Hatching & Brooding Your Own Chicks, by Gail Damerow

Hatching & Brooding Your Own Chicks, by Gail Damerow
Storey Publishing
2013
ISBN: 978-1-61212-014-0
Price: $24.95

From the beautiful cover photos of chicks and ducklings, to the color photos throughout, and the lovely guinea, chicken, duck and goose eggs on the back cover, this soft-cover book is a delight.

I have been impressed with Gail Damerow’s books on various poultry topics for many years and she has surpassed those efforts in this excellent guide on raising your own chicks from the egg.

Part 1: The Chicks focuses on the live chicks.  This part includes chapters on acquiring chicks, setting up your brooder, managing water, feed and bedding, what to expect as the chicks grow, and hatchling health issues.

Part 2: The Eggs focuses on caring for hatching eggs and how to incubate them successfully.  The chapters in this part introduce the broody hen, how to select an incubator, selecting and caring for eggs for hatching, operating an incubator, determining what went wrong, and how to identify different kinds of hatchlings.

What I like most about this book is the ease of finding information on various topics.  I like the organization of the materials.  The photographs are stunning and the clarity of both the photographs and the text makes it easy to understand what the author is describing, whether it is how to set up an incubator or how to identify a problem such as a disease condition.  I especially liked the section about homemade brooders which talks about using whatever works.  There are some interesting suggestions and some very creative ideas for using various tubs or other items to make a safe and useful brooder.   Using and re-using whatever is at hand creatively is a long rural and farm tradition.  It is refreshing  to see advice that includes conserving materials or money or both.  The frank discussion on feeders reveals the advantages and disadvantages of the various chick feeder styles.

The chart estimating total feed required to bring various poultry to six weeks of age allows a new poultry raiser to budget feed costs in their first endeavor.

The chapter on hatchling health issues clearly describes a healthy chick versus a chick with signs of illness.  From the stance and movement of the chick, to the appearance of the droppings, early assessment may mean the difference between saving your fledgling flock and losing them. This section discusses issues in addition to disease which can affect whether you have a healthy happy brood of chicks or sickly chicks or even lose the group.  Some of the things that a new raiser might not know, such as how too much medicated feed can cause death in waterfowl, or why not all anticoccidial medications work against all species of coccidia, are presented in a clear helpful way. In addition to identifying disease, and watching for incorrect use of feeds or medications, this helpful guide talks about how some  conditions such as bent toes can be corrected if intervention happens at the right time and is done in the right way. 

This is Gail’s most beautiful and informative book yet.  I have already had to protect my copy from being ‘borrowed’ before I was done reading it.  This is an excellent guide for those wanting to raise their own chick or for teaching youth about raising chicks.  I plan to give a copy to the local 4H library since it is such an excellent resource.


 Reviewer for Bookpleasures.com

Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA Richard Hill

Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA

Richard Hill

List $15.00

Trade paperback 260 pages Also available in Kindle edition

ISBN-10: 1475190832 
ISBN-13: 978-1475190830

Richard Hill’s life story reads like a novel although it is an autobiography.  The accidental admission from Richard’s doctor which reveals that Richard is adopted, starts him off on a journey that will take years to complete.   Richard discusses the complex loyalties, yearnings, and thoughts that he went through before finally deciding to search for his birth parents.  The quagmire of misinformation began with a few falsehoods on his original birth certificate and slowed him down but ultimately he was able to reach his goal of learning who his parents were and to find siblings and extended family. 

At first, when the doctor revealed his adoption, Richard is reluctant to disturb his adoptive parents and also feels torn between loyalty and shock so he chooses not to reveal that the doctor told him.  Finally on his adoptive father’s deathbed, his father urges him to search for his birth parents.  Richard still doesn’t reveal to his adoptive mother that he know he is adopted.  It takes some time and some coming to terms with his own identity in his new family with a wife and child to begin thinking more seriously about searching. 

He runs into the roadblocks that adoptees find when searching for their birth records.  A stranger can do genealogical research and get more information than an adoptee searching for his own roots. 

Some of the techniques he used to confirm his birth relatives are the tried and true methods adoptees have been using for decades while others are fairly new and  can be a useful tool for other adoptees to find their families or at least find out more about their heritage.  Richard includes information on the DNA services he used both to rule out and to verify possible family members.

Richard’s story is very intriguing to me because some of my extended family members are adopted and I have seen the struggles they have gone through in trying to find information on their birth parents.   Even though each adoptees story is unique, there are some common struggles and this book gives both encouragement and some steps that an adoptee might be able to take in their own search.


 Reviewer for Bookpleasures.com

Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetic, Fifth Ed by Michael Rabiger & Mick Hurbis-Cherrier

Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetic, Fifth Ed by Michael Rabiger & Mick Hurbis-Cherrier
Focal Press
2013
ISBN: 978-0-240-81845-0 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-303-07238-7 (e-book)

One of the fun things about this guide is seeing the back-end of films that I have enjoyed and I learned a lot about directing and films.  This excellent book is an extensively detailed guide steps through process of directing a film.    From choosing a project to the final marketing, this book covers the entire process of directing a film and the many choices a director will face at each step of the way. 

This book has so much valuable information that a summary doesn’t do the book justice.  The main parts of the book include Part 1: The Director and Artistic Identity, Part 2: The Story and its Development, Part 3: The Director and the Script, Part 4: Authorship and Aesthetics, Part 5: A Director’s Screen Grammar, Part 6: Preproduction, Part 7: Production, and Part 8: Postproduction. 

Directing is more than just technical skill and this guide discusses the aspects of personal skills, experiences and artistic goals that have a major part in creating a film.

