthies" and is now New York City's toughest reservation. The book, a follow-up to the bestselling Rao's Cookbook, offers 125 recipes for the kind of fare offered Rao's, and by Pellegrino's extended family and neighbors--dishes like Pizza Rustica, Penne Rigate with Cauliflower, Veal Milanese, and My Mother's Stuffed Calamari. This deeply satisfying, utterly unpretentious cooking is easy to do, but must be handled with care to avoid debasing an already hybrid cuisine. The book scores in this, offering exemplary versions of Old-to-New World dishes, and is neighborhood-authentic down to the use of American convenience products like garlic powder. Readers will also relish the wide recipe range, which includes sweets such as Simple Ricotta Cheesecake and Noni's Chocolate Ravioli, as well as Pellegrino's headnotes, which reveal who made what when. (Of the contributor of Wedding Soup, for example, he says, "his grandmother and my grandmother ... both came to America in 1911 in the same ship.") This flavorsome background, plus homey photos and other memorabilia like Our Kitchen Table make this modest book particularly welcome. --Arthur Boehm
Book Description
With Rao's Cooks For The Neighborhood, Frank Pellegrino-of New York's celebrated East Harlem restaurant Rao's-returns to what he knows best: authentic Italian food. With over one hundred recipes and beautifully illustrated with both full-color and vintage black amp; white photographs, Rao's Cooks For The Neighborhood is Pellegrino's tribute to the place he grew up and the women who taught him how to cook. From Ida's baked chicken to Rose Milano's Spaghetti Frittata, everything a home cook needs to reproduce their favorite home-style meals is in this book. This classic cookbook is filled with newly discovered recipes of generations past, as well as holiday cooking, kitchen secrets, and some of the favorite menu items from Rao's. It's a love story devoted to Italian family cooking and its heritage. Every single dish is easy to prepare and satisfying to eat. Rao's Cooks For The Neighborhood will be eagerly awaited by readers who loved The Rao's Cookbook, but will also attract new fans who have come to know Rao's through the successful national brand of sauces sold throughout the U.S.
Customer Reviews:
Great book!.......2007-01-09
I love this book! It brings me right back to Brooklyn, and reminds me so much of my roots. In our home there was always cooking, good food and lots of family and friends. These recipes are the same good cooking, simple Italian cooking to enjoy. I also have Rao's other cookbook which I also enjoy. Bought this for my son for Christmas and then had to get one for myself. Get this and enjoy!
Can't put it down..........2006-03-21
This book completely revitalized my interest in cooking. I was growing tired of the highly complex, noveau recipes requiring obscure ingredients, and the end result was hardly worth the wait. Instead, these recipes accentuate the essence of Italian cooking - simplicity and quality ingredients. A great meal doesn't have to take all day to prepare and cook, and shouldn't require more than a handful of ingredients. Most of these recipes can be prepared with minimal effort after work and are great for family style cooking all week long, leaving great left-overs that only taste better with each re-heating. Cancel the magazine subscriptions and try this book. You will not be dissapointed with these recipes that haven't fallen short for over 100 years. Even the mediocre recipes are better than most.
Rao's Recipes from the Neighborhood.......2005-08-26
If you love Italian food and love to cook, nothing beats the
Rao's cook books. The recipes in this book are quite simple and easy to follow and even a novice cook can make a great meal.
A glimpse inside one of NYC's legendary eateries.......2004-12-20
Rao's has been a top eatery in New York City for decades. It's atmosphere was, is, and always will be a "rat pack" type of atmosphere, with a long line of people hoping for a seat to open up in one of the most intimate in-demand spots in the city.
Now, co-owner and actor Frank Pellegrino has put his restaurants' most popular dishes in book form, so that people crazy about traditional Italian fare can take a stab at making it themselves.
Boasting friends like actor Danny Aiello (who wrote the book's preface) and former New York Times food critic Mimi Sheraton (who wrote the forward), Pellegrino's book is part cookbook, part family album, as he takes a look at his childhood, his family, and the part that Rao's, owned then by his aunt and uncle Anna and Vincent Rao, played as he grew up around the neighborhood in it's East Harlem location.
