Natural Eating

J. Wayne Fears, in The Field & Stream Wilderness Cooking Handbook: How to Prepare, Cook, and Serve Backcountry Meals, offers more than 100 recipes for the single-burner camp stove or the open fire. Fears, editor of Rural Sportsman magazine, explains the basics of fire building as well as the intricacies of the backpack stove. Recipes include 13 types of jerky, including venison and caribou, as well as the traditional beef. Others include Grilled Turkey, Sherried Quail, Beer Burgers and—quiche-eaters beware—Baked Rattlesnake. Vegetarian campers will be disappointed, but the typical Field & Stream reader should welcome Fears's hearty approach. (Lyons, $14.95 paper 208p ISBN 1-58574-355-0; Sept.)

Davida Gypsy Breier has compiled Vegan & Vegetarian FAQ: Answers to Your Frequently Asked Questions, including a nutrition section by Reed Mangels, from the most frequently asked questions on the Vegetarian Resource Group Web site. Nonvegetarians, newcomers and veterans can find discussions of the basics of vegetarianism, as well as solutions to problems and sources for hard-to-find foods and products. Where can one find nonleather ballet shoes? What about holiday dishes? What's kosher, what's not? Is wine vegetarian? Especially revealing is the chapter on food ingredients that demystifies the package-label lists of additives that might be derived from animals. Equally enlightening is the travel section advising on airline meals and how to get along in other cultures. (Vegetarian Resource Group, $15 272p ISBN 0-931411-24-6; Sept.)

Mind & Body

Anxiety is the single largest mental health problem in the U.S., according to recent studies. Researchers have found that 30% to 40% of the general population suffers from excessive anxiety. Psychologists Bob Montgomery and Laurel Morris (coauthors, Surviving: Coping with a Life Crisis) argue, in Living with Anxiety: A Clinically Tested Step-by-Step Plan for Drug-Free Management, that it is possible and even preferable for the anxious to cope without drugs, and the book guides readers through a self-help process. While Montgomery and Morris responsibly advise readers to seek counseling from a trained clinical psychologist if the advice in their book doesn't work, they believe that dealing with anxiety without a therapist has self-esteem benefits. They also note, rightly, that psychotherapy is too expensive for many people, and many insurance plans don't cover it; for that very reason, this book is likely to find a wide audience. (Perseus, $16 paper 288p ISBN 1-55561-306-3; Sept. 1)

Spoofing the current craze for books on what to do "if you just crawled out of the flaming wreckage of a 747 that crashed in the Everglades and you're now being attacked by a 'gator,' " the Men's Health Real Life Survival Guide aims to help readers survive "situations that actually happen." Larry Keller, Christian Millman and, as the book's cover credit line satirically observes, "the other guys in the trenches at Men's Health," explain how a guy can lose 10 pounds fast, clean a carpet stain, unhook a woman's bra with one hand, propose marriage, evade a speeding ticket, mix drinks and win at poker. This book offers little relief to those anticipating encounters with Congo ants or a disgruntled anaconda. But men destined for more prosaic face-offs—whether with highway patrol officers, tax collectors or women—may find it handy. 48 b&w illus.; 6 b&w photos. (Rodale, $9.95 paper 208p ISBN 1-57954-500-9; Sept. 5)

Organized athletics for children developed in the wake of WWII, when the labor force expanded and women left home in increasing numbers. One unintended but inevitable result of these programs is the possibility of injury and the need for treatment. The Sports Medicine Bible for Young Athletes: What Every Parent and Coach Needs to Know About Improving Children's Health Fitness Programs, Preventing Acute and Overuse Injuries, and Rehabilitation by Lyle J. Micheli with Mark Jenkins is a guide for those in the field. Informed preparation should mean better programs with fewer problems. Micheli, the director of sports medicine at the Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, champions well-organized, low-stress, enjoyable sports activities for kids and provides background on organization, goals, physiology, possible diseases and injuries and their treatments. (Sourcebooks, $29.95 288p ISBN 157071-858-X; $19.95 paper -719-9; Sept.)

How direct are the correlations between prenatal nutrition and predispositions for cancer, diabetes or heart disease? Very, according to Karin B. Michels, a professor of obstetrics at Harvard Medical School, and Kristine Napier, a director at the Cleveland Heart Clinic, in The Gift of Health: The Complete Pregnancy Diet for Your Baby's Wellness—From Before Birth Through Adulthood. After a few conceptual, overarching chapters like "Eating for Your Child's Future," the authors detail optimal diets for prepregnancy and each trimester designed "to prevent undernutrition in the first and third trimesters, to prevent excessive weight gain in the second and third trimesters, and to maximize the notable nutrients every day of your pregnancy." Confidence-inspiring explanations behind every suggestion and more than 100 recipes from salads to shakes will gratify mothers-to-be. (Pocket, $15.95 paper 384p ISBN 0-7434-0749-0; Aug.)

Style, Inside and Out

Garden writer Laura C. Martin introduces The Art and Craft of Pounding Flowers, an activity using the pigments of plants for decoration. This craft is so easy one can "simply pick a flower, place it on paper or fabric and hammer away," Martin explains. She easily guides the beginner through preparation, listing the tools needed in addition to the hammer, suggesting choices for plants—darker pigments usually yield better impressions; paper and fabric with natural fibers absorb better; pretreating helps the color to take and last longer. More than 150 color photos and illus. (QVC, $24.95 192p ISBN 1-928998-41-0; Sept.)

Dominique Browning and the editors of House & Garden magazine celebrate the 100th anniversary of their shelter publication with House & Garden Book of Style, featuring contemporary trends. The magazine has documented traditional design and charted the progress of the essential elements of style—"form, color, line, proportion, scale, texture, pattern, and material." Grouped according to updated classics, new international, country luxe, minimalism, bohemian chic, grand tour, and midcentury modern, the trends explored here are splendidly illustrated by the 250 full-color photos covering the breadth of possibilities. (Clarkson Potter, $45 256p ISBN 0-609-60928-9; Sept.)

In an increasingly complex and hectic world, home is the place most people retreat to, and Jane Cumberbatch's Pure Style Living advocates taking the simple approach to domestic tranquillity. She advises using natural fabrics and materials and paring down to the essentials, to unclutter and reuse rather than buy more and more. She encourages an eco-friendly environment and more natural, simple, satisfying food. Pia Tryde's photographs add texture to Cumberbach's theories and emphasize her simple approach. One caution: simplicity does take work. (DK, $40 408p ISBN 0-6894-8015-8; Sept.)