What are your favorite nonfiction books?

[brookerenee]

I'm interested in reading some more nonfiction books. I'm particulary interested in books on fertility, birthing, baby care, breastfeeding, parenting, nutrition, homeopathy, etc.

What have you read that has been indispensible to you?

So far I've read and enjoyed:
Taking Charge of Your Fertility
Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife
The Attachment Parenting Book
The Nursing Mother's Companion
Fresh Milk
Sears Family Nutrition Book
Natural Family Living

What have you read that's been horrible?
For me:
What to Expect the Toddler Years
Baby 411 (okay in some areas, but horrible in others)

On my wish list (so far)
Adventures in Tandem Nursing: Breastfeeding During Pregnancy and Beyond
Mothering Your Nursing Toddler
Fertility, Cycles & Nutrition
The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth
Spiritual Midwifery
Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year
Milk, Money and Madness
Mother's Milk: Breastfeeding Controversies in American Culture

Please tell me some of your favorite nonfiction books! Thanks!

[LunaMom]

Oh, if you're interested in an anthropological look at parenting, you MUST read "Our Babies, Ourselves" by Meredith Small. It's fascinating, and it's excellent affirmation for the way most of us do things here at MDC!


My favorite parenting books are "Becoming the Parent You Want To Be" by Laura Davis and Janis Keyser and the "How to Talk" book - too lazy to type out the whole title!!!

If you want a laugh, read "Toilet Trained for Yale" - a very funny, tongue-in-cheek look at how insane some parents are about making their kid a super-kid.

[Aquaduct]

The Science of Homeopathy by George Vithoulkas
The Sibling Society by Robert Bly
How to Raise Healthy Children in Spite of your Doctor by Robert Mendelsohn
A Shot in the Dark by Coulter and Fisher (on Vaccination)

[AJP]

Well, it's only slightly related to nutrition (because it features two food plants, the potato and the apple - the other two plants featured are tulips and marijuana), but it's one of my absolute favorite books and I suggest it at every opportunity. The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. If you have any interest in how humans and plants have interacted and influenced each other, it's a must.

I second Our Babies, Ourselves. Wonderful!

[AJP]

Oh, one that's more along the lines of what you already listed is The Garden of Fertility by Katie Singer. A great addition to TCOYF, and I liked it better in many ways.

[ramlita]

I second the Spiritual Midwifery! I once happened upon a talk with Ina May Gaskin, was inspired to find the book, and once it was in my hands, I could NOT put it down! It still sucks me in, 12 years later Fascinating, heartwarming, makes me cry... very informative and inspiring.

Here are the first books I thought of for you:
Vaccinations: A Thoughtful Parents Guide, by Aviva Jill Romm, is terrific. It's my favorite book in the subject. There is information to support whatever you choose to do. Very balanced and thorough. I wish I'd gotten a hardcover, I lend it out so much!

10 Essential Herbs, by Lalitha Thomas, is my absolute favorite herb book. The author has boiled down so much information, and come up with ten easy to find, incredibly versatile herbs that can help with pretty much anything I've needed! I stocked up on those ten, and now when I read other herb books and see their recommendations of rare, hard to find herbs that I would need RIGHT NOW... I almost get mad! I love how lazy I can be with this book, and her advice has been quite useful to us so far.

Bestfeeding, by Renfrew, Fisher, and Arms, is my favorite breastfeeding book. I found it to be the most useful reference for problem solving. Very clear language, good illustrations, and acknowledges not only that every baby is different, but also offers tools to work through difficulties from a number of angles.

A Good Birth, A Safe Birth, by Korte and Scaer, is one of my favorite birth books. I like to lend it to moms very early in pregnancy, as it's very helpful to those trying to choose a birthplace/caregiver. Great background info, inspiring, informative. I took notes, so I could refer back to parts of it.

Hard Labor by Susan Diamond is a great window into the lives of OB nurses. It was a real eye-opener for me. It helped me understand better why things happen the way they do in hospitals, and how individuals working in that system can come to act and feel the way they do. I am so sheltered from that whole technocratic birth culture, I felt like an anthropologist reading this book. Fascinating.

The Tentative Pregnancy, by Barbara Katz Rothman, is a look at the ways prenatal testing affects our feelings toward our babies and our bodies. Lots of information about false-positive (etc) rates, and it was a good resource for me in deciding what prenatal tests I wanted.

The Continuum Concept, by Liedloff (? can't find my copies right now!) is a great sort of anthropology book about the way children are/were raised in a primal culture in South America. It's been a while since I read it, but my main memory is the discussion of how children are allowed to roam a lot, and learn by experimenting, and bond to lots of adults... an idea comes to mind of the pattern that when a toddler falls down, his/her experience of it can be greatly shaped by an adult's reaction- if we freak, so do they
Babies are breastfed, and slinged, but not fawned over. Kept nearby to watch/participate in the daily work happening around them. Cool stuff to ponder.

Dumbing Us Down, by John Taylor Gatto, is a slim little book that I wish I could lend out to every person who wonders why in the world I'd want to homeschool! Very quick, invigorating read. Gatto was a public school teacher for a long time, and offers great insights into the original purpose of government-run schools, and what it's like to go though the system today.

MMMM... books... I used to have a naive dream of going to prison, so I could just hole up in a cave and read read read all the time

[SirPentor]

I guess I'm a geek:

• Effective C++ by Meyers
• Design Patterns Explained by Shalloway and Trott
• Becoming a Father by Sears
• The Design of Everyday Things by Norman
• Don't Know Much About History by Davis
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Covey