The Hungry Hiker's Book of Good Cooking
by Gretchen McHugh ©1982
This book has been around a while—it’s as old as my daughter. Even so, it’s still very popular with backpackers, campers and hikers. It’s got good solid information, and it all works, but it IS outdated in 2010. New products have entered the market, and stoves have been updated.
Amazon lists the book as sold by other sellers with a price of $41.95. For that price, I think I should get a bit more than just the cookbook! It is also available directly from Random House's website for $20.00, a much more reasonable price.
This is still a very worthy book to check out at your local library , and the recipes and ideas will go a long ways towards making sure you have a tasty meal on your backcountry trip, Some items, while you CAN cook them at home and dehydrate them to speed up the process of cooking on the trail, it might be a lot easier to start off with freeze dried ingredients from any of the companies who cater to emergency food storage/survivalists.
The Jaguar That Roams The Mind:
An Amazonian Plant Spirit Odyssey
by Robert Tindall
This isn't one more book about how wonderful the use of hallucinogenic substances is for the expansion of the mind. This book is way more than just that--its a book about one man's journey into spiritual awakening, and with his journey, it helps one examine their own life journey towards enlightenment, even if its by a far different path.
This is an excellent book to read, more than an autobiography, more than merely a book about enlightenment, instead providing a map of the author's journey, which allows the reader to vicariously share that journey or plan their own.
I highly recommend it!
Dragons & Rings (DVD)
by Steve Mitchell
Review #1:
For those who know me, this review will shock you. For those that don't, I normally find “movies” extremely tedious and slow moving, and its a grit-my-teeth-and-where-is-the-pause function sort of experience.
Dragons & Rings shattered my pattern faster than a bullet hitting a mirror.
I figured out how to get the dvd to play on the laptop because it was easier than getting the television out and dusting it off. (Yes, I keep my television out of my way. Some people get out the doilies and fine china when they have company, I get out my television. I will confess, I have a lovely post-Katrina purchased television, a 13” one with a built in dvd player so I didn't have to figure out how to do that. I normally keep it behind the sofa, out of my way, and it accumulates vast quantities of dust sitting there in its lonely hideaway.)
Once I hit the right icon, the film began playing and I was enthralled. It opened up a myriad of possibilities to explain an equally vast number of strange phenomena. If Steve Mitchell's theories have any validity, we have more possibilities laid out in front of us than imaginable. The visuals were not distracting from the concepts the narrator presented, the music on the soundtrack was a perfect match for mood and content. It was a fantastic experience to watch this video, and even if you don't agree with the ideas being presented, this is one of those things that can really inspire some discussion and thinking.
I want all my friends and family to see this movie, just so that I have the chance to discuss the ideas with them, to see what they think, to see how these ideas fit the nebulous matrix of our own ideologies. I feel like I actually got a glimpse through the board fence of the present and saw a narrow piece of our future when our understanding of the universe is so greatly expanded from what we know today.
This is at the top of the must see/must read list for Summer 2008!
http://www.reality-entertainment.com
http://www.soulpath.info
~~Gia Scott~~
Visionary Plant Consciousness
The Shamanic Teachings of the Plant World
edited by J.P. Harpignies
Review 1:
Western culture and its puritanical outlook on the use of psychoactive plants for any purpose takes a hard hit as the topic is explored in this book. Taken from many conference transcripts, its an entirely different way of looking at the entire process, with a much less biased view of these plants. It made me rethink a number of opinions I had been agreeing with and had neglected to give much thought to. Information about the environment and the blows it takes in terms of the American "war on drugs" was also an eye opener. This book quickly moved from the category of something I was reading to prepare for an interview to something that had some real information in it. Its available from any bookstore, including online ones such as Barnes & Noble or Amazon. I recommend you put it on YOUR reading list soon!
Suicide: What Really Happens in the Afterlife
by Pamela Heath and Jon Klimo
Review 1:
If you have ever contemplated suicide yourself, had a friend or family member attempt or succeed at suicide, this book will help you find your own way of accepting that. Its a fantastic book with more information packed in its pages than I would have ever dreamed possible, despite having dreaded reading it because of the topic. Once I started reading it, it was a case of I couldn't put it down. Its an amazing book, highly recommended.
Review 2:
Highly recommend this book, it gives great insight into the spirit world and the realities of life and death. Plain fantastic.
Waiting for Reviews
The books are coming in all of the time, and just beg to be read. Then somehow, the reveiws sort of slid onto the back burner. These books are all just waiting to be posted now, so keep checking back for their reviews.
Upcoming Reviews:
The United Symbolism of America
Visionary Plant Consciousness
The Way of the Explorer
Rachel's Eyes
Inner Paths to Outer Space
Victor Hugo's The Spirit World
The Book of Love
Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants
The Star of the Magi
Zombies
Raising Intuitive Children
Health and Disease Symbology Handbook
Wisdom Rising
A Ghost From The Shadows
Above Top Secret
You Can Talk to Animals
Reaching Through the Veil to Heal
Plant Spirit Healing
Medicine, Miracles and Manifestations
Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing
Unknown Universe
Learning from the Light
Psi Spies
11:11 Time Clock Phenomenon
2012: Autobiography of a Time Traveler