The Good Human » Book Review

Book Review & Giveaway: Alicia Silverstone’s “The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide To Feeling Great, Losing Weight, And Saving The Planet”.

david — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:30:54 +0000

This giveaway has ended.

Let me just say right up front that I am not a vegetarian; not even close. But I do my best to eat as well as I can, and the meat I do consume is almost always organic and from sustainable sources. That all being said, when I was offered a chance to check out Alicia Silverstone’s new book “The Kind Diet” I jumped at the chance because I had heard such great things about it already. A friend of mine runs a site dedicated to skin care called My Skin Affair, and landed an interview with Alicia about her book and Ecotools, an earth-friendly line of make up brushes and cosmetic bags she is involved with. I will post a snippet of it a little later, along with a link so you can read the entire interview. But for now, back to the book…

I have only had it for a few weeks now, but I have already tried several of the recipes – and have been more than pleased with how they turned out. Alicia is a Vegan and doesn’t eat meat or animal products, so many of the recipes had meat and/or dairy replacements in them such as seitan, tofu, or vegan cheddar cheese…not items often found in my house! But I did my best to follow some of the recipes to the letter and I have to tell you that they were incredibly good. One of my favorites was the Eggplant Chana Masala, which has onions, cloves, curry, cumin, eggplant, chickpeas, tomatoes, vegetarian chili and cilantro. While the recipe said it was for 8 people, I only got 2 meals out of it. Guess I was really hungry and thoroughly enjoyed it!

The book also talks about “kind” foods versus processed stuff, getting fit, activism, and even has a section about pets. Overall it’s a great book that is not just for vegetarians or vegans – after all, this meat-eater got a lot out of it too. Good stuff, and I recommend you check it out.

And finally, a segment from the interview I mentioned earlier:

On Ecotools: Alicia, a passionate animal welfare and environmental activist, has joined forces with the enormously successful eco-conscious brand to show that style and respect for the earth go hand-in-hand. Getting gorgeous, going green, and giving back is what Ecotools is all about. All of the bags in the Ecotools by Alicia Silverstone cosmetic bag collection are made with a natural hemp material and have a recycled PET lining. When I asked Alicia about Ecotools she said “I’m excited about how beautiful it is”. I’ve seen the Ecotools brushes and the cosmetic bags and they are absolutely lovely.

Click over to My Skin Affair if you want to read the rest of Alicia’s interview.

This giveaway has ended.

Now, about that giveaway…the publisher has graciously offered a copy of the book for one lucky reader, and this is how we are going to do this. The giveaway will be open until Saturday morning at 7:30am MST (48 hours from now), and here are the rules and how to enter:

- To enter, please leave a comment (with a valid email address, so we can contact you) as to why you would like to win the book
- Only one entry per person. Period. Please don’t try to use different email addresses, etc, as the IP numbers will be checked.
- Entries must be from residents within the continental U.S.
- Book will be sent directly from the publisher to a valid address via their choice of shippers
- Winner will be chosen at random from all eligible entries received

Good luck everyone! And if you don’t win, I still suggest you check the book out – it’s great.

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Book Review & Giveaway: Alicia Silverstone’s “The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide To Feeling Great, Losing Weight, And Saving The Planet”.

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Book Review: $20 Per Gallon

david — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:30:00 +0000

You need to read this book. In fact, if you can read only one book between now and the end of the year, I highly recommend it be this one. $20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better by Christopher Steiner is a price-point by price-point look at what will happen as gas prices head upwards over the coming years. The chapters are laid out as gas prices such as Chapter $10: The Car Diminished but Reborn and Chapter $16: The Food Web Deconstructed, and while making for some very interesting and educational reading, it is also quite frightening to be reminded of what we have created in the era of cheap fuel – and what will start happening as that era comes to a close. A good example of this comes in Chapter $14: The Fate of Small Towns…

