Jackie ROOTs in 2024 (1)

Welcome to my 2024 ROOTs thread, I’m glad you’re here! My name is Jackie, and this is my 11th year ROOTing out those unread books on the physical and electronic shelves. I am a research nurse by day, and by night I’m a wannabe author, finally publishing my first book in 2023 after talking about it for a good couple of years beforehand! I’m married with a 10 year old daughter, and we live in beautiful Scotland.

Last year I went a bit overboard with acquiring new books (and oh, it was such fun!). I’m not sure yet whether I’m ready to rein it in again and try to read more than I acquire this year, or if I’m going to carry on having fun acquiring more and more new and shiny books. Every book on my physical or e-shelves counts as a ROOT for me, regardless of how recently I bought them, and my goal for this year is to read at least 40 books (3 a month plus a few others for luck – this would be about the same rate as last year). I’ll be tracking acquisitions as well as ROOTs read again.

I really like being part of this group, and love the book chat, so you’re very welcome to join in with my corner of the conversation!

Note to self so I don't have to look everywhere - code for inserting a picture (surrounded by less than and greater than signs): img src="URL" width=200 length=150

Ticker 1: ROOTs read



Ticker 2: Books acquired



Ticker 3: Books on Mt TBR

ROOTs read - thread 1 (1)

1. Andrew Shaffer - Hope Never Dies. Finished 2.1.24. 4/5.
2. Stephen Moss - The Twelve Birds of Christmas. Finished 5.1.24. 3.5/5.
3. David Clensy - Walking the White Horses: Wiltshire's White Horse Trail on Foot. Finished 5.1.24. 4/5.
4. Aaron Reynolds - Effin' Birds. Finished 5.1.24. 4/5.
5. Angela Harding - A Year Unfolding. Finished 12.1.24. 4.5/5.
6. Ed Yong - An Immense World. Finished 18.1.24. 4.5/5.
7. John Reed - Ten Days that Shook the World. Finished 25.1.24. 2.5/5.
8. ed. Nancy Campbell - Nature Tales for Winter Nights. Finished 30.1.24. 4/5.
9. Chris van Tulleken - Ultra-Processed People. Finished 10.2.24. 4.5/5.
10. Katy Hessel - The Story of Art Without Men. Finished 12.2.24. 5/5.
11. Camille T. Dungy - Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden. Finished 17.2.24. 5/5.
12. Goscinny & Uderzo - Asterix Gladiateur. Finished 18.2.24. 3/5.
13. Frank Rennie - The Changing Outer Hebrides: Galson and the meaning of Place. Finished 25.2.24. 3.5/5.
14. Mark Stay - The Holly King. Finished 13.3.24. 4.5/5.
15. Professor Sue Black - All That Remains. Finished 15.3.24. 4.5/5.
16. Kenneth Libbrecht & Rachel Wing - The Snowflake: Winter's Frozen Artistry. Finished 18.3.24. 3.5/5.
17. Tony Angell - The House of Owls. Finished 23.3.24. 3.5/5.

ROOTs read - thread 1 (2)

18. Dr Margot Singer & Dr Nicole Walker (eds) - Bending Genre: Essays on Creative Nonfiction. Finished 7.4.23. 3/5.
19. Theresa Lillis & Mary Jane Curry - Academic Writing in a Global Context. Finished 8.4.23. 3.5/5.
20. Andrew Cotter - Olive, Mabel & Me. Finished 11.4.24. 4/5.
21. Richard Milne - Rhododendron. Finished 12.4.24. 3/5.
22. Michael Rosen - Getting Better. Finished 15.4.24. 4.5/5.
23. Noam Chomsky - Who Rules the World?. Finished 24.4.24. 3/5.
24. Andrew D. Blechman - Pigeons. Finished 29.4.24. 3.5/5.

Non-ROOTs read

1. Jennifer Ackerman - The Genius of Birds. Finished 6.1.24. 4.5/5.
2. Jonathan Franzen - The End of the End of the Earth: Essays. Finished 27.1.24. 3.5/5.
3. Elif Shafak - How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division. Finished 29.2.24. 4/5.
4. Andrew Rumsey - Strangely Warmed. Finished 30.3.24. 4/5.

Acquisitions - thread 1 (1)

1. David Sedaris - Calypso. Acquired 1.1.24.
2. Alastair Campbell - Living Better. Acquired 1.1.24.
3. Emily Ratajkowski - My Body. Acquired 1.1.24.
4. Marianne Levy - Don't Forget to Scream. Acquired 1.1.24.
5. Brian Bilston - Days Like These. Acquired 1.1.24
6. Freya Bromley - The Tidal Year. Acquired 1.1.24.
7. Tony Angell - The House of Owls. Acquired 8.1.24.
8. Alice Roberts - Buried. Acquired 9.1.24.
9. Helen Rappaport - In Search of Mary Seacole. Acquired 9.1.24.
10. Timothy Beatley - The Bird-Friendly City. Acquired 13.1.24.
11. Bill McKibben - Wandering Home. Acquired 13.1.24.
12. Vaclav Havel - The Power of the Powerless. Acquired 13.1.24.
13. Becky Holmes - Keanu Reeves is not in love with you. Acquired 19.1.24. (preorder)
14. Vivien Spitz - Doctors from Hell. Acquired 24.1.24.
15. C.K. McDonnell - Relight My Fire. Acquired 25.1.24. (preorder)
16. Jade Angeles Fitten - Hermit: A Memoir of Finding Freedom in a Wild Place. Acquired 25.1.24.
17. Philippa Gregory - Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History. Acquired 29.1.24.
18. ed. Durre Shahwar & Nasia Sarwar-Skuse - Gathering: Women of Colour on Nature. Acquired 3.2.23. (preorder)
19-21. Gerald Durrell - The Corfu Trilogy. Acquired 18.2.24.
22. Patricia Evangelista - Some People Need Killing. Acquired 24.2.24.
23. Adele Brand - The Hidden World of the Fox. Acquired 27.2.24.
24. Isabel Hardman - Fighting for Life. Acquired 27.2.24.

