Rainy Summer Reading

Much needed summer rain is falling, and I’m trapped inside waiting for a repair guy, so here are some gatherings from around the blogosphere that I’ve enjoyed lately. . . .

Anyone interested in environmental education will want to visit the fifth edition of Learning in the Great Outdoors, a carnival hosted this month by Miss Rumphius Effect. Miss R, aka Tricia, blogs often and well about children’s literature, and her carnival edition includes links to posts recommending books to enrich a homeschool garden lesson, instructions on making a nature journal, and thoughts on using a classic, early 20th century environmental education volume, Handbook of Nature Study, by Anna Botsford Comstock, also for homeschooling. Has anyone else observed that homeschoolers seem to be at the forefront of outdoor ed & getting kids outside these days?

Our friends at 10,000 Birds have posted another item after PAS’s heart, “Keep Every Cog and Wheel.” Mike’s essay is a plea for saving parts of the natural world not currently recognized as commercially valuable, e.g., spotted owls. He likens our natural commons to a precarious Jenga game tower, with spotted owls as vital, if unappreciated, building blocks. Then he turns to Aldo Leopold for his game playing philosophy, quoting from A Sand County Almanac, “The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: “What good is it?” If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.” I suspect that if we all played by Aldo Leopold’s rules, we’d all win.

There’s an ecstatic review of Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods over at Natural Patriot, calling it “a seminal work in environmentalism”. Also check out Natural Patriot’s Essential Reading list. A Sand County Almanac’s on it, so NP is going on my blogroll today.

Another intriguing list of green books can be found at Ideal Bite. I have mixed feelings about this site, which sends out daily emails if you subscribe, with tips on “light green” living. Many are useful and fun, but many more seem to be pushing products--$150 designer handbags that happen to be made of hemp, $40 bamboo tshirts, etc. But I like this book list, especially if you can get the titles at the library. I hadn’t heard of Ignition, described as “a collection of personal essays by writers, scholars, and activists who have worked to stop global warming.” And I haven’t yet read Plenty, “a memoir about what happens when two people decide to eat only food produced within a 100-mile radius for a year.” But I can second the nomination of Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a book that has literally changed my family’s eating life.

Wishing you some refreshing rain so you can enjoy a day of late summer reading.

Welcome Home

Whew! Back from our trip, but still catching up with various backlogs. Here’s just a heads up on a couple of blog carnivals that may interest you that popped up while I was away.

Bean Sprouts has posted the 84th Carnival of the Green, which features an even-more-than-usually-broad array of topics. Drop by to read about such subjects as sustainable communities, nature-themed vacation Bible camp, honeybee colony collapse disorder, and even a rare bit of environmental good news—a correction of overly pessimistic reports on deforestation in Madagascar.

Over at Alone on a Limb, you’ll find the Independence Day edition of Learning in the Great Outdoors. This month’s carnival presents several blog posts on books, including two related to Last Child in the Woods, field guides visual and audio, and assorted children’s nature books. As the mom of a Reading Rainbow addict, I was especially excited to learn about Bookwink, an award-winning site dedicated to getting kids to read. Their strategy is to offer podcasts and webvideos of 3-minute book talks of favorite titles, plus archives of related books. With two readers in their 3rd – 8th grade target audience, I’ll definitely be checking back for more kid lit reviews.

Now, back to unpacking and that overflowing inbox. . . .

Vacation Reading

No, I'm not going to recommend a stack of steamy romance novels. Instead, while I'm away from Pinesabovesnow, you can peruse other blog writing via the following carnivals.

Carnival of Colors V, hosted by Mike of 10,000 Birds, offers all things colorful, from a visual acuity & coordination test to exercises in appreciating nature's many hues. My personal favorite: A glimpse of the colors you might have seen flying through your own woods this spring, at DC Birding Blog.

The 13th edition of the Festival of Trees is up at Wrenaissance Reflections. Entitled "Putting Down Roots," the carnival presents links from around the world that celebration the connections between trees and places in our minds and hearts.

In honor of the Maryland Blogger Alliance, I include the 10th edition of the Carnival of Maryland, just out tonight. I haven't had a chance to read it, but hey! I'm on vacation. I'll read it when I get back. . . .