The second big banana, and the biggest reason for Wal-Mart’s demise – at least Wal-Mart as we know it now – will be the outrageous cost of maintaining the retailer’s vast distribution and product network. Wal-Mart’s model works because of cheap gasoline. The company is able to leverage cheap labor in China to make many of its wares because of the low cost of getting those products back to the United States aboard giant cargo ships. Wal-Mart by itself is China’s eighth-largest trading partner. Once the boodle gets to a West Coast port, it’s moved by rail and by truck to Wal-Mart’s 140 distribution centers. This task requires Wal-Mart’s fleet of 7,200 semi-tractor trailer trucks, which fan out the goods to Wal-Mart’s 4,000 U.S. stores. Without gasoline at affordable prices, goods from China don’t float in at mass quantities, choking a main Wal-Mart advantage. Flinging the goods around the country, from port to distribution center to store, will become prohibitively expensive…

When Wal-Mart winces, the whole world knows. (They) have about 6,000 global suppliers; more than 80% of them are in China. China’s manufacturing sector will be in chaos. The makers of the cheapest stuff, the commodity junk, such as pens, inexpensive clothes, and housewares, will be hardest hit. Companies will be wrecked, supply chains will be decimated, jobs will be lost. Small towns lose their anchors, the stores that supplied everything to everybody.

Sounds like fun, right? Well, it’s not all bad news, as higher gas prices will eventually be good for us. It will lead to closer knit communities, smaller privately owned stores, a cleaner environment, and safer food and products as goods are made locally. The hardest part of all this?

Convincing people that we need to get started.

We need to invest more money in mass transit while we still can afford the oil needed to build the infrastructure. We need to encourage more people to buy fuel-efficient cars while oil is still cheap. And we need to realize that $20 per gallon is, in fact, coming – maybe not next year or 5 years from now – but it is coming. But it’s not time to be scared of higher prices at all. In fact, it’s time to be encouraged by them and the time to act on this future is now. I recommend this book be read by anyone who is concerned about what issues high fuel prices may bring to us, and what we can do today to head them off at the pass. Great book.

$20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better

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Book Review: $20 Per Gallon

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Book Giveaway: ‘Most Good, Least Harm’ By Zoe Weil.

david — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:00:00 +0000

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED. The following is an excerpt from “Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle For A Better World And A Meaningful Life” by Zoe Weil. Want to win a copy? Check out the end of the post for how to enter.

MOGO living brings about true freedom. When you have the inner conviction to do the most good and the least harm, you are free to say no to media, social, and peer pressures. You are free from a nagging sense that your life does not have value or meaning. You are free to imagine and then create a truly successful life. You are free to be at piece with yourself and all those whom your life touches.

Those striving to lead MOGO lives, who are eagerly involved in positive change and who consciously make their life their message, are everywhere. They are nurses and architects, students and teachers, carpenters and physicians, farmers and executives, plumbers and politicians, factory workers and businesspeople, engineers and scientists, parents and teenagers, children and senior citizens. They may not be the majority, but they can become the majority if you join them.

Sound like a book you might want to read? I read it last week and it was quite a good read, and very encouraging to me to keep doing what I am doing in my life and with this website. But now that I have read it, one lucky reader can win my copy. All you have to do is leave a comment (be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win) about a way you live a “Most Good, Least Harm” lifestyle, and you will be entered to win the book. A random number generator will be used to select the winner out of all comments. The contest is open to US residents who have not won anything from The Good Human in the last 60 days, and it closes on May 13th at 12noon MST. Winner will be notified by email. Good luck! THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED.

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Book Giveaway: ‘Most Good, Least Harm’ By Zoe Weil.

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Guest Article & Giveaway From Author Of ‘Clean Body:The Humble Art of Zen-Cleansing Yourself’.

david — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:00:59 +0000

This giveaway is now closed.This is a guest post by Michael DeJong, Author of Clean Body:The Humble Art of Zen-Cleansing Yourself. You can win a copy of this book by checking out the end of this post.

May:Vinegar Month
Although the fine folks in Roslyn, South Dakota hold an International Vinegar Festival in June, May is actually National Vinegar Month. However, if you do make it to Roslyn in time, you’ll see a mighty fine small-town parade consisting of the Roslyn marching band, children dressed as pickles, the Roslyn Firefighters (in my opinion — the best part), the guy who mows all of the municipal lawns (okay, he’s pretty swell too), horse drawn carriages, tractors, tractors and yet even more tractors and the Day County Veterans being pulled by — yes — a John Deere tractor. The festivities also include the crowning of the Royal Vinegar Court (a sour looking lot), cooking demonstrations and food at the nation’s only Vinegar Museum.

