I have been adding additional books to my prepper library since the last update.  I thought it was time to post an update. This time there are books on self-sufficency, survival, water treatment, composting and one on nuclear war survival.

Previous posts about the library can be found here, here,  here and here.

Latest library Additions

The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times, Carol Deppe (Amazon)

Scientist/gardener Carol Deppe combines her passion for gardening with newly emerging scientific information from many fields resilience science, climatology, climate change, ecology, anthropology, paleontology, sustainable agriculture, nutrition, health, and medicine.

In the last half of The Resilient Gardener, Deppe extends and illustrates these principles with detailed information about growing and using five key crops: potatoes, corn, beans, squash, and eggs. In this book you ll learn how to:

  • Garden in an era of unpredictable weather and climate change
  • Grow, store, and use more of your own staple crops
  • Garden efficiently and comfortably (even if you have a bad back)
  • Grow, store, and cook different varieties of potatoes and save your own potato seed
  • Grow the right varieties of corn to make your own gourmet-quality fast-cooking polenta, cornbread, parched corn, corn cakes, pancakes and even savory corn gravy
  • Make whole-grain, corn-based breads and cakes using the author s original gluten-free recipes involving no other grains, artificial binders, or dairy products
  • Grow and use popbeans and other grain legumes
  • Grow, store, and use summer, winter, and drying squash
  • Keep a home laying flock of ducks or chickens; integrate them with your gardening, and grow most of their feed

 

The Resilient Gardener is both a conceptual and a hands-on gardening book, and is suitable for gardeners at all levels of experience. Resilience here is broadly conceived and encompasses a full range of problems, from personal hard times such as injuries, family crises, financial problems, health problems, and special dietary needs (gluten intolerance, food allergies, carbohydrate sensitivity, and a need for weight control) to serious regional and global disasters and climate change. It is a supremely optimistic as well as realistic book about how resilient gardeners and their gardens can flourish even in challenging times and help their communities to survive and thrive through everything that comes their way from tomorrow through the next thousand years..

 

Basic Water Treatment (6th Edition), Chris Binnie, Martin Kimber, Hugh Thomas(Amazon)
Basic Water Treatment, now in its sixth edition, is an accessible and practical guide to all aspects of potable water quality and treatment.
 
Focusing on the issues of most interest to practising engineers, it provides examples of good practice, summarises key issues and criteria, and includes additional theory to explain and support the treatment processes considered. This new edition has been fully updated and has also been expanded to cover additional processes and topics, and to take account of developing concerns relating to emerging contaminants.
 
It includes new chapters on activated carbon adsorption and water re-use to reflect the increasing importance of these subjects, and significant updates to sections on disinfection, emerging contaminants, membrane processes, desalination and advanced oxidation processes.
 
Basic Water Treatment is an essential resource for water engineers at all levels – a textbook for students, a handbook for engineers or chemists who are new to the industry, and an indispensable guide full of updated practical information for the established practitioner.

 

 

The Composting Troubleshooter: How to Compost and What to do if it Goes Wrong, Jane Gilbert (Amazon)

A Blueprint for Successful Composting Have you ever been frustrated at how long it takes to produce compost at home? Do you know something’s gone wrong with your compost but not sure what? Are you bothered by troublesome flies in your compost bin? If so, then this book is for you.

Although there are plenty of books written about how to make compost, few focus on preventing problems and providing advice on what to do when things don’t quite go to plan. In ‘The Composting Troubleshooter’, compost expert Dr Jane Gilbert explains the composting basics and sets out how you can compost effectively. By blending both art and science, the key components needed for successful composting are clearly explained and illustrated using easy-to-understand diagrams. Preventing problems You’ll learn how to prevent composting problems by blending different materials, getting the structure of the heap right, and adjusting the moisture levels.

‘The Composting Troubleshooter’ provides an in-depth description of the different types of materials that can be composted, listing their key properties and things to keep an eye on. You’ll also find out about materials that may cause you problems, or taint your compost. Troubleshooting problems.

Unlike other composting books, ‘The Composting Troubleshooter’, provides detailed advice on how to overcome a range of different composting problems. It is accompanied by a quick Look-Up Troubleshooter guide to help point you in the right direction.

