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Don K.

Don K.

has 57 followers and is following 44 people

I am retired from all sorts of things. I live with my wife of 41 years on a small farm in North Dakota near the Canadian border. We support a few chickens and three fat horses. I work on the farm and do a fair amount of volunteer work besides. I have read lots of books. The books on my shelf are some I will admit to having read.
  • Turtle Mountains, ND, USA
  • member since December 4, 2007

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Public Notes

  • Sherry A

    Sherry A says

    Sorry, one correction. The Chabon book should be "Policemen's Union..."

    posted 2 weeks ago. ( send a note )
  • Sherry A

    Sherry A says

    Don, I'd be happy to pull 5 titles off my TBR list (which is ridiculously long!) Here they are:

    The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King
    Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
    Mink River by Brian Doyle
    Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
    The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon

    None of them are brand new, so library copies should be available.

    Thanks!

    posted 2 weeks ago. ( send a note )
  • tapbirds

    tapbirds says

    Interesting. I wonder why Watson changed titles?

    posted 2 weeks ago. ( send a note )
  • Barbara

    Barbara says

    Thanks for the welcome. I read and enjoyed Major Pettigrew's Last Stand a few months ago. I have Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, so I will be able to participate in this month's discussion.

    I am trying to decide between two of the books listed for February's candidates. I'll post as soon as I can make up my mind, which seems to ake longer lately.

    Barb

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • Book Concierge

    Book Concierge says

    Oh, No .... I'm glad you are okay, even if the garage door isn't.

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • Book Concierge

    Book Concierge says

    Hi, Don
    When are we going to start discussion of HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET over oin the Good Reads group?

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • Bev

    Bev says

    Don,
    There is a new group called Crossroads....
    Basically it is a forum for any book you've read.
    There are many general categories in which you can post thoughts, reviews.
    If a category does not exist...you create it.
    ----
    You reviews are so thorough and well written that you may be interested
    in posting there.
    If you have difficulty finding it, you can enter from the groups to which I belong.

    There are no requirements and some really good reviews are already posted.

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • Bev

    Bev says

    Don,

    Wishing you and Pamela a lovely holiday season and a safe and prosperous new year

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Lee Ashe Thriller Mysteries

    Lee Ashe Thriller Mysteries says

    Thanks Don!

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Jill M

    Jill M says

    As for the Romeo & Juliet as lawn ornaments, who could have possibly even thought that up?

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Jill M

    Jill M says

    It is amazing--the number of episodes they produced-- though I suppose they read plenty of Metro sections of newspapers. It seems that there's always odd crimes reported there.

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Bev

    Bev says

    Hi Don,

    Happy to see you check in with a garden book review.
    I guess I didn't realize there was a hiatus from the farm.
    Welcome back!

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Jill M

    Jill M says

    I didn't know that Law & Order was off the air either. I guess I should pay more attention to TV!

    I'm glad you had a good trip. Welcome back.

    posted 3 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Jill M

    Jill M says

    I hope the visit and the race go well for you. We'll miss you!

    posted 3 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Book Concierge

    Book Concierge says

    I really enjoyed Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. I'll have to go look up my notes to participate in the group discussion. While I've decided to stop re-reading (for the most part) because there are just too many books I have yet to get to, I've been much better about saving my "reports" on books I find discussion-worthy, so I can participate when the discussions come up.

    posted 3 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Raymond De Young

    Raymond De Young says

    Hi Don,

    Many thanks. That was fast. Maybe just one change. I included “SNRE” in one opening line. This will mean nothing to readers outside of my School. Could this be changed to “University of Michigan” so that the line would start, “University of Michigan alumni frequently mention De Young and Princen as teachers…”

    -Ray

    posted 3 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Raymond De Young

    Raymond De Young says

    Hi Don,
    Glad to be here. I'm new at this. But I would like to add a review of my new book. The text below was written about the book by someone in my School. Could this be added? I'm trying not to be too shy about promoting this book. It's my first. And we've allocated all royaltes to two community groups (as the text below explains).

