Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Mind? Blown.

The Tree by Colin Tudge

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Well, I started this book knowing very little in the way of botany, and I feel compelled to point out the process of placing plants into various families is Seriously Bonkers, to use the scientific term.  The two biggest families are, in layman’s terms, the roses and the daisies.  But the roses also include grape vines, cabbages, oak trees, and rubber trees, while the daisies have carrots, coffee, ash trees, and olive trees for relatives.  Apparently it all has to do with DNA, but wow.  […]

Around the world redux. This time, plants!

Around the World in 80 Plants by Jonathan Drori, Illustrated by Lucille Clerc

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Back in 2019, I read Jonathan Drori’s Around the World in 80 Trees and was as shocked as anybody that I could truly love a book about trees. But love it I did, so much so that when I heard Drori had written a follow-up book about plants, I rushed to get my hands on a copy. Around the World in 80 Plants follows the same format as its forerunner: Walking roughly in Phileas Fogg’s footsteps, Drori takes a trip around the world, starting in […]

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 […]



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