Destination: Books

Three Books on Seeds

In anticipation of the upcoming Wylde Center's Seed and Scion Exchange later this month (details here), Destination: Books has been gathering books about seeds and taking a closer look at their specific offerings. Here’s a recap:

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners by Suzanne Ashworth. For over twenty years this book has been a mainstay reference book providing detailed information on each vegetable including: botanical classification, flower structure and pollination, isolation distance, population size, caging or hand pollination and proper method to grow, harvest, dry clean and store the seeds.

It’s well organized and includes growing tips for different regions of the U.S. Seed to Seed reminds us that few things can match the usefulness of a good, soon-to-be-dogeared, reference book.

The Seed Detective: Uncovering the Secret Histories of Remarkable Vegetables by Adam Alexander.  In this book the globetrotting Alexander, combines his personal experiences with the history and heritage of a variety of vegetables. His prose is fast-paced, breezy and loaded with fun facts whether diving into the evolutionary history of the tomato or discussing the color of carrots. Each chapter reads like a mini documentary you’d see on the Veggie Gardening Channel.

I guess it should not come as any surprise since Alexander’s day job is as a film and television producer.

The Seed Underground by Janisse Ray.  This nonfiction collection is mixture of Ray’s upbringing in the southeastern Georgia, her own experiences pursing and preserving seeds, and portraits of the “revolutionaries” who have influenced and inspired her along the way.  Ray’s book is more lyrical and longing in tone and she is also a no-nonsense activist, highly critical of large American Food System. In the chapter “What is Broken” she lists the reasons why seed diversity is important: 

1. Our food is going extinct.
2. Our food supply is being stolen from us.
3. Our food supply is being bought out from under us.
4. Bad food has been forced down our throats.
5. Our food is hazardous to our health.
6. Our food is harming the earth.
7. Our food annihilates pollinators.
8. Our food threatens democracy.

If you cannot make to the Seed and Scion Exchange to swap seeds and enjoy the company of like-minded people, these seed books are available at our online store or directly from the publisher Chelsea Green. These new books would be shipped directly to your home and you’ll be supporting independent bookstores and an independent employee-owned publisher.

BTW, Destination: Books is now a 2023 Vendor Sponsor for the Wylde Center.

Mushroom Induced Reading

As part of my off-season regime, I am hopelessly trying to catch up on books that I am scouting out for the 2023 version of Destination: Books. My anthropologist daughter Cynthia sent me one such book for consideration– The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing.

The book begins by centering on the matsutake mushroom as an edible delicacy in Japan, where it sometimes commands astronomical prices. What adds to its uniqueness is that it thrives in damaged landscapes in the northern hemisphere—most notably Japan, Oregon, and Finland. By damaged, I mean scrubby landscapes of usually pine trees leftover from commercial logging by the timber industry. It cannot be grown commercially and harvesting it relies on a diverse population of mushroom hunters* who vary in background, customs, and language. In Oregon, many of the hunters are Hmong (from Laos), lu Mien (Laos and Thailand), or Khmer (Cambodia) who migrated to the Northwest after families who were displaced by the War in Southeast Asia. Also, included in the book is a history of the Japanese forestry industry, which factors into today’s matsutake landscape as well.

Tsing describes in detail this unusual supply chain of matsutake commerce. Since the mushroom thrives in human-disturbed forests, it offers some resurgence in ravaged ecosystems. Quoting the book’s jacket: “In all its contradictions, matsutake offers insights into areas far beyond just mushrooms and addresses a crucial question: what manages to live in the ruins we have made?” By investigating one of the world’s most sought-after fungi, The Mushroom at the End of the World presents “an original examination into the relation between capitalist destruction and collaborative survival within multispecies landscapes, the prerequisite for continuing life on earth.”

Mushroom hits the sweet spot of a Destination: Books offering—the intersection of sustainability, distant places to visit and good writing.  Tsing's book is wide in scope and can be challenging at times, but well worth the effort.

The book is available in the Fungi and Mushroom section of the Destination: Books online store (powered by Bookshop.org) next to Merlin Sheldrake’s classic Entangled Life. Purchases made there are shared with independent booksellers like Destination: Books.

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* The photograph of an immigrant Thai mushroom hunter at the top of the posting comes from a New York Times 2013 video series. Thomas Patterson took the photo. (The Mushroom book has many black and white hotos, but none that I could get ahold of.) 

Closing Out 2022

Destination: Books will be making its final 2022 appearance at the Carter Center's Freedom Farmer's Market on Saturday morning, December 10, 2022. We will have a range of books —those suitable for gift giving and some close out end-of-the-year sale books as well. A savvy shopper could find a book that meets both criteria. 

Here's some examples:

We wrote about the Katz and Bir books here earlier this year.

A chance to continue to do year-round gardening with Peter Burke. More info here.

Or is this the time of year to work on that soil before Spring planting with Jesse Frost?