Acquisitions - thread 1 (2)

25. Travis Elborough - Atlas of the Unexpected. Acquired 10.3.24.
26. Sue Hubbell - A Country Year: Living the Questions. Acquired 10.3.24.
27. David Mitchell - Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's King's and Queens. Acquired 15.3.24.
28. Sara Gibbs - Drama Queen: One Autistic Woman and a Life of Unhelpful Labels. Acquired 15.3.24.
29. Morgan Delaney - The Phoenix: An Alumiere Sisters Adventure. Acquired 16.3.24.
30. Morgan Delaney - The Forgotten Creatures. Acquired 16.3.24. (no touchstone yet)
31. Rochelle A Burgess - Rethinking Global Health: Frameworks of Power. Acquired 19.3.24.
32. Russell Jones - Four Chancellors and a Funeral (preorder). Acquired 20.3.24.
33. Alice Roberts - Ancestors. Acquired 23.3.24.
34. Oliver Franklin-Wallis - Wasteland. Acquired 23.3.24.
35. Robert Ashton - Where are the Fellows who Cut the Hay? (preorder). Acquired 27.3.24.
36. A.Y. Chao - Shanghai Immortal. Acquired 27.3.24.
37. Anna Funder - Wifedom. Acquired 30.3.24.
38. Ruth Allen - Weathering. Acquired 3.4.24.
39. Matt Gaw - The Pull of the River. Acquired 3.4.24.
40. Michelle Zauner - Crying in H Mart. Acquired 8.4.24.
41. Hannah Gadsby - Ten Steps to Nanette. Acquired 8.4.24.
42. Ben Wilson - Urban Jungle: The History and Future of Nature in the City. Acquired 9.4.24.
43. Michael Wood - The Story of England. Acquired 9.4.24.
44. Suzie Edge - Poo Through the Ages. (preorder) Acquired 11.4.24.
45. Tom Chivers & David Chivers - How to Read Numbers. Acquired 16.4.24.
46. Noreen Masud - A Flat Place. Acquired 18.4.24.
47. Bobby Tulloch - Bobby Tulloch's Shetland. Acquired 18.4.24.
48. Marc Hamer - Spring Rain. Acquired 19.4.24.
49. Lauren Elkin - Flaneuse. Acquired 21.4.24. (***NB all titles up to and including this one in the Jar of Fate***)

Acquisitions - thread 1 (3)

2024 Nerdy Stats

ROOTs (total: 24)

fiction: 3
non-fiction: 20
poetry:
mixed F/NF/P: 1

female author: 7 (%)
male author: 18 (%)
non-binary author: (%)
mixed anthology: 2 (%)

paper book: 8 (%)
ebook: 14 (%)
audiobook: 2 (%)

completed: 24
abandoned:

ratings (4* and above): 11

Non-ROOTs (total: 4)

fiction:
non-fiction: 4
poetry:
mixed F/NF:

female author: 2
male author: 2

paper book: 2
ebook: 2

completed: 4
abandoned:

Acquisitions (total: 49)

fiction: 4
non-fiction: 44
poetry: 1

female author: 26
male author: 22
non-binary author:
mixed anthology:
(NB Gathering: women of colour on nature counted as 2 female authors - this is an anthology of all women, so I counted the 2 editors for these figures. The Corfu Trilogy is 3 books but I've only counted the male author once. Only counted Morgan D once (male authors))

paper book: 6
ebook: 43
audiobook:

Amount spent overall: £46.57 (Jan); £18.75 (Feb); £32.75 (Mar); £35.42 (Apr);

Source:

kobo - 32
Routledge Open Access - 1
Fox Lane Books -
Big Green Bookshop -
Kickstarter -
Waterstones -
Unbound - 3
amazon marketplace - 1
birthday presents -
LTER -
Verso -
Barter Books -
amazon.co.uk -
Christmas presents -
random gift - 1
bookshop.org -
Book Nook Stirling - 2
AbeBooks -
Bandcamp -
Faded Page -
Twitter giveaway -
SPCK Publishing -
Bloomsbury Open Access -
Fitzcarraldo Editions -
Inkcap Journal giveaway -
404 Ink - 1
The Bookhouse Broughty Ferry - 1

(via Bookbub - 21)

I think that's it - welcome to my thread!

I've just gone through my 2023 stats, and here's the scores on the doors:

ROOTs
Of my ROOTs (48 in total), 5 (10.4%) were fiction, 38 (79.1%) were non-fiction, 2 (4.2%) were poetry, and 3 (6.3%) were mixed F/NF/P anthologies. I read books by 25 female and 20 male authors (51.9% and 40.8% respectively), with the other 4 books (8.2%) made up of anthologies with both male and female authors. 19 of my books were paper (39.6%), 26 were ebooks (54.2%) and 2 (4.2%) were audiobooks.

Acquisitions
(Gulp) Of my 216 acquisitions (go me!), 42 (19.4%) were fiction, 171 (79.2%) were non-fiction, and 3 (1.4%) were poetry. My percentages for gender split are a bit complicated by the fact that I bought more than 1 book by some of the same authors, and some books with both male and female authors, but with that caveat in mind, my gender split worked out at 93 (43.9%) female authors, 110 (51.9%) male authors, and 9 (4.2%) mixed anthologies. Of the 216 books, 182 (84.3%) were ebooks, 31 (14.3%) were paper books, and 3 (1.4%) were audiobooks. I bought/acquired books from various sources, but by far the most were 158 (73.1%) from kobo, and 23 (10.6%) which were gifts (mostly birthday and Christmas, plus a couple of random ones during the year).

Show me the money
I spent quite a lot on books in 2023, the grand total of £541.53. That works out at an average of £2.51 per book, and £45.13 per month. Let's face it, there are much worse things to spend my money on! That said, I think I'm going to see if I can average £30 a month this year.

Hi Jackie. Good to see you back with the ROOTers. Nice stats!!
I hope you will stay within the £30 average a month. I think I can buy 1,5 book a month because real tree-books are really expensive over here. That's probably due to translation costs. The Dutch language is read by a limited number of people worldwide.

>11 connie53: I must admit that many of my books bought in 2023 were kobo deals, so much cheaper. I much prefer reading ebooks these days, so most of my paper books have either been gifts, or they were heavy on illustrations and/or photos so better as physical copies.

Yay, Jackie's here!! Looking forward to seeing what you read this year (and helping enable you in buying more books, muahaha).

Love the stats, haven't had time to do mine yet, had to get4 the group setup. Still running the final numbers for 2023 too.

Welcome back!

Jackie, welcome back and huge congratulations on publishing your book!

I haven't had the courage to run the stats on my 2023 book acquisitions, Jackie! I also think I have a handful to add from a December mini-spree. Oh dear, oh dear.

Congratulations on getting your book published, Jackie. Good luck with your ROOTs and keeping your book buying on track this year.

