Sunday, May 14, 2023

Reading Update

Book #22 of the year was Beauty, Robin McKinley's retelling of the fairy tale. This was a reread, but it had been a long time and I'd forgotten many of the details. It's as wonderful as ever.


Book #23 was Our Missing Hearts, by Celeste Ng. I tried several times to stop reading this devastating and painful book, but I couldn't. It's so well written and harrowing and convincing. 


Book #24 was The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild, by Lyanda Lynn Haupt. I enjoyed this book immensely and I recommend it. I heard about it on a podcast in which it was one of a group of books suggested for motivating people to go outside. Given its information on coyotes, raccoons, rats, etc, it might be more useful for motivating people to stay indoors, but it is filled with fascinating ideas on how the wild encroaches on urban spaces. Of course my favorite part was the section about birds, but there are gems in all parts of the book. Below you'll find some pages I photographed from it to send to a friend. They are about how soil has bacteria in it that works on human mood to make us happier. The book is referring to gardening, but it seems to me to work the same when I get splashed with Kampala mud while cycling and birding.




Book #25 was Absolute Truths, by Susan Howatch, part of my rereading of this series, which I love.

2 comments:

Elena Alice said...

I need to look into Beauty. I need a fun novel to off-set by many parenting books (sigh).

I am linking an author interview with a new favorite WWII middle-grade novel, if interested!

Elena
https://elle-alice.blogspot.com/2023/05/that-i-might-live-book-review-author.html

Heidi Mordhorst said...

Hi, Ruth--
Thanks for your excerpt from the Bestiary book. I will never hesitate to encourage children to get dirty, to EAT dirt, even. I'm sending you something uplifting by sharing Google Docs. I hope it's as good as mud!