Our Partners - Carlos Museum Bookshop and Andersson Gardens

These are just a few of the books we'll have on hand at the Carter Center. Also, our book partners from the Carlos Museum Bookshop (a nonprofit bookseller on the campus of Emory University) will be there with children's books, books on food culture etc. and books you will not see anywhere else in the Atlanta Metro area.

In Avondale Estates on Sunday, December 11.

Andersson Gardens will have some books from us for their popup at the Avondale Farmers Market on Sunday morning and the Avondale Estates Holiday Market, which is at the Community Center from Noon to 6 p.m. 

 

 

Gift Books at Avondale Farmer's Market

Destination: Books has supplied some of its favorite titles to Andersson Gardens in Avondale Estates. Andersson has put together holiday gift baskets to sell at the Avondale Estates Farmers Market on Sunday, December 4, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Shown here is a Festive Flora book from Kew Pocket Books. These books feature gorgeous botanical illustrations from the Royal Botannical Gardens' Kew Library and Archives.

More about Destination: Books

Even though Destination: Books is a popup and online bookshop and not a bricks-and-mortar store, we are still an independent bookseller and a member of the American Bookseller Association. We are an affiliate and a beneficiary of the Bookshop.org program. (Bookshop.org is a collaboration between the ABA and the book wholesaler Ingram.)

For every new book purchased through the bookshop.org portal, money eventually is shared to hundreds of affiliates. Moreover, if you purchase any new book through the specific Destination: Books bookshop portal, we even receive an additional commission. 

Our Destination: Books bookshop portal lists some of the books we have written about in our destinationbooks.net blog or have discussed with you while you visited our booth throughout the year (but you can search for any current title.) Furthermore Bookshop.org is offering free shipping on book orders until Monday midnight, November 28, 2022.

Thanks for your support of independent reading and thinking.

These Just In

Between popups, I have been evaluating two books that may be of interest to our "adventurous” clientele.

Dan Chapman in his recently published A Road Running Southward: Following John Muir’s Journey Through an Endangered Land mixes a travelogue with a report card on the Southeast’s various ecosystems from Kentucky to Florida. Chapman follows naturalist John Muir’s 1867 trek from Louisville, through Tennessee and Georgia to Cedarville, Florida but instead of traveling on foot through a war torn South, he goes by Subaru through a growing/sprawling South, which has prospered, depending on one’s definition of prosper, at great ecological cost.

Not only does Chapman reference Muir’s writings throughout, but he uses his journalistic skills to interview those on the front line of the Southeast’s fight against species disappearance, water pollution and habitat loss. His chapter on the 2008 coal ash flood in Kingston, Tennessee is especially poignant, especially when you consider North Georgia has been bringing the toxic coal ash (a byproduct of coal firing plants) from other states.

Likewise, in Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle, Jody Rosen takes the reader to distant lands and a journey through history. Rather than try to write a definitive, Pollyannish, account of this newly crowned symbol of green living, Rosen explores the gray areas of the bicycle (or velocipedes as it was known early in 19th century England) mixing in personal experiences and a travelogue.

Rosen effortlessly (always a good sign of a skilled writer) meshes the bicycles current standing with its checkered and uncertain past especially with airplanes and automobiles.   In one chapter, Rosen travels to the St. Giles Church in Buckinghamshire-west of London to see a stained-glass window that is graced by an early (biblical?) bicycle. The minister explains why so many make the pilgrimage. “A thing you learn about this job is the people like mysteries, I think as much as they like certainties.”

These words of wisdom explain why this book is so good.

Note: Our next popup at the Freedom Farmer's Market is scheduled for Saturday morning, November 19th. You can also find these two books at our online Destination: Books store.

Rotating Pop-Up Inventory

Just like those Gardening Best Practices books which suggest that you rotate your veggies in the garden from year to year, Destination: Books is rotating its book inventory for our next pop-up on Saturday morning, October 22nd at the Carter Center's Freedom Farmers Market in Atlanta.

Here's a sample of some of the new titles you can expect to see:

Kew Pocket Books 

Gorgeous botanical illustrations on Herbs and Spices, Wildflowers, Japanese Flowers, Fruit, Festive Flora, Herbs and Spices coupled with detailed captions. Artistry made available from the Royal Botannical Gardens' Kew Library and Archives.

Books about Fabric Dyeing

My longtime partner Denise (who does a lot with fabric) curated these two books that she suggests is inventory worthy. 

The Modern Natural Dyer: A Comprehensive Guide to Dyeing Silk, Wool, Linen and Cotton at Home by Kristine Vijar. This book is kind of Dyeing 101 book written for the person who is just starting to learn about dyeing.

Journeys in Natural Dyeing: Technic for Creating Color at Home by Kristine Vijar. This colorful book is more of an in-depth guide to dyeing techniques from around the world.

 

 

These May Interest as Well

Growing Perennial Foods: A Field Guide to Raising Resilient Herbs, Fruits and Vegetables by Arcadia Tucker. She is the author of the popular Tiny Victory Gardens book, which is a solid book for beginners with limited space.

