Daisy Miller & Other Stories (Wordsworth Classics) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)... have nothing over Henry James! Whatever his many biographers discover about his mundane corporeal existence, James's novels reveal him best, as an inveterate observer - his own words! - a chronic emotional voyeur, always in and never of society, a one-way looking glass. It made him the great writer he was, though one wouldn't want to BE him. "Well," as God said to Satan, "keeping watch on humans is a dirty job, but somebody has to do it."
The four long stories in this Oxford Clssic edition were not originally published together. "Daisy Miller" appeared in 1878, "Pandora" in 1884, "Patagonia" in 1888. The fourth piece, "Four Meetings", was one of James's first, written before 1877. They are a natural assembly, nevertheless, effectively versions of the same story.
DAISY MILLER
"They're very ignorant -- very innocent only, and utterly uncivilized. Depend on it they're not 'bad.'"
"They're hopelessly vulgar," said Mrs. Costello. "Whether being hopelessly vulgar is being 'bad' is a questions for the metaphysicians. They're bad enough to blush for, at any rate; and for this short life that's quite enough."
Winterbourne, the first speaker above, is an American of twenty-seven who has lived most of his life in Europe, specifically in Geneva, where he is either a career student or simply an ornamental male presence, depending on the reporter. If 'earning a living' is of any concern to him, it plays no part in his demeanor in this narrative. Mrs. Costello is his wealthy aunt (a dowager?), who 'commands' his proper familial attentions at various resorts and in Rome several weeks a year. She is the very voice of propriety and discretion -- a snooty old biddy, if you will -- while he is a dilettante, a poseur, a prig, a veritable Henry James in short. "They" are the Millers - mother, daughter, and son - sent to inspect Europe and report back on its cultural progress by their filthy rich pater familias Cyrus Miller, of Schenectady, New York. Winterbourne first meets Daisy Miller while visiting his Aunt at Vevey, in Switzerland. He is entranced both by her beauty and by her bizarre ignorance of and/or indifference to the social codes of the Old World. Winterbourne and his Aunt are ludicrous snobs and ditherers; it's important to grasp that they are objects of satire as thoroughly as the Millers, the prototypical "ugly Americans" of touristic prominence all over Europe then and now. In fact, everyone in this novella comes in for a share of deliciously condescending satire, most pointedly James himself in the guise of Winterbourne. That's one of the redeeming qualities of Henry James, his ability to perceive and portray his own uselessness as a mere onlooker at life.
"Daisy Miller" is a gem, an 80-page masterpiece of snarky ambivalence. When I read it first, long ago in college, I probably took Winterbourne seriously; after all, the tale is told from his point of view. But taking himself or his fictional avatars seriously was a fault Henry James never committed. A longer exposure to James's self-observation, such as his later novels require, can challenge a reader's patience; there's only so much most of us want to care for such meticulous ambiguity. But "Daisy Miller" and "Pandora" are eminently enjoyable.
For a man and writer whose sexuality was so peculiarly repressed, James has made his irrepressible American girl Daisy Miller quite a luscious minx. Poor Winterbourne, stiff and epicene, can't keep his eyes off her. In the end, however, his fascination amounts merely to a kind of obsessive observation, and that's the core of the story, the voyeurism which underlies Henry James's literary genius. Nevertheless, Daisy is a brilliant 'study' of the American personality that Europeans have, then and now, found utterly appalling, naive and gauche ... and insidiously alluring.
PANDORA
Written six years after Daisy Miller, "Pandora" is a tongue-in-ear sequel, or perhaps a da capo aria. The characters have different names and play their roles with different outcomes, but James plainly intended the second story to complement the first. In fact, the earlier story is explicitly referenced as `a fiction to read to prepare for America.' "Pandora" begins on a ship crossing from Europe to New York. A young German diplomat, en route to a posting in Washington DC, assumes Winterbourne'James's role as "observer". There's a good deal of fun to be had with putting a precise Teutonic prig in James's skin, and James exploits all of it. The "Daisy" slot in the cast goes to "Pandora", less visually delectable perhaps but a good deal more personally functional. Pandora is on her way to becoming "the new woman," that is, the woman who conquers society merely by force of personality and physical charm, without the advantages of breeding. Our German observer is even less able to communicate his `interest' to Pandora than Winterborne was to Daisy; the most he can do is cogitate about the risk he runs, through his observation, of actually becoming susceptible. The reader will have no reason to fear for him in that manner.
PATAGONIA...
... is also a shipboard tale, with many of the same elements of social misconstruction as the two oolder stories. In it, however, the "observer" is also the first-person narrator, an older and more desexualized James, not so much fascinated by the "new woman" character as by his own obsession with observation. He's a gossip and a meddler, and comes to rue both roles. can we assert that Henry James modeled the famous Uncertainty Principle of physics in social intercourse? The end-game of every character in this and other Jamesian plots is disrupted by the impact of being observed.
Henry James straddled the world of 19th C class consciousness and 20th C class unconsciousness marvelously. Simultaneously the most conservative and the most prophetic of novelists, his women characters are easily the most persuasive and the most intriguing in all American literature. I have the feeling that James would not be at all surprised by the manners of social behavior in the USA in 2010. Daisy and Pandora were halfway here. Neither would he be any more comfortable in our `rec rooms' than he was in the drawing rooms of his own era. Really, I'm afraid he'd find us rather disappointing to observe.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Daisy Miller & Other Stories (Wordsworth Classics)

