It's hard to believe Summer 2024 is winding down. (Of course, since this is Colorado, it may wind back up and down a few more times, but eventually we'll get there.) Autumn is a season of abundance. As sweater weather descends, we are surrounded by friends, food, and festivals that echo ancient harvest celebrations. Here are some books with all sorts of autumnal vibes, whether that means cozying up with some fiction, turning nature's bounty into delicious fall-ish foods, or caring for the land that provides us with so much.
The course of true love is anything but smooth as childhood enemies discover the fine line between love and hate in this heartfelt reimagining of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Katerina Wilmot and Christopher Petruchio shared backyards as kids, but as adults they won't even share the same hemisphere. That is, until Kate makes a rare visit home, and their fiery animosity rekindles into a raging inferno. Despite their friends' and families' pleas for peace, Christopher is unconvinced Kate would willingly douse the flames of their enmity. But when drunken Kate confesses she's only been hostile because she thought he hated her, Christopher vows to make peace with Kate after all.
Cider, long perceived as a European country drink, is now truly a worldwide culinary delight. Jolicoeur talks about new and emergent regions that have contributed to this growing appreciation, and how they are building upon the old traditions while creating their own new ones. He explores, for example, the most revered areas for making perry, a delightful but little-known drink that, like cider, is starting to gain fans young and old. And he even transports readers to Kazakhstan in central Asia, famous as the “birthplace of the domestic apple.” Real cider, craft cider, farm cider, artisan cider: Whatever you wish to call it, at its best, cider should be enjoyed like a fine wine, with all of the sophistication but less of the pretentiousness.
Through photography and essays, this book is a celebration of one of America's most valuable and iconic rivers and a warning demonstrating the river is a bellwether of overuse and climate change.
When Elizabeth comes to Salem, Massachusetts, to study the witch trials, she never expects to find love--or an actual witch...and Hazel might just turn out to be both.
Soup lovers, healthy eaters, and busy parents and professionals will love these veggie-forward recipes that never get old and make weeknight cooking a breeze. Tips for batching and freezing soups and instructions for using an Instant Pot or a slow cooker ensure stress-free meals, with less time in the kitchen and more time at the table. With gorgeous photography and a bonus section on soup accompaniments (think breads, salads, and slaws), Every Season Is Soup Season is a one-stop-shop cookbook. Everyday soups have never been so simple—or so incredibly delicious.
An F/F Black BBW Sapphic Romance featuring plus-size main characters, a small town, autumn themes, butches and studs, motorcycle rides, coffeeshops, childhood friends-to-lovers romance, and tons of found family feels.
With over a thousand photos of prairie plants at key stages of development, this comprehensive guide will provide the novice or experienced gardener or landscaper interested in the world of prairie plants with the means to identify, cultivate, and nurture these incredible plants. From helping bird and butterfly migrations and improving food sources for wildlife to other benefits such as a reduced need for fertilization, water, and pest control, there are many ecological and financial reasons to embrace native prairie plants.
What makes a garden good? For Chris McLaughlin, it's about growing the healthiest, most scrumptious fruits and veggies possible, but it's also about giving back. How can your little patch of Earth become a sanctuary for threatened wildlife, sequester carbon, and nurture native plants?
Be inspired by nature's design! From the earliest snowdrops to alpine violet, tulips, and late autumn crocuses, bulbs add interest and color to the garden throughout the year. Renowned naturalistic garden designer Jacqueline van der Kloet has mastered a nonchalant and magical style, where bulbs emerge playfully, dancing among perennials and grasses. Growing Bulbs in the Natural Garden provides inspiration and insights gained from van der Kloet's career, using nature as a model. This exquisitely photographed guide offers advice on bulb varieties, planting methods, and handy tools for gardeners working in spaces large and small.
For Mira Lavigne, cider is about tradition, elegance, and class. She has little respect and even less patience for self-anointed mavericks who think their ticket to fame and fortune is throwing the rulebook out the window. Dylan Miller is one of those people...When Mira and Dylan are tapped to co-chair Finger Lakes Cider Week, neither can pass up the publicity and prestige of the role. But professional compromises raise personal stakes, and Dylan and Mira are hard-pressed to keep their businesses—and their hearts—out of harm’s way.
