Welcome to Litsy!

This is a beautiful anthology. Poems, lyrics, quotes, stories, and essays from a wide range of contributors. Radiohead, Ursula K Le Guin, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Ada Lovelace, just to name a few. I found much of this book oddly comforting. It‘s not necessarily a read “cover to cover” all at once book. It can be one you visit here and there when you want to ground yourself in thoughts of nature. It may not be for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

My sister took me to the new Barnes and Noble in Wicker Park in Chicago as part of my Christmas present. I got a couple of books from her and then finally broke my ban and bought some for myself. The nonfiction are from Barnes and Noble and the fiction are from another bookstore we hit up!

#bookhaul #haul #nonfiction

This is a brilliant masterpiece. Powers expertly weaves culture, class, technology and nature together to allow the reader to understand the impact we all have. His diverse characters reflects different viewpoints, especially poignant to issues we are facing and having to deal with. Powers has a magical way of writing that few authors can achieve, making Playground one of his crowning achievements.

I can‘t yet do a short “favorites” list of books of 2024, but I sure can do a favorites of each month so far!

Here‘s January 2024‘s five-star, shove-into-your-hands, gorgeously-written chunkster of a novel that reached right through to my tree-hugging heart and never let go.

Nature themed books were my sweet spot this year and I have this gem to thank for kicking it all off. 🌳

#bestof2024 #bestofjanuary #fivestarreads

Audio. The writing style took a bit to get used to, yet once it got there the theme really stuck. Slow narrative, but it works with this theme. Short stories to bring one back to nature. The books points basically take Native American gratitude teachings and reapply them to today‘s desire for buying stuff. What impacted me was the chapter on rain. How water connects us all. How rain is different for every item it falls upon.

He's a great writer, this is the third by him I've read this year.
His weaving of narrators, love, science and culture is superb, and the msrine focus is of such importance.
It spanned a good length of time and has such truths.

A nonfiction meditation on nature & humans & the way we interact. The book is at its strongest when the author is writing about her personal experiences, & not just facts & history. She is a scientist and her passion for the world around her is evident in her reflections.

“That is the power of ceremony. It marries the mundane to the sacred. The water turns to wine; the coffee to a prayer.”

“I close my eyes & listen to the voices of the rain.”

Historical depiction of the political and environmental history of about the mid-1980s to present. This is the first nonfiction I‘ve read by Rich, although in the middle of his second (Second Nature). I was aware of much of this history, but really got into this. His writing reminds me of the populist style of Rachel Carson, and I feel he could bring some of these important issues more mainstream at a time when our world desperately needs to care.

Great read about houses found around the world!

I‘m having a hard time reading this book. I just started it, but I‘m setting it aside for now. It‘s too dark and depressing. I‘m not getting rid of it though. I want to try it again later. Maybe. I‘ve read a lot of past posts and it seems like I‘m in the minority. 🤣