Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The most poetic tribute to trees since Joyce Kilmer

Tree, A Life Story by David Suzuki & Wayne Grady, with illustrations by Robert Bateman

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“A lightning bolt illuminates the sky, striking the highest point of the forested ridge.” Thus begins the biography of a single tree. Tree, A Life Story is a 700-year-long tale that begins with a Douglas fir dropping a seed from its cone in response to a forest fire and ends with the fallen tree continuing to supply the forest with nutrients even after death. In between, the authors trace the growth journey of the fir as it takes root, matures, and reproduces. But what could […]

Bingo Blackout with Chrysanthemums!

Chrysanthemums by Twigs Way

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Bingo 25: Flora I have to admit I was starting to despair about having to use a gardening book from the library which didn’t interest me for the Flora square, but then I found this: In case you can’t see under the library sticker, the title is Chrysanthemums. Also, am I the only one wondering if that’s a pen name or just really fortuitous coincidence for the author? This is supposed to be a cultural and horticultural history, which is super interesting since I know […]

We owe fungi a lot, and you owe it to yourself to read this book

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake

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This is a book about fungus. If you’re thinking “Huh, fungi are weird and I like learning new things,” you should pick up this book immediately. If you’re thinking “Ew, no. Mushrooms are gross,” you should pick up this book immediately because fungi (apparently!) are so much more than just mushrooms (which I learned are just the fruiting bodies of some fungi). In Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake, which may be the greatest name ever, begins by walking the reader through the basics of what fungi are […]

I’m as shocked as anyone that I love a book about trees!

Around the World in 80 Trees by Jonathan Drori

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CBR11bingo: Not My Wheelhouse BINGO, diagonally: Cannonballer Says, Not My Wheelhouse, Own Voices, Illustrated, Reading the TBR I may have been called a tree hugger in my day, but botany has never been my area. I can enjoy plants from a purely aesthetic point of view, but reading an entire book dedicated to trees? For my tree fix, I’d prefer to turn to Joyce Kilmer’s 12-line poem and call it a day. But Jonathan Drori’s Around the World in 80 Trees. . . I’m speechless! This […]

telling over showing: the novel

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

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This novel is the literary embodiment of the kid who sat in the front row of your lecture course and had a long-winded comment to add to every. single. statement. made by your instructor. Not only do we go on a botanical exploration in the late 1700s- we go with CAPTAIN COOK! Not only do we supply pharmaceuticals to explorers- we sell to LEWIS AND CLARKE THEMSELVES! Not only did we happen upon the theory of evolution, but we BEAT DARWIN TO IT! These aren’t […]

The night may be dark and full of terrors, I thought, but I’ve got a big stick.

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Ben Aaronovitch did a really smart thing with Foxglove Summer, which was to de-escalate, take it down a few notches, and bring us back to basics. I complained after Broken Homes that things were getting too complicated and also sort of repetitive. Foxglove Summer is a breath of wonderfully Peter Grant-laden fresh air. When you study Shakespeare, at some point or another, you get to the idea of the Green World. My college advisor was deeply in favor of Northrup Frye’s theory, and I have […]



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