There have been lots of laughs and tears and LOVE and living and travels and wonderful books (and a few terrible books) in the last six years, but a crazy busy schedule--coupled with no Internet connectivity on the farm--meant that I didn't have time to keep a reading list.
BUT...if I keep my thoughts short and sweet, maybe this will be doable at my new job WHERE I HAVE A LUNCH HOUR (a full hour! really!) for the very first time in my whole life. (Imagine my envy last year when our high school instituted MegaLunch, giving nearly 2,000 kids a free hour in the middle of the day. There I was, a grandmother with two college degrees who never had a lunch hour at ANY of her many jobs, working MegaLunch every day so that teenagers could enjoy their leisurely lunch break. The Bible says it's a sin to envy so a LOT of praying was done last year!)
Okay, then...let's light this little orphaned candle.
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
*****9 1/2 stars****
Dedication: Everything that I write is dedicated to my mother.
Epigraph:
"The more I handled things and learned their names and uses, the more joyous and confident grew my sense of kinship with the rest of the world."
--William King, The Art of Cookery (1708)
What a great companion for a trip to Michigan. I couldn't stop reading quotes aloud to Philