Chelsea Green Publishing: A Year In Review

It’s been quite the year here at Chelsea Green! We opened our first international office in London, England, launched a brand new website, published a ton of amazing books, welcomed new Grasshoppers to the team, and so much more! Grab a cuppa, settle in, and join us as we look back on what a great year it’s been.

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2018 Best Sellers

2018 brought a surge of interest in our health & wellness titles, with six of the top 20 best-selling books falling into this category – including the top title of the year, How to End the Autism Epidemic by J.B. Handley. Food & drink books came in second with five books making the cut, followed by farming & homesteading and gardening titles. Rounding out the top 20 was an assortment of nature & environment, business & economy, and politics & public policy books.  We’ve listed out all the top books, broken down by category, below.

(The numbers indicate where the book landed overall on the list.)

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Health & Wellness

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How to End the Autism Epidemic by J.B. Handley (#1)

In How to End the Autism Epidemic, Handley confronts and dismantles the most common lies about vaccines and autism. He then lays out, in detail, what the truth actually is: new published science links the aluminum adjuvant used in vaccines to immune activation events in the brains of infants, triggering autism; and there is a clear legal basis for the statement that vaccines cause autism, including previously undisclosed depositions of prominent autism scientists under oath.

 

Ready to dive in? Check out this excerpt from the book: A Parent’s Worst Nightmare

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The Metabolic Approach to Cancer by Nasha Winters and Jess Higgins Kelley (#5)

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, cancer rates have increased exponentially—now affecting almost 50 percent of the American population. Conventional treatment continues to rely on chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation to attack cancer cells. Yet research has repeatedly shown that 95 percent of cancer cases are directly linked to diet and lifestyle. The Metabolic Approach to Cancer is the book we have been waiting for—it offers an innovative, metabolic-focused nutrition protocol that actually works.

Ready to dive in? Listen to this RadioMD interview with the authors: RadioMD’s Mindful Medicine

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Mitochondria and the Future of Medicine by Lee Know (#7)

In Mitochondria and the Future of Medicine, Naturopathic Doctor Lee Know tells the epic story of mitochondria, the widely misunderstood and often-overlooked powerhouses of our cells. The legendary saga began over two billion years ago, when one bacterium entered another without being digested, which would evolve to create the first mitochondrion. Since then, for life to exist beyond single-celled bacteria, it’s the mitochondria that have been responsible for this life-giving energy. By understanding how our mitochondria work, in fact, it is possible to add years to our lives, and life to our years.

Ready to dive in? Check out this excerpt from the book: Setting the Mitochondrial Thermostat

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Keto for Cancer by Miriam Kalamian (#14)

Although evidence supporting the benefits of ketogenic diet therapies continues to mount, there is little to guide those who wish to adopt this diet as a metabolic therapy for cancer. Keto for Cancer fills this need. Inspired by the work of Dr. Thomas N. Seyfried, PhD, nutritionist Miriam Kalamian has written the first book to lay out comprehensive guidelines that specifically address the many challenges associated with cancer, and particularly the deep nutritional overhaul involved with the ketogenic diet.

 

Ready to dive in? Check out this excerpt from the book: 5 Reasons to Consider the Ketogenic Diet for Cancer

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Tripping Over the Truth by Travis Christofferson (#15)

In the wake of the Cancer Genome Atlas project’s failure to provide a legible roadmap to a cure for cancer, science writer Travis Christofferson illuminates a promising blend of old and new perspectives on the disease. Tripping over the Truth follows the story of cancer’s proposed metabolic origin from the vaunted halls of the German scientific golden age to modern laboratories around the world. The reader is taken on a journey through time and science that results in an unlikely connecting of the dots with profound therapeutic implications.

Ready to dive in? Check out this excerpt from the book: What if Cancer is a Metabolic Disease – Not a Genetic One?

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Vaccines, Autoimmunity, and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illness by Dr. Thomas Cowan (#16)

Dr. Cowan looks at emerging evidence that certain childhood illnesses are actually protective of disease later in life; examines the role of fever, the gut, and cellular fluid in immune health; argues that vaccination is an ineffective (and harmful) attempt to shortcut a complex immune response; and asserts that the medical establishment has engaged in an authoritarian argument that robs parents of informed consent. His ultimate question, from the point of view of a doctor who has decades of experience treating countless children, is: What are we really doing to children when we vaccinate them?

Ready to dive in? Check out this excerpt from the book: What is Autoimmunity?

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Food & Drink

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The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz (#2)

Winner of the 2013 James Beard Foundation Book Award for Reference and Scholarship, and a New York Times bestseller, The Art of Fermentation is the most comprehensive guide to do-it-yourself home fermentation ever published. Sandor Katz presents the concepts and processes behind fermentation in ways that are simple enough to guide a reader through their first experience making sauerkraut or yogurt, and in-depth enough to provide greater understanding and insight for experienced practitioners.

