Environmental matters get the star treatment in The Green Book. The authors, Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen, address the fact that Americans endanger the balance of the ecosystem by the amount of waste we produce, the amount of water we use, and the amount of energy we consume in small practical bites.

Celebrities, including Robert Redford, Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Aniston, Faith Hill, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. contribute suggestions for living green. Rogers and Kostigen establish 12 aspects of our habitat, like home, work, and school, and suggest better lifestyle choices for each. Small adjustments are the focus of the book that add up to significant and positive environmental effects by using descriptive rather than numerical analyses.

Offering a view of the ease of their ideas, here are a couple from The Green Book:

* No more ATM receipts. If the whole United States chose to not print their ATM receipts, there would be more than 2 billion feet of paper saved. This would wrap around the equator 15 times!!

* Voicemail service instead of answering machine. Unplugging your answering machine could save nearly 2 billion kilowatt hours annually to the United States.

This 4-star rated book earned this ranking due to the small, simple to use ideas. The one area of concern was that some of the numbers when used did not seem to be accurate. However, a simple check before quoting showed the descriptions were right on.

The authors have done a good job in providing this information in a witty, authoritative manner. They have supplied many ideas for many areas of your life and showed how the smallest choices can have the biggest effect on our world.

A hot Christmas gift idea, The Green Book is right in line with the way we as a world are going - a healthy planet!