Folks, this ain't normal by Joel Salatin

Reading Joel Salatin books is like eating popcorn - you just can't stop once you start. Fortunately he has a quite a few out there, so it's possible to keep right on turning pages.

"Folks, this ain't normal" was so down-to-earth and common sense that I had to keep giving my head a shake. This man sees right through all the nonsense floating around in the food production/food industry business. We have lost our idea of what is normal, natural and nurturing. What is needed is for a generation to take Salatin's precepts to heart and turn the tide on abnormal.

FTAN takes on just about anything having to do with daily living from child raising to gardening/farming to where we get our water. Like his previous book that I reviewed in the summer each chapter ends with take-away points. Many are easily put into practice; others are ideals that will take years for our country to embrace. But you will always find something that you can do, right now, today, that will make a difference. Each person doing their bit in their own part of the universe will get the ball rolling to restore normalcy to society in general.

Child raising is chapter one, so I'll give an example of his practical advice to return to normal in the home.

1. Grow things...anything. Indoor grow lights are still magic, and can bring sunlight indoors for remarkable discoveries.

2. Lobby for more lenient child labor opportunities so that once again teens can do historically normal work.

3. Instead of going on a cruise or Disney vacation, how about choosing a working ranch experience for the family, or an extremely rustic wilderness adventure where you make some traps and hunt for food?

4. Brainstorm entrepreneurial child-appropriate businesses - hand crafts, repair, tutoring, calligraphy, customized invitations, cleaning homes, mowing lawns, picking up rocks, hoeing weeds. The list of possibilities could fill many pages. Don't underestimate the creativity and resourcefulness of your sixteen-year-old unleashed on the community. Stay out of the way and let her run.

and I shall have some peace there by Margaret Roach

The cover of this book requires that you pick it up it's so beautiful and peaceful. The subtitle "trading in the fast lane for my own dirt road" was intriguing enough to cause me to toss it into my library bag and take it home. I love to read about people who have changed course dramatically in their lives, based on changing life values or re-evaluation of their lives or perhaps just finally getting to what they've always wanted to do in the first place.

This is a non-fiction book. So Margaret's introspective journey to finally leaving a well-paying, prestigious career working under Martha Stewart is particularly meaningful. And Margaret is touchingly honest. We hear the good and the bad. Warts and all, she doesn't hold anything back. It's like she took her journal and fleshed it out.

I enjoyed being alongside as she made the important decisions; I enjoyed her descriptions of the plant and animal life in her new habitat. I'm encouraged that she made this big step and is being successful at it. In fact, you can read an ongoing discussion at her blog "A way to garden".

A favourite quote from the book is Martha Stewart's motto "learn something new every day". Easy to do when you read a lot. :)