A must-read for avid gardeners, those interested in bolstering our precarious food supply, or anyone remotely concerned...
A geologist and a biologist and environmental planner chronicle the transformation of their desolate Seattle backyard into a fertile garden and how they learned about the importance of beneficial microbes in their newly revived soil.
With lively and accessible prose, Montgomery (The Rocks Don’t Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah’s Flood, 2013, etc.) and Biklé lay the foundation for their narrative with a discussion about microbes: what they are as well as their remarkable adaptability and diversity and the role they play in the natural environment—e.g., making half the world’s oxygen. The authors lead readers through an eye-opening history of well-known individuals involved with the fascinating work of ferreting out the mysterious lives of these little critters, such as Louis Pasteur, and many others less well known to the nonscientific community. The authors’ blending of science and history, combined with personal insights, keeps the balanced narrative moving at a rapid pace. Montgomery and Biklé also deftly integrate the dark story of American agriculture’s co-option by the chemical industry. Attempting to solve the biological problem of low soil fertility with herbicides and synthetic fertilizers, corporations created a cycle of demand requiring farmers use more chemicals. The result has been depleted soil with fewer microbes and an unsustainable food production system. The authors explore the overuse of antibiotics and their effect on the human biome, livestock, and infectious diseases. Biklé describes her bout with cancer and the resulting changes she made to her garden and dietary habits. The authors ably help lay readers knit together the multiple threads of this complex and intriguing story, and a glossary provides a solid a foundation when grappling with unfamiliar terms such as “commensal” or dysbiosis.”
A must-read for avid gardeners, those interested in bolstering our precarious food supply, or anyone remotely concerned about their health and the soil under their feet.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-393-24440-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
An idiosyncratic and somewhat incoherent investigation into sex education in the age of AIDS. Patton (English/Temple Univ.) explores our country's response to the AIDS crisis vis-Ö-vis education and prevention, concluding that it is both homophobic and racist. When only the homosexual subculture seemed at risk, contends Patton, little effort was expended by US public health officials on education. Only later, when it became obvious that heterosexuals, too, could become infected with the AIDS virus, was there any concerted effort to prevent its spread. But by identifying AIDS almost exclusively with gay males, public health officials gave heterosexuals a false sense of security, failing to provide ``the tools they needed to evaluate and reduce their own risk of contracting AIDS.'' By denying that their own sons might be engaging in sex with other men or injecting drugs into their veins, policymakers did little to protect their children. They preferred to perceive them as too innocent to engage in risky behavior. And since the homosexual population was considered already at risk, little effort was put into stemming the epidemic among gay youth. Youth of color, Patton states, were also neglected by policy makers, since they were viewed as ``unlikely to change their behavior or escape the environment that marks them as premodern.'' In addition to criticizing our country's approach to sex education, Patton assaults the media for its lack of integrity. She insists, for example, that the teenage sexuality of Ryan White (who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion) was overlooked, while Philadelphia's ``Uncle Eddie'' Savitz was unfairly condemned for transmitting the AIDS virus to large numbers of teenage boys. With its painfully stilted academic prose and suffocating atmosphere of political correctness, Fatal Advice isn't likely to convince those who have seen greater complexity in the matter of AIDS education. (10 illustrations, not seen)
Pub Date: May 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8223-1750-8
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Duke Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1996