The book is divided into chapters, each covering a specific type of food, and each is filled with family photographs, reminiscences from other members of his family and Frank's wide array of friends, as well as the recipes that made Rao's famous, sure to set the mouth watering. Some of the dishes Rao's is renowned for, such as Fettuccine Alfredo, boiled stuffed lobster, and the restaurants well-known homemade Marinara Sauce, are often less complicated than one tasting the dishes at the restaurant would probably believe. Each of those recipes, as well as all of the others, are explained in enough detail that it should be fairly simple to make near-Rao quality Italian fare in the average kitchen.
Although a bit pricey for its smallish size (a mere 197 pages), the book is nonetheless well worth it's price. The simple step-by-step instructions make this a great book for the beginning Italian cook, or for that matter, an experienced one as well.
If you're looking to take a stab at authentic Italian cuisine, New York Style, then look no further. Pellegrino offers up a cookbook filled with food, family, and style just too hard to resist.
Excellent Survey of Italian-American recipes. Pricy.......2004-12-18
`Rao's Recipes From the Neighborhood' appears to be a publication by restaurateur / actor Frank Pellegrino of his family's scant 196 page cooking scrapbook from the last two generations of the Rao / Pellegrino family which have lived in New York City, for a list price of $40 bucks a pop.
Before you get the notion that this is a cranky review of negatives and hit the `Not Influenced' button, let me say that this book really succeeds in giving us something interesting and useful, if not entirely new. It is certainly good enough to give it four stars, and the only thing keeping it from five is its relatively high price.
On the face of it, this appears to be a brand name rip-off, cashing in on the success of the restaurant, the original cookbook of restaurant recipes, and the Rao line of supermarket products. However, this book is not similar to other culinary publishing rip-offs such as the Alton Brown blank book and the Mark Bittman subdivision of his book into three booklets.
I will say that St. Martin's Press has used the lucre they expect to get for this price to good effect. The design of the book is crisp, the photography is good, all photographs are CAPTIONED and appear at an appropriate place in the text, and not much of the precious 196 pages are taken up with poorly written family stories.
The first thing to notice is that these are NOT recipes from the restaurant, Rao. They are recipes from Frank Pellegrino's friends and family labeled in a 72-point font with the name of the famous restaurant and forwarded by family friend and restaurant reviewer Mimi Sheraton, who put Rao's on the map with a three star rating in a New York Times restaurant review. So, this book is borrowing luster from the restaurant rather than serving as a promotion for same restaurant. The restaurant doesn't need the business, as I suspect not even Donald Trump or Bill Clinton could get a reservation at one of their eight (8) tables.
And, the recipes are really very good and most are exceptionally simple, but many are sophisticated when they have to be. This simplicity is all to a good cause, since the heart of the Italian genius with food is to create a pantry of exceptional ingredients, then don't mess them up. (Pellegrino does an homage to this principle in his introductory section on pantry items.) Sometimes, you can only appreciate this quality when you look at non-Italian interpreters such as London's River Café and Jamie Oliver. The simplicity really shines in recipes such as the Puttanesca sauce where the constant problem of not burning the garlic is solved simply with nary a need for a cautionary note by simply not adding the garlic until after the anchovies and olives have been added. As no ingredient is left out, I am hard pressed to believe this will taste any worse than the very fussy (but very good) version from `Cooks Illustrated' magazine.
When a cookbook is good, that quality usually shows itself on the first or second recipe and this book proves this rule. Even though this is a book of `Italian-American' recipes, the very first recipe is a perfect implementation of a classic unfussy Italian `Brodo di Pollo' which is made with coarsely chunked vegetables, is simmered for a scant hour and 15 minutes, and retains the poached chicken meat for some other purpose. The recipe even includes an optional enhancement I do not recall seeing elsewhere, with a thickening of the stock by adding a puree of the cooked carrots, leeks, and celery.
Another application of pure Italian culinary tradition is in the recipe for the wedding soup, where each green is carefully blanched separately, blanching water is saved as a later ingredient, cannellini beans are carefully pureed, and savories are gently sautéed, all before making the final assembly. Marcella Hazan could not have done it better. Aside from the opening chapter on soups, there are chapters on Salads; Egg Dishes; Pizza, Calzone, and Bread; Pasta, Rice, Polenta, and Sauces; Seafood; Chicken; Meats; Vegetables; and Desserts. While the bread chapter does not match the depth of understanding provided by a specialist's book by, for example, Peter Reinhart or Carol Field, it is really pretty good.
