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May 27, 2009

Running the Numbers -- and more green reads

running the numbersIn honor of B'more Green, The Baltimore Sun's newest blog, here are a few books with a green living theme. If you haven't seen the new blog yet, drop by. And let us know if you've found other good green reads -- mention one in a comment here (or at B'more Green) and we'll pick a lucky soul for a giveaway.

Running the Numbers: an American self-portrait by Chris Jordan. This visually arresting book accompanies a museum show in which Jordan illustrates the immensity of our wastefulness. In one image, the artist morphs Seurat's "A Sunday on Grand Jatte" by using cans of Sprite, Coke and other drinks in pointillist style to depict the 106,000 aluminum cans used in the U.S. every 30 seconds. Other images continue the environmental theme, though some stray into topics such as handguns and the Iraq war. The traveling show is now at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History; the closest it gets to Baltimore is Haverford College next January.

Farm City by Novella Carpenter. The book begins: "I have a farm on a dead-end street in the ghetto." That's a pretty good summary of her mission to create GhostTown Farm, an unlikely agricultural outpost in Oakland. Carpenter, who studied with locavore guru Michael Pollan, writes of the contrast between gritty city and vege-topia -- what Pollan calls "a mind-meld of Fifty Cent and Wendell Berry."

The Way We Garden Now by Katherine Whiteside. Buoyed by delightful water color illustrations, this practical book offers a step-by-step guide to creating various types of gardens. Whiteside conveniently breaks down each project -- "Try some tropicals," "Plot Some Paths" -- into small, medium or large, so you'll know upfront how long it will take. And she peppers the text with personal observations: "Some people mistakenly moan about shade in their gardens. Having a shady area is just like having mousy hair: It is only a problem if you don't brighten it and keep it nicely groomed."
Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 5:00 AM | | Comments (1)
        

Comments

"City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America" by Laura J. Lawson. This book on urban gardening is a few years old, but it's still relevant. Here's the link on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/reader/0520243439?%5Fencoding=UTF8&ref%5F=sib%5Fdp%5Fpt

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About the blogger
Dave Rosenthal came to The Baltimore Sun as a business reporter in 1987 and now is the Maryland Editor. He reads a wide range of books (but never as many as he'd like), usually alternating between non-fiction and fiction. Some all-time favorites: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole; Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery; and anything by Calvin Trillin or John McPhee. He belongs to a book club with a Jewish theme.
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