Ready to dive in? Check out this excerpt from the book: Fermentation is Culture

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Wild Fermentation, Revised Edition by Sandor Ellix Katz (#6)

Since its publication in 2003, and aided by Katz’s engaging and fervent workshop presentations, Wild Fermentation has inspired people to turn their kitchens into food labs: fermenting vegetables into sauerkraut, milk into cheese or yogurt, grains into sourdough bread, and much more. In turn, they’ve traded batches, shared recipes, and joined thousands of others on a journey of creating healthy food for themselves, their families, and their communities.

 

Ready to dive in? Check out this excerpt from the book: Recipe: Sandor’s Strawberry Kvass

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The Heal Your Gut Cookbook by Hillary Boynton and Mary Brackett (#9)

In The Heal Your Gut Cookbook, readers will learn about the key cooking techniques and ingredients that form the backbone of the GAPS Diet: working with stocks and broths, soaking nuts and seeds, using coconut, and culturing raw dairy. The authors offer encouraging, real-life perspectives on the life-changing improvements to the health of their families by following this challenging, but powerful, diet.

 

Ready to dive in? Check out this excerpt from the book: Healthy Homemade Cheez-Its

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The Wildcrafting Brewer by Pascal Baudar (#11)

The art of brewing doesn’t stop at the usual ingredients: barley, hops, yeast, and water. In fact, the origins of brewing involve a whole galaxy of wild and cultivated plants, fruits, berries, and other natural materials, which were once used to make a whole spectrum of creative, fermented drinks. Now fermentation fans and home brewers can rediscover these “primitive” drinks and their unique flavors in The Wildcrafting Brewer.

 

Ready to dive in? Check out this excerpt from the book: The Foraging Brewer: California Sagebrush Beer

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Make Mead Like a Viking by Jereme Zimmerman (#18)

In Make Mead Like a Viking, homesteader, fermentation enthusiast, and self-described “Appalachian Yeti Viking” Jereme Zimmerman summons the bryggjemann of the ancient Norse to demonstrate how homebrewing mead—arguably the world’s oldest fermented alcoholic beverage—can be not only uncomplicated but fun.

 

 

Ready to dive in? Check out this excerpt from the book: Recipe: Ginger-Apricot Mead

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Farming & Homesteading and Gardening

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Gaia’s Garden, Revised by Toby Hemenway (#8)

The first edition of Gaia’s Garden sparked the imagination of America’s home gardeners, introducing permaculture’s central message: Working with Nature, not against her, results in more beautiful, abundant, and forgiving gardens. This extensively revised and expanded second edition broadens the reach and depth of the permaculture approach for urban and suburban growers.

 

Ready to dive in? Check out this excerpt from the book: The Many Roles of a Tree

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Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown (#12)

In Dirt to Soil Gabe Brown tells the story of that amazing journey and offers a wealth of innovative solutions to our most pressing and complex contemporary agricultural challenge—restoring the soil. The Brown’s Ranch model, developed over twenty years of experimentation and refinement, focuses on regenerating resources by continuously enhancing the living biology in the soil. Using regenerative agricultural principles, Brown’s Ranch has grown several inches of new topsoil in only twenty years!

 

Ready to dive in? Check out this excerpt from the book: Farming Against Nature

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The New Organic Grower, 3rd Edition by Eliot Coleman (#13)

Since its original publication in 1989, The New Organic Grower has been one of the most important farming books available, with pioneer Eliot Coleman leading the charge in the organic movement in the United States. Now fully illustrated and updated, this 30^th Anniversary Edition is a must-have for any agricultural library.

 

Ready to dive in? Check out this excerpt from the book: The Winter Harvest Project

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Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation by Tradd Cotter (#17)

In Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation, Cotter not only offers readers an in-depth exploration of best organic mushroom cultivation practices; he shares the results of his groundbreaking research and offers myriad ways to apply your cultivation skills and further incorporate mushrooms into your life—whether your goal is to help your community clean up industrial pollution or simply to settle down at the end of the day with a cold Reishi-infused homebrew ale.

Ready to dive in? Check out this excerpt from the book: Grow Mushrooms on Your Jeans! Seriously.

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Farming While Black by Leah Penniman (#20)

In 1920, 14 percent of all land-owning US farmers were black. Today less than 2 percent of farms are controlled by black people—a loss of over 14 million acres and the result of discrimination and dispossession. While farm management is among the whitest of professions, farm labor is predominantly brown and exploited, and people of color disproportionately live in “food apartheid” neighborhoods and suffer from diet-related illness. The system is built on stolen land and stolen labor and needs a redesign. Farming While Black is the first comprehensive “how to” guide for aspiring African-heritage growers to reclaim their dignity as agriculturists and for all farmers to understand the distinct, technical contributions of African-heritage people to sustainable agriculture.

Ready to dive in? Check out this excerpt from the book: How to End a Food Apartheid

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Rounding out the Top 20

Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows (#3), Eager by Ben Goldfarb (#4), The ALL NEW Don’t Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff (#10), and Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth (#19)

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Audiobooks and the Future of Listening

2018 was an exciting year on the audio front! We produced a record number of new audiobooks this year and have a lot of fun projects in the works for 2019, so stay tuned for more info.

