Many people are interested in dirt. People who clean cars are interested in dirt. The nice people at Proctor & Gamble are very intereted in dirt. But perhaps the most interested of all are farmers who spend much of their time thinking about dirt, putting things in dirt and taking things out of the dirt. Sometimes they don't take enough things out of the dirt or the wrong things grow in the dirt, so they have to add more stuff to the dirt to make it more productive. This is often fertilizer except in Arkansas where they use tobacco juice. In less robust economies (read, those not served by Archer Daniels) fertilizer is often based on human or animal wastes. In those societies this cyclical cycle is called survival. Here in the United States of America it is called Organic Farming and one should expect to pay a pretty price for it. As a matter of fact, the other day, I was in the Wild Oats Market near where I live and they were charging this gosh-awful price f! or something called organic bananas. Now, I like organic foods as much as the next guy, but let's face it, paying over $1 per pound for organic bananas is nuts. (Hmmm. I didn't even really mix my metaphor). Back in 1967 when I was working as a porter at the old A&P warehouse, we had to unload freight cars of bananas and put them into a special room to ripen them. And we couldn't care less back then if it was organic or not. A banana was a banana and aside from those we would swipe when we were hungry, our greatest concern was not getting bitten by a spider or one of those gigantic roaches that would stowaway on the banana boats. As long as the banana is not too mushy and someone doesn't try to fool me by substituting a plantain, I don't really care what they put around the roots. But I digress.

Tisdale's book is considered the definitive treatise on Soils and Fertilization. It is the standard text at really fine Aggie schools in this great land of ours and if you ! are really in to gardening, farming or just want to know mo! re about fertilizer than anyone else in your social set or in your chapter of Future Farmers of America, or 4-H. (Do you know that there are many active chapters of 4-H in New York City and its environs?) So, help rocket Tisdale's fifth edition out of its doldrums as the 125,000th most sought after title at Amazon.com. He is a lot more informative than Tom Clancy or Tony Robbins and he writes better too. Buy buying this and giving it to your friends as a Christmas gift it may move it up to become the 90,000th most popular title at AmazonDotCom (who came up with that clunky name, Borzos? Couldn't you name it after your mother, or maybe come up with something poetic like ArchonsOfColophon.com?)

This novel precedes the "Grapes of Wrath" by four years, and if not for its relentless misery unleavened by the comic humanity of Steinbeck's masterpiece, it might have been the defining novel of the Depression. That a 24-year-old could have written it as a first novel I find astonishing.

To read it is to glimpse an America with one foot still in the nineteenth century and one placed in the maelstrom that brought the second world war and the welfare state.

Cass McCay, the hero, is one of the landless, unlettered, unloved, underfed, lonely drifters of the Depression, what Algren called a Final Descendant of the South, one of the "wild and hardy tribe that had given Jackson and Lincoln birth...slaveless yeomen who had never cared for slaves or land..." He explains in the Preface: "Nobody owned a man who owned a gun along the wild frontier. But now that the frontier was gone, where did the man go?"

Cass is the offspring of one of those who have nowhere to go. In the Rio Grande valley of West Texas Cass lives in a shack "like a casual box on the border; wooden and half-accidental" with his brother and sister and father. They live a life about a half step up from that of a family of coyotes, eating only oatmeal or rice for days on end, scrounging coal from halted boxcars, taking turns to go get what the "Relief Station" is giving that week. So one can see how his people spun out of the chaos of the Civil War, still bleeding after 60 years, and drifting toward Franklin Roosevelt's and Lyndon Johnson's way of poverty. His older brother is scarred from a war in France where he was gassed while fighting for something he hadn't the slightest understanding of: "...nobody told nothin' but Jesus-killin' lies. Told us it was dooty to fight fo' this pesthole--told me...Oh, ah didn't believe all they told, none of us did, but we laughed and went anyhow. Now look at me."

Cass spends a lot of time down by the railroad tracks listening to men and boys who ride the rails, dreaming: "Ah'd like to get out of this pesthole someday. Ah'd go to Laredo or Dallas or Tucson."

When his father bludgeons Bryan in the face over some trifle, Cass leaves home without saying goodbye, as one would flee a war or epidemic, and takes to the railroads.

And then he is what Algren called a "Final Descendant": a rootless anonymity, a "youth alienated from family and faith, illiterate and utterly displaced...a Southerner unable to bear scorn, who had yet born scorn all his days...who wandered through some great city's aimless din, past roar of cab and cabaret, belonging to nothing and nobody." He pilfers and begs and stares in incomprehension.

