Cosmo Doogood's Urban Almanac: Celebrating Nature & Her Rhythms in the City

Channeling the spirit of Ben Franklin's Poor Richard, the founding publisher of Utne magazine (formerly known as the Utne Reader) brings together a delightful assortment of folksy knowledge in this guide for the urban citizen. In charging readers to ""Look Up,"" ""Look Out"" and ""Look In,"" Utne (aka Cosmo Doogood) hopes that city dwellers will connect better with themselves and their surroundings: ""we are always in nature, wherever we are."" Opening sections consider the pleasures of walking, the possibilities of gardening and the probabilities of wildlife sighting within city limits; the volume then becomes an eclectic and fascinating day planner, in which one can record one's engagements on pages that also serve up poems, photographs, trivia (e.g., January is mail-order gardening month), recipes (Caprese salad; baked apples), quotes (""Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment""), travel suggestions (New Orleans's Magazine Street), thumbnail biographies (Pharrell Williams; Rembrandt), history lessons (on the birth of the Transcendentalist Movement) and ""civilizing ideas"" (citizen wisdom councils; community gardens). There's something interesting on every page of this fun and useful guide.