Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

This was one of my audio "reads" via the library's "similar books" feature. Not quite sure what it was similar to, except that I was probably looking at books about historical events. This is a look at the Dust Bowl that's a bit different from the usual, since this is about the people who *didn't* leave. Title: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl Author: Timothy Egan. Read by Jacob York Publication Info: Audio book by Audible Audio, 2022. 13 hours. Originally published by Houghton Mifflin, 2005, 340 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Timothy Egan’s critically acclaimed account rescues this iconic chapter of American history from the shadows in a tour de force of historical reportage. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and ...

Another of my semi-random picks from the library's digital audio books.    Title: The Way Home: Tales from a life without technology Author: Mark Boyle Publication Info: Blackstone Audio, 2019. 8hrs 40 min. Original hardcover, Oneworld, 2019, 288 pages Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: "It was 11:00 pm when I checked my email for the last time and turned off my phone for what I hoped would be forever. No running water, no car, no electricity or any of the things it powers: the internet, phone, washing machine, radio, or light bulb. Just a wooden cabin, on a smallholding, by the edge of a stand of spruce." The Way Home is a modern-day Walden―an honest and lyrical account of a remarkable life lived in nature without modern technology. Mark Boyle, author of The Moneyless Man, explores the hard-won joys of building a home with his bare hands, learning to make fire, collecting water from the stream, foraging, and fishing. What he finds is an elemental life, one ...

 Well, maybe not exactly plastic-free, but I'm working on reducing my use of single-use plastics. I began by saving it all for about 10 days (was supposed to be a week but I lost track). I was pretty shocked at how much I accumulated, though it was higher than usual due to a couple of clean-out-the-cupboards projects and some on-line shopping. It's a little hard to see here, because the bags and wrappings are all stuffed into the big wrap that disappears off the top of the photo. But it's just over a pound, some recyclable, more of it not. Here's the breakdown: On the left, we have all the bags, wrappers, and some worn-out ziplocks. None of this is effectively recyclable in my community. Next to it the non-recylable hard bits. l'd been reusing the plastic spoon, but of course it gave up. The Amazon mailer is another that says it's recyclable but I have no place to do so. I reuse a lot of these, but I don't need that many. The other two bags would be nice, re...