CHECK IT OUT:

Everyone can contribute in preserving our natural environs.

Good habits such as recycling, purchasing earth-friendly products, or making environmentally sound choices are the acceptable standards whether for our homes, our community or the world.

Educate yourself about some nifty ways to help yourself and your neighbors retain our beautiful natural beach and sea area. Save money and enjoy healthy living too.

These books contain some of the latest thinking and innovation on the goal to be green.

“The Lazy Environmentalist: Your Guide to Easy, Stylish, Green Living” by Josh Dorfman: If you listen to Sirius Satellite radio, you may already be familiar with Dorfman and his super-convenient, no-guilt-trip, no-sacrifice ideas for green products and services.

In his opinion, eco living 101 is simple, as the best choices are green choices.

Discover innovative inspirations for home, office and the great outdoors. Best of all, it’s never too late to start making adifference.

“Complete Idiot’s Guide to Green Living” by Trish Riley: Another winner in the Complete Idiot’s series, this guide features Southern Florida’s favorite freelance environmental journalist Riley, who stresses consumer education and organic living.

Practical and economically motivated, everyone can benefit from her nuggets of green wisdom and suggestions for easy-to-do, everyday newly-acquired conservation habits.

“The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time” by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen: With an encouraging pep talk of a foreword by actress Cameron Diaz, here is a basic title that proposes participation from everyone, old and young, with easy-to-follow personal choices to make us more environmentally aware.

“Green This: Greening Your Cleaning” by Deirdre Imus: Wife of radio’s former shock jock Don Imus, the author is founder/benefactor of the Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey.

Her goal is to prevent exposure to environmental factors which may cause cancer, especially in children.

This title is an excellent example of how to use nontoxic house cleaning products and includes helpful references for cleaning up your act at home.

“Indoor Gardening the Organic Way: How to Create a Natural and Sustaining Environment for Your Houseplants” by Julie Bawden-Davis: Delight in this Los Angeles Times writer and Southern Californian gardener as she explores the world of house plants that literally bring the green into your home.

A frequent plant exhibitor at the Fullerton Arboretum “Green Scene” garden show, her latest book offers a wealth of information about how to grow and maintain your plants organically while cleaning the air you breathe indoors.

“A Slice of Organic Life” edited by Sheherazade Goldsmith: Former fashion model, socialite and wife of ecologist Zac Goldsmith, this well-born, British writer advocates eating seasonally for health, nutrition and environmental concerns. With a family farm in Devon, England supplying organic foods, cows, pigs, sheep and chickens, Goldsmith makes the case for personal sustainability in everyday life.

Although you probably won’t be raising chickens in Orange County in the near future, the chapters on designing an herb garden, baking bread, and eating fruits and vegetables in season make sense and offer kid-friendly, fun projects.

CHECK IT OUT is written by Newport Beach reference librarian Mary Ellen Bowman. Use your Newport Beach Public Library card to reserve these titles at www.newportbeachlibrary.org or call (949) 717-3800 and press 2.