The biggest question one faces when considering getting this book is `Do I really need another Italian or Italian-American cookbook?' There is simply very little here which is new. I would definitely recommend this book in preference to Rocco DiSpirito's book he did with his mom. A perfect example is their Puttanesca recipes which Pellegrino does in 15 minutes with basic ingredients and which Rocco does in 20 minutes, needing a prepared sauce that takes additional time to make.
And, I would consider this book the equal to John Mariani's book as a source for `Italian-American' recipes (but without Mariani's excellent historical perspective and wine notes). It is also as good as `Eleanora's Kitchen' by Eleanora Scarpetta, and maybe just a touch better, as it is a choral work rather than just a solo effort. As a definitive presentation of `Italian-American' cuisine, it is not quite as good as Lydia Bastianich's excellent PBS series tie-in book. When I compare the Italian-American classic sausage and peppers from all books, I find Bastianich' version to be by far the most tasty (although I have a sneaky suspicion that her recipe has more to do with her northern Italian origin than it has to do with Mulberry street in Manhattan).
If you have no `Italian-American' cookbooks, this volume is an excellent purchase, especially if you can get a good discount.
Average customer rating:
- A must read even if you are not a Parent or Grandparent
- Informative, but overzealous
- The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood
- Reviewed by Jenny Salyers
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The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood: Ten Ways to Get Your Family on the Right Nutritional Track (Sears Parenting Library)
William Sears ,
Martha Sears ,
James Sears , and
Robert Sears
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0316060127 |
Customer Reviews:
A must read even if you are not a Parent or Grandparent.......2007-05-14
This book is easy to read, but it is important to first read the initial 15-20 pages in order to understand the healthy philosophy behind this book. It is a useful guide to good nutrition for everyone, teachers, parents, grandparents and any person who want to improve their health. Even if you don't intend to follow all the advice, you can improve your and/or your family's eating habits significantly. The book doesn't preach yet the message comes through loud and clear, you can shape your kids desire for healthy food by teaching them to be aware, their gut feeling, when eating healthy food compared to junk food.
Informative, but overzealous.......2007-04-14
The Good
The book has a lot of really good info as far as good carbs vs. bad carbs, good fats vs. bad fats, and so on. Also has good ideas on how to slip healthier foods into your family's diets without them fighting.
The Bad
The author's obsession with wild salmon (seriously, is he being paid by the Alaskan fishing industry?) and organic foods can make you feel like if you're not buying all organic, and serving wild salmon every night, you're guilty of child abuse. His assumption that everyone can afford organics if we'd just give up our "$4 coffee drinks" is wrong, although since his pediatric practice is in a fairly well-to-do area of California, I can see why he might not have a realistic perspective on the food budget of the average family. Book can get a bit repetitive - you don't just learn about the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, you learn about them over and over in each chapter. You'll find yourself skimming through repetitive parts, and the parts that get heavy into science.
The Verdict
Worth getting from the library for some good snack ideas and comparisons on the merits of various foods. Not a book that's realistic for the average family to live by, and don't let Dr. Sears make you feel like a bad parent for not following his dictates.
The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood.......2007-02-19
Given as a Gift, and anything by William Sears is tops, one can't go wrong.
Reviewed by Jenny Salyers.......2007-01-26
Are your kids junk food kids?
Dr. William Sears, a well known pediatrician, has written a book with his wife and two sons (themselves doctors) about getting your kids to eat healthier. He admits that raising healthy kids is getting harder and harder to do. These days, there are fast food restaurants everywhere, school lunches frequently have junk food as a part of the meal, and there is an overabundance of trans-fats and high risk sweeteners in the snacks and foods targeted at children. More and more kids are being diagnosed with illnesses like A.D.D., diabetes, cholesterol imbalances, and being overweight at an early age. These are situations that can be linked directly to the foods that children are eating.
The book is broken down into chapters that first identify good foods and then explain how and why these choices can boost a person's immunity. Another chapter focuses on how to make changes that will result in your children craving healthy foods, not junk, and one that shouldn't be missed talks about how to go shopping with young children and still come home with healthy foods instead of attractively-packaged junk. There are also answers to many nutritional questions that parents may have and a section with kid friendly recipes.
