Edible by Daniella Martin

Entomophagy, have you heard of it?  It's eating bugs and as much as you can be grossed out by the subject, it's also something that warrants a closer look.  Because this is a protein source that makes much more sense than some of our current sources.

Martin studied anthropology and took a special interest in bugs; the eating of them that is.  In writing this book she explores how the eating of bugs evolved through time (our ancestors diets would probably have surprised us), how people around the world are still eating bugs, and the different cuisines that incorporate them.  She travels around the world, attending special restaurants or conventions that also specialize in eating bugs.  At the end, there are sections on how to raise bugs at home, a list of edible insects, and recipes.

I found the book fascinating.  The way Martin shows how bugs are used in cooking definitely makes it sound like a normal part of life and that we're the abnormal ones for not eating them.  She presents good arguments for why eating insects would help on a global scale for feeding the world.  And she makes everything sound appetizing.  I'm not joking when I say I'd gladly try eating some of the dishes she describes because they do sound quite good.  And her writing style in general is pretty funny.  She throws in plenty of jokes, writes in a conversational style, and you don't feel like you're reading a scientific type of book because it is so approachable.

Some people will be grossed out though.  We're raised not to think of bugs as food and the whole concept can make your skin crawl if you let it.  But if you loosen up and let go of your preconceived notions, it is quite interesting.  This book also has the potential to offend the vegetarians and vegans.  Martin doesn't think it's a bad diet, but she also does say was she thinks about it in terms of a diet that would suit the world and how it impacts people's activities. 

A very interesting book and one that made me think about eating bugs.  Not often that a piece of reading material can do that for you.  Very enjoyable!

Edible
Copyright 2014
252 pages

**This review is part of the Amazon Vine Program**

Apple Pie: An American Story by John Edge

This is the second book in Edge's series about food. The first was about Fried Chicken. And I do think this second book was written better. And I'm not even a pie fan, but I found the information contained within to be interesting.

Apple Pie is definitely considered all American. There are so many variations from crumb toppings, to mock apple pie, to a flaky crust that everybody believes they do it the right way. In this book, Edge goes around the country trying out different versions of the pie and meeting the people that make them. Sadly, most of the pies he tries are not up to par, but there are a rare few that stand out and make his trips worthwhile. He also explores some of the history behind the pies and even presidents that had a fondness for the apple variety.

He meets some interesting people in his journeys. Especially the ladies that make the fried pies, they have some unique, albeit sad, stories about how they first started making pies. And then there's the guy who adds chilies to his pies. I thought he was interesting and had a fantastic idea. One I'd like to try out myself if I could only make a decent crust. And Edge himself is a charming narrator. He has a lot of belief and love of food and keeps trying even if he does run in to some not so tasty renditions of pie.

This book flowed a little better than the first book did. The chapters were slightly longer and allowed for a more in-depth look at the places he was exploring and the type of pie that was being produced. It also allowed more time for interviewing the people and relating a bit of history as well. I still would have liked to see more about the food itself. He covered the history very well, and even included a few recipes, but this was a very fast read and I think a lot more could have been added.

This book hasn't quite made me a pie convert, but I do want to try the green chili apple pie now and will have to hold on to the recipe from this book. I think anyone who appreciates the history of food would probably enjoy reading this book, or really any from the series.

Apple Pie: An American Story
Copyright 2004
162 pages

The International Bank of Bob by Bob Harris

**This review is part of the Amazon Vine program**


What a fantastic book! If there's anything restores my hope for humanity, this would be it. Not only had I never heard of the Kiva program before this book, but it was just filled with wonderful details of Bob's travels as well that I enjoyed.

Before I start, I want to explain the Kiva program briefly. Kiva is a micro-finance/loan program. Well, it works with those programs actually. It's an online site where you can browse the profiles of people requesting a micro-loan to help expand or finance their business. People lend as little as $25 towards the loan, and then are repayed as the borrowers repay their loans through micro-finance companies in their country. The repayal rate is currently about 98.98% which is amazing. The idea of Kiva is based off of the Grameen Bank that won the Nobel Peace Prize (I had heard of this program, read several wonderful articles on it).

