Boston Flora

Tag: Porter Square Books

  • Friday, November 1, 7:00 pm – Fungipedia: A Brief Compendium of Mushroom Lore

    Local author Larry Millman presents his latest: an illustrated mini-encyclopedia of fungal lore, from John Cage and Terrence McKenna to mushroom sex and fairy rings. He will speak at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, on November 1 at 7 pm. For more information visit https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/lawrence-millman-fungipedia

    Fungipedia presents a delightful A-Z treasury of mushroom lore. With more than 180 entries–on topics as varied as Alice in Wonderland, chestnut blight, medicinal mushrooms, poisonings, Santa Claus, and waxy caps–this collection will transport both general readers and specialists into the remarkable universe of fungi.

    Combining ecological, ethnographic, historical, and contemporary knowledge, author and mycologist Lawrence Millman discusses how mushrooms are much more closely related to humans than to plants, how they engage in sex, how insects farm them, and how certain species happily dine on leftover radiation, cockroach antennae, and dung. He explores the lives of individuals like African American scientist George Washington Carver, who specialized in crop diseases caused by fungi; Beatrix Potter, creator of Peter Rabbit, who was prevented from becoming a professional mycologist because she was a woman; and Gordon Wasson, a J. P. Morgan vice-president who almost single-handedly introduced the world to magic mushrooms. Millman considers why fungi are among the most significant organisms on our planet and how they are currently being affected by destructive human behavior, including climate change.

    With charming drawings by artist and illustrator Amy Jean Porter, Fungipedia offers a treasure trove of scientific and cultural information. The world of mushrooms lies right at your door–be amazed.

    Lawrence Millman is a mycologist and author of numerous books, including Our Like Will Not Be There Again, Last Places, Fascinating Fungi of New England, and At the End of the World. He has done mycological work in places as diverse as Greenland, Honduras, Iceland, Panama, the Canadian Arctic, Bermuda, and Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has documented 321 different species. Amy Jean Porter is an artist, illustrator, and naturalist. Her illustrated books include Of Lamb and The Artists’ and Writers’ Cookbook, and her artwork has appeared in such publications as McSweeney’s and The Awl.

  • Wednesday, October 30, 7:00 pm – The Atlas of Boston History

    Local historian and volume editor Nancy Seasholes presents The Atlas of Boston History: The Making of a City, a unique addition to works about Boston history.​​​​​​​ The talk and book signing will take place October 30 at 7 pm at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge. Visit https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/nancy-seasholes-atlas-boston-history to pre-order book, and for additional information.

    Few American cities possess a history as long, rich, and fascinating as Boston’s. A site of momentous national political events from the Revolutionary War through the civil rights movement, Boston has also been an influential literary and cultural capital. From ancient glaciers to landmaking schemes and modern infrastructure projects, the city’s terrain has been transformed almost constantly over the centuries. The Atlas of Boston History traces the city’s history and geography from the last ice age to the present with beautifully rendered maps.
     
    Edited by historian Nancy S. Seasholes, this landmark volume captures all aspects of Boston’s past in a series of fifty-seven stunning full-color spreads. Each section features newly created thematic maps that focus on moments and topics in that history. These maps are accompanied by hundreds of historical and contemporary illustrations and explanatory text from historians and other expert contributors. They illuminate a wide range of topics including Boston’s physical and economic development, changing demography, and social and cultural life. In lavishly produced detail, The Atlas of Boston History offers a vivid, refreshing perspective on the development of this iconic American city.

    Nancy S. Seasholes is a historian and historical archaeologist who works as an independent scholar. Her books include Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston and Walking Tours of Boston’s Made Land.

  • Tuesday, September 24, 7:00 pm – The City-State of Boston

    On September 24 at 7 pm at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Yale professor Mark Peterson reads from his book The City-State of Boston, a groundbreaking history of early America that shows how Boston built and sustained an independent city-state in New England before being folded into the United States.

    In the vaunted annals of America’s founding, Boston has long been held up as an exemplary “city upon a hill” and the “cradle of liberty” for an independent United States. Wresting this iconic urban center from these misleading, tired cliches, The City-State of Boston highlights Boston’s overlooked past as an autonomous city-state, and in doing so, offers a pathbreaking and brilliant new history of early America. Following Boston’s development over three centuries, Mark Peterson discusses how this self-governing Atlantic trading center began as a refuge from Britain’s Stuart monarchs and how — through its bargain with slavery and ratification of the Constitution — it would tragically lose integrity and autonomy as it became incorporated into the greater United States.