This book is written in a tone that sounds helpful without being preachy. It helps parents learn how to plan meals and snacks that will instill healthy eating habits that will carry over into adulthood. Dr. Sears is able to share with his readers the knowledge and experience that his family has gained throughout the years, and his sons are proof that his methods work. He uses examples of real families throughout the book along with some very helpful advice for both parents and children.
I found the book to be a great reference guide to how different foods help or hinder our health. I especially loved the chapters that broke down the "grow foods" or super foods for kids. They show us why the super foods are super for our children (and us as well) and give us ways to include these foods in our daily eating to maximize their importance to growth and general heath. Most of what was explained should be common sense to the caring parent, however it was great to see Dr. Sears' advice on what to look for when reading labels, and which vitamins are good to give your children in supplement form to enhance what they should be getting through food. The charts breaking down how much of a mineral you need each day (example iron, and calcium) and the best food sources for those minerals were extremely helpful. This is a book that will be helpful for those parents determined to raise their children as healthily as they can. Whether it is from their child's first solid food stage or as an older child that is slowly having his food choices changed from "junk food" to "pure food".
Average customer rating:
- Great Italian Restaurant Food to Make in Your Own Kitchen!
- Red Cat Cookbook
- An absolute delight!
- 125 Recipies, But None that use Cats, Red or Otherwise
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The Red Cat Cookbook: 125 Recipes from New York City's Favorite Neighborhood Restaurant
Jimmy Bradley , and
Andrew Friedman
Manufacturer: Clarkson Potter
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Binding: Hardcover
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The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook: Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-be Southerners
ASIN: 1400082811
Release Date: 2006-11-14 |
Book Description
Jimmy Bradley’s inviting and spirited take on food comes alive every night at The Red Cat, a convivial American restaurant that has anchored New York City’s Chelsea district since 1999. As the New York Times put it, “It’s the exceedingly rare place where unabashedly hearty preparations and ingredients meet seasonal produce and whimsical flourishes, where comfort and classicism welcome innovation without letting it run roughshod.” Now you can enjoy the charm and the food of The Red Cat in your own kitchen, with Bradley’s straightforward, thoroughly satisfying, and fun-to-read first cookbook.
In Bradley’s cuisine, the Italian-American classics of his childhood meet sensible New England accents and the creative energy of Manhattan in dishes like a pristine sauté of zucchini and toasted almonds topped with salty Pecorino Romano cheese; a surprising—and surprisingly delicious—peach and pancetta risotto; or a lusty prime New York shell steak with Yukon Gold potatoes, fennel, aïoli, and Cabernet. The techniques are basic, not fussy; the ingredients easy-to-find, not esoteric; the flavors bold, not flighty.
The Red Cat Cookbook is more than just a collection of fabulous recipes—it’s Bradley’s unique take on feeding loved ones and making guests feel at home, and it’s for everyone who wants home to be as warm and welcoming as The Red Cat.
Customer Reviews:
Great Italian Restaurant Food to Make in Your Own Kitchen!.......2007-03-26
Neighborhood restaurants are always a favorite! Warm, friendly, inviting, and great food! The Italian-American foods are delish! If you want more pesto recipes, add Mary El-Baz's "Simply Elegant and Easy Pesto" to your bookshelf. There's a fantastic pesto made with pepperoncini that's just scrumptious on roast-beef or salami sandwiches!
Red Cat Cookbook.......2007-02-22
Wonderful book, and easy to use for an average cook. Great food.
An absolute delight!.......2007-02-07
If you're not in the neighborhood to enjoy the gourmet meals at the Red Cat resaurant, this cookbook is the next best alternative. Beautiful photographs and fresh writing make it a joy to peruse. The directions are clear and encouraging to even a novice cook like me. This is the only cookbook I own that I actually read from cover to cover. Try the green beans tempura--you'll be hooked forever. And if you're in NYC, the Red Cat is worth going out of your way for.
125 Recipies, But None that use Cats, Red or Otherwise.......2006-12-05
My first thought on seeing this book was 'where ever can I find some red cats to cook?' But of course that's not what the book is about. It turns out that The Red Cat is a restaurant in Manhattan. Yet this is not a typical restaurant menu cookbook.
