A Year of Living Green: 365 Things You Can Do for Yourself and the Planet

by Julie Fisher-McGarry, John Robbins (Foreword)

“This book offers a low-impact lifestyle that will make your daily life easier and positively affect the Earth for generations to come.” — Cheryl Hahn , founder and president of Tomorrow's World A Year of Living Green is a daily chronicle or journal from author Julie Fisher-McGarry to help keep your mind and heart open to all that lives. Have a positive impact on the world. A Year of Living Green is a collection of nonreligious, yet deeply soulful suggestions for demonstrating concern, kindness, and consideration for nature and its animals. Organized by month, it includes tips on living green, where to purchase organic and fair-trade products, how to unplug from the grid, supporting local economies, nourishing the earth, and creating a sustainable lifestyle. Julie offers you daily personal anecdotes, inspiring quotations, verses of poetry, simple vegetarian recipes, women’s health tips, environmental facts, and green thoughts. Written especially for women. Julie Fisher-McGarry was once a personal fitness trainer to Saudi Arabian royalty, and now works to promote environmental issues in every way she can. A vegetarian since the 1980s, she has fought against animal cruelty and promoted better human health. A Year of Living Green was written especially for women because Julie believes that women are less afraid to show emotion and act upon it. If you have read and learned from books such as The Four Agreements , A New Earth , The Path Made Clear , Have You Seen Luis Velez , No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference , Let it Go , or Pay It Forward ; you will love A Year of Living Green .

228 pages, Paperback

Published June 15, 2021

Reviews

[Rev · Rating 1 out of 5]

What I thought this book was going to be about: actually living green and making the planet a better place.

What I ended up reading: the author going off on diatribes about how much better veganism is for the planet, complete with a complete and utter lack of understanding about how anything works, repeating herself constantly, and then acting holier than thou about everything.

Like when she brought "Nairobi slums" into it, she lost whatever remaining credibility she had in my eyes. Ma'am, that's the capital of Kenya... they have skyscrapers and a highway system there... but she's obviously trying to invoke the imagery of mud huts and suffering to make the reader feel bad so they'll consider what she has to say. She also suggested that in order to "save" Africa from dictatorships, we should send all the grain we produce that we redirect from the meat industry, without a hint of awareness about other problems that also cause political instability in Africa (like idk the legacy of colonialism, which she doesn't acknowledge at all). Multiple times she also suggests throwing away food so that you're not tempted to eat it to lose weight, which is like the antithesis to living green? At least compost it? And she doesn't seem to understand why a lot of people actually need to use fur for winter clothing. I have a friend who lives in Wisconsin who was horrified because like, it gets to be 40 below there in the middle of winter, and so they need to use fur to protect against the cold.

Probably a waste of my time to read it, but I did it so I might as well review it.

Also because I'm a petty bitch. I have celiac disease, I can't eat wheat, which is a common substitute or thickener in a lot of vegan products, so I literally cannot go vegan easily even if I wanted to without destroying my small intestine. This author gives the very real vibe she'd give me a vegan burger without telling me and then surprise me after I've eaten it.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was expecting a book about living green and tips for minimizing my footprint on this earth. This book is really a book about preaching being vegan, which is cool with me, with random tidbits about being nice thrown in. Throwing away crusts of bread to make a pretty tea party sandwich is wasteful to me. Also just “throwing away” old underwear and sheets because it’s not flattering isn’t being green. That’s contributing to landfills. I would much prefer knowing what brands or materials would be green and eco friendly once these things do wear out. And maybe how best to recycle or reuse our old products to avoid waste to the planet. If the book was titled about living a vegan life, cool. But it’s a bit misleading.

[Karopapier · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought I knew what I was getting myself into and it still disappointed me. Half a point for the recipes.