Happy Fourth of July!

June Carnival Round Up

The County Fair won’t open ‘til August, but it still feels like carnival weather today. What could be more fun than eating popcorn, fudge, and candy apples before hopping on a stomach churning roller coaster? Reading lots of great blog posts on books, nature, and nature books, that’s what. So step right up and try your luck with some of the carnivals posted below.

The Summer Vacation edition of Learning in the Great Outdoors is up at Alone on a Limb. This Carnival’s midway offers links to a flashy array of environmental education posts, including several on homeschooling outdoors. By Sun and Candlelight, for example, urges parents to get kids excited about nature study by focusing on wildlife mysteries. Pack a detective kit, complete with field guides, and start looking for clues. Some of the guides you need are reviewed at 10,000 Birds, notably a summer necessity, the Audubon Field Guide to Butterflies. Alone on a Limb also links to photo journal entries of a trip to China by Miss Rumphius Effect, a teacher who writes about children’s literature. Her sidebar won me over to this blog, where you find a button for Library Thing, an online book cataloging service that lists 749 titles for Miss R. I'll be checking that list for good titles in the future.

More exhibits of green writing are on display at the Carnival of the Green, via Groxie. A weekly carnival meta-organized by Treehugger, this edition Carnival of the Green leans toward the practical. Any writers out there will find useful advice for hard core paper recycling over at Confessions of a Closet Environmentalist.
Lighter Footstep tells how to shrink your carbon footprint and expand your wallet with “10 Cheap Ways to Cool-Off Your Refrigerator Bills.” And Veggie Revolution expresses reservations about the marketability of biofuel cars in
Alternative Fuel Vehicles will be Tough Sell.

With all of the above excitement, I haven’t had a chance yet to make my way through three other favorite carnivals. As a faithful Maryland Blog Alliance member, I call your attention to the latest MD Carnivaled at Talk-Lab. 10,000 Birds is hosting the always-surprising Carnival of the Spineless. And I just learned about the Festival of Trees. Pinesabovesnow likes the idea of a tree carnival so much, I’ve added a lovely button on the sidebar so you can go straight to it any time. As my kids would argue, there’s always time for one more carnival ride before going home to bed.

Books & Blog Carnivals

Should PinesAboveSnow host a nature book blog carnival? My blogging mentor says yes, having just hosted his first, a far-ranging gathering of posts on political conflicts large and small over at Talk-Lab. Now Mike over at 10,000 Birds has posted Top Five Ways Blog Carnivals Make Blogging Better. Carnivals, says Mike, increase traffic and links to your site but also nurture more personal connections and even lead to the development of community. As he puts it, “Many successful blog carnivals provide the nucleus for genuine online communities that often translate to gratifying offline networks.” Since creating an on- & off-line community of nature book aficionados & activists is one of my goals of PinesAboveSnow, maybe a carnival would be a good idea.

I’d be delighted to hear what others think about the possibilities of a nature book carnival. At the moment, I’ll just keep my eyes open as I click around the blogsophere (especially at existing carnivals) for good book-related writing out there. Today, I found via Tangled Bank a review of Serve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action by J. Matthew Sleeth. Posted by Jeremy at Voltage Gate, the review turns a skeptical eye on the recent flurry of evangelical conservatives converting to the environmental cause. While Jeremy applauds the book’s anti-materialist ethical stance, he cringes at its anti-science undercurrents. He writes, “Without good science, however, we have no basis for making any decisions regarding the environment, moral or not.” Given the growing numbers of fundamentalist churches espousing green-er views, and the deepening need to work with everyone toward environmental solutions, this is an especially welcome analysis. Also welcome will be the series of reviews of popular conservation and ecology books being promised by Voltage Gate. I’ll keep checking in for ‘em.

And I would be remiss not to mention a carnival with a post from PAS, Learning in the Great Outdoors. You’ll also find there posts on how to do some nature writing of your own, via journaling, and environmental book recommendations from an experienced educator, plus a link to yet another blog carnival, Festival of Trees. With so much cool stuff out there, it’s no wonder I need your help to find good book reviews and other writing about writing out there. Thanks!