Vinegar, from the French translation meaning “sour wine,” can be produced from all kinds fruits, berries, melons, coconut, honey, beer, maple syrup, potatoes, beets, malt, grains and whey. But the fundamental process remains unchanged no matter what the initial ingredients may be — first a fermentation of sugar to alcohol, and then a second go-round to vinegar. Viola! Acetic acid (aka vinegar) is born.

Whether rice, red wine, distilled white, aged balsamic or apple cider, the overwhelming essence of vinegar, to most of us, is always the same — sharp, tart and biting. But compared one to another, the subtle and not-so-subtle flavors are very different and are as varied as fine and not-so-fine wines are.

Vinegar has been around for millennia, and every faith, it seems, parables references to it, whether it be Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism or Christianity. When and how their deity or followers responded to the tangy flavor of vinegar was then metaphorically used as a symbolic view of life and its situations.

The ancients stumbled upon the versatility of vinegar probably 10,000 years ago. The Babylonians used it as medicine, and also mixed it with herbs to flavor their meals. The Romans drank it as a beverage. Cleopatra dissolved pearls in it to prove she could devour a fortune in a single meal. (Ladies, please do not try this at home!) Biblical references show how it was used for its soothing and healing properties and yet as recent as World War I, vinegar was still being used to treat wounds in the battlefields.

Susan B. Anthony, referred to as the “vinegar” of the Female Suffrage movement was aggressive, ebullient, frisky, spunky, a fighter, and a no-nonsense kinda woman, who displayed all the classic traits of being full of “piss and vinegar.” The earliest citation of that term, however, is from 1938 in John Steinbeck’s, The Grapes of Wrath:

Vinegar? Why am I writing about vinegar? Well . . . not because it’s new-fangled, or is in any way ultra-modern. And it can’t be confused for something that’s state-of-the-art, or attempts to be up-to-the-minute or high-tech. But what it is, is a highly affordable and super-safe eco-cleaning staple we should all get familiar with. Distilled white vinegar easily neutralizes alkaline soaps, effortlessly breaks down stubborn urine odors, quickly polishes patent leather, instantly removes static cling from clothing, flawlessly cleans mirrors and glass, simply deodorizes the air, effortlessly polishes chrome, carefully removes soap scum and hard water spots, dependably cleans your automatic drip coffee maker and, in a pinch, even lifts accidentally spilled white glue. This 10,000 year-old elixir is a modern-day cleaning miracle!

It’s said, “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” So be a sweetie and just simply clean with the sour stuff. Store it in a sealed container full strength, dilute it 50/50 with water in a recycled spray bottle for everyday use, or mix 1 tablespoon in 1 quart of water in another recycled sprayer for a great window cleaner. There is never a need for refrigeration. Vinegar’s shelf life is eternal.

Don’t find yourself in a pickle by letting Vinegar Month pass you by. There are 1,001 uses for it other than dressing a salad — so why not invent the 1,002nd eco-friendly way to celebrate vinegar for yourself.

For more eco-Clean tips by Michael DeJong (aka Ask Mr. Green) go to www.MyKindofClean.com .

DeJong and Joost Elffers are generously donating all of the royalties from each of the books in the Clean Series to the OneCleanWorld Foundation. a philanthropic, not-for-profit organization that supports environmental projects worldwide with grants, technical assistance and/or microfinancing.

This giveaway is now closed.So…want to win a copy of Clean Body:The Humble Art of Zen-Cleansing Yourself by Michael DeJong? I bet you do. All you have to do is leave a comment (be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win) about a way you have gone green at home, and you will be entered to win the book. A random number generator will be used to select the winner out of all comments. The contest is open to US residents who have not won anything from The Good Human in the last 60 days, and it closes on May 7th at 12noon MST. Winner will be notified by email. Good luck!

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Guest Article & Giveaway From Author Of ‘Clean Body:The Humble Art of Zen-Cleansing Yourself’.

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