>13 rabbitprincess: Haha, not sure I need very much enabling, to be honest. 6 books acquired on 1st Jan :D
>14 cyderry: Thank you. I love nerding out with the stats!
>15 detailmuse: Thank you - I'm quite chuffed with myself!
>16 rosalita: Surely you didn't hit 216 for the year though? So there is hope for you yet!
>17 Familyhistorian: Thank you! I'm not sure how good I'll be with acquisitions, I'm kind of hoping to have 560 or fewer books on Mt TBR by the end of the year (it's at 585 books today). But I also know what I'm like. We'll see!

ROOT #1



A good way to start the new reading year, finishing a book I started in 2023. Hope Never Dies is the first of two books by Andrew Shaffer riffing on the relationship between Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and sees them as amateur sleuths investigating the death of a railroad conductor known to Joe Biden from his years travelling from Wilmington to Washington DC, and unearthing way more than they'd bargained for, with almost everybody not who they seemed at first. I really enjoyed this book, it was silly, but with just the right amount of reference to politics (really not very much at all) to elevate it. Lots of fun. 4/5.

Hello, Jackie, happy New Year! Thanks for stopping by my thread. I don't think I ever managed to get to your thread last year, but I will rectify the oversight and I'm dropping a star.

So you live in Scotland? That's one of the places I've always wanted to visit. We believe we have ancestors from Scotland on my father's line, though I'm not entirely sure. My DH definitely does. Maybe we'll get there someday.

>19 Jackie_K: That sounds really funny. I will go and search for it.

Good luck with your ROOTing goal, and congratulations on your book! Are you even still a "wannabe" author if you've had a book published, or is your aim to be able to write full time? In any case, I am very impressed!

>20 atozgrl: Yes, Scotland is lovely, I love living here. We're in Stirling, so right at the heart of the nation's history! As far as I know I don't have a single drop of Scottish blood though :D

>21 connie53: I hope you enjoy it! I also discovered this week that there is a similar series (different author, David Safier) about retired world leader and now amateur sleuth Angela Merkel (and her puppy, Putin). Currently they're only available in German, but the English translation of the first one is coming in April, apparently.

>22 Rebeki: Thank you! I think I still don't feel like a "proper" author because I only have one book to my name. I don't know how many it will take for that to change! Imposter syndrome is very real. I don't want to write full time, but I love writing and I hope that it will make me a small supplemental income on top of my pension, as with any luck I will be able to retire in about 10 years' time.

>19 Jackie_K: Finishing a book on January 2? Now that's just showing off!

>24 rosalita: I started it in October though! :D

>25 Jackie_K: Details, details! :-D

>19 Jackie_K: That sounds like a fun & light-hearted start to the year. Love the cover, too!

>27 Caramellunacy: It really was! I'll definitely save up the next one for when I need another light read.

Happy new year, Jackie! I missed the news that you published a book last year -- how exciting!!

I am impressed with your ability to entirely face up to your acquisitions each year. I sort of look at them out of the corner of my eye and refuse to come to terms with the number and total cost.

Hi Jackie! So happy to see you're back. Impressive stats, by the way. I'm too much of a coward to face my book-buying habit.

>30 MissWatson: I find looking at books acquired numbers grimly fascinating!! I'm too much of a coward to face clearing out my Room of Doom (that room in the house where everything gets dumped if it doesn't have a place of its own). If I can crack that this year then I won't mind if my TBR pile gets even bigger!

ROOT #2



Stephen Moss's The Twelve Birds of Christmas is a look at twelve British birds and their link to the Twelve Days of Christmas carol (some links are more tenuous than others, but his theory that the carol is actually about 12 birds is as plausible, and proveable, as any other theory about what it's about!). As well as information about the birds he also outlines folk myths and cultural beliefs about them, and examples where they've appeared in literature. He also talks about their ongoing fortunes given changing habitats and climate change. A nice light read, which I read a chapter a day of from 25 Dec to today. 3.5/5.

ROOT #3



I got a pdf copy of David Clensy's Walking the White Horses: Wiltshire's White Horse Trail on Foot from the November LT Early Reviewer programme. Thanks to the author for the copy of the book.

This book charts the journey of the author and his 10 year old son Charlie as they walk (in stages, not all in one go) the 93 mile long White Horse Trail to see all 8 of Wiltshire's white horses, those visually arresting figures carved into chalk hills. The book also finishes with a quick trip to the Uffington White Horse, the daddy of them all, although that is in Oxfordshire so is an extra bonus rather than part of the trail itself.

To start with I wasn't sure if this was narrative non-fiction or a travel guide, but once I got into the swing of the prose that didn't matter so much (I'd say having finished it that it's kind of both). He details both the routes that he took and the history of the area and the chalk figures themselves, and throws in snippets of conversations and nature along the way. I think I would have preferred the photos to appear as and when the areas they depicted were being described, rather than in a couple of blocks of several photos, but that's a minor personal preference.

Having a child of the same age as Charlie, it was fun seeing things through his eyes too; I must admit certain bits of their conversations were very familiar! (what is it about wanting your own YouTube channel?!). I suspect Charlie moaned much less than my 10yo would have though!

I think this would be a nice book to read if you are walking the trail - each section doesn't take very long to read, so it would be good to read at the beginning or end of the section you were walking. 4/5.

>32 Jackie_K: That sounds interesting, Jackie. I've wanted to visit and see the chalk horses ever since reading Charles Todd's A Pale Horse, a 1920s mystery featuring Scotland Yard detective Ian Rutledge. Although I think that one might feature the Uffington White Horse, not the ones in Wiltshire, now that I think about it. I read it in 2014, I think, so it's been a while!

>33 rosalita: The Uffington White Horse is the really famous one, it's featured in a lot of literature over the years! My favourite is a children's book, The Moon Stallion, which is the adaptation of a TV programme from the 1970s which I absolutely loved.

ETA: I've just checked out A Pale Horse and I suspect that the horse in that book is the Kilburn White Horse in North Yorkshire, as the book is set in Fountains Abbey. Kilburn is about 20-25 miles away from the Abbey.

>32 Jackie_K: ROOT 2 sounds lovely! I got an Audubon book for Christmas so I'm getting really geeky with birds :)

>35 Cecilturtle: It was! I'm geeking out about birds at the moment too! I love watching the birds at my garden feeder - they're nothing unusual (no Birds of Paradise here!) but always very entertaining.

>36 Jackie_K:. I love 'my' birds too. They are rather impatient when I'm not quick enough refilling their feeders. I think that they soon will come and sit on the garden-table chirping watching and telling me to come out with that food. Like 'my' squirrel did the other day. He literally put his hands on the window frame of the sliding door and watched me.