With an Introduction and Notes by Pat Righelato, University of Reading Daisy Miller is one of Henry James's most attractive heroines: she represents youth and frivolity. As a tourist in Italy, her American freedom and freshness of spirit come up against the corruption and hypocrisy of European manners. From its first publication, readers on both sides of the Atlantic have quarrelled about her, defending or attacking the liberties that Daisy takes and the conventions that she ignores. All three tales in this collection, Daisy Miller, An International Episode and Lady Barbarina, express James's most notable subject, 'the international theme', the encounters, romantic and cultural, between Americans and Europeans. His heroes and heroines approach each other on unfamiliar ground with new freedoms, yet find themselves unexpectedly hampered by old constraints. In An International Episode, an English lord visiting Newport, Rhode Island, falls in love with an American girl, but their relationship becomes more complicated when she travels to London. In the light-hearted comedy Lady Barbarina, a rich young American seeks an English aristocratic bride. The unusual outcomes of these three tales pose a number of social questions about marriage and the traditional roles of men and women. Is an international marriage symbolic of the highest cultural fusion of values or is it an old style raid and capture? Is marriage to remain the feminine destination?

Buy cheap Daisy Miller & Other Stories (Wordsworth Classics) now.

Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Chuck Klosterman's first two books were highly entertaining if sometimes exasperating melanges of pop culture and memoir. In this third book his writing is just a snappy and sharp, but there's a lack of focus that makes it several notches weaker than those. When his pop-culture addled wit and insight are aimed directly at something like '80s metal, or contemporary film, or breakfast cereals, the results can be amazing. However, he can also descend into weak or muddled rants, and when he becomes the main subject, it's just not that interesting. Unfortunately, the main subject of this third book is largely himself and his tortured love life.
The premise that Chuck's going to go an Epic road trip (on Spin magazine's dime) to tour famous American rock and roll death sites proves to be mere pretense for an extended trip into Chuck's head as he drives cross-country. Sure, he visits a lot of places where people died, like Skynyrd, VanZant, Buckley, Holly, Cobain, et al, but he rarely has anything interesting to say. Very occasionally he does, such as pointing out that Sid Vicious' inability to play the bass was what made him the perfect punk icon. The best part is probably near the beginning, when he visits the Rhode Island site of a club fire during a Great White show which killed almost a hundred people. He discovers a site of pilgrimage and reflection (and coke snorting), and embarks on an excellent diatribe against the prevalence of ironic distance in modern music fans and how the people at the Great White show were the most authentic music fans around.
However, despite nice bits like these, the focus is on Chuck's current and ex-girlfriends -- which gets annoying for a number of reasons. Probably the foremost of these is how in all his writing he self-deprecatingly paints himself as an awkward music geek, and yet here he is describing these multiple smart, sexy, rockin' women he has to chose between. Poor baby. Of course he describes the rise and fall of his various relationships in relatively humorous fashion, but it still comes across like so much self-indulgent navel gazing. There are some nice parts, like an imagined fourway conversation with the women in question, and a bit where he compares each to a member of KISS that is probably pretty funny if you know anything about KISS (I don't). He's a pining romantic at heart, and as one with a somewhat similar composition, I could identify with bits and pieces, but it all gets tiresome by the end.
Stylistically, the writing is what one expects. Sharp, crackling stuff, with loads of digressions, asides, tangents, obscure references, and laugh out loud parts. Music fans will have plenty of little tidbits to keep them going, such as an interpretation of Radiohead's "Kid A" as unintended soundtrack for 9/11 (rather forced in my mind), the relative popularity of Pearl Jam to Nirvana when Cobain died (misguided analysis in my mind), the "truth" of Rod Stewart's voice (somewhat better: "Stewart may be a blond clown with bad judgment, but everything he says is true"), and the universal popularity of Led Zeppelin (ridiculous: "they are the only group in the history of rock n' roll that every male rock fan seems to experience in exactly the same way") , and best of all, a moving explanation of why The Replacements make him cry.
Overall, if you like his writing, you might as well read this: it's quick and there are enough good tidbits to keep you going. However, lets hope that his future books will find more focus. The only other thing I'd add is that for someone who spends a page explaining the difference between "pot people" and "coke people" (in a very funny way) and why he's a pot person, he recounts enough coke anecdotes to make you wonder about his self-classification.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

Buy cheap Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story now.