Henderson, the Pushcart Press's publisher, struck a powerful ``Leaddite'' nerve when he founded the antitech Lead Pencil Club, and his selection here shows how deep the reactions are to the telecommunications bubble of e-mail, telephones, faxes, TV, and radio. This club's themes include prose style vs. word processing, paper vs. cathode ray tubes, intimacy vs. interface, conversation vs. voice-mail—with the No. 2 pencil as the preferred instrument and emblem. The best essays, unsurprisingly, are from the likes of Neil Postman, on computers and education; Clifford Stoll, on the Internet and e-mail; and Sven Birkerts, on the human brain and the ``Electronic Hive.'' Other writers simply echo their arguments and concerns. Most of the testimonials from club members, who have given up TV, computers, phones, etc., tend toward technophobia and nostalgia. This collection also boasts marginalia from John Updike, Dave Barry, Robert Hughes, Alvin Toffler, Nicholson Baker, and others, and postcard-bites from club members worldwide. While salutatory in its skepticism and resistance to Information Age hype, this is, ironically, like much of the Internet—broadly superficial. (illustrations, not seen)*justify no* Henderson, the Pushcart Press's publisher, struck a powerful ``Leaddite'' nerve when he founded the antitech Lead Pencil Club, and his selection here shows how deep the reactions are to the telecommunications bubble of e-mail, telephones, faxes, TV, and radio. This club's themes include prose style vs. word processing, paper vs. cathode ray tubes, intimacy vs. interface, conversation vs. voice-mail—with the No. 2 pencil as the preferred instrument and emblem. The best essays, unsurprisingly, are from the likes of Neil Postman, on computers and education; Clifford Stoll, on the Internet and e-mail; and Sven Birkerts, on the human brain and the ``Electronic Hive.'' Other writers simply echo their arguments and concerns. Most of the testimonials from club members, who have given up TV, computers, phones, etc., tend toward technophobia and nostalgia. This collection also boasts marginalia from John Updike, Dave Barry, Robert Hughes, Alvin Toffler, Nicholson Baker, and others, and postcard-bites from club members worldwide. While salutatory in its skepticism and resistance to Information Age hype, this is, ironically, like much of the Internet—broadly superficial. (illustrations, not seen)*justify no* Henderson, the Pushcart Press's publisher, struck a powerful ``Leaddite'' nerve when he founded the antitech Lead Pencil Club, and his selection here shows how deep the reactions are to the telecommunications bubble of e-mail, telephones, faxes, TV, and radio. This club's themes include prose style vs. word processing, paper vs. cathode ray tubes, intimacy vs. interface, conversation vs. voice-mail—with the No. 2 pencil as the preferred instrument and emblem. The best essays, unsurprisingly, are from the likes of Neil Postman, on computers and education; Clifford Stoll, on the Internet and e-mail; and Sven Birkerts, on the human brain and the ``Electronic Hive.'' Other writers simply echo their arguments and concerns. Most of the testimonials from club members, who have given up TV, computers, phones, etc., tend toward technophobia and nostalgia. This collection also boasts marginalia from John Updike, Dave Barry, Robert Hughes, Alvin Toffler, Nicholson Baker, and others, and postcard-bites from club members worldwide. While salutatory in its skepticism and resistance to Information Age hype, this is, ironically, like much of the Internet—broadly superficial. (illustrations, not seen)*justify no* Henderson, the Pushcart Press's publisher, struck a powerful ``Leaddite'' nerve when he founded the antitech Lead Pencil Club, and his selection here shows how deep the reactions are to the telecommunications bubble of e-mail, telephones, faxes, TV, and radio. This club's themes include prose style vs. word processing, paper vs. cathode ray tubes, intimacy vs. interface, conversation vs. voice-mail—with the No. 2 pencil as the preferred instrument and emblem. The best essays, unsurprisingly, are from the likes of Neil Postman, on computers and education; Clifford Stoll, on the Internet and e-mail; and Sven Birkerts, on the human brain and the ``Electronic Hive.'' Other writers simply echo their arguments and concerns. Most of the testimonials from club members, who have given up TV, computers, phones, etc., tend toward technophobia and nostalgia. This collection also boasts marginalia from John Updike, Dave Barry, Robert Hughes, Alvin Toffler, Nicholson Baker, and others, and postcard-bites from club members worldwide. While salutatory in its skepticism and resistance to Information Age hype, this is, ironically, like much of the Internet—broadly su
Pub Date: May 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-916366-84-7
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Pushcart
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1996
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