>37 connie53: Haha, it's so true. Pete told me once that one day when I hadn't put the seeds out, the birds lined up on the hedge in our front garden and glared at him through the window while he was working, as if they were demanding to speak to the manager! And we had a (very well-fed and rotund!) robin last year who was always waiting for me and looking at me like he was saying "what took you so long?"

>38 Jackie_K: I'm so lucky to find I'm not the only with that thought.

My reading rate will be slowing down after this speedy start, as I'm back to work on Monday! This has been a good start to the year, but more realistic service will definitely be resuming! I am thinking that if I can get my TBR down below 560 (from 579 at the start of the year), then aiming to read 2 ROOTs per month more than I acquire will serve me well. We'll see how that goes...! (not making any promises *pout*)

ROOT #4



Disclaimer: this book is absolutely not for anyone who hates swearing.

For everyone else, prepare to laugh like a drain (I did, and for the most part I'm not a big fan of swearing). Line drawings of birds, accompanied by sweary statements purporting to be what that particular bird is thinking, is pretty much the entire premise of Effin' Birds by Aaron Reynolds. I even laughed at the book dedication ("To my mother in law, who does not believe that this is an acceptable way to make a living"). So many of these reminded me of people and situations that I know (I'm really tempted to check out their merch store for next year's Christmas presents for a couple of colleagues). Obviously this book isn't literary greatness, but it did make me laugh which I appreciate at this dull start to the year. 4/5.

Non-ROOT #1



Continuing the bird theme, my first library book of the year is Jennifer Ackerman's The Genius of Birds. I really enjoyed this one - looking at the science behind what makes birds the amazing creatures they are. Topics included communication, navigation, social organisation, and ability to adapt to novel situations. I tell you what, I'm never going to hear "bird brain" as an insult again, they're amazing! 4.5/5.

The Reynolds sounds like so much fun, definitely adding to the library list!

>41 Caramellunacy: I read it in an evening, it is very silly! But definitely fun.

>40 Jackie_K: Inused to follow the Effin' Birds account on Twitter and they always made me laugh. I love that there's a book collection!

>29 curioussquared: I've just realised I missed acknowledging your comment - I'm so sorry! Thank you, publishing the book was quite the learning curve, and now marketing is too (it's very weird finding different ways to say "buy my book", it reminds me of personal statements in job applications, and is just as cringey!). Having the Jar of Fate to contain (haha, I wish) my book acquisitions I think is helping, it makes it more colourful and less embarrassing or scary.

>43 rosalita: I think it would probably work better as a daily thing - the entire book might be a bit much in one go (although that's how I did it). I'm definitely checking out the merch though, some of them are just perfect for several people I know!

Good to see you again, Jackie

>40 Jackie_K: These look so great! I had started The Genius of Birds after taking a class with Atlas Obscura on Worldview from animals' perspective. I didn't finish it before returning it to the library but loved what I read.

>46 Cecilturtle: oh! If you're interested in worldview from animals' perspective (not just birds), then I recommend the book I'm currently reading, An Immense World by Ed Yong, which is about exactly that! It's fascinating!

>47 Jackie_K: That looks amazing - it was cited as a resource
... but wait... I'm supposed to be reading ROOTs :) :(

>48 Cecilturtle: Personally I just count any book I own as a ROOT - even the shiny new ones. So that could work! ;)

ROOT #5



A Year Unfolding by printmaker Angela Harding is a GORGEOUS coffee table book. She's perhaps best well known as the cover artist for Raynor Winn's books (most well-known being The Salt Path), but she also does magazine commissions, plus lots of merch (we had a beautiful Advent calendar of hers a couple of years ago). The book consists mostly of pictures inspired by the nature around her home, or in places that she has visited on her and her husband's travels on his sailing boat, plus text explaining some of the pictures. It is organised by season - early spring, spring, early summer, summer, autumn, winter - and is just lovely, one of those books you just want to stroke. She has such a distinctive style, and captures the feeling of the landscape and the characters of the animals and birds she portrays so well. 4.5/5.

Those Raynor Winn covers caught my eye in the bokstore every time. Very distinctive.

>49 Jackie_K: Looks lovely! I just made it my first acquisition of 2024 :)

Congratulations on publishing your book, what an exciting step! Reading through these posts has already added several books to my To Read list. There's just not enough time for everything!

>50 MissWatson: They're gorgeous, aren't they? I'm sure they made a huge difference to the book sales.

>51 detailmuse: I really hope you like it! I thought it was beautiful.

>52 ritacate: Thank you very much! And that's the problem with these threads, I have learnt about so many amazing-sounding books that I'd never have heard of otherwise, and my poor wishlist is bulging and creaking at the seams!

ROOT #6



Something which I've often wondered, watching the birds and other critters that hang around my garden, is how they see and experience the world, and how different it must be from my own experience. This is basically the premise of Ed Yong's An Immense World, which looks at the science around animal senses - not just vision, hearing, etc, but also things like echolocation, experiences of pain, magnetoreception. I basically spent the last week and a half reading this book and having my mind blown. The world is so complex, and strange, and experienced so differently by so many different creatures, it's fascinating. An excellent read. 4.5/5.

>54 Jackie_K: I've been hit! That's a book bullet for me 😊

>55 curioussquared: Brilliant, I'm sure you'll enjoy it! I have his other book, I Contain Multitudes, on the stack for a reading challenge later in the year.

>54 Jackie_K: I started reading this but couldn't finish it before the library deadline, and it had holds so I couldn't renew it. Maybe I'll borrow it again when I finish my Master's :D

>54 Jackie_K: I've also got it on my virtual TBR shelf but my reading energy is very low at the moment.

>57 rabbitprincess: >58 Robertgreaves: I think, although it's very approachable and accessible (I didn't feel blinded by the science at all) it does repay some close attention, so probably not the best book for when your brain and energy is elsewhere. Definitely highly recommended for when you're up to it though!

>54 Jackie_K: That sounds fascinating! On the wishlist it goes.

>60 MissWatson: It's a good one for sure!

ROOT #7



Ten Days that Shook the World is an eyewitness account by American socialist journalist John Reed of the events of the early days of the Russian Revolution in November 1917. His position as sympathetic journalist meant that he had a front row seat in a number of important meetings and congresses, and he was able to see lots of the movers and shakers in action at the very birth of the Soviet Union.

Despite the first two chapters being taken up with explanations of who's who, and the various different groups and parties involved, there were simply so many different groups that it was really hard to keep straight in my mind who was affiliated with which group. My other overwhelming feeling as I read (not helped by the poor formatting of this particular ebook edition) was that although the undoubted confusion of the times was really well conveyed, with meeting after congress after meeting after congress, this pivotal event in world history still ended up coming across as, well, a bit boring. In all honesty, although this of course has value as an eyewitness account, for a more exciting and thorough exploration of these events I'd suggest reading China Mieville's October: The Story of the Russian Revolution instead. 2.5/5.