Rifts World Book 20: Canada Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've played Palladium games since I was first introduced to the system in 1986 by way of the Robotech RPG. I was one of the first adopters of the original Rifts in 1990, and followed the line fanatically and faithfully for many years. I'm no stranger to Palladium products. As they say, familiarity breeds contempt, so I lost my enthusiasm for Palladium products and stayed away for several years. When I heard about a new edition of Rifts, the hype was enough to bring me back.
Big Ol' Overview
As you may have guessed by now (the title may have been a hint), this is a review of Rifts Ultimate Edition, the latest version of Palladiumbooks' most popular RPG. Occasionally in my review, I'll save a few keystrokes by abbreviating references to Rifts Ultimate Edition as "RUE."
The first thing I'll get out of the way in this review is the debate on whether this is genuinely a new edition of the game or not. In my opinion, it is. There are many drastic changes in the rules, and the timeline has been advanced almost 10 years from the original starting point of the old Rifts rule book. "Ultimate" is code for second edition. Keep that in mind.
The presentation is a mixed bag. There are two versions of the book. One is a collectors' or "Gold" edition and the other one is the regular version. The only differences between the two variants are the covers and the prices. The regular version has an art cover and is $33.95 US MSRP, while the "Gold" version has a leatherette cover and is $70.00 US MSRP. The book itself is 376 pages long with simple double column text. There are also 3 color plate sections of 8 pages each spaced evenly through the book. Art is generally placed well, common enough to break things up, but not so common as to feel obtrusive. The book feels durable whatever cover variant you have, and my copies have already endured a LOT of page flipping with no sign of stress. However, most formatting looks like it was done by tab spacing in Word. Charts are not offset and placed in actual formatted charts, for example. They are simply absorbed as part of the text and look like large paragraphs.
To continue with the bad, errors abound in the book. Many of these are typos which existed in text copied from the 15 year old first edition of the book. There's at least one instance of columns being randomly switched around, and many errors have the appearance of being things which were overlooked while cutting and pasting from other sources. I have to say the sheer number of errors ranks as the highest I've seen in an RPG product, and I have a collection of between 600 and 700 RPG products. It really gives the whole thing an amateurish instead of "Ultimate" feel. However, I should note that while a multitude of blunders exist, the editors made sure that every trademark and registered trademark symbol is in place. For instance, the Glitter Boy Pilot character class (a character type devoted to piloting a legendary suit of mechanized power armor) may not get the skill to pilot their power armor, but the editors made damn sure to let the reader know that "Glitter Boy" is trademarked by Palladiumbooks, and every use of the word Rifts has a registered trademark symbol next to it. It's nice to see what was considered important in the editing and proofreading process.
Then there's the overall organization of the book. The big picture of the organization can be summarized as: Setting, Characters, Kewl Powers, Enemies, Equipment, and finally Rules. This, I suppose, makes enough sense. However, the book frequently references terms you would not know unless you were already familiar with Rifts (much like this review probably does, but hopefully not as prevalent). Some things are buried in places which might make sense but aren't where you'd actually expect them to be. Reading and referencing the book becomes a sort of hunting exercise. This is especially true when reading it straight through, as nearly every game concept and mechanic is hurled at the reader before the idea (usually expressed as abbreviation) is explained or defined.
An omnipresent huckster atmosphere permeates the book. Every character class description features one or more blurbs to run out and buy some Palladiumbooks product or other. The Elemental Fusionist class is itself a sort of advertisement for an upcoming Rifts video game, and the book lacks some of the class's basic spells in order to direct the reader to purchase a Palladiumbooks product called Book of Magic. Then there is a sort of "catalog" of all Rifts products which takes up 3 pages near the end of the book, explaining why you should buy all of them. To top it all off, the book also features a 2 page color advertisement for the upcoming Nokia Rifts video game, a Palladiumbooks mail order form, and back cover blurbs for other Palladiumbooks games. It's excessive by any measure you care to use.
