KVUE-TV Project Green KVUE.com

With Earth Day fast approaching, books on "living green" are covering bookstore shelves like kudzu – everything from the encyclopedic Green Living for Dummies to tips on doing the right environmental thing from actor Ed Begley Jr.

We sorted through and disentangled some of the best from the burgeoning literary forest.

This deceptively simple, small (184 pages) book has a tip-per-day approach, with organization into 20 categories of "choices you can make" in areas such as where to build, furnishing your home, picking out clothing, going on vacation, caring for your pet, even something as easy as "in your thinking."

Environmental journalist Diane Gow McDilda has a laid-back style that's packed with information. She boils the greenhouse effect and global warming down to one easy-to-understand, half-page paragraph. She even discreetly addresses "eww" factors such as being buried at sea. (Yes, it's legal, even without being cremated first.)

Ellen Sandbeck (Scribner, $16)

The self-appointed "non-toxic avenger" focuses on purging your household of environmental nastiness. She starts with the basics of organization and cleaning, banishing the chaos to make way for "post-clutterectomy care," as she calls it.

The book is divided by area: kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, laundry, general cleaning. In the laundry section, she takes on "laundry balls and discs, the handy little devices that clean out your wallet and leave your laundry dirty." Turns out those doodads may actually use too much detergent, leaving an alkaline residue that attracts dirt. So, she says, you're paying more for clothes that aren't as clean!

Green Housekeeping is especially notable for its amazing range of topics – Ms. Sandbeck even addresses grime prevention for sleeping bags . (Think of your sleeping bag as a mattress, which should be lined with a washable bag, which you can make from a sheet – you wash the liner, not the bag.)

Yvonne Jeffery, Liz Barclay and Michael Grosvenor (For Dummies/Wiley, $19.99)

Say what you will about the Dummies books – they've kind of become their own punch line, but really, they do carry a walloping amount of information in an almost absurdly user-friendly format.

This one gets pretty in-depth, covering questions such as, "Is vegetarianism essential for green living?" Answer: Researchers at Cornell University say that, depending on the specific type of land that surrounds you, a diet containing a small amount of meat and dairy actually can be more efficient than a vegetarian diet. The authors use the unfortunate term "green meat," but you get the idea.

There's also advice on such conundrums as whether natural fibers, such as cotton and wool, are always green. No, it turns out: "Like food," the authors write, "natural fibers are best when they've come from an organic farming process, whether it's from a cotton field or from a sheep's back."

Nancy H. Taylor (Gibbs Smith, $12.95)

This sprightly 164-page tome suggests easy ways to gently turn one's community green and expounds on the benefits. For instance, students tested at green schools, which use daylight for learning rather than those soul-sapping overhead fluorescents, show a 20-percent learning improvement over students in non-green schools – not a big surprise, since many studies show that the brain works better in daylight, Ms. Taylor points out.

She also gives hard numbers for a lot of things we think are green, but might not be able to back up, like hybrid cars, for instance. You know they are better for the environment, but you need evidence to convince your friends who're still driving SUVs. Tell them this: Carbon emissions from a Prius, if driven about 10,000 miles a year, are 3,522 pounds of carbon dioxide per year, Ms. Taylor notes. The average General Motors car gets 19.2 miles per gallon and produces about 12,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.

Ed Begley Jr. (Clarkson Potter, $18)

Ed Begley Jr. has gone from starring roles on shows such as St. Elsewhere to being the star of the environmental movement. He's pictured on the book cover having his own light-bulb moment – with a spiffy compact fluorescent above his head, natch.

This book has plenty of info, but its primary charm comes from Mr. Begley's folksy, "we're in this together" tone. He's aided by his equally charismatic wife, Rachelle Carson-Begley. Ms. Carson-Begley has an especially fine moment early in the book when she relates that "As a child, I would scream 'Polluter!' out the car window at big trucks. And I do remember when the Chattahoochee River turned blue, and it was not a blue you'd see in nature, I thought, 'This is not right.' " Clearly, they're a match made in a heaven devoid of global warming.

Living Like Ed also has some great tips on how merely having a set of personal rules can make a huge difference, such as his "transporation hierarchy": walking first, bike-riding second, public transportation third, electric car fourth, hybrid car fifth, airplane as last resort. Notice that Hummer does not appear on that list.

Christie Matheson (Sourcebooks, $12.95)

Yeah, yeah, we want to save the world. Sure. But can we do that and still wear our Manolo Blahniks? Ms. Matheson answers the questions that are probably first on most people's minds, if only they'd admit it.

She offers tips for looking gorgeous, eating great food and drinking phenomenal wine, hosting fun parties, having a home that's always an oasis – oh, and she also mentions that "green" women don't get fat. "If you eat a green diet – that is, a diet based mainly on fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables and involving almost no processed foods – you probably aren't going to get fat."

Ms. Matheson rivals the Begleys for sheer charm, and her sense of humor is one of the book's major selling points. Talking about the industrial agriculture industry, and how it's making a "big stinking mess of the land and the water and the environment," she says, "I feel like there should be some '60s war protest song playing right now. Sing one to yourself, please."

Bob Schildgen (Sierra Club Books, $14.95)

This nifty little keeper (209 pages) distills the juiciest tidbits from Mr. Schildgen's long-running Sierra magazine column.

Chief among this book's power points is its tackling of "yeah, it's environmental but ... " questions. Like those compact fluorescent bulbs – they're at least four times more energy-efficient, sure, but they contain mercury, so how should they be disposed of?

Answer: Check with your local hazardous-waste authority or the EPA's Web site at www.epa.gov/bulbrecycling. Some stores, including Current Energy on Knox Street, will recycle CFLs for you.

Diane MacEachern (Penguin/Avery, $17.95)

The publishers get extra points for the paperless public-relations campaign that went along with this book. Ms. MacEachern's tome, at a whopping 411 pages, actually would require a very big purse, but it's worth the lugging around.

It has quite a few "oh, I had no idea" moments, as when she asks women to check off everything they use daily from a list of three dozen personal-care and beauty products. Your number may scare you. Honestly, do you need lipstick and lip gloss? Every day?

Ms. MacEachern also breaks things out into easy-to-follow lists of toxic choices and greener alternatives, such as household cleaners (oven cleaner vs. steel wool and baking soda; glass cleaner vs. vinegar or lemon juice and water).