Each section of the guide contains enough material to be a book in itself. Throughout, many informative photographs illustrate specific techniques, shots and how they create a specific feel to a scene or film.   The aspiring director will find all of the basics described in this guide, and a great deal of timesaving techniques, tracking tools, and tips for avoiding traps and for smoothing the directing process.  Examples from films illustrate each point or technique throughout the guide.   The authors have melded personal experience and knowledge gathered from skilled professionals (of the various specialties of filmmaking) into an in depth walk-through of directing and producing a film. 

This is a wonderful tutorial and reference in one.  Additional exercises and information available on the supportive website, give teachers and students of film a complete package for their journey into growing new directors.  I liked the advice given throughout the book on the interactions with cast and crew.  There is a tendency for students to be focused purely on the technical skills and forget that a great deal relies on people skills.

The book is a bit technical for the curious dabbler but it is a wonderful resource for the aspiring director , the film teacher or the dedicated film buff.   

  

 Reviewer for Bookpleasures.com

Rennefarre: Dott's Wonderful Travels and Adventures

Rennefarre,translated by Malve von Hassell
ISBN: 9781938690389

Folk tales and myths have always had an irresistible draw for me and this book explores the folklore, myths and history of early Germany and Poland.  The tale begins with Dott, a disobedient young girl, who decides to slip out of the house to see a midsummer night bonfire instead of staying in to take care of her younger brother and sister.

First Dott decides she will be able to see it from the porch, then from the road, and then from the hill. Next she is drawn farther away from the house but she is feeling uneasy about her disobedience so instead of following the road, she sneaks through the woods, brush and fields.  She is drawn farther and farther along until finally she is right at the bonfire and sees her younger brother there with her infant sister in his arms.  She is worried about being punished and thinks that her parents and neighbors are ignoring her as a punishment.  She begins to cry and Father Gnilica hears her and talks with her about her plight.  Soon she realizes that she has a rennefarre in her shoe and it has made her invisible to everyone.

The first mythical creature Dott meets is the Red Boy, a full of mischief fire sprite.  He tries to entice her with power or riches.  She resists his enticements so he then speaks of the enchantment of the water, fire and air sprites and how they yearn for deliverance.

The next morning, Dott hides near her home and listens in but soon realizes that she cannot stay.  Dott will have to search for a cure for her situation and until she finds one, she must leave home in order not to frighten her family or the villagers.    She is still audible and she is able to understand the speech of the animals.

Dott  befriends some animals by rescuing a young stork and by helping to rescue an owl imprisoned by other humans.  Other animals (such as the magpies) either don’t trust Dott or would like to seek revenge for past harms humans have caused them.

Dott’s travels take her across the countryside in the company of various animals some caring and some hostile, where she meets magical creatures, and she slips back and forth in time to witness events at key places and times in history and in mythology.   She also meets another human, who has made a bargain with the fire sprite to trade his face for the ability to play music that others can’t hear.  He  regretted his bargain soon after when his family reacts to his new terrifyingly ugly appearance. 

This wondrous tale weaves history with mythology and creates an enchanting story.  I loved the historical details and the parallels drawn between the various clashes in history and man’s struggle to build a place for himself and his family in strange, beautiful and sometimes harsh places.  The relationships between man, nature and other tribes of men are explored in a tender way through the eyes of a young girl on the edge of adulthood.

The artwork is beautiful and this intriguing tale reminds me of the Oz books. 

Kathy Johnson

A BookPleasures reviewer

Fades the Light by Ron Foster

Fades the Light, by Ron Foster
ISBN 9781479344420

This is the third in The Prepper Trilogy and it is an interesting hybrid of fiction and non-fiction.  In the past, I have seen similar hybrids combining the fiction mystery genre with recipes.  In this instance, my previous reading may have colored my experience of this book by leading me to expect nefarious deeds.  There were several places in the narrative where it seemed that the author was setting the scene for future nefarious events but these events never appeared.   

The main character, David, seems to be the leader of a group of people who have survived the crash of civilization after a solar geomagnetic storm.  This sounded like an interesting read to me since this year (2013) is supposed to be a peak year for solar flare events.  I did enjoy the book as a light read but was disappointed in the unfulfilled hints of conflict to come.  The male characters are presented in somewhat stereotypical male drinking buddy bonding settings and in a couple of places they set out to gather information but are distracted by their need for alcohol so they never complete their chosen information gathering task. 

The events of the book in summary would be: David is suspicious of some new folk who have arrived at their lake.  David drinks. David plans to investigate them. David drinks. David is concerned that the younger members of the group may leave based on promises from the new folk of exciting technology in the FEMA camps. David drinks.  David is going to talk with his drinking buddies to plan some way to satisfy the younger generation without leaving the older folk with no way to survive. David drinks. David and a group set out to explore other possibilities for their group.  David drinks. I won’t say more because I don’t do spoilers for fiction reviews

Some of the characters have colorful names like ‘Dump Truck’, ‘Goat Man’ and ‘LowBuck’.  There is some flavor from the hills in this book. 

The prepper goods which are advertised with a heavy hand in the book do look interesting but could have been presented with a lighter hand.  Some of the dialogue in the book is forced with the obvious goal of presenting ordering information for the goods featured.  When the advertising is too obvious along with promises of a coupon, it reminds me of the paid infomercials rather than a good novel.

'Fades the Light' appears to be unedited.  It is printed/self published but could have benefited from an organizational edit, a grammatical edit, and a copy edit.  The author does have interesting ideas and information but hasn't fully developed the story.  There is definite improvement in the last few chapters so the author may be able to develop this book into something if he is willing to revise and have it edited.

This book did involve a lot of stereotypes about ‘hooch’, women and their roles, negative Christian stereotypes, and the elderly. In spite of its faults, the book was interesting and does have potential.  

A Bookpleasures.com reviewer