Oh, and here's a note for old timers who get the book. The advertising blurbs said this book would be 95% new. That's technically true. The book is about 95% different from the old Rifts corebook, but it isn't because of brand new writing. Nearly everything in RUE can be traced to another Palladiumbooks product where it was cut & pasted from. This is good if you aren't a completist, as RUE has now absorbed updates from dozens of books worth of material. If you are a completist, this may not seem too cool. Nevertheless, it does turn out to be something of a benefit to have all that stuff concentrated in this brand new corebook rather than scattered over a zillion other books.
The question now is how do I proceed with the rest of this review? I think I'll take a cue from Kevin Siembieda himself, the author of Rifts Ultimate. In one of his designer's notes he says the most important things in RPGs are, in order of priority, characters, followed by a setting for them to romp in for continuing adventures, and finally a rule system to accommodate their actions. Let's see how the rest of the review goes following those same criteria.
Characters
Once again, in RUE, Kevin Siembieda says that characters are the most important thing about a RPG. He certainly attempts to deliver on that. Characters are randomly generated and class based, but there are a wide variety (30 or so) of character types to choose from.
Rifts has a little bit of everything. There are knights, hard-bitten mercenaries, combat cyborgs, mecha pilots, Indiana Jones types, cyberpunks, wilderness rangers, spell casters, magic device technicians, psionics, and even freakin' DRAGONS. I'm going to get completely subjective here. If you can't find a character template you want from all that, something is wrong! The character section is probably the best section of the RUE book.
While parts of character generation are random, random roll seldom restricts a player from the class they'd like to play, as requirements are fairly low, but it can happen. Plus, players get to pick from a large list of skills and selectable powers to customize their characters.
Buried in this section is a note by the author about how Rifts is perfectly balanced and playtested. While he defends his sentiment by saying that balanced does not mean equal, I can't say I agree with his application of the statement. While some classes have their particular niche protected, and are indeed balanced against others in different ways, there are some areas where things just aren't developed very well. For instance, the Robot Pilot O.C.C. is no better at piloting a robot than some other character who happens to choose the skills, and is, in many ways, worse than other character options for piloting robots. Then there are characters like the Rogue Scientist and Rogue Scholar. Where does one niche end and the other begin? Some classes have tons of fluff text describing them and numerous bonuses and special abilities while others get tiny descriptions and nearly no perks for their job choice. It seems a bit unbalanced to me.
If anything, the one thing that unmitigatedly mucks up making characters is the author's admitted equation of time spent making a character to character depth. Characters in Rifts take a long time to roll and write up. My playtesters took about an hour per character. There are a few other glitches as well, the major examples of which are references to cybernetics when cybernetics are not defined in the text and references to equipment like robotic horses which aren't in the book.
In the final analysis, I think this section deserves a rave. You get tons of character templates and a decent degree of customizability. There are definitely some problems with how the characters are balanced against each other, and the previously mentioned pervasiveness of advertising is troublesome. Overall though, I think it's pretty fair to say that the sheer variety in the selection of characters definitely delivers on the promise of characters as the most important and detailed element of the game.
Setting
The book describes its default setting by comparing it to the two movies Nightmare on Elm Street and The Day After Tomorrow crossed together. I don't think that's a very good way to summarize it. I'd compare it to Road Warrior crossed with Hellraiser crossed with Fist of the North Star crossed with Robotech, but that may be just me. The point is that the world of Rifts is our Earth transformed by a magic cataclysm of cosmic proportions. It has become a world of high powered technology and unbelievable supernatural power. Magic lines of energy crisscross the planet, and where they intersect they form nexus points where periodic Rifts to other dimensions form. Creatures that can only be called Demons roam the earth. It's a pretty bad situation all around.
The...Read more›

