by guest blogger Maya Rodale. Summer beach reading is here, which means that suddenly it’s OK to indulge in fun reading. For many (women), this means romance novels. Now, some people consider these novels utterly dangerous—and not just because such page-turning reading will keep you out in the sun too long. Apparently, there are far greater risks to reading romance novels than you ever imagined….
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Is Your Beach Reading Dangerous?

Three Steps to Save Your Marriage
(Or Any Relationship, for That Matter)
by guest blogger Harville Hendrix. With a little investment (from your heart, not your wallet)—small changes in the way you treat your spouse—will not only lead to his or her happiness, but also to warmly returned, mutual support that will cushion you from your own life’s daily blows and demands. Here’s my three-step plan for saving relationships:

16 Ways to Enjoy Your Summer Garden
I enjoy gardening, but I love enjoying my garden. And the trick to summer gardening is to be able to spend more time enjoying it and less time sweating over it. That’s why I wrote my new ebook: Maria Rodale’s Organic Gardening Secrets: Summer. I want to make your summer gardening so easy that you actually have time to enjoy it.

Four Essentials of a Healthy Cleanse
by guest blogger Isaac Eliaz, MD. Spring and summer bring us wonderful warm weather, offering an ideal opportunity to engage in a gentle seasonal cleanse. A gentle cleanse can not only eliminate toxins in the body and improve your health and vitality, it can also help improve mental clarity and emotional stability; balance blood sugar, reducing cravings and crashes; increase strength, flexibility and stamina, and more.

Milkweeds and Monarchs
Once, a few years ago, I saw these incredible flowers—kind of like giant mauve disco-ball chandeliers. When I inquired, I was told they were an incredibly invasive species of weed known as milkweed. I decided right then and there that I had to have some.

4 Summer House Party Tips
by guest blogger Maya Rodale. Once upon a time, people held fabulous house parties, in which days and weeks were full of new friends, parties, delightful diversions, and, quite possibly, compromising positions and marriage proposals. I think we should bring back the house party, perhaps on a less grand scale, and summer is the perfect time to do it.

Reform the Farm Bill
by guest blogger, Susan Prolman. This week, the full Senate is working through the Farm Bill. The Farm Bill spends $1 trillion over 10 years and sets food and agriculture policy for our nation. The bill’s title is the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012, but how much reform does it really contain?

In Memory of Jerry Goldstein,
Eco-Pioneer
When I was a little girl, one of my father’s favorite and most essential coworkers was a guy named Jerry Goldstein. I remember playing over at his house with his daughter named Alison (who was my age). I remember feeling that their family was weird like we were. Maybe even weirder. And that felt normal.
Scratch
Raised on America’s first organic farm, Scratch author Maria Rodale learned how to make everyday favorites from, yes, scratch — the way you remember them; the way they turn out best.
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Organic Manifesto
Drawing on findings from leading health researchers as well as conversations with both chemical and organic farmers from coast to coast, Maria Rodale irrefutably outlines the unacceptably high cost of chemical farming on our health and our environment.
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