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Food Guides: Essential & Delicious

The Flavor Thesaurus: Pairings, Recipes And Ideas For The Creative Cook

By Niki Segnit

In the store

An invaluable resource for foodies: seasoned or unseasoned!

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual

By Maira Kalman, Michael Pollan

In the store

How should a person eat? Michael Pollan's beautifully illustrated guide has all the answers!

Curious History of Food and Drink

By Ian Crofton

In the store

A fun, irreverent voyage through food history - food lovers and trivia junkies rejoice!

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The Whale opens on Saturday and Living opens Friday Feb 3rd. Keep an eye on t.co/OYs5xFP41D for the reutrn… t.co/0G9QmAFAe7

Tár returns Friday night and watch t.co/OYs5xFP41D for the return of The Banshees of Inisherin and times fo… t.co/d6ueqihJhH

Buzzfeed: It's All About the Bees!
  • Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive

    By Mark L Winston

  • Keeping The Bees: Why All Bees Are At Risk And What We Can Do To

    By Laurence Packer

  • Bees: Nature's Little Wonders

    By Candace Savage

  • Storey's Guide to Keeping Honey Bees: Honey Production, Pollination, Bee Health

    By Richard E. Bonney, Malcolm T. Sanford

  • Beekeeper's Bible: Bees Honey Recipes And Other Home Uses

    By Collins

Meditation: Where to Begin

Full Catastrophe Living (Revised Edition): Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness

By Thich Nhat Hanh, Jon Kabat-Zinn

In the store

The bible for secular mindfulness!

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

By Jon Kabat-Zinn

In the store

A lovely poetic series of reflections to accompany Full Catastrophe Living...

Meditation For Dummies, with Audio CD

By Stephan Bodian, Dean Ornish

In the store

A wide range of meditation practices suitable for beginners with CD...

Secular Meditation: 32 Practices for Cultivating Inner Peace, Compassion, and Joy - A Guide from the Humanist Community at Harvard

By Greg Epstein, Rick Heller

In the store

From the meditation leader of the Humanist Mindfulness Group at Harvard University....

The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

By Jon Kabat-Zinn, John Teasdale, Mark Williams

In the store

Highly recommended by many therapists, includes a helpful CD...

Non-Fiction

REVIEW: ENTANGLED LIFE

Article By Barb Minett

Date: 29 Nov 2020

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Related...

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

This is such a good news story!

Merlin Sheldrake fills Entangled Life with jouissance. He is a special breed person – one with both left and right brains firing at the same time and a superabundant vitality. We are the lucky recipients of his knowledge and life experience.

Sheldrake loves fungi. Their fruiting bodies are mushrooms. But what we don’t see or appreciate is their vast network under the ground called the mycelial network. Sheldrake estimates that there are 2.2 to 3.8 million species of fungi and only 8 percent have been identified. Most plants and trees depend on fungi to provide them with nutrients from the soil. The mycelial network connects acres of living material to the benefit of all organisms.

Let’s just briefly take a glimpse into the truffle world. The truffle is the most famous and most expensive of all fungi. It must arrive on your plate 2 to 3 days after it has been picked. It is unusual in that its fruiting body lies beneath the ground but its pungent smell is like perfume to boars and truffle hunting dogs. Needless to say there are lots of crimes in the truffle finding world. Sheldrake is such a character that like the Snuffleupagus, he has buried his own snout into the ground to find and enjoy the fruits of his obsession.

Lichens are a combination of fungi and algae. They lichenize at the slightest provocation, forming in less time than it takes a scab to heal. One in five of all fungi are lichens. When lichens travel back from outer space they can recover full metabolic activity in 24 hours after being rehydrated. In other words – they are really tough and resilient.

I’m with Sheldrake when he says that “Lichens colonized the surface of my mind years ago.” And how beautifully they colour our Canadian Shield!

Psilocybin or magic mushrooms have been in the news lately. Sheldrake is a big proponent. Magic mushrooms are now being used in experiments with people at the end of life. After a single dose, 80 percent of participants experience feelings of joy, bliss and interconnectedness and a substantial reduction in anxiety. Michael Pollan has written a whole book on this called How to Change Your Mind. Psilocybin slips into the workings of the brain by activating receptors normally stimulated by serotonin.

Fungi have persisted through the earth’s five major extinctions. Many forecast that we are now on the verge of the sixth. Sheldrake and others herald the fact that fungi can break down almost any substance from plastic to oil and can actively capture carbon. Certain white rot fungi have been found to reduce bee mortality. There are countless other examples from this knight in rotten armour! I predict fungi will play a huge role in our future!

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