Click Here to see more reviews about: Rifts World Book 20: Canada

Buy cheap Rifts World Book 20: Canada now.

A Garden of Thoughts: My Affirmation Journal (Journals) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Each page of this book contains an affirmation, along with space to write a few lines, and record the day, date and time of your entry. You can either use the space to write your thoughts on the affirmation itself, or use it to jot a few lines about anything on your mind.
The affirmations themselves are inspiring and thought-provoking. Physically, the book is small enough to fit easily into a large purse or knapsack, and its hard cover is beautifully decorated. The spiral binding also makes it easy to write in for lefties. The only drawback that I can see is that the space allowed for filling in the day, date and time is a bit small for those of us with larger handwriting.
If you're working with affirmations and self-esteem issues, this is a great tool.

Click Here to see more reviews about: A Garden of Thoughts: My Affirmation Journal (Journals)

You have to opportunity to express your inner wisdom to give yoursubconscious self the space to expand and explore. A Garden Of Thoughts is yourwriting companion for a journey into self-discovery.

Get 22% OFF

Buy cheap A Garden of Thoughts: My Affirmation Journal (Journals) now.

Gender Advertisements Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)OK, this book can be hard to find. But it is THE essential source at the foundation of how to interpret visual images, especially as they depict gender roles. It takes a lot of studying to learn to "see" -- to see the patterns of symbolism in ads, for example. Recent books tend to rush this process or to be satisfied with only the most obvious, superficial layer of symbolism. I recommend taking the time to see more perceptively -- and Goffman is a great place to start.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Gender Advertisements

Buy cheap Gender Advertisements now.