Non-ROOT #2



My second library book of the year is a collection of essays by Jonathan Franzen, The End of the End of the Earth: Essays. A lot of the essays are about birds (he is an avid birder) or the environment more generally, but also weave in elements of memoir and more general reflections. The writing is really good, but for the most part I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being held at arm's length by the author. Having said that, the longest essay, for which the collection is named, was really fantastic (an account of a cruise to Antarctica, memories of his late uncle, and reflections on his family history), and I really wished that I'd felt more immersed in the other essays too. 3.5/5.

ROOT #8



Nature Tales for Winter Nights, edited by Nancy Campbell, is an anthology of fiction, non-fiction and poetry relating to winter and nature, with authors as diverse as Kenneth Graham, John Clare, Susan Fenimore Cooper, and Tove Jansson. As is always the case with anthologies some pieces grabbed me more than others, but overall this is a strong anthology (and it also definitely wins the Gorgeous Cover of the Month award). My favourites were by Damien Le Bas, Marchelle Farrell, Tim Dee, Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, and Sarah Thomas, but honestly, the one piece that stopped me in my tracks was the very first one, a single, heartbreaking sentence by Anne Frank. 4/5.

I'm not going to finish any more books before the end of the month, so here's my summary for January. It was an excellent reading month for me, with 8 ROOTs and 2 Non-ROOTs read. However, despite my vague intention to acquire 2 fewer books than ROOTs read per month (in order to chip away at Mt TBR), I instead managed to acquire 17. Two of them were preorders I'd forgotten about, but even still, I need to get my act together more!

The ROOTs I read were:

1. Andrew Shaffer - Hope Never Dies.
2. Stephen Moss - The Twelve Birds of Christmas.
3. David Clensy - Walking the White Horses: Wiltshire's White Horse Trail on Foot.
4. Aaron Reynolds - Effin' Birds.
5. Angela Harding - A Year Unfolding.
6. Ed Yong - An Immense World.
7. John Reed - Ten Days that Shook the World.
8. ed. Nancy Campbell - Nature Tales for Winter Nights.

The two non-ROOTs (both library books) were:

1. Jennifer Ackerman - The Genius of Birds.
2. Jonathan Franzen - The End of the End of the Earth: Essays.

And my acquisitions haul for January were:

1. David Sedaris - Calypso.
2. Alastair Campbell - Living Better.
3. Emily Ratajkowski - My Body.
4. Marianne Levy - Don't Forget to Scream.
5. Brian Bilston - Days Like These.
6. Freya Bromley - The Tidal Year.
7. Tony Angell - The House of Owls.
8. Alice Roberts - Buried.
9. Helen Rappaport - In Search of Mary Seacole.
10. Timothy Beatley - The Bird-Friendly City.
11. Bill McKibben - Wandering Home.
12. Vaclav Havel - The Power of the Powerless.
13. Becky Holmes - Keanu Reeves is not in love with you. (preorder)
14. Vivien Spitz - Doctors from Hell.
15. C.K. McDonnell - Relight My Fire. (preorder)
16. Jade Angeles Fitten - Hermit.
17. Philippa Gregory - Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History.

Let's see what February brings :)

>63 Jackie_K: Good month for you, Jackie.

>64 connie53: so many books so little time!!

>64 connie53: >65 Cecilturtle: Indeed, on both counts! I wonder if I can be more disciplined in February?

I'm the same way, Jackie. Even when I manage to read more, new books seem to immediately replace them. Oh well, it makes me happy!

>62 Jackie_K: Ohh agree, gorgeous cover!

Dropping by, Jackie. Congratulations on your book being published!

I think I'm going to have to copy you and keep track of my acquisitions, too. I don't plan on deacquisitioning but I really ought to slow down on buying more books. And focus on reading more ROOTs.

>67 curioussquared: I've just resolved to stop feeling guilty about it!
>68 detailmuse: Isn't it just?
>69 humouress: Hello, welcome! Thank you very much, I still can't quite believe I finally did it! And I have to say I have found keeping track of acquisitions both helpful and eye-opening (in a HOW MANY?!!!! kind of a way!).

ROOT #9



Ultra-Processed People by TV (and real!) doctor Chris van Tulleken is a hugely readable and frankly scary look at what we are eating and how it is affecting our bodies. The focus is on ultra-processed food, and I learnt loads. Mostly that quite a lot of what I eat is pretty gross. This was my favourite quote from the book:

...if you're wondering whether something might be UPF, it's probably a good rule of thumb that if any of the ingredients can also be found in your deodorant or your enema, then it probably is.

A helpful and accessible read which I hope will help me make more informed choices. 4.5/5.

ROOT #10



Katy Hessel's The Story of Art Without Men is a fantastic and beautiful book, charting the history of art exclusively through women artists, from the Renaissance to the present day. Having been so accustomed at only (or mostly) seeing art by male artists in museums and galleries around the world, this overview of women artists is long overdue. The book covers both traditional painting but also textiles, photography, film and performance art. I am ashamed of how few of these amazing artists I'd heard of before, but I now have a huge list of artists whose work I want to explore more. It is amazing how many women did manage to produce such fantastic work, given the institutional and societal barriers put up against their participation in art. With a picture on nearly every page, this book is a stunning introduction to many many talented women artists, and I thought it was terrific. 5/5.

>71 Jackie_K: This sounds very cool!!

>72 curioussquared: It's well worth getting hold of, I'm sure I'll be dipping into it for years to come! There are so many talented artists there I'd simply never heard of before.

Congratulations on being a REAL AUTHOR! (bah humbug on imposter syndrome, you did it!)

>19 Jackie_K: I have your first book sitting around here somewhere, and this is a push to a least move it up the pile a bit.

And I will also copy you and start tracking my acquisitions and see if I can manage to come out ahead this year (doubtful...)

>74 LisaMorr: Thank you so much! And I've found tracking acquisitions very eye-opening. For a few years I was strong enough to read more than I acquired, but then last year I well and truly fell off that wagon!