    Drawing from vast archives, and featuring unfamiliar figures alongside well-known ones, such as John Winthrop, Cotton Mather, and John Adams, Peterson explores Boston’s origins in sixteenth-century utopian ideals, its founding and expansion into the hinterland of New England, and the growth of its distinctive political economy, with ties to the West Indies and southern Europe. By the 1700s, Boston was at full strength, with wide Atlantic trading circuits and cultural ties, both within and beyond Britain’s empire. After the cataclysmic Revolutionary War, “Bostoners” aimed to negotiate a relationship with the American confederation, but through the next century, the new United States unraveled Boston’s regional reign. The fateful decision to ratify the Constitution undercut its power, as Southern planters and slave owners dominated national politics and corroded the city-state’s vision of a common good for all.

    Peeling away the layers of myth surrounding a revered city, The City-State of Boston offers a startlingly fresh understanding of America’s history. Books may be purchased in advance at the event, but the lecture is free. Register at https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/mark-peterson-city-state-boston

    Mark Peterson is the Edmund S. Morgan Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of The Price of Redemption: The Spiritual Economy of Puritan New England.

  • Thursday, January 24, 7:00 pm – Going Up the Country: When the Hippies, Dreamers, Freaks, and Radicals Moved to Vermont

    Going Up the Country is part oral history, part nostalgia-tinged narrative, and part clear-eyed analysis of the multifaceted phenomena collectively referred to as the counterculture movement in Vermont. This is the story of how young migrants, largely from the cities and suburbs of New York and Massachusetts, turned their backs on the establishment of the 1950s and moved to the backwoods of rural Vermont, spawning a revolution in lifestyle, politics, sexuality, and business practices that would have a profound impact on both the state and the nation. The movement brought hippies, back-to-the-landers, political radicals, sexual libertines, and utopians to a previously conservative state and led us to today’s farm to table way of life, environmental consciousness, and progressive politics as championed by Bernie Sanders.

    Yvonne Daley is the author of five previous books and director of the Green Mountain Writers Conference. She will speak at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge, on January 24 beginning at 7 pm. If you ever dreamed of escaping to that farm in Vermont, be sure to hear Yvonne’s stories. More information may be found at https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/yvonne-daley-going-country

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  • Monday, January 14, 7:00 pm – Red-Green Revolution: The Politics and Technology of Ecosocialism

    Red-Green Revolution is an impassioned and informed confrontation with the planetary emergency brought about by accelerated ecological devastation in the last half-century.

    Its author, distinguished political scientist Victor Wallis, argues that sound ecological policy requires a socialist framework, based on democratic participation and drawing on the historical lessons of earlier efforts. Wallis presents a relentless critique of the capitalist system that has put the human species into a race against time to salvage and restore what it can of the environmental conditions necessary for a healthy existence. He then looks to how we might turn things around, reconsidering the institutions, technologies, and social relationships that will determine our shared future, and discussing how a better framework can evolve through the convergence of popular struggles, as these have emerged under conditions of crisis.

    This is an important book, both for its incisive account of how we got into the mess in which we find ourselves, and for its bold vision of how we might still go forward.

    Victor Wallis is a professor of liberal arts at the Berklee College of Music. He was for twenty years the managing editor of Socialism and Democracy and has been writing on ecological issues since the early 1990s. His writings have appeared in journals such as Monthly Review and New Political Science, and have been translated into thirteen languages.

    The talk and book signing will take place Monday, January 14 beginning at 7 pm at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge. For more information visit https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/victor-wallis-red-green-revolution

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  • Monday, September 24, 7:00 pm – Tales from an Uncertain World

    On Monday, September 24, at 7 pm, author L.S. Gardiner will speak at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge on her latest book, Tales From an Uncertain World: What Other Assorted Disasters Can Teach Us about Climate Change. So far, humanity hasn’t done very well in addressing the ongoing climate catastrophe. Veteran science educator L. S. Gardiner believes we can learn to do better by understanding how we’ve dealt with other types of environmental risks in the past and why we are dragging our feet in addressing this most urgent emergency. Weaving scientific facts and research together with humor and emotion, Gardiner explores human responses to erosion, earthquakes, fires, invasive species, marine degradation, volcanic eruptions, and floods in order to illuminate why we find it so challenging to deal with climate change. Insight emerges from unexpected places—a mermaid exhibit, a Magic 8 Ball, and midcentury cartoons about a future that never came to be.

    Instead of focusing on the economics and geopolitics of the debate over climate change, this book brings large-scale disaster to a human scale, emphasizing the role of the individual. We humans do have the capacity to deal with disasters. When we face threatening changes, we don’t just stand there pretending it isn’t so, we do something. But because we’re human, our responses aren’t always the right ones the first time—yet we can learn to do better. This book is essential reading for all who want to know how we can draw on our strengths to survive the climate catastrophe and forge a new relationship with nature.