Don't Rhyme for the Sake of Riddlin': The Authorized Story of Public Enemy Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Whilst I was down town in my local bookshop, killing an hour or two until the cinema opened, I happened to come across this book whilst browsing the music section. Truth to told I was a big PE fan, and until listening to 'Rebel without a pause, I wasn't really down with hip hop. I had no real intention of getting this, but the more I read, the more hyped I was to spend some quality time reading more. I duly copped it, and the best part of two days (it would have been quicker, but little matters like the wife & kids got in the way) devouring it. .I really enjoyed this book. My highlights were the sections that covered their early years, pre PE, how the collective ended up on 'Strong' Island, the paths that led them to hooking up. I especially enjoyed the sections that covered their four great albums: Yo! Bum rush the show, it takes a nation............, Fear of a black planet, and Apocalypse '91. Controversy was never far from Public Enemy then, and it was great to get a insight from the protagonists themselves in their own words, what with the infamous Griff with the Washington Post/Village Voice, to frictions with Def jam, and within the group.
The only flaw for me upon finishing this book is the very reason that it's also a good read. Due to the fact that Russell Myrie had authorized access to the group, he is able to let them tell the story from their own recollection, as opposed to devising arguments to fit the scenario from his own reasoning. But, I think this also hampers his own view point concerning the group. For example, he try to sell the argument that time has proved that 'Muse Sick-n- Hour Mess Age is not as bad an album as some 'critics' would have you believe. Whilst I partly agree with that statement, to me, that album was the moment the group's creative juice fell off. It was also the moment the language, i.e. the swearing, increased, and continued to do so, on future releases, compared to what had gone before. Also a s my last purchase of any PE material was said' Muse Sick', and the chapters that followed, relating to events from 1994 to the present day, weren't as exciting to me as there Golden age, previously mentioned
That aside I really enjoyed this biography, and would recommend it to any/all PE fans

Click Here to see more reviews about: Don't Rhyme for the Sake of Riddlin': The Authorized Story of Public Enemy

Russell Myrie’s Don’t Rhyme for the Sake of Riddlin’ is the first authorized biography of Public Enemy, the foremost hip-hop group of all time. With unprecedented access to the group, Myrie has conducted extensive interviews with Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Terminator X, Professor Griff, and the Shocklee Brothers, along with many others who form a part of Public Enemy’s legacy. Beginning with the group’s inception on Long Island and working up to the present day, Myrie writes with in-depth detail about the making of each seminal album, including It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and their multimillion selling album, Fear of a Black Planet. Myrie delves into the controversy sparked by Professor Griff’s alleged anti- Semitic remarks, the complexities of PE’s relationship with the Nation of Islam, the group’s huge crossover appeal with white and alternative music audiences in the early nineties, and finally the strange circumstances of Flavor Flav’s re-emergence on reality TV with shows such as The Surreal Life and Flavor of Love. A rare behind-the-music look at the group that fought the power, terrorized the music industry, and was crucial to the development of the hip-hop music phenomenon.

Get 71% OFF

Buy cheap Don't Rhyme for the Sake of Riddlin': The Authorized Story of Public Enemy now.

