Litsy

I had a great reading month! Two of these made my #AuldLangSpine list (Women & Other Monsters, which most of my IRL book club was disappointed in, so…caution), & The Ten Year Affair. Thematically, 10 Year & All 4s are very similar…but I preferred 10 Year, which is far less experimental (which I suppose makes it more “boring”), but still very funny!

If I‘d had room, I would‘ve added The Ghost Orchard to my list, too. So good.

monalyisha On a tangentially-related note, I won‘t be running the kids‘ fantasy book club at the library in the New Year, so I won‘t have the juv titles mucking up my stats and graphics. 😅 Aesthetically, it‘s been driving me nuts! 🙈 Lost Evangeline was 100% for me, though. I love children‘s literature; I just don‘t always love choosing titles for myself that are intended to appeal greatly to a wide range of 10-year-olds. 2d

shortsarahrose I loved Women and Other Monsters but definitely understand why not everyone would like it. The combo of cultural criticism and memoir is just a form that works well for me! 2d

monalyisha #AWreads2025 2d

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monalyisha

The Ghost Orchard | Helen Humphreys

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I understand why Humphreys titled the book The Ghost Orchard. It is absolutely the strongest section (followed by that on Robert Frost, and The Imagined Discovery of the White Winter Pearmain). The way in which she grafts the story of her relationship with both her friend and her father, and their deaths, onto the story of the apple is brilliant. The Parafilm that seamlessly binds the stories is Frost‘s friendship with the poet Edward Thomas.👇🏻

monalyisha 1/2: As she writes, “A hundred years is very old for an apple tree, as it is for a person. An apple tree exists for the same amount of time that we do, and this gives our relationship with the trees a certain poignancy.” It makes sense that the book would be equal parts plant & human-animal. We are capable of having all sorts of relationships (with the land and with each other). 3w

monalyisha 2/2: I almost wish that there was *more* memoir…but it‘s perfectly eloquent (and almost bite-sized — or, “of small to medium size,” as the catalogs would put it) the way that it is. 3w

Chelsea.Poole Great review! 3w

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monalyisha Thanks, @Chelsea.Poole! Embarrassingly, I‘d totally confused Helen Humphreys with Helen MacDonald in my head. Now, having read this, I‘m just a Helen fan. Thirty Helens Agree: Helens can write! 3w

rockpools I learnt just yesterday that the Apple orchard I grew up with/in had been scrubbed up - this ‘100 years‘ fact makes me feel much more at ease (the trees weren‘t young when I knew them! Thank you - perfect timing for me. I‘ll try and find the book (which apparently I stacked years ago). And I thought Helen Humphreys and Helen Garner were the same person, so… 3w

TheKidUpstairs I've never read this one, but I am a big fan of Helen Humphreys in general, especially her fiction. She's just a fabulous writer :) 2w

monalyisha @TheKidUpstairs Which of hers have you read? The one title on my radar is

Followed by the Lark: A Novel

TheKidUpstairs @monalyisha I haven't read Lark yet, but a former colleague of mine who is also a big Humphreys fan says it's his favourite, so I expect good things. Afterimage is one of my all time faves, and I also LOVED The Lost Garden. I've also read The Reinvention of Love, The Frozen Thames, and Field Study (and all were great reads).

Afterimage

(edited) 2w

monalyisha @TheKidUpstairs Adding them stat! You know I trust you. 😉 2w

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monalyisha

The Ghost Orchard | Helen Humphreys

“It was all praise and miracle. Edward Thomas was right about a line of apples being the same as a line of poetry in another language.”

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monalyisha

The Ghost Orchard | Helen Humphreys

It‘s fun to be reading about the Robert Frost Interpretive Trail.

I always stop on the way home from visiting one of my friends in VT. It‘s not a long trail (nor is it The Long Trail) but it‘s one of my favorite little walks!

It‘s nice to remember, especially in November, that it can be a blessing to live in New England. Romanticize your life, right?

AnnCrystal 🤩💝. 3w

dabbe 💚💙💚 3w

Amiable I ❤️ living in New England in all seasons. Even in November. But in February it‘s close. 😬😀 3w

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ravenlee

We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate | Michael Grunwald

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Low pick. A ton of information/explanation, and I feel I have a better handle on a really tangled subject. There are lots of people to keep straight, and lots of no-real-solutions. BUT - I don‘t have any idea where I should go from here, as an individual. Should I be calling my representatives? Making personal changes? Supporting businesses? This reads more as a bio of Tim Searchinger than anything else. Frustrating and kind of disappointing, tbh.

ravenlee I really wish the last chapter and epilogue had been more of a how-to, let‘s do this together feel. Grunwald cautions against Debbie Downerism, but the big takeaway here is that we should and could be doing so much, but we aren‘t, and it‘s because our political/economic systems are broken. Which, they are, but what do we do about it? I guess he doesn‘t know either. 3w

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ravenlee

We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate | Michael Grunwald

TIL — Brandolini‘s Law, or the bullshit asymmetry principle: The energy required to refute misinformation is an order of magnitude larger than the energy required to produce it.

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ravenlee

We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate | Michael Grunwald

Starting this one tonight!

TheBookHippie How are you doing? How‘s your mom? 1mo

ravenlee @TheBookHippie thanks for asking - I‘ve got a sick kiddo who hates taking medicine, and I‘m trying to sort out how it impacts our whole week. My mom is doing pretty well. She had the procedure her doctor wanted her to have in the first place but the tumor board overruled him; then he couldn‘t complete the procedure they wanted instead. But there‘s a waiting period of several months before they can determine if it was effective… 1mo

ravenlee …so she‘s waiting on her next PET scan/MRI next month (I think) to find out if it worked. If it didn‘t…well, I think this is the last-ditch effort. It all kind of comes down to the next tests. But she‘s coming to visit next month to see kiddo dance in the Nutcracker, so we‘re focusing on that. 1mo

TheBookHippie @ravenlee sending so much love to you. Keeping you close in my heart. 1mo

ravenlee @TheBookHippie thank you for thinking of us. It means a lot. 1mo

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ravenlee

We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate | Michael Grunwald

I was picking up a library hold so I decided to check this out again, and found this cookbook that looks interesting. I already have 1.5 library books to read! I need an entire day (weekend…week…) to do nothing but read!

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Naturelandorganics

Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America | Wenonah Hauter

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