Bob is a travel writer and after getting the opportunity to go review some luxurious resorts around the world, he happily takes off. But once at these locations he is appalled at the conditions the people working in them live and the disparity between incomes. And then he discovers Kiva at a conference and winds up putting around twenty thousand dollars into the program. But that's not enough, he wants to make sure his money is making a difference. So he organizes a trip to write this book and meet some of the people around the world that he's loaned money to. He also visits the Micro Finance Institutions and meets the people running them, and even visits borrowers who he hadn't had any impact on. Just to round everything out.

The people are so wonderful in this book. Even faced with horrible situations they somehow rise above it and continue to try to better themselves. It makes me feel like a tiny person when I think about the things I complain about. One thing I did notice is that nearly every client didn't have their real name in the book. Which is fine. It was just comical to see explanation after explanation of why the real name wasn't going to be used. I would have just put a note at the beginning of the book saying all names are protected and been done with it. Bob himself is a quite lovable person. I know he's writing about himself in this, but he does so in such a modest way that you can't help but appreciate him. And the fact that he loves good causes doesn't hurt either.

I appreciated the idea of this book. I'm always looking for interesting topics about the world and what could be better than helping someone? And in addition to learning so many things (this book was extremely well researched) Bob approached it in an easy-to-understand way and made it comical too. He can be amidst extreme poverty but still find the silver lining, although he does have a few blue moments. And I like that when using numbers, he compares it to something in the USA so you have a picture in your head of what he's talking about. I actually can't really find anything to complain about in this book. I'm sure there were some things that could have been done better, but I enjoyed the book so much that I must have ignored them. Even the sources section was thorough and extremely informative.

And thanks to Bob, I made my first Kiva loan. And I can't wait to make another one. Oh, and I just thought of my only complaint. I joined Kiva while about halfway through the book, and it wasn't until the end I saw the link I could have used to say that Bob inspired me to join, but by then it was already too late. Front cover, hint hint, would be helpful. But like I said, nothing about the book contents itself made me want to complain, a wonderful look at the world of micro-finance.

The International Bank of Bob
Copyright 2013
391 pages

The Insider's Guide to the Peace Corps by Dillon Banerjee

I'm going to join the Peace Corps.  Not right away of course, I still have responsibilities that I have to take care of before I can go (my parents would not appreciate me dumping two cats and two chinchillas on them).  But when I don't have those responsibilities anymore, I'm going.  After reading this book, I'm even more determined to do it. 

And it's not because this book is all sunshine and rainbows.  This book tells it as it is and I think its very truthful.  Banerjee has taken the time to answer all sorts of questions you could think of (or not think of!) about the Peace Corps.  He starts with the application process, and I've got to tell you, I didn't realize that there were some many needed qualifications to become a volunteer.  It's competitive!  Then he goes in to what to pack and what you can usually find in country.  Next is the actual training, since it varies from program to program, he offers the basics, but it does help to know how the training process takes place.  There's a short section on managing your money and then its on to "Living like the Locals" which gives an idea of what your accommodations will be.  There's a rather large section on Medical Concerns, which was nice because that's a big worry for some.  Next is a section on the postal service and phone calls and what's available.  There is a section on technology, and sadly for the technophobes out there, most gadgets are really not that useful where the volunteers are located.  There are also sections on other volunteers, what kind of work you'll be doing, and the rules of the Peace Corps.  It finishes out with how to travel around while in country and what to do after the stint in the Peace Corps, and of course useful appendices.

I learned so much from this book and voraciously read it.  Couldn't put it down in fact which made for a sleepy day the next day.  But that's ok.  As I said before it further convinced me that this is what I want to do.  I like the way he approached all the topics too.  He told what was good, what was not, and gave points of view from all different sides.  In fact, its very rare that I could find him be biased anywhere about anything.    There is a section on negative aspects of the Peace Corps, but he gave the reasonings behind these and balanced it out with the positives of everything.  Additionally, there are also a couple of scary sections, like sexual harassment and some of the illnesses.  But Banerjee takes the time to explain statistics and how these situations are handled and everything seemed to be well taken care of.  In fact, in most cases it wasn't really any different than the statistics here in the United States.

