Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Trees move slowly. Sometimes books about trees do, also.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate by Peter Wohlleben

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Peter Wohlleben is a man to be admired. Having graduated from a forestry school in Germany, he worked for the forestry commission for more than 20 years but eventually became disillusioned by the common use of what he considered to be damaging forestry practices. He began applying his own ideas as manager of an ecologically-friendly beech forest, and he shares his knowledge and passion in the multiple books he’s written about trees. The Hidden Life of Trees, a New York Times bestseller, aims to make trees […]

Heartwood

Greenwood by Michael Christie

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I have not been able to sit still and read for a long time. With the pandemic, my mind can rarely engage with a book for any sort of marathon session. Michael Christie has figured out the antidote, at least for me, with his tightly packed, well-plotted and bracing book about four generations of the Greenwood family. His narrative inspired me to reflect on my own long family history in this country, to consider the things I do and don’t know for certain about my […]

Andy Hirsch how do you know so much about so many different subjects?

Trees: Kings of the Forest by Andy Hirsch

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First Second publisher is my kryptonite. It does not matter if I have just read one of their Science Comics, I must read another. And this time, it was the fault of my library that I picked up Trees: Kings of the Forest in this series. You see, I was looking for another book and they did not have it, and since you can check out five books at a time, I figured better find another one. And with its big, cheesy grin, Acorn told […]

Trees are the Best

The Overstory by Richard Powers

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Richard Power’s novel The Overstory is organized as a tree: roots, trunk, crown and seeds. The roots are eight individual short stories of immigrants coming to this continent, families planting trees, a man’s life saved by a tree, a boy falling out of a tree. The stories are unconnected and even the trees don’t hint at how they may or may not be drawn together.  For this reason, the trunk of the story is a bit difficult to read initially because five of the characters […]

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 […]

Once there was a tree

Big Lonely Doug by Harley Rustad

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Big Lonely Doug is a big lonely tree on Vancouver Island. It is a Douglas Fir and has become a symbol of the need for forest preservation. The book is slightly, only slightly mistitled. While Doug is the focal point, the actual text covers quite about forests, trees, conservation, and logging in Canada. It is worth noting that the sections that deal with logging are relatively even handed. True, it is impossible to less the impact of Doug standing alone in the midst of a […]



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