He is a gentle boy stumbling through a world of unspeakable brutality and cruelty. The "Boots" of the title is a symbol of the men most feared by Cass and his ilk: the railroad bull, the jailer, the cop...Boots are used as weapons and are the mark of authority. But as awful as the booted men are, they are not as bad as the ever-present hunger, the "wolf howling behind your navel".

Today's dispossessed in the US often as not struggle with obesity instead of hunger. "Somebody in Boots" is one of the last chronicles of the struggle with starvation that went on for hundreds of generations, and that is now clearly over. The authoritarianism and brutality and callousness toward pain that Cass endures is unfortunately still with us.

I'd never heard of this author before I picked up a copy of "Sometimes I Get Scared" at a library book sale. Now I'm planning to collect the series for my four year old son.
Psalm 23 is expressed through the voice of a young child speaking to God. The language is accessible for children without talking down to them. The illustrations are intricately detailed, with color used sparingly to convey meaning. It's a simple, tender book with a loving message.

Although I had been to Mexico several times, I never knew how many different types of spas the country has to offer. "Mexico" Mike has obviously been to every one of them. He showed me that "spa" means a lot of different things and choosing the right one takes more than just asking a travel agent. Thanks to his honest recommendations, I was able to choose a holistic spa instead of the beach resort that my travel agent recommended.

Mike does more than list spas. He tells you the good AND bad points of each one. He peppers his observations with a wry sense of humor and very personal anecdotes that make this an enjoyable read, even if you never leave your armchair.

Besides spas, he covers free hot springs for the adventurous. Although this is not my cup of tea, his stories about finding them had me in stiches!

While reading this book, I felt like Mike was there next to me, guiding my way.

Spider Spins a Story connects Native American tribes together with 14 various tales, all involving a spider. Preceding each legend is a brief history and description of the tribe associated with each story. Muskogee, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Hopi, Cherokee, Navajo, and Osage tribes, as well as others, are mentioned in the book.

Full of colorful, gorgeous illustrations by 6 Native American artists, the book is also endorsed by tribal authorities.
It appeals to both children and adults with its wonderful storytelling of Native American customs and lore. It is also a great reference to the past history and beliefs of Native American life.

The brilliant colors used in the illustrations are particularly appealing and remind the reader of fine Native American art. The Gilcrease Museum, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was an excellent choice for the detailed research needed to write this spectacular book. Spider Spins a Story is a perfect gift for all ages.

Spikes Lee's gotta have it is an essential book for independent filmmakers. It's a book in three parts. The first part begins with an interview of Spike lee By Nelson George sometime after SGHI premiered and he became a big shot. But the second part is the most appealing. It is the production diary in which Spike goes into complete detail how he got she's gotta have it made. The Diary is from the intitla idea to postproduction. It's filled with loads of insights into the struggles he was up against. In fact it's so indepth he even mentiones when his heat and lights go out. Then finally theres the script, which is like the icing on the cake. Hard to find but worth it because you really get to understand how he works and how he got to where he is. Essential!

This first novel by the distinguished archeologist is a wonderfully crafted narrative about roots, identity, ethnicity, humanism, and more. Both the frame story and the neolithic interior one flow back and forth seamlessly and render the themes timeless. The inside look at archeology as a vocation and the vivid descriptions of Korea, now and in neolithic times, and of the archeological sites and artefacts further enhance the value to the reader. Prof. Nelson has a great deal to tell us both about the past and also the road toward a hopeful future that can can embrace at once diversity and universal personhood.

I like this book. That was probably the first book of analytical philosophy I've read in my life. And I think it really can be your first book to. It gives a real (though this word may seem suspicious in the context of Goodman's ideas) sense of a convergency of epistemology and ontology in today's philosophy. In spite of typical 'dry' image of philosophy this book brings you back to human reality lost a couple of centuries ago by generous efforts of Descartes et al. It's the best clear and concise introduction into views of Nelson Goodman, after which your reading of his major book, "Ways of Worldmaking", will be even more pleasant.

I'm something of an expert on kimono, at least kimono of the everyday variety (as opposed to, say, the Nomura Collection variety). People always ask me what books I recommend. I own most of the kimono books that have been published in English (and a couple that aren't in English), but for an overview of all kimono, this is the book! If you can only get one book, get this one! It will tell you most of what you want to know about kimono, and probably answer questions you haven't even thought of. And it's profusely illustrated, another plus!

This is a wonderfully clear and thoughtful analysis of water politics. It should be read by anyone concerned about how we make decisions about water quality and quantity. The Florida Legislature, which as a group provided a ham handed approach to dealing with the Everglades and Native tribes, should collectively read this book.