Southeast Medicinal Plants by CoreyPine Shane

Southeast Medicinal Plants
by CoreyPine Shane

ISBN-13: 9781643260075
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Timber Press
Released: November 9th 2021

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
In Southeast Medicinal Plants, herbalist CoreyPine Shane is your trusted guide to finding, identifying, harvesting, and using 106 of the region’s most powerful wild plants. Readers will learn how to safely and ethically forage, and how to use wild plants in herbal medicines, including teas, tinctures, and salves. Plant profiles include clear, color photographs, identification tips, medicinal uses and herbal preparations, and harvesting suggestions. Lists of what to forage for each season makes the guide useful year-round. Thorough, comprehensive, and safe, this is a must-have for foragers, naturalists, and herbalists in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana.


My Review:
Southeast Medicinal Plants is a guide to foraging wild medicinal plants in the Southeast states. The author started by explaining how to identify and harvest a plant for medicinal use, how to process them, and how to make infusions, decoctions, tinctures, glycerites, oil infusions, and mushroom extracts. The main part of the book was an alphabetically organized list of 106 plants found in the region. For each listing, we're given the common names, the Latin name, the parts of the plant used, a description of how to identify the plant, where, when and how to gather the plant, the medicinal uses of the different parts the plant, how to ensure a future harvest, any safety cautions, and details about how to use the plant (the proportions used in a tincture, etc.). For each plant, there was a picture of the plant (often including its natural habitat) and usually a picture or two of distinguishing details, like the flower or a close-up of the leaf. Overall, this is an excellent resource for anyone interested in gathering and using medicinal plants from this area. It's very informative and provided practical information.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Drawing and Painting Expressive Little Animals by Amarilys Henderson

Drawing and Painting Expressive Little Animals
by Amarilys Henderson

ISBN-13: 9781464214905
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: Quarry Books
Released: July 6th 2021

Source: review copy from the publisher through Amazon.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Author, artist, and popular Skillshare instructor Amarylis Henderson presents her practical and creative techniques for drawing and painting animals in a variety of mediums and styles, from realistic to cartoon. Learn about the sketching and painting mediums you’ll use in your work, including watercolor, inks, and markers. Discover the scope of sizes and shapes of animal features from nose to tail. Basic shapes, postures, and poses to convey a range of animal emotions and expressions, from sly and sneaky to angry to curious. Draw and paint more than 30 animals--from dogs, cats, and horses to cheetah, bison, and platypus--and investigate 18 different styles and treatments, including using color in unique ways, enhancing cuteness, and combining watercolor with other mediums.

As you explore your creative options, you’ll find that working small is an easy way to relieve pressure and open yourself to play as well as to learning the techniques and approaches that Amarilys shares in this book.


My Review:
Drawing and Painting Expressive Little Animals shows how the author draws and watercolor paints 33 different animals, including some birds, marine animals, and reptiles. She started with a few pages providing tips about observing how different animals have different legs, eyes, etc. The "expressive" part seemed to be two pages pointing out how sloths and dogs appear happy while snakes and foxes look sly.

She then provided step-by-step instructions for drawing and painting an animal, with illustrations (about 8-10 steps per animal) along with some very basic text instructions like "add the front legs." Some of the painting illustrations were taken at an angle (showing her working), so the example we're supposed to mimic is not quite in correct proportion. The author assumed that you already knew how to draw and watercolor paint as she'd tell you to do certain techniques but never explained how to do them. She did point out some tips when painting animals, like make the spots random.

Contrary to most art instructors, she had you start with drawing the animals face (including eyes and mouth) before adding the neck, body, legs, and tail. For painting, she skipped sketching the basic proportions and just painted the body shape in step one. I used to do this, but my animals never were in proportion. I finally realized why most instructors have you start with basic body shapes (in proportion) for the entire animal before refining the details. So her instructions don't really work for me.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Immune by Philipp Dettmer

Immune
by Philipp Dettmer

ISBN-13: 9780593241318
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Random House
Released: November 2nd 2021

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Second only to the human brain in its complexity, your immune system is one of the oldest and most critical facets of life on Earth. Without it, you would die within days. In Immune, Philipp Dettmer, the brains behind the most popular science channel on YouTube, takes readers on a journey through the fortress of the human body and its defenses. There is a constant battle of staggering scale raging within us, full of stories of invasion, strategy, defeat, and noble self-sacrifice. In fact, in the time you've been reading this, your immune system has probably identified and eradicated a cancer cell that started to grow in your body.

Each chapter delves into an element of the immune system, including defenses like antibodies and inflammation as well as threats like bacteria, allergies, and cancer, as Dettmer reveals why boosting your immune system is actually nonsense, how parasites sneak their way past your body's defenses, how viruses work, and what goes on in your wounds when you cut yourself.

Enlivened by engaging graphics and immersive descriptions, Immune turns one of the most intricate, interconnected, and confusing subjects—immunology—into a gripping adventure through an astonishing alien landscape. Immune is a vital and remarkably fun crash course in what is arguably, and increasingly, the most important system in the body.


My Review:
Immune explains how the different parts of the innate and adaptive immune systems work. This was written by a science writer rather than someone who actively studies the immune system, so it's written for the average person. He used memorable analogies to explain what goes on, then explained it in "science talk" and finally summarized it all again to make sure the reader understood. I have some science background, and I thought the author did a good job of explaining this complex subject without simplifying to much. (His chapter on the lymph system included more information than a whole book on lymph that I recently read. It wasn't more difficult to understand, just more thorough.)

The author started by speculating about when the various parts of the immune system evolved. Throughout the book, he marveled at the complex, amazing immune system and how it evolved. He next talked about how the skin protects you and how the innate and adaptive immune system react when you're wounded. He then talked about mucus membranes and explained how the immune system fights a viral (flu) infection starting in your nose. He explained the individual parts of your immune defenses and how they work together. He also talked about allergies, autoimmunity, cancer, and how you don't actually want to boost your immune system (you want it in balance) and things you can do to support proper immune function (quit smoking and reduce stress). There were occasional graphics showing parts of the immune system or how it worked, but they're difficult to read on my Kindle. Overall, I'd recommend this informative, easy to follow book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.