This is a cookbook that takes a lot of food tastes, primarily from the Eastern seaboard (think clam chowder), and Europe (think France, Italy, Germany) and presents them is a clear and easy to understand manner. Although it is not that big a book, it is abook that covers all aspects of a meal from finger foods at the start to home made ice creams at the end.
While a lot of the recipies have a down home simple aspect about them, many of them add higher end ingredients (lobster) and some very tasty sauces.
Average customer rating:
- Good condition at all levels
- super terrific
- Review of From Neurons to Neighbourhoods.
- Great resource!
- From Neurons to Neighborhoods : The Science of Early Childhood Development
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From Neurons to Neighborhoods : The Science of Early Childhood Development
Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development ,
Youth, and Families Board on Children ,
Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development , and
National Research Council
Manufacturer: National Academies Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0309069882 |
Book Description
Authoritative yet accessible, Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the newest evidence about early brain development and how children learn to speak, think, get along with others, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the surrounding context-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.
Are the early years a time of vulnerability or resilience? To what extent are our future prospects constrained by how well we navigate them? How can we get all children off to a good start in life? When should we worry? The committee provides a framework for approaching such vital questions and explores how scientists know what they know about childhood development.
This timely release will be important to all those who care about children and their families: policy makers, educators, researchers, program administrators, advocates, journalists, caregivers, and parents.
Customer Reviews:
Good condition at all levels.......2007-03-22
I received the book in in a timely fashion, and the book is in great condition.
super terrific.......2006-10-24
This book is a staple in the early childhood mental health field. It represents everything good in the promotion of social-emotional development in our society. Creating neurobiologically friendly environments for young children is a crossroad our society faces in an effort to have a positive impact on the mental health for our time. Implications for risk and resilience research contributions are included.
Review of From Neurons to Neighbourhoods........2006-08-04
I purchased this book, because I am doing a Graduate Diploma in Maternal & Child Health in Australia. Many of our lecturers were taking quotes from this book and referring to Jack Schonkoff's remarks contained within, pertaining to new evidence on myelination and the importance of interaction and stimulation of small children and the relationship between this and brain growth. It is easy to read and I am confident that both the lay person and health professional alike will glean valuable insight. I find myself constantly referring to this book and know that this will have an effect on my future practice as a Maternal and Child Health Nurse.
Great resource!.......2006-03-27
An amazing breadth and depth of neuroscience and its implications for how we treat children. Must reading for anyone wishing to get beyond prejudice and rhetoric to the core of what needs to be done in public policy to protect and preserve childhood in modern America. Should be 5 stars, but now a little dated, although references are excellent and it's not hard to follow the themes into the most recent research.
From Neurons to Neighborhoods : The Science of Early Childhood Development.......2005-10-09
The book was iin better condition than i expected, and it sent out the day after i ordered it.
Book Description
The only book that addresses the top decision maker's role in a volunteer program. Illuminates what's necessary for success, including vision and goals, policy questions, budgeting, staffing, employee/volunteer relations, the role of the board of directors, and assessing the impact of volunteer contributions. Contains information regarding legal issues and risk management; accounting for donated time; the effect of mergers; and special categories of volunteers, such as mandated community service participants.
Customer Reviews:
An essential for anyone who works with volunteers.......2002-11-27
This book puts forth ideas and resources that are changing the ways people view, value and involve volunteers. It represents the growing profound shift in how organizations should think about volunteer contributions and support for those volunteers. If you are part of an organization that involves volunteers, whether or not you yourself work with them directly, this book is ESSENTIAL for your bookshelf. Written by one of the most respected authorities on volunteersim and volunteer management in the world, Susan Ellis outlines the key executive decisions necessary to lay the foundation for effective volunteer involvement: policies, budgeting, staffing, employee-volunteer relationships, legal issues, and the value of volunteers beyond financial. Prepare to be challenged, and prepare to have traditional ideas about what volunteers represent swept away. This is an empowering and practical read, and a book you will reach for again and again.
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- Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss what Matters Most
- Dragon Ball Z, Volume 26 (Dragon Ball Z (Graphic Novels))
- Dykes to Watch Out for
- Eco Deco: Chic Ecological Design Using Recycled Materials
- Essentials of Fire Fighting
- Facing Your Giants: The God Who Made a Miracle Out of David Stands Ready to Make One Out of You
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