My Reading Month: May
I didn’t really have much of a reading month in May to be honest – we went back to work (in the midst of a pandemic) and between dealing with that AND a move, reading wasn’t at the top of the list of things I was eager to do when I got home at night!
Also, with everything going on the world, it feels self serving to post too much about my little reading project now. What I will say is that I am working on a post that looks at books about racial equity, racism and racialized violence, and I HIGHLY encourage you to take a minute to look at the diversity in your own reading and try and expand.
If you want a good starting point, you can look at my old blog, Reading Diversely: a year of not reading white men. From this distance, I acknowledge that there are a few too many white women represented on that blog, so please also take a minute to find sources like this list of 100 amazing books by African American women!
As I look at my May books, I realize that my two favorite books of the month both fall into a genre that is particularly dear to my heart, micro-histories. These are books that cover the history of one particular subject or object in minute detail. I love these books as much for their interesting and totally irrelevant facts as for their grandiose claims about how the common nail (substitute paper, species of fish or animal, or any random thing here) changed the world.
This month, the two micro-histories I read were:
Ninety Percent of Everything by Rose George
A fascinating and rather disturbing look at the shipping industry with less interesting asides into pirate hunting, sound pollution and shipwrecks. I learned a lot, but I wish the book has been structured as essays or been a series of articles.
Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter by Ben Goldfarb
An absolutely brilliant look at how landscapes in the United States were truly shaped as much by beavers as they were by glaciers, and a look at the current state of beaver relations in the world today, which are not great. Additionally entertaining due to the surprising number of people and places I had either met or visited, from the state of Washington to southern England.
More Books!
Mary Roach: Roach writes these Bill Bryson-esque accounts of weird science areas, and her books are laugh-out-loud funny, informative and absolutely not good small talk fodder unless you want to gross people out. Every single one of her books that I have read is brilliant, which rarely happens. Some of my favorites include:
- Bonk (science about sex)
- Grunt (military science)
- Gulp (the science of digestion from your mouth to your bum)
- Packing for Mars (space science)
- Stiff (science and cadavers)
Mark Kurlansky: I have no idea about Kurlansky’s background, but his choice of topics is absolutely fascinating. My three favorites all link together, and connect to each-other, but I actually do encourage you to read them all anyway.
- The Basque History of the World – a really interesting history of the Basque area in northern Spain and southern France
- Cod – an absolutely riveting history of cod, which were one of the Basque’s primary industries
- Salt – an equally compelling history of salt, which was essential in the preserving of fish before refrigeration
Bonus Recommendations: There are a few more here I couldn’t NOT mention!
- Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer – this slim book is both incredibly moving and beautiful and a very well written look at the science and life cycle of moss, which is a lot more interesting than you would think
- The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health by Anne Bikle and David Montgomery – this is almost too broad to be a true micro-history, but this look at how microbes can enrich the soil and our guts was very well structures and a really great read!
- At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson – I like Bill Bryson best when he is talking about his own travels and commenting on his own life, but this is the best of his more “history” type books, and covers everything from the invention of plate glass and steel to how wigs were cared for and preserved, and it is truly a a masterpiece.
- The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee – This is an epic book that somehow manages to convey an incredible amount of scientific information into a very readable story. Absolutely fascinating. As a bonus, I actually reviewed this as part of my Reading Diversely project, and you can check the review out HERE.
I hope you are all hanging in there – life certainly isn’t easy for many of us at the moment, but I hope you are taking the time to find moments of joy and gratitude for what we do have!
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