Beware the blackbirds... It's Halloween in Vermont, winter is coming, and five humans, two dogs, and a cat are a crowd in Mercy Carr's small cabin. She needs more room-and she knows just the place: Grackle Tree Farm, with thirty acres of woods and wetlands and a Victorian manor to die for. They say it's haunted by the ghosts of missing children and lost poets and a murderer or two, but Mercy loves it anyway. Even when Elvis finds a dead body in the library. There's something about Grackle Tree Farm that people are willing to kill for-and Mercy needs to figure out what before they move in.
"Tirne is one of four humans rigorously selected to usher the turn of the seasons into the mortal world...This year, the enchanted Mirror that separates their worlds shatters after Tirne and Autumn pass through, trapping both of them in the human realm...Thrown into a world of mystery, betrayal, and espionage as she searches for the truth, might Tirne lose her morals, her hard-earned position, and the illicit spark between her and Autumn?"
"In this gripping stand-alone literary thriller set in the world of the award-winning post-apocalyptic novel Moon of the Crusted Snow, a scouting party led by Evan Whitesky ventures into unknown and dangerous territory to find a new home for their close-knit Northern Ontario Indigenous community more than a decade after a world-ending blackout." -- From publisher website.
In this powerful and comprehensive guide in the spirit of Jambalaya and Sacred Woman, an herbalist celebrates ancient and modern African holistic healing.
"Plan your landscape or garden with more than 100 native plants that benefit birds, bees, and butterflies of the Rocky Mountains. The presence of birds, bees, and butterflies suggests a healthy, earth-friendly place. These most welcome guests also bring joy to those who appreciate watching them. Now, you can turn your yard into a perfect habitat that attracts them and, more importantly, helps them thrive. Professional nature photographer and botanist George Oxford Miller provides the information you need in this must-have guide for Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, northern New Mexico, and northeastern Utah. Learn how to landscape and create pollinator gardens with native plants." -- Description from Amazon
Learn to reconnect with plants and nature for collective healing in a world beset by environmental crisis with this herbalism and eco-activist handbook.
Landscaping with native plants has encouraged Midwesterners to embark on a profound scientific, ecological, and emotional partnership with nature. Benjamin Vogt shares his years of expertise with prairie plants in a full-color guide aimed at gardeners, homeowners, and landscape designers. Step-by-step blueprints point readers to plant groupings that not only attract pollinators and please the eye but minimize maintenance and ensure years of healthy growth.
Chef Todd Richards explores West African diaspora cooking in the Americas, spanning history from the slave trade through the Great Migration, with over 100 mouthwatering recipes and illuminating narratives.
Featuring a collection of original letters and notes from celebrities and the September Letters community, alongside interviews with mental health experts, this empowering guide shows us how sharing our stories is a powerful tool of self-expression, knowledge, and healing, and how they can reveal to us our connected humanity.
Camille T. Dungy recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominantly white community of Fort Collins, Colorado. When she moved there in 2013 with her husband and daughter, the community held restrictions about what residents could and could not plant in their gardens. In resistance to the homogenous policies that limited the possibility and wonder that grows from the earth, Dungy employs the various plants, herbs, vegetables, and flowers she grows in her garden as metaphor and treatise for how homogeneity threatens the future of our planet, and why cultivating diverse and intersectional language in our national discourse about the environment is the best means of protecting it.
For gardeners who are ready to take their efforts to the next level by planting for birds, butterflies, and other wildlife by focusing on restoring native habitat and using sustainable practices, this offers more than 200 recommendations of specific cultivars, sustainability tips, and facts about how to garden organically. Regional recommendations are tailored to attracting specific pollinators; planting diagrams and plans show the possibilities with lush visuals.
"As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters--her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead. Something that once attacked Nena nine years ago."