by Ben Hewitt (Get the Book)Hewitt expands on previous writing about food (Making Supper Safe: One Man's Quest to Learn the Truth About Food Safety) to provide sustenance for the mind and soul in this energetic and challenging examination of how we live and what we live for. A self-employed writer in northern Vermont, Hewitt comes to see his self-reliant friend Erik Gillard as a foil to the destructive pursuit of monetary, hence illusory, riches. Crisp, vivid descriptions of the two mushroom gathering, visiting an old sugarhouse, and building cabin steps display the practical skills that Hewitt endorses, and evoke Thoreau's precise depictions of nature. Despite his doubts and misgivings, for Hewitt the ultimate significance of the individual example is to blaze a trail to communal changes. However the reader chooses to regard Hewitt's acquired insights, his presentation of a conscious alternative to the life of quiet desperation is inspiring. --Publishers Weekly