2018 Top Selling Audiobooks

1. Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows, narrated by Tia Rider Sorenson
2. How to End the Autism Epidemic by J.B. Handley, narrated by J.B. Handley
3. Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth, narrated by Kate Raworth
4. Rules for Revolutionaries by Becky Bond and Zack Exley, narrated by Tia Rider Sorenson
5. The Lean Farm by Ben Hartman, narrated by Robert David Grant

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Best-Of, Award-Winning, and Other Accolades

We’re always proud of the books we publish, it’s why we do what we do, but we’re even more proud when those books earn recognition as some of the best of the best. Here’s a look at just a few of the honors our books and authors received this year.

Eager

PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award (Longlisted)

For a book that exemplifies literary excellence on the subject of the physical or biological sciences and communicates complex scientific concepts to a lay audience.

The Washington Post – “50 Notable Works of Nonfiction”

“Can those paddle-tailed, buck-toothed dam builders offer humans some help in restoring our ailing environment?”

Science News’ – “Favorite Science Books of 2018”

“From tales about whales to enthralling scientific histories and the memoir of a frustrated astrophysicist, 2018 was a banner year for science books. Here are Science News’ picks for the titles that should be on any science lover’s bookshelf. ”

Booklist  – “Top Ten Science/Technology Book of 2018”

“The best in popular-science writing reviewed in Booklist from December 1, 2017, to November 15, 2018, includes mind-whirling books on everything from black holes to the redrawn “tree of life” to dinosaurs, beavers, precision engineering, climate change, and space travel.”

The Seattle Times – The year in books: What Seattle Times arts writers read and loved in 2018

Metabolic Approach to Cancer

Paleo Magazine “Best New Science Book of 2018”

Forage, Harvest, Feast

Booklist – “Top Ten Food Book of 2018″

Holiday Gift Guides:

The New York Times: The New Organic Grower

Civil Eats: Farming While Black, Fruitful Labor, Dirt to Soil, The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables 

American Scientist: Eager

For more news about Chelsea Green books and authors check out, Extra, Extra! Chelsea Green Authors in the News

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Authors on the Move

Our authors were busy this year, too! Not only were they writing fabulous books (some for the first time!) they were also out on the road talking about those books, educating fans, inspiring readers, and, a lucky few, were able to spend some quality time with CGP staffers.

Here are just a few highlights from the year:

Ben Goldfarb, author of Eager, took to the road for a book tour over the summer. He ventured from coast to coast visiting 10 states and Canada for a whopping 19 events! While on the road, he tracked beavers in Vermont, filled the house in Washington, and made an appearance at the Worth a Dam Beaver Festival in California.

In November, five of our authors and two CGP employees traveled to Baltimore, MD for the Weston A. Price Foundation Wise Traditions Conference. Amy Berger, Natasha Campbell-McBride, Paul Connett, Tom Cowan, and Nasha Winters presented a variety of talks including “Nourish Your Neurons: A Nutritional Strategy to Fight Alzheimer’s Disease,” “Gut and Psychology Syndrome,” “Vegetarianism Explained,” “Ask the Practitioner Panel,” “Fluoride Can Damage the Brain and Has the Potential to Lower the Intelligence of Children,” “Vaccines, Autoimmunity and the Changing Nature of Childhood Disease,” and “Metabolic Makeovers to Enhance Cancer Outcomes.”

Last month, Nicolette Hahn Niman, Gabe Brown, Fred Provenza & Charles Massy joined forces for a regenerative agriculture super panel at the ACRES USA Conference. In this unique meeting of the minds, four perspectives on farming, behavior and soil health converged. Nicolette, Gabe, Fred, and Charles  provided a deeper understanding of the complex connections between human and animal behavior, soil and plant health, human health and the overall health of our planet.  You can listen to the full panel here: Breaking Down Barriers in Agriculture. 

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Social Media

Our social channels were buzzing this year, all thanks to our loyal followers and fans! We saw record growth on Instagram and loved reading and responding to all of your comments! (A special thanks to those who have jumped on board our meme train the last few months!) Just a couple of numbers: In 2018, we surpassed 68,000 fans across all of our channels, had close to 200,000 interactions, and reached more than 2 million people! Wow!

Here are a few of your favorite posts from the year:

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

And a few of our favorite comments:

“I completely love this book!! Read and share the knowledge @shanahanmike has researched in many years of work on figs. Praise to this incredible tree, example of adaptation, synergy and resilience.” Instagram follower @lorenzo.costa1 about Gods, Wasps, and Stranglers

“Every time I read something of yours I am blown away. Why do I keep forgetting how awesome you all are? THANK you for all you do!!” Facebook follower Alicia Cotilla

“Making some time to start a new book today. Farming While Black by Leah Penniman. Much thanks to @grouse_hollow over at @chelseagreen. Geeked!!!” Twitter follower @LamontLilly