    L. S. Gardiner is the author of two and illustrator of nine children’s books about science. She works at the UCAR Center for Science Education, and resides in Boulder, Colorado. The talk is free. More information may be found at https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/ls-gardiner-tales-uncertain-world

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  • Monday, August 20, 7:00 pm – Seaweed Chronicles: A World at the Water’s Edge

    An ancient, and vital, part of nature’s ecosystem, seaweed is now emerging as an increasingly important source of food in a world faced with diminishing natural resources.

    In Seaweed Chronicles, acclaimed nature writer Susan Hand Shetterly opens a window into the world of this fascinating organism by providing an elegant, often poetic look at life on the rugged shore of the Gulf of Maine. Shetterly offers a close look at the life cycle of seaweed, and introduces us to the men and women who farm and harvest it–and their increasingly difficult task of protecting this critical natural resource against forces both natural and man-made. Ideal for readers of such books as The Hidden Life of Trees and How to Read Water, Seaweed Chronicles is a beautiful tribute to a little-known part of our country and a significant contribution to our understanding of our natural habitat.

    Susan Hand Shetterly is the author of the essay collections Settled in the Wild and The New Year’s Owl, as well as several children’s books, including Shelterwood, named an Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children by the Children’s Book Council. She lives in Maine. She will speak about her book at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge, on Monday, August 20 at 7 pm. More information at https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/susan-shetterly-seaweed-chronicles

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  • Thursday, July 12, 7:00 pm – One Green Deed Spawns Another

    One Green Deed Spawns Another traces the unusual path David Mahood followed to become environmentally active, which brought him in contact with some exceptional individuals. Some are as well-known as celebrities; others have flown under the radar. All of them have equally distinctive stories that have inspired and influenced his philosophy on our relationship to our habitat and fellow species. This book is a compilation of these poignant moments with his environmental heroes and friends and their insightful ideas, and a tribute to the spirit of Earth’s active stewards.

    David C. Mahood is a sustainability consultant, environmental writer and poet. He holds a BA from the College of Wooster, and an MBA in Sustainability from San Francisco Institute of Architecture. His articles have appeared in numerous publications including Interiors and Sources, International Ecotourism Society, The Environmental Blog, NEWH Magazine and Living Green Magazine. His poetry credits include Writer’s Cramp, Fifth Street Review, and Prick of the Spindle. He attributes his environmental epiphany to a desperate act of consciousness back in 1998. David spends most of his time in Massachusetts but can be found in one of various flanking airports.

    David will appear at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge, on Thursday, July 12 to discuss his book and sign copies. For more information visit www.portersquarebooks.com.

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  • Monday, May 21, 7:00 pm – The Guide to Walden Pond: An Exploration of the History, Nature, Landscape and Literature of One of America’s Most Iconic Places

    Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge, welcomes Robert Thorson, author of The Guide To Walden Pond: An Exploration of the History, Nature, Landscape and Literature of One of America’s Most Iconic Places on Monday, May 21 at 7 pm for a talk and book signing. This is the first guidebook to Henry David Thoreau’s most defining place, visited by half a million people each year and widely known as the fountainhead of America’s environmental consciousness.

    Using this guide, both armchair readers and trail-walkers alike can amble around the pond’s shoreline, pausing at fifteen special places to learn about people, historic events, and the natural world. Thoreau will be a constant companion via quotes from Walden. Stop by stop, the place of his book will merge with the book of his place.

    Abundantly illustrated with photographs, drawings, and maps, this guide is a must-have for a meaningful, engaging tour of Walden Pond as well as a souvenir of a visit. For more information visit https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/robert-thorson-guide-walden-pond

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  • Monday, April 23, 7:00 pm – Native Plants for New England Gardens

    Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge, will host Mark Richardson and Dan Jaffe on Monday, April 23 at 7 pm for a talk and book signing. This is the essential gardener’s guide to growing native in New England. Plants native to New England evolved to thrive in local conditions and survive harsh seasons. Native Plants for New England Gardens culls the expertise of the New England Wild Flower Society to help anyone create lovely, hardy gardens that will tolerate drought, resist disease and encourage biodiversity. This handy guide to 100 great native flowers, ground covers, shrubs, ferns, and grasses that will thrive in New England gardens features practical information accompanied by beautiful color photography. Find and nurture the native plants that your garden is missing–the planet will thank you.

    New England Wild Flower Society Director of the Botanic Garden Mark Richardson studied ornamental horticulture at the University of Rhode Island and holds a master’s degree from the University of Delaware’s Longwood Graduate Program. Native Plants for New England Gardens is a product of his passion for public horticulture. Photographer and author Dan Jaffe earned a degree in botany from the University of Maine, Orono, and has years of nursery and plant sales experience. He is the official propagator and stock bed grower of the New England Wild Flower Society.

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