The Seed Detective: Uncovering the Seed Histories of Remarkable Vegetables by Adam Alexander. Inspiring stories about vegetables.  Putting the culture in horticulture.

 

Popup at a Popup

Destination: Books will be managing the books sales at the opening for Drew Langsner's This is Not a Chair: A Popup Exhibit of Recent Sculpture on Friday evening, September 30th in Avondale Estates. Although this is not our normal venue, it does fit in with what we like do— to display and chat about some fine books such as Langsner's Country Woodcraft: Then and Now.

 

Country Woodcraft   was originally published in 1978 and this revised edition from Lost Art Press includes an additional hundred pages in its original format of landscape binding and printed on #80 matte coated paper for superior image reproduction.

Langsner revisits his earlier work which gives it a "delightful conversation with his younger self" quality.

The exhibit is open to the public.

VIPs Visit Destination: Books

Last Saturday (9/17) was a little different at the Destination: Books popup book stall at the Carter Center's Freedom Farmers Market here in Atlanta. In front of our booth, we noticed a small entourage surrounding a man who we soon recognized as Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey),

Senator Booker was in town to campaign for Raphael Warnock for senator and Stacey Abrams for governor. He stopped by our book stall and chatted briefly. With our wide selection of books about gardening, the environment and sustainability, he was interested in several titles, and he bought something for one of his staffers. (Being professional booksellers, we remain discrete.)

A few minutes later Stacey Abrams appeared at the Market. Even though it looks like in the picture she is browsing at our books, a closer look reveals that she is actually looking beyond the book rack. (She probably recognized that we don't carry any of her books.) 

True VIPS

Though Booker and Abrams made things interesting, our real VIPS are regular customers who stop by browse and engage with us. We always enjoy talking about books, hearing about what you are reading and swapping ideas.  

Our next popup is scheduled for the Freedom Farmer's Market on Saturday morning, October 22nd. 

September Song

We’re turning the page from summer to fall, here at Destination: Books.  Instructional books about growing vegetables like The Whole Okra, Epic Tomatoes and Square Foot Gardening forfeit shelf space to more off-season fanfare such as Year-Round Indoor Gardening, Plants Are My Favorite People. and A Sand County Almanac.

In Year-Round Indoor Gardening, Peter Burke provides convincing instructions on how you can grow your own ingredients for healthy, tasty salads year-round. His methods are low-tech, low impact and do not require grow lights or even a window with southern exposure. With an abundance of color photographs and drawings he shows how you can fight off the moody blue feelings that can crop up at the end of the gardening season.

When your outdoor gardening activities are limited, one can pivot to house plants. In Plants Are My Favorite People, Alessia Resta provides a colorful guide and inspiration to turning your living space to an indoor arboretum. (She keeps 200 plants in her 750 square foot New York City apartment). Not only does she cover the basics of determining what mix of plants and involvement best suits you, but she includes how-tos on repotting, pest control, and fertilizing. She includes a list of 26 popular house plants that can get you started in the right direction.

A Sand County Almanac's -- That Rare Combination

A Sand County Almanac is the 1948 Aldo Leopold classic that now includes a new introduction by Barbara Kingsolver. It hits a Destination: Books' sweet spot -- a book that intersects good writing, with natural world and environmental themes, and travel (to different places and time.) The first part of Leopold’s book chronicles a year on his farm in Wisconsin and it is filled with simple but poignant observations. For example, in the entry "February,", Leopold is forced to cut down a nearly century-old oak tree fatally damaged by lighting. As he saws through the tree he ruminates on the ecological history of the state:

"Now our saw bites into the 1920's, the Babbittian decade when everything grew bigger and better in heedlessness and arrogance--until 1929, when stock markets crumpled. If the oak heard them fall, its wood gives no sign. Nor did it heed the Legislature's several protestations of love for trees: A National Forest and a forest-crop law in 1927, a great refuge on the Upper Mississippi bottomlands in 1924, and a new forest policy in 1921. Neither did it notice the demise of the state's last marten in 1925, nor the arrival of its first starling in 1923.

In March 1922, the Big Sheet tore the neighboring elms limb from limb, but there is no sign of damage to our tree. What is a ton of ice, more or less, to a good oak?

Rest! cries the chief sawyer, and we pause for breath."

Part Two are short sketches from Leopold’s life (1886-1948) in the Midwest where he grew up, and travels in Canada and the Southwest. Before he settled permanently in Wisconsin, he worked for the U.S. Forest Service in New Mexico and Arizona.

The final third of the book includes four essays summarizing how we to change our thinking about natural world. Kingsolver describes one of the essays “The Last Ethic” as a “classic classroom text and the manifesto of a movement.”

Return to Freedom Farmer's Market

Destination: Books will be at the Freedom Farmer's Market at the Carter Center on Saturday morning, September 17th. We were rained out last week, but we'll be back with our partners from the Carlos Museum Bookshop with plenty of new titles and ready to chat about books.