Currently reading... Vegetables II (Handbook of Plant Breeding) (2008) It's great for anyone who has an elementary understanding vegetable plant breeding and plant biology...or thought Carol Deppe's "Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties" was more storytelling than helpful (a disappointment of a book for various reasons to me, though it's a decent introduction/starter book for breeding). Vegetables I is good, too, but aside from Cucurbitaceae it mostly focuses on cool/cold weather plants. On deck is...Plant Roots - Growth, Activity and Interaction With Soils (2006) This post was edited by nc-crn on Sat, Jan 4, 14 at 21:43

I'm looking for a copy of Beautiful Madness by James Dodson. I've read small bitz of this book and want to read the whole book. If anyone has it please email me. Thanks njmastergardener

"...I have an ongoing argument with a handful of friends and relatives who say they only read non-fiction..." DTD, I have nothing against novels or fiction, and indeed have read lots. Some of my all-time favorite books are fiction (Lord of the Rings, Ivanhoe, Wind in the Willows, Wuthering Heights, almost any Jane Austen). I will admit (although you can probably tell just from the titles I listed, lol) that most of my fiction-reading includes "the classics" which I read in high school and college (at least for the first time). I haven't read that many novels recently. For me personally, I love history, I love learning about places, peoples and events, and IMHO, you just can't make this stuff up! So, while I don't look down upon fiction, with my limited time, I prefer to read my favorite topic, which is history. I have several of your recommendations on my list. I'm surprised to see you put "A Thousand Splendid Suns" on the not-so-good list, as everyone I've spoken to who has read it has raved about it as much if not moreso than "The Kite Runner". I haven't read either yet, so I can't say. I have read "Reading Lolita in Tehran" and was somewhat disappointed. I don't know... it was good, but not what I expected. :) Dee

Great article! Thanks, Warren, for providing some good reading to get us by until spring. Hey, why is my User name all of sudden in lower case instead of EvanTN as usual? Oh well.