Book Review Monday

As requested, I’m continuing our Book Review Monday, featuring books (reference or otherwise)  we have in our home library.

For the first two books, a small history: Back in 2012, I had the honor of being chosen as a speaker for a “Women of Prepping” forum at a preparedness expo in Colorado Springs (see posts here and here). It was a wonderful weekend, in large part for the opportunity to meet so many luminaries in the field.

One such person was Nurse Amy, whose medical expertise and teaching is legendary. She and her physician husband run the “Doom and Bloom” website. I found Nurse Amy to be eminently practical, not one of those “woo woo” medical types. Remember, not woo-woo. I emphasize this for a reason.

What do I mean by woo-woo? I mean she didn’t sweepingly dismiss western medicine as inferior to alternative medicine across the board and without supporting evidence. She discussed the importance of obtaining medical knowledge and supplies for handling emergencies both before and after a bleep-hits-the-fan event.

During the course of her speech, Amy recommended two books on herbal medicines that every prepared person should have in his medical library. She said these two books were part of her foundational medical library and didn’t lean heavily into the woo-woo (in other words, didn’t make unprovable claims).

Based on her recommendations, we purchased these books. We are not into herbal medicine per se, but it has a demonstrable and recognized place in the global medical repertoire. Having reference books is, we feel, a wise precaution.

These are not small wimpy books. They’re hefty and full-sized.

The first is “The Herbal Medicine-maker’s Handbook” by James Green.

As the Table of Contents shows, it’s very comprehensive.

The second book is called “Prescription for Herbal Healing” by Phyllis A. Balch.

The subtitle says it all: “An easy-to-use A-to-Z reference to hundreds of common disorders and their herbal remedies.” As with the first book, the Table of Contents reveals how comprehensive it is.

Don also gave some book recommendations, which requires another short history: Back in 2017, Don and I took a rare trip together. We journeyed to Oregon to attend the Mother Earth News Fair, something I’d always wanted to see. We stayed with Dave and Ilene Duffy of Backwoods Home Magazine fame, and they were the most wonderful hosts.

One of the attractions at the Mother Earth News Fair was the massive book sale.

Don had his eye on a couple of books, but decided not to get them because we had (ahem) already spent our book budget. So I sneaked back later and purchased the books he wanted, then surprised him on the drive home.

The books were “Butchering Poultry, Rabbit, Lamb, Goat, Pork” and “Butchering Beef,” both by Adam Danforth.

As with the herbal medicine books, these are beefy (sorry, bad pun) books, dense with information.

Don’s remarks: “If you butcher farm livestock, are thinking about butchering farm livestock, are thinking there may come a day when you will need to butcher farm livestock, or are just interested in how farm livestock is butchered, these two books are a must for your homestead library. These books take you from field to freezer over 400 pages each with lavish illustrations. They have a prominent place in our library.”

As mentioned, the illustrations are lavish, and the books take you literally step-by-step through the butchering process.

We’ve looked through many books on butchering through the years, and these are – hands down – the best we’ve ever seen. Highly recommended.

(Obligatory disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, if you purchase through those links, I earn a small commission. Thank you!)

So there you go, your book reviews du jour. If anyone has any more book review requests, let me know and I will review them if I can. Happy reading!

Source: http://www.rural-revolution.com/2025/03/book-review-monday_10.html