Chicago Botanic Garden

Education — Lenhardt Library

Current Books & Book Reviews

PHOTO: bookcover

Christopher Nyerges.
The Self-Sufficient Home: Going Green and Saving Money.
Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2009.
paper, 265 pp., ISBN 978–0–81173–558–2, $19.95.

Author Christopher Nyerges promotes home self-reliance in this guide to the best use of natural resources. Relating stories of individuals who have met environmental challenges through thoughtful, imaginative strategies, the author describes how they have dealt with the heat, cold, need for electrical power, water, and other issues that are normally faced in daily routines. Calling them the “new pioneers of the quiet revolution,” he details their activities and inventive methods to become self-sufficient. Well illustrated with photographs and diagrams, this book will inform as well as inspire the reader to become more self-reliant every day as well as serve as a guide for home emergencies.

— Marilyn K. Alaimo, garden writer and volunteer, Chicago Botanic Garden.