Explore the next chapter in your cooking journey. (Photo by Yente Van Eynde on Pexels.com)
We all want to live forever. While we don’t know of anyone who has accomplished this yet, we do know that there are pockets of people around this big blue marble we inhabit that have at least found a fountain of youth of sorts. Dan Buettner has been chronicling these areas known as Blue Zones for more than 20 years, sharing their secrets with the rest of us, to help promote longevity in whatever pocket of the world we are in. This time out, he presents us with healthy recipes that can help us live to 100 in The Blue Zones American Kitchen.
Everyone had to adopt a new normal during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by August de Richelieu on Pexels.com)
From the time COVID-19 seemed like the rumblings of distant thunder to the moment it arrived on our doorstep as a full-blown health crisis of global proportions, ordinary men and women rose to become heroes throughout the pandemic. We have all heard some of the stories, particularly those that were local, including those about the front-line workers who kept us fed and the first responders and physicians who worked tirelessly to keep us healthy. Now, in National Geographic’s touching and thoughtful new book (Inside the Curve): Stories from the Pandemic, we get the opportunity to meet many of the folks we didn’t hear about. As we learn to embrace our new normal, this volume helps us never forget how far we have come and yet how much further we still have to go.
Opposites attract in Miranda Liasson’s The Sweetheart Fix. (Photo by TranStudios Photography & Video on Pexels.com)
In the small town of Blossom Glen, Indiana, life has given two disparate people plenty of problems. In his case, he is finding it difficult to unify a community since the town folk don’t particularly seem to like him. And when it comes to her, she may lose her dream job if she can’t get the locals to forget her past. Will the two of them be able to join forces and turn lemons into lemonade? Or are they both destined for failure? Find out in Miranda Liasson’s The Sweetheart Fix.
Northern Saw-whet Owl at Malheur Headquarters, Harney County, 12 October 2003 (Photo by Noah Strycker, Facebook)
I’ve always loved birds. Living in Southern California and coastal Massachusetts, I enjoyed watching big white sea birds like gulls and albatrosses soar overhead anytime we went to the beach. Later, when we relocated to Arkansas, I marveled at the huge blue jays that would dive bomb our cats and dogs and send them scurrying for cover. In New York City, sparrows built a nest on my apartment’s windowsill, and I checked every day to see if their tiny eggs had hatched. And then in Ohio, when we lived in our old farmhouse and owned some land, we watched all kinds of birds make their homes in the trees surrounding our property.
The point is, no matter where we live, birds surround us (although thankfully not in the eerie way Alfred Hitchcock depicted in his classic film The Birds). Even in the most urban areas, these airborne creatures are our constant connection to nature. This is a lesson ornithologist Noah Strycker learned early on in fifth grade when his teacher mounted a bird feeder to the classroom window. The birds he saw sparked his imagination and began a lifelong love affair with his feathered neighbors, and his fascination with them has given him a career and led him around the world. Now, in National Geographic Birding Basics, he shows us how all of us, regardless of where we may live, can become birding enthusiasts too.
Imagine what you can discover when you take the time to look up! (Photo by Yuting Gao on Pexels.com)
When I was a boy, my grandfather gave me my very first book about constellations. Ever since, I have been fascinated by the heavens and love nights when the sky is black as pitch and the stars look close enough to touch. It’s such a marvel to me to think that we are looking up at things so far away, no man has ever been there. At least not yet. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t get familiar with them. To do that, you simply have to open National Geographic’s dazzling new volume, the Stargazer’s Atlas. Even if you haven’t spent your nights looking up in the past, you will after you read this beautiful guide to the night sky.
Jathan & Heather 