The Natural Canning Resource Book: A guide to home canning with locally grown, sustainably-produced and fair trade foods Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)If you have been looking (and looking) for a canning book that discusses how to can with more natural ingredients, how to can with alternative sweeteners, and how to safely experiment with modifying recipes, and even creating new ones, among other topics, you can stop your search. This book is not only well researched, it is also up-to-date -- a very important consideration because older canning books may contain obsolete and potentially dangerous advice.
Though not widely available in stores, this book is expertly produced and lavishly illustrated. It also includes helpful charts and diagrams to explain concepts like safe cooking times and temperatures, how altitude affects canning, and the importance of pH.
Chapters cover the following topics: The science & economics of canning, Rediscovering a lost art,
The place of canning in a sustainable future, Other ecological methods of food preservation, Home canning & a bioregional diet, A nutritional comparison of food preservation methods, Saving money through home canning, The history of canning & the USDA, The origins of canning, The development of USDA home canning guidelines, The science of creating canning recipes, The microbiology of canning, Spoilage molds & bacteria & pathogenic bacteria, How factory farms are making food safety more difficult, The process of canning, The canning kitchen, Stoves & canning, Boiling water bath canners, Pressure canners, Cooking pots, Other basic canning tools & equipment, Biocompatible cleaning & polishing recipes, Canning jars & lids, Bisphenol A, phthalates & Jarden canning lids, Jarden lid system alternatives, Post carbon canning jar options, Canning basics, Where to learn safe canning methods, Kitchen set-up & preparation for canning, Cold-pack versus hot-pack methods, Preparing jars, lids & food for canning, Water bath canning steps, Pressure canning steps, Spotting & safely discarding spoiled canned foods, Energy-saving canning tips, Storing & using canned food, High altitude canning, High altitude boiling water bath canning, High altitude pressure canning, High altitude tips & tricks, Solar canning, Using a solar cooker,
What not to do: oven canning, Safe solar canning methods, Solar canning tips, Community canning, Community canning projects, Community kitchens, A brief history of community kitchens & canning projects, Developing new recipes & selling your goods, Modifying & creating new high acid canning recipes, Water activity, Measuring and adjusting pH, Measuring pasteurization temperature, Heat penetration & thermal processing time, Selling canned foods, The modern forager, Food miles & carbon footprints, Obtaining local, organic & fair trade foods, Produce guide, Storing & washing produce, Preparing fruits & vegetables for canning, Other canning ingredients, Using & recycling food waste, Sugar & canning, Sugar chemistry, Descriptions of different sweeteners, Water activity levels of liquid sweeteners, Sugar & pH, Deciding which sweeteners to use in your canning recipes, Fruit, Acid & pectin contents of fruit, Extracting & canning fruit juices,
Canning whole & sliced fruit, Natural coloring for low sugar fruit syrups & preserves, Fruit sauces & purées (including homemade baby food), Preserve making tips, What is pectin? Sugar & the gelling process, Making do with less sugar & commercial pectin, Making your own pectin, Making jelly, Acidified foods, Tomato & tomatillo products, Pickles, relishes & chutneys, Vinegar & canning, Oil & acidified foods, Lactofermentation bacteria, Sauerkraut & other dry-salted fermentations, Brine-pickled vegetables & fruit, Water bath canning, lactofermented foods
Author Lisa Rayner is the author of Wild Bread - Handbaked sourdough artisan breads in your own kitchen 2009), The Sunny Side of Cooking - Solar cooking and other ecologically friendly cooking methods for the 21st century (2007) and Growing food in the southwest mountains: A permaculture approach to home gardening above 6,500 feet in Arizona, New Mexico, southern Colorado and southern Utah (3rd ed. 2002). She has been a home canner since 2003. She was the winner of the 2008 Friend's of Flagstaff's Future Livable Community Award and was a 2009 Gardens for Humanity Visionary Awardee.
I should mention that I am the author's husband.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Natural Canning Resource Book: A guide to home canning with locally grown, sustainably-produced and fair trade foods

In her fourth book, Lisa Rayner provides a practical guide to home canning for natural foods enthusiasts. Rayner is an award-winning local foods activist and organic gardening author. Her interest in growing, preserving and cooking with locally-grown and fair trade foods goes back more than 25 years.
This book fills a gap in canning literature. Most canning recipes use non-organic, refined ingredients like distilled white vinegar, white sugar, corn syrup and commercial pectin containing artificial preservatives. This book is not a recipe book. The Natural Canning Resource Book is meant to be used in conjunction with the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning and Preserving (available free as a Web download) and other USDA and Cooperative Extension publications. This book explains the science behind USDA canning guidelines and explores how to can foods using healthy, natural ingredients from your local farmers' market, Community Supported Agriculture project or natural foods grocery.
Learn how to:*Can fruit and pickled foods without sweeteners. Or sweeten canned foods with honey, agave syrup, maple syrup, rice syrup, barley malt, evaporated cane juice and other unrefined cane sugars.*Can domesticated, tropical and wild fruit. Gel jams and jellies with homemade fruit pectin.*Pickle vegetables with organic, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar or homemade vinegar.*Can lactofermented vegetables and fruit like sauerkraut, cucumber pickles and pickled plums.*Save money and energy with home canning.*Can foods in a boiling water bath or pressure canner using a solar cooker.*Reuse glass jars from commercially processed foods for home canning.*Can with American canning jars. Or try European canning jars with glass lids.*Create your own jam, jelly, conserve, fruit butter, pickle, relish, chutney and salsa recipes.*Start a food preservation club, community canning project or community kitchen.*Sell your canned goods at your local farmers' market or CSA.

Buy cheap The Natural Canning Resource Book: A guide to home canning with locally grown, sustainably-produced and fair trade foods now.