This is a great book.  It is a very funny account of a couple's, well Novella Carpenter's, efforts at urban farming in one of the roughest sections of Oakland, California.  Really a ghetto.  But, the whole way though you will just want to start farming in your own neighborhood...hell on the roof of your building, any building.  Trust me.  And she has included a wonderful bibliography.

How can you not purchase this book:  "A word about my backyard: Don't entertain some bucolic fantasy.  In the middle of it, Mrs. Nguyen's excercise bike sat on a bare patch of dirt.  In the very back of the yard was the chicken coop Bill had built from pallets in what had been a large dog run made with sturdy chain link fencing now overgrown with weeds and volunteer trees.  Abutting this chicken area was an auto-repair shop/junkyard, which hosted two dogs; a pale brown pit bull and a dark-eyed Rottweiler mix.  A forklift often zoomed around the repair shop, dodging rusting transmissions and barrels of god knows what. A little beyond the auto shop you could see downtown Oakland's non-descript skyline.  Not exactly a country idyll."

This book has been around for awhile and so some of you may already know it.  It is the definitive book on GMO foods and approaches the subject from a reasearch scientist's point-of-view.   Even if you don't have a science background you will be able to understand the case Jeffrey Smith makes against GMO foods.  Please read this book...don't steal it, but do read it!

This is a great book and this coming from a vegetarian.  The recipes and descriptions of the cuts of meat are interspersed with the stories of family farmers.  Shannon also helps the reader to understand responsible farming, healthy eating and the differences in developing recipes for pasture-raised over grain fed animals.   And there are vegetable recipes too!  I also heard her farmer mom speak at a recent Carnegie Hill Neighbors meeting and I was mesmerized.   This is a good read and worthwhile investment.

I love this book; it is the ultimate book for foodies with a conscience.  The book is a snapshot in time of 30 families around the world from Bhutan to Greenland to Texas and what a week's worth of their shopping looks like and costs.  It is fascinating to see the fruits, vegetables and grains of third world nations gradually become replaced by more processed foods as you travel west.  Wealth does not necessarily bring health.

This is a great book with forwards by Carlo Petrini the founder of Slow Food and Allison Hooper of the American Cheese Society and co-founder of Vermont Butter and Cheese.  What I really like about this book is that it can be kept in your car for road trips.  It is organized by region and lists 384 cheese makers.  Handy sidebars include owner and cheese maker names, complete contact information, visitor information as well as type and varieties of cheeses made and sold.  Jeff Roberts also invites readers to send him cheese makers they have found while exploring. 

This is the pre-teen/young adult version of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, a book about fast food and where it comes from, what's in it and what it can do to you.  It is a book that I wholeheartedly recommend for children either as a family reading activity or a really special impromptu gift.  Let's be real, teenagers probably want that cell phone or iPod more as a brithday gift!  I have read both books and I was very impressed with how the authors rewrote the original book in a way that will make a strong impression on children without being inappropriate.

This cookbook is great for vegans, vegetarians and omnivores alike.  It also has some great wheat free recipes and wonderful sidebars from small farmers who share their experiences growing in the Hudson Valley for the restaurant and beyond.

Jonathan White of Boblink Dairy recommends this book to his visitors and it is quite an amazing book.  As a vegetarian I was originally interested because the book discusses how animals think and I just wanted to know more.  The author, Temple Grandin, is an autistic animal scientist who explains how people with autism often think the same way as animals.  She also happens to be one of the foremost humane slaughterhouse designers in the US and Canada.  This is a great read.

This cookbook has some interesting wheat free recipes.

For those who love(d) the Whole Earth Catalog comes this great book for living off the land.  It also has a good recipe for Butternut Squash Cornbread.

This is Italy's best selling cookbook and it is a virtual bible with 2,000 recipes (and the Italians know their vegetables etc.) A friend prepared a brussel sprout recipe and it was the end all and be all.  I highly recommend this cookbook.