A fantastic book if you're thinking about joining the Peace Corps or volunteering overseas.  It really goes in depth on the program and could probably change a few peoples minds who are considering the program.  It at least gives all the facts honestly and is definitely a book I will be keeping around to peruse over and over.

The Insider's Guide to the Peace Corps
Copyright 2009
181 pages

Get Up To Speed with Online Marketing by Jon Reed

**This review is part of the Amazon Vine program**

Because of the reviewing I do, I've been targeted at work for working on their online marketing. This means that despite my lack of background in anything marketing, I have to research and come up with ideas for the law firm I work at to better reach a market through social media and other avenues. Obviously despite growing up with technology, this means that I have to learn things I don't already know. So enter this book, which I thought would be a good start.

Get Up To Speed covers a very wide range of topics. Some I already knew, some I didn't really care about, and some I was very interested to learn new things on. From blogging to setting up RSS feeds to twitter, this site covers a lot on how to use popular social media sites. Facebook and LinkedIn are predominant, as is twitter and running your own blog, and youtube even gets some time in this book. There are others, but they are run over rather briefing and don't get the center stage. For all these medias, there are suggestions on how to use it to the best of your ability for your business, in addition to screenshots of some of them, and instructions on how to use some of the different medias in different ways. There are also examples from other businesses on how they used social media to improve themselves.

Reading this at times was very interesting and at other times very boring, like slogging through a dry textbook. I think the problem lay in the detail. While some areas were extensively covered and I learned everything I wanted to, others only had summary descriptions and it left me wondering how to use it properly. For instance, because of how complicated blogs can get with their different pages and other features, I think that chapter could have been widely expanded while Twitter or LinkedIn could have been a little less. I realize that this is probably in the eye of the beholder, but in general I think most businesses would find that more helpful. There is a section on how to get yourself noticed on social media sites, but it was somewhat brief and didn't really clear up anything for me in that regard.

But I did learn a lot of new things. Especially in terms of site analytics. Thanks to this book I found a site to track my own personal blog analytics, which I had wondered about for awhile. There were a lot of links to different trackers like this and other programs that help monitor how sites are doing and their popularity. Which is a boon to business owners who want to see if they are profiting from social media. This book is very educational but for those who aren't as tech savvy, it may be hard to even read this book let alone implement what it suggests. While being a business owner right now means using the internet, a vast majority have only set up a website, if that. And they may not be familiar with the tech speak used in this book, despite it's clear definitions on how to use the different social medias while using that tech speak.

I was disappointed to see that Pinterest wasn't mentioned or Etsy in this book. I don't know that Pinterest was quite at the popularity it is now when this book was in its development, but it was probably around at least. And Etsy has been popular for at least a few years and deserved a mention. It's a very good tool for a lot of small businesses out there. But I guess that that's an inherent flaw in this book. Despite getting out into print fast, like technology itself, it will soon be outdated and not very useful. Media and social media changes every day and a print format while helpful at the moment, will become a door stop after too long.

A comment on the charts and pictures in this book. There were some that I tried to look at that already appeared to be changed a little bit. Social media updates rather quickly so don't walk into this book thinking you'll be able to follow the pictures exactly. Take some time and read the words, those are what stay the same rather than the site layout. That being said, the excerpts in regards to the businesses themselves telling their stories (and not the excerpts involving the charts and pictures) were interesting to read and a good look at how social media actually works for a business.

But for now, if this book is purchased in the next couple of months, maybe a year at the outside limit I think it will be moderately helpful for a small business who wants to get their word out there on social media. I know that I'll be implementing one or two things I found here at work, although a lot of it was extraneous. A good resource for some things, but don't let this book be your only look into online marketing.

Get Up To Speed With Online Marketing
Copyright 2012
248 pages