Happy Halloween, my friends!
Some interesting reads (and one video) from this month. Hope you’re all staying warm, dry, and spooky this season.
Cheers,
Maya
Short reads
Nature being cool:
- Chloroplasts are a whole lot cooler than just photosynthesis, and here’s why.
- Otters were once thought to have a destructive impact on their ecosystem, but scientists have now found that their clam-digging habits improve the resilience of the vegetation. Who knew, nature works!
People also being cool:
- Just watch this.
- I’d never heard of backyard ultramarathons before, but this was a fascinating look into a world of pushing the human body to its limits.
- Another bizarre running event…
Long reads
Connections
- Takes on the Cold War, from Cuba in Of Women and Salt, and from Vietnam in The Sympathizer
- Wonder-filled musings on birds, specifically, amongst the natural world, in This is Your Mind on Plants, Bewilderment and Of Women and Salt
Books
- This Is Your Mind on Plants — Michael Pollan
- Even after listening to multiple interviews and talks with Pollan about this book, it still offered so much more. I loved the combination of participatory journalism, a bit of memoir-ish writing about his garden, historical analysis, and philosophical pondering that make up Pollan’s writing, and this was no exception.
- Shape — Jordan Ellenberg
- Much more of a history of mathematics than I expected, but scattered throughout were moments of lightness and modern applications that I so appreciated in Ellenberg’s last book.
- I tried so hard… but could not get through this. I’m sorry. Math is just not that interesting, and the “geometry applies to everything” theme seemed so forced.
- Pachinko — Min Jin Lee
- A loooong audiobook, but I’m always down for the intergenerational dramas if 1) I get attached to the characters, and 2) I’m learning something cultural, and Pachinko meets both criteria. I gave it a chance because I enjoyed Min Jin Lee’s other book, Free Food for Millionaires, and am excited to see how this one turns out in the next 60%!
- Long indeed, but Lee masterfully crafted a web of characters that explored the complex dynamics of Japanese-Korean relationships over the course of the 1900s. There were moments of heartbreak, insight, and discomfort— the book truly took me through the full span of emotions. It was long, but I’d say it was worth the time.
- An American Sunrise — Joy Harjo
- Poetry, which I’ve been reading a lot but quite scattered, in book form. Beautiful words. Some favorites: “Directions to You,” “Advice for Countries Advanced, Developing and Falling,” “Honoring,” “Beyond,” “Bless This Land.”
- Beautiful World, Where Are You? — Sally Rooney
- I tried to resist it, but can you blame me? I’ve only heard rave reviews. Will this be another?
- So far: okay.
- Ultimate opinion: okay.
- Let My People Go Surfing — **Yvon Chouinard
- By the founder of Patagonia
- Chouinard admirably explains the philosophies guiding the unique business structure of Patagonia, but the book gets far too preachy to be truly engaging.
- The Vietri Project — Nicola DeRobertis-Theye
- I was waiting, waiting, really hoping for something to happen in this book. It never did. Do not recommend.
- Atlas of AI — Kate Crawford
- Disillusioning, and a little boring. Still, a necessary compilation of the physical and structural consequences of the processes of AI.
- God Spare the Girls — Kelsey McKinney
- A glimpse into the world of Evangelical America— and of sisterhood— both things I’ve no experience with. The writing is engaging, characters complex, and plot moves along at steady, enjoyable pace. Recommend!
- Of Women and Salt — Gabriela Garcia
- Beautiful, brutally honest tales of women from a Cuban, eventually partly-Cuban-American family, quilted masterfully together into a single story… and just as captivating, the narration of the audiobook.
- “Weakness; no, we are force.”
- “Florida heat licks your skin.”
- Once There Were Wolves — Charlotte McConaghy
- This is a globe-spanning story, stretching from Canada to Australia and anchored in Scotland— we follow an attempt at the rewilding of Scotland by the introduction of grey wolves, transformed into a thriller when a murder puts it all at stake. Just as the main character gets far too attached to the other lives around her, I too get strangely connected to the characters: human, animal, and plant. One of my favorite reads in a long while.
- Interesting concepts: mirror touch synesthesia; Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours: Adapted to Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Anatomy, and the Arts
- Speak, Okinawa — Elizabeth Miki Brina
- A memoir and history entwined— the former, embarrassingly honest and eerily relatable (sometimes) in the telling of the Asian immigrant experience; the latter, brutal and previously unknown, to me. I learned and felt things while reading this. What more could I ask? An average but good book.