Tales from the Ant World by E.O. Wilson
I told my book club buddy about my recent gravitational pull towards science and nature books. He had this book on his list as E.O. Wilson recently died in his nineties. I believe this was his last book and fittingly it was about his lifelong…
The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
I have seen the films of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in Eighty Day which while enjoyable didn’t encourage me to read the books. The only reason I picked up this book is because of its liberal use in the intriguing,…
The Elements, A Visual History of Their Discovery by Philip Ball
I spent decades avoiding science and nature topics thinking they were too daunting and not knowing where to start. With the pandemic, I decided that I could just start somewhere and so I have. This book, a beautifully produced volume focused on the elements of…
Postwar; a History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt
I started this tome probably a dozen years ago and for some reason stopped reading halfway through. Now I hate coitus interuptus and I hadn’t given up on the book because of indifference or dislike. The book continue to haunt my book shelf and when…
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Sad to say this is my first Erdrich novel and it was the first of hers to get published. It is an expressionistic, multigenerational saga spanning fifty years. While some of the writing is lyrical and the characters often compelling, lovable and sad, I can’t…
The Parasite by Michel Serres
This is the book that kicked off posthumanities, the series edited by Cary Wolfe who also provides a useful introduction here as well. Parasite deconstructs not only philosophy but more importantly the organizing principles so long accepted as underpinning western thought whether it be enlightenment…
Fungipedia by Lawrence Millman
After reading Merlin Sheldrake’s ‘Entangled Web,‘ about the amazing world of fungi, I picked Fungipedia up at Moe’s Books and instantly got immersed. As the title suggests this is an A to Z collection of short, insightful, fun and amazing entries about fungi. The entries…
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
A coworker on a Zoom call raved about this book, touting the surprise as truly unique. Yes, I felt slightly surprised upon the reveal but the problem with ‘The Silent Patient’ is that it sacrificed truly engaging characters so that it could deliver that surprise….
Fuel, A Speculative Dictionary by Karen Pinkus
I bought this book several months ago and initially used it as a dictionary to look up fuel related terminology such as biomass and methane. My first impression was poor. There weren’t many terms and many of them were fanciful relating to a topic such…
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