    -Ray

    The book is: De Young, R. & T. Princen (2012) The Localization Reader: Adapting to the Coming Downshift. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    The review text is:

    De Young and Princen, longtime collaborator on papers and seminars on the topic of adapting-in-place, have produced a book that argues for localization. The book explores the possibility of achieving a satisfying life while also experiencing the end of fossil-fuel-based, consumption-driven growth that has depleted resources and run up debts worldwide.

    The book, a collection of essays and academic papers they co-edited called The Localization Reader: Adapting to the Coming Downshift, is scheduled for publication in early 2012 by MIT Press (ISBN-10: 026251687X). The anthology approaches the concept of localization from an energetics, psychological and political perspective, all aimed at on-the-ground practice. The book includes contributions from such well-known environmental and scientific writers as Wendell Berry, M. King Hubbert and Ernst F. Schumacher, as well as new work by political scientist Karen Litfin and sociologist David Hess.

    Walking the localization talk, they argue, will entail making daily decisions in the context of one’s own community as cheap and high-quality energy declines. This energy descent scenario usually leads observers to predict societal collapse, but De Young and Princen assert that communities can write a different storyline. People have the choice of crafting a new era even while they grieve the loss of the old one. Their book doesn’t debate the rate or depth of the energy descent; the authors take the decline as given, a “new normal” on a grand scale. Instead, they focus on the promise of well-being, self-reliance, satisfaction in work and community and freedom—freedom from debt and from dependence on unending economic growth: “a process of affirmative social change,” as they write in the introduction.

    The book begins by explaining the premise of resource decline and then establishes the inevitability of transitioning. Its content shifts first to explorations of locally-owned businesses and community-based agriculture and then to philosophy. The book includes a psychological perspective on the transition to durable living with articles by De Young, Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, and writer and farmer Sharon Astyk that, together, make a case for a less materialistic and more fulfilling life as we transition away from fossil fuels.

    The latter sections of the book address the issue of governance—stressing participatory democracy, self-correcting feedback, mutual accountability, collaboration and equity—and tools for navigating a transition to a localized lifestyle. It ends on a piece co-authored by De Young and Princen titled “Downshift/Upshift: Our Choice.”

    The book emerged in part from a graduate seminar at the University of Michigan that De Young and Princen created and continue to co-teach titled Localization: Envisioning Less Energy, More Time, Better Food. The course doesn’t dwell on energy or climate trends nor dire predictions. Instead, it looks for opportunities people can create to pre-adapt to living within biophysical limits. “What would a society look like that responded well to a drastic drop in resources?” De Young asks. “There’s a reoccurring theme here: Life will be more local, more place-based, perhaps more physically demanding. But it could also be more psychologically satisfying and ecologically resilient”

    SNRE alumni frequently mention De Young and Princen as teachers who changed the way they see the world. And the professors recognize them in turn: They are donating their royalties from sales of The Localization Reader to Growing Hope, an Ypsilanti community agriculture organization founded by University of Michigan graduate Amanda Edmonds, as well as to the People’s Food Co-op.

    Their work is distinct from the more common perspective of their colleagues which often focus on green design and efficiency. “Efficiency measures dominate our current policy discussions,” says Princen. “It’s not that using resources efficiently doesn’t matter,” De Young adds. “It does, but ‘greening up’ our behavior isn’t sufficient to address the larger-scale stewardship problems we face. In a period of declining cheap energy and rising defensive expenditures for past environmental disruption, the new normal of everyday behavioral choices will matter more and more. If we choose well, our behavior can be the foundation of a meaningful, satisfying and durable existence.”

    posted 3 months ago. ( send a note )
  • ziggythecat

    ziggythecat says

    Thanks for the welcome. I was looking through the discussion book groups available last night and yours stood out as a particularly active, and well organised, one. Looks fun too! I had a quick scan back through the previous reads and found I'd read 7 of them - enough to show some like-mindedness, but also few enough that I can expect to be encouraged to pick up books I might not otherwise. I think I'll skip to Major Pettigrew and join in then. Looking forward to that. Cheers

    posted 4 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Paige P.

    Paige P. says

    Thanks Don. Sounds like fun.

    posted 4 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Occasional reader

    Occasional reader says

    Thanks Don

    posted 5 months ago. ( send a note )

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