ROOT #11



I know it's still very early in the year, but I have to say that if Camille T Dungy's wonderful memoir Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden isn't my book of the year by the end of the year, then future me has a phenomenal reading treat in store in 2024! What a beautiful book this is (and check out that gorgeous cover!). The book details the author's ongoing attempts to fill her garden with plants and flowers native to the area (Colorado), but is so much more than that. She wrote much of it during the 2020 lockdowns while she also homeschooled her daughter (I think this is one reason why I loved this book so much, as my own book is about my garden during 2020 lockdowns while we homeschooled our daughter - who I think is a couple of years younger). It was also the summer of the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, among many others, and the tail end of the Trump presidency, so her experiences living as a black woman and black family in a predominantly white neighbourhood, as well as her family's wider history of being black in America, are threaded throughout the narrative. This is a stunning book which will stay with me a long time. I loved everything about it. 5/5.

ROOT#12



Asterix Gladiateur by Goscinny & Uderzo is one of the earliest of the Asterix books, and I read it in the original French (which I suspect means that I missed a few in-jokes - I'll look out for the English translation). Cacophanix the bard (Assurancetourix in French) is kidnapped and taken to Rome as a gift for Caesar. Asterix and Obelix go to Rome to rescue him, and the usual fights and silliness ensue. 3/5.

>75 Jackie_K: Sounds really great: I'm not into gardening and my daughter is grown but I always enjoy new perspectives on lived experiences - plus your rave review is inciting!

Bravo d'avoir lu l'Astérix en français!

>76 Jackie_K: You remind me that I was planning something similar; I've bought one of the Tintin books in French to try and read with my son (who will be taking his French exams in May).

The jokes do seem to be different in different languages; 'Assurancetourix' looks like 'travel insurance' whereas 'Cacophonix' seems more appropriate for a bard - especially the one from Asterix's village.

>77 Cecilturtle: Merci beaucoup! I used to speak French pretty well (I learnt it at school till I was 18 and considered studying it at university, although I ended up not doing so). But I don't have many chances to use French, and now that I've had more recent and ongoing experience learning and speaking another Latin language (Romanian), I find that every time I try to speak French, it's Romanian that actually comes out of my mouth! Asterix is much more my upper level these days!

>78 humouress: I was surprised to see the bard called Assurancetourix in this one - I've read some of the other Asterix books in French too and I'm sure that he was Cacophonix in those (maybe I'm misremembering, I'll have to dig them out and check). I've never read Tintin, even in English, I think the silly humour in Asterix appeals more to me, but it's a good idea, hopefully my French would be up to that too.

>79 Jackie_K: I have owned Asterix in French for decades, and he's always been Assurancetourix there. According to Wikipedia, it's a play on "Assurance tout risques", which is a full-risk insurance for cars. Which he needs for the damage his singing inflicts?

>80 MissWatson: 😂

>80 MissWatson: yes - that's the joke, lol

If they are available to you, here are other great series:
Gaston Lagaffe by Franquin

More advanced because the vocabulary can be more challenging:
Achille Talon by Greg
Le Chat by Philippe Geluk

Yes, I know what it's like to struggle. I learned German from Grade 6 all through to second year university. I'd be hard pressed to read a graphic novel today!

>80 MissWatson: Thanks - I guess this time was just the first that I properly 'noticed' Assurancetourix. My French clearly wasn't up to the joke! :)

>82 Cecilturtle: Thank you - I'll keep an eye out, although can't guarantee I'll get to any book soon! *gives Mt TBR the side-eye again*

>83 Jackie_K: I always have to remind myself how old the first books are, and that the caricatures drawn of contemporary politicians are completely before my time.

ROOT #13



The Changing Outer Hebrides: Galson and the meaning of place by Frank Rennie is a look, over deep time, at a small corner of the isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, the township of Galson, considering the geological record, flora and fauna, and social and political history and prehistory of the area. I found the first half of the book a bit dry, but once he got to more recent history - from the Clearances to the present day - it became much more interesting. It certainly made an area, which to the outsider might seem pretty bleak and lifeless, come alive with vast and fascinating history and ongoing life. 3.5/5.

>85 Jackie_K: Just to clear something up for me. The Clearances, was that the time when several isles were evacuated? I read a book about Kilda, one of the isles, and how all the inhabitants had to move.

>86 connie53: Hi Connie, no, the Clearances were when communities living in the Scottish Highlands and islands were forceably and cruelly 'cleared' from their homes by the landowners and moved to either less productive areas or forced to emigrate (hence the large number of people in the US and Canada with Scottish heritage). Whole villages and communities were destroyed. The cleared land was then used by landowners for more profitable sheep farming and deer hunting. It went on from the mid-1700s for a good century. You can still see many cleared villages which are now in ruins, and the landscape has changed a lot (there used to be more biodiversity, but now a lot of the land is grass as it has been so comprehensively destroyed by sheep).

The island evacuations, of which St Kilda is the best-known, was different - the islanders themselves requested to be evacuated to the mainland because life on the island was no longer sustainable, with minimal access to medical care or economic opportunities.

>70 Jackie_K: I'm reading a similar book, will add this to my reading list. Thank you.

>87 Jackie_K:. Thanks, Jackie, for explaining.

>88 ritacate: You're welcome. It's a sobering read, about a sobering subject.
>89 connie53: You're welcome. It is an important part of Scotland's social history.

Non-ROOT #3



Elif Shafak's short book How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division is another library book, I'm quite impressed with some of the non-fiction our library is acquiring recently! Really this was preaching to the choir, in that she is talking about fostering empathy, in order to counteract anxiety, anger and apathy, and promote democracy and optimism for the future. My favourite quote: "Knowledge requires reading. Books. In-depth analyses. Investigative journalism. Then there is wisdom, which conects the mind and the heart, activates emotional intelligence, expands empathy. For that we need stories and storytelling." Can't really disagree with that. 4/5.

It's the end of February (how?!) so here's my monthly summary. I thought I was doing really well and would ROOT more books than I acquired, but then bookbub scuppered me :D Oh well, never mind.

5 ROOTs read this month:

1. Chris van Tulleken - Ultra-Processed People.
2. Katy Hessel - The Story of Art Without Men.
3. Camille T. Dungy - Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden.
4. Goscinny & Uderzo - Asterix Gladiateur.
5. Frank Rennie - The Changing Outer Hebrides: Galson and the meaning of Place.

1 Non-ROOT:

1. Elif Shafak - How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division.

7 acquisitions (all via bookbub apart from the first one which was a preorder from several months ago):

1. ed. Durre Shahwar & Nasia Sarwar-Skuse - Gathering: Women of Colour on Nature. (preorder)
2-4. Gerald Durrell - The Corfu Trilogy. (I mean, I could count this as 1 rather than 3 books, but it really felt like that would be cheating!)
5. Patricia Evangelista - Some People Need Killing.
6. Adele Brand - The Hidden World of the Fox.
7. Isabel Hardman - Fighting for Life.