The book also contains chapters on: alternative composting methods; putting your compost to work; health and safety; and useful resources. By understanding the composting basics described in this book, you’ll be empowered to make and use compost effectively. You’ll also know what to do if things go off kilter. Both you and your garden will be able to reap the rewards

 

Allotment Month By Month: Grow Your Own Fruit & Vegetables, Know What to do When, Alan Buckingham (Amazon)

Grow fresh, seasonal produce in your allotment or kitchen garden all year round with the bestselling guide from Alan Buckingham. Allotment Month by Month takes the uncertainty out of your harvest with clear, reliable gardening advice for every month of the year.

In-depth crop planners show you when to sow and how to cultivate more than 60 herbs, fruit, and vegetables, including kale, rhubarb, spinach, strawberries, and apples. Month-by-month alerts help you guard against the season’s garden pests and diseases to ensure a top-quality harvest. Prioritise key garden tasks, learn crop rotation techniques, and try step-by-step garden projects, such as sowing peas in guttering and making your own compost bin.

This new edition has updated recommendations for the best varieties to grow and all the latest advice on pesticide use. Ideal for both urban gardeners and seasoned allotment owners, or as self-purchase or gift for first-time vegetable growers, Allotment Month by Month has everything you need to know to make the most of your plot.

 

Nuclear War Survival Skills , Cresson H Kearny (Amazon)

Nuclear War Survival Skills is the 3rd volume in the Red Dog Nuclear Survival Series. Written in 1979, it is based on the Cold War scenario of a major thermonuclear exchange between the Warsaw Pact and NATO. This world-famous book provides an impressive range of nuclear survival techniques including how to: – Make your own radiation meter – Decide whether to evacuate – Construct your own fallout shelter – Keep your water safe from contamination Richly illustrated, this 2012 Edition features digitally upgraded illustrations as well as 11 new photographs. Includes detailed plans for six nuclear fallout shelters and two nuclear blast shelters.

 

The Survival Handbook, Colin Towell (Amazon)

The Survival Book is the ultimate visual guide to camping, wilderness, and outdoor survival skills. Written by Colin Towell, an ex-SAS Combat Survival Instructor, The Survival Handbook is bursting with survival tips, manual skills, camping essentials, and advice on how to survive whatever the great outdoors throws at you.

Learn how to read a map, how to light a fire, and how to build a raft and be prepared for every outdoor situation. Catch your own dinner and cook it in the mess tin, revel in inspirational real-life survival stories, or serve The Survival Handbook up as a truly unique gift.

From survival basics such as finding water and catching fish, to extreme situations including being adrift at sea or lost in the jungle, The Survival Handbook will steer you through life’s toughest adventures in the world’s harshest climates.

 

How to Stay Alive In The Woods: A Complete Guide to Food, Shelter and Self-Preservation Anywhere, Bradford Angier (Amazon)

HOW TO STAY ALIVE IN THE WOODS is a practical, readable-and potentially indispensable-manual for anyone venturing into the great outdoors. Broken down into four essential sections, Sustenance, Warmth, Orientation and Safety, this enlightening guide reveals how to catch game without a gun, what plants to eat (full-color illustrations of these make identification simple), how to build a warm shelter, make clothing, protect yourself and signal for help. Detailed illustrations and expanded instructions, newly commissioned for this deluxe edition, offer crucial information at a glance, making How to Stay Alive in the Woods truly a lifesaver.

 

The Preppers Cookbook: 300 Recipes to Turn Your Emergency Food Into Nutritious, Delicious, Life-Saving Meals , Tess Pennington (Amazon)

The Prepper’s Cookbook is an excellent resource and foundation that covers many topics of preparation. Especially helpful for the seeker and the new-to-prepping, however, there are great ideas for even the seasoned prepper.

STOCK YOUR PANTRY TO SURVIVE ANY DISASTER
When a catastrophic collapse cripples society, grocery store shelves will empty within days. But if you follow this book’s plan for stocking, organizing and maintaining a proper emergency food supply, your family will have plenty to eat for weeks, months or even years, with meals such as:

• French Toast
• Black Bean Soup
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Beef Stroganoff
• Fish Tacos
• Potatoes Croquette
• Asian Ramen Salad
• Quinoa Tabouli
• Rice Pilaf
• Buttermilk Biscuits
• Peach Cobbler

Packed with tips for off-grid cooking, canning charts for over 20 fruits and vegetables, and checklists for the best emergency pantry items, The Prepper’s Cookbook will have you turning shelf-stable, freeze-dried and dehydrated foods into delicious, nutritious dishes your family will love eating.