>91 Jackie_K: My policy has always been if it exists as 1 physical volume it counts as 1 book

>90 Jackie_K: I love Elif Shafak, only read some of her translated books and two more on the TBR waiting to become ROOTs

>70 Jackie_K: I'm in the library queue for Ultra-Processed People but think I must have my own copy of Soil!

I'm sorry I appear to have abandoned this thread! I do have a couple of ROOTs to report, but only just finished them, so much of the last 2 weeks was devoted to reading.

>92 Robertgreaves: I think that might be my policy if I was starting from now, but earlier when I first started counting my unread books I counted them as the individual books (if they are usually sold separately), so for consistency's sake I'm carrying on doing that. Hopefully to shame myself into reading them :D

>93 connie53: I like her too. I've only read one of her fiction books (The Flea Palace, which I loved apart from the ending), but have another on my kobo. I've heard her interviewed a few times and she is always interesting and thought-provoking.

>94 detailmuse: Definitely get your own copy of Soil, it really is beautiful!

And now for my completed ROOTs.

ROOT #14



The Holly King is the fourth in Mark Stay's Witches of Woodville series, and I do think the series is just going from strength to strength. In this one, just before Christmas 1940, the wood sees the return of the ancient demigod the Holly King who looks to reclaim his ancient territory, which has been inconveniently built on by pesky humans who've forgotten all about how they used to worship and serve him. A village son also returns, traumatised by the failed Allied action in Dunkirk, and barely keeping a grip on reality. Can Faye, Mrs Teach and Miss Charlotte protect the villagers from their biggest threat yet? 4.5/5.

ROOT #15



Professor Sue Black is arguably the UK's leading forensic anthropologist, and in All that Remains: A Life in Death, she writes of both some of the cases she has been involved in (including the 2004 tsunami, and early 2000s Kosovo), and a discussion about death which is both personal and philosophical. The first half of the book feels more memoir-like for the most part, but the second half is much more focused on the actual cases. Because of the nature of the subject, some of the material is very distressing (and also gross: I had my resting "eeewww" face throughout the section detailing what happens when bodies decompose). However, it is always immensely readable and fascinating. 4.5/5.

Doing great so far!

>95 Jackie_K: I had been planning on reading All That Remains but decided it was a bit too soon after my mother's death to be reading about the decomposition process

>95 Jackie_K: Well you got me with an indirect BB for The Crow Folk (since it says Dad's Army in the blurb).

resting "eeewww" face - I can imagine.

>98 humouress: the books by Mark Stay are very enjoyable. I'm now reading the same book as Jackie does.

>96 handshakes: Thank you! Not doing quite so well on the whole 'not acquiring' thing though ;)
>97 Robertgreaves: Yes - it is a book I think you would like, but now is not the time.
>98 humouress: I really hope you enjoy it, it's a great series.
>99 connie53: I saw your review, Connie - glad you enjoyed it too!

ROOT #16



The Snowflake: Winter's Frozen Artistry by Kenneth Libbrecht and Rachel Wing is an easy to read book with beautiful photographs about how snowflakes form and the beautiful forms they can take. Even though I only read this in ebook format, the photos were clear enough that I didn't feel like I missed out (usually if I read a book with photos I want a paper copy). The science was explained in an easy to understand way. The final chapter, about snowflake photography, was just gloriously nerdy. 3.5/5.

ROOT #17



Naturalist and artist Tony Angell's The House of Owls is part natural history of the nineteen species of North American owls, and part account of the owls to which he's lived in close proximity, thanks mostly to a nest box he constructed and put up in a tree by his home, which housed western screech owls for 25 years, and also owls he's rescued/rehabilitated back to the wild. It's illustrated by his own artwork too.

I particularly liked the first chapter, about the screech owls in the nestbox. Much of the rest was a little dry, and I would have liked more of his personal 'up close' observations. But it's certainly a good introductionn to a wonderful bunch of birds. 3.5/5.

Non-ROOT #4



The book I've read specifically for Lent this year is a reread, last read 9 years ago: Andrew Rumsey's Strangely Warmed: Reflections on God, Life and Bric-a-Brac. Andrew was the vicar of the church I used to attend in London and is a wonderful man and fantastic priest (he is now a bishop). This book is a selection of 40 short pieces, some humorous, some serious, of church and Christian life and the quirky and faintly ridiculous culture (especially in its British and Anglican incarnation) that goes along with it. I enjoyed revisiting this book very much. 4/5.

I'm not going to finish any more books today, so here's my March recap.

I read 4 ROOTs and 1 non-ROOT (a reread) this month. To start with my acquisitions were really restrained, but between Bookbub, Kobo daily deals, a couple of preorders, a random gift, and a friend releasing a new book, that didn't last long! (oh dear, how sad, never mind, etc). And I now find myself with Mt TBR standing at the grand total of 599 books, which feels quite significant. I don't think I've ever hit 600 before.

Anyway, the ROOTs I read were:

1. Mark Stay - The Holly King.
2. Professor Sue Black - All That Remains.
3. Kenneth Libbrecht & Rachel Wing - The Snowflake: Winter's Frozen Artistry.
4. Tony Angell - The House of Owls.

And the non-ROOT was:

1. Andrew Rumsey - Strangely Warmed.

Here are this month's acquisitions:

1. Travis Elborough - Atlas of the Unexpected.
2. Sue Hubbell - A Country Year: Living the Questions.
3. David Mitchell - Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's King's and Queens.
4. Sara Gibbs - Drama Queen: One Autistic Woman and a Life of Unhelpful Labels.
5. Morgan Delaney - The Phoenix: An Alumiere Sisters Adventure.
6. Morgan Delaney - The Forgotten Creatures.
7. Rochelle A Burgess - Rethinking Global Health: Frameworks of Power.
8. Russell Jones - Four Chancellors and a Funeral.
9. Alice Roberts - Ancestors.
10. Oliver Franklin-Wallis - Wasteland.
11. Robert Ashton - Where are the Fellows who Cut the Hay?
12. A.Y. Chao - Shanghai Immortal.
13. Anna Funder - Wifedom.

A couple of academic books have got the brain cells lurching about this past week:

ROOT #18



Bending Genre: Essays on Creative Nonfiction, 2nd edition, edited by Dr Margot Singer & Dr Nicole Walker, is a textbook for creative nonfiction students and writers, particularly looking at how the traditional literary essay, memoir and journalism can be disrupted to promote creativity and resistance, and looking at ethical issues around truth- and story-telling. A couple of the essays - the ones by Elena Passarello and Mary Capello spring to mind - were worth the price of the book in themselves, and many of the others were interesting and got me thinking, and I now have a good long list of essays that the various contributors discussed that I want to check out. I have to say, though, there were several chapters here which were so far into Pseud's Corner that I struggled to finish them, and reminded me of some of my less positive memories of academia! Overall 3/5, but the two mentioned essays were 5* reads for sure.

ROOT #19



Theresa Lillis' and Mary Jane Curry's Academic Writing in a Global Context is an interesting look at the politics of academic publishing in English for scholars whose first language isn't English, and who are based in countries that aren't part of the Anglophone mainstream (in this particular case, academics from Spain, Portugal, Slovakia and Hungary). It details the findings from a lengthy research project with many academics from each of the four countries, exploring how and why they choose whether to write for local or international publications, the meanings for them of publishing in English, and the barriers and gatekeepers which ultimately decide who gets published where and why. The last two chapters in particular I found really interesting, although as this was published in 2010 it is perhaps easy for me with the benefit of hindsight to take issue with the idealistic promotion of the then relatively new concept of open-access publishing (in the intervening years it seems to me there are as many barriers and gatekeepers, and financial constraints, in open-access as there are in traditional academic publishing). There is still a lot relevant here though, and having been out of academia for the last decade I'd be interested to see if the participants in this study and the authors feel that anything has changed or improved. 3.5/5.

>104 Jackie_K: That flamingo does not look happy.

>105 humouress: to be fair, I'd look grumpy if my neck was doing that too!

>106 Jackie_K: LOL, so true.

ROOT #20



One of the joys of lockdown was discovering the antics of Olive & Mabel, the two dogs belonging to UK sports commentator Andrew Cotter. A video where he commentated on them doing normal dog stuff (in the absence of any sporting events to commentate on) went viral, and Olive and Mabel became doggie superstars. Olive, Mabel & Me is the story of that time, and the backstory of childhood family dogs, getting the girls before viral stardom, and generally why owning dogs is excellent. This was a delightful and thoroughly heartwarming book - I listened to the audiobook, but also have a hardback copy so could enjoy the lovely pictures of the two girls too. 4/5.

ROOT #21



Richard Milne's Rhododendron is a short book which packs in a lot of information about the shrub that seems to divide opinion like no other. The early chapters about history and taxonomy were a bit dry, but I must admit I did find the chapter entirely about R. ponticum (which is the variety which is running rampant throughout the UK and Ireland) really thought-provoking. 3/5.

>108 Jackie_K: Alright; you hit me with a book bullet.

>109 Jackie_K: Rhodies are Washington State's official flower and they're all over here. I think I've had at least one at every house or apartment I've lived in here.

>110 humouress: It's lovely and gentle, I'm sure you'll love it!
>111 curioussquared: They're all over here too, but not native. The story of the plant collectors is fascinating - of course it mirrors the derring-do story of Empire and colonialism. What we're left with, at least in the UK, is rhodies pushing out native species in many areas of the country; if you travel through western Scotland you can see huge patches of them in the middle of nowhere. Some people love them though, even despite the environmental issues.

>112 Jackie_K: Does the book mention rhodedendron honey? Is it true that it will make you drunk or even poison you?

>113 Robertgreaves: Hi Robert, yes it does mention it. It is true, but I think it depends on the variety of rhododendron the bees have been gorging on as to the gravity of the effects. There are some varieties where even just a couple of drops of nectar can be very serious.

>112 Jackie_K: Well they can grow to ginormous … I don’t think they qualify as bushes anymore … trees? and look pretty stunning when they’re in flower.

>114 Jackie_K: Oh my! I suppose you don’t find out until after you’ve sampled the honey?

>115 humouress: Apparently in some parts of the world the local beekeepers know not to take the honey while the rhodies are in flower, but wait till later in the year!

ROOT #22



I started poet, broadcaster and national treasure Michael Rosen's Getting Better: Life Lessons on going under, getting over it, and getting through it thinking it was his memoir from covid (he caught covid very early on in the pandemic and spent 6 weeks in hospital, over a month of that in an induced coma), but that's another book (Many Different Kinds of Love). This is a memoir which looks not only at his experience of covid, but also a decade plus lost to undiagnosed hypothyroidism in his 20s and 30s, the death of his 19 year old son, the discovery of relatives who were killed in the Holocaust, amongst other things. The book focuses on how he dealt with these experiences of trauma and grief, and what has helped him to live well again. Despite the subject matter, he has a light touch which makes him a fine companion, and I found this very moving but also very relatable. 4.5/5.

>104 Jackie_K: I love creative nonfiction but your review and another steer me to No on this one.

>108 Jackie_K: Really liked this book. Cotter still posts videos of the pups on social media and they get thousands times more engagement than his sports posts!

>117 Jackie_K: Oh that sounds very good.

>118 detailmuse: Hi MJ! I think Bending Genre is worth getting from the library for the handful of excellent essays, which have definitely got me thinking in creative new directions, but be aware that many of the others are a bit 'out there'.

ROOT #23



Well, what a thoroughly depressing book Who Rules the World? by Noam Chomsky is. It's an expose of American geopolitical hypocrisy and dominance, and he is equally scathing of both major political parties and their policies (which gives me at least some confidence in the overall analysis).

I did have to take points off though for the many times he used Russian/Soviet and Russia/USSR interchangeably. I can't tell you how much that annoys me, and "the world's greatest public intellectual" (according to the quote on the front cover) really should know better. 3/5.

>119 Jackie_K: I hoped for that, but it isn't in any format in any library in my consortium :( Onward to the abundant other BBs from your threads!

>121 detailmuse: I hope you don't get too bogged down in BBs!

ROOT #24



Andrew D. Blechman's Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird is both an interesting look at the birds themselves, and how perceptions of them have changed over time (from 'Dove of Peace' to 'rats with wings'), and also an account of the humans who are obsessed with them. He spends time with dedicated pigeon breeders and racers, attends a pigeon shooting club, meets people who are dedicated to saving pigeons from inhumane extermination methods, and even attempts to get an interview with surprise pigeon-fancier, Mike Tyson. It's a bird which is the subject of some surprisingly obsessive behaviour, which at times made me feel quite uncomfortable. I'm not quite sure why - possibly because as an outsider, it felt to me like the people he interviewed were so obsessive as to be not quite in touch with reality, and I felt like I was intruding (even though his accounts and interviews for the most part didn't feel particularly intrusive). I'm definitely glad I read this though, as it was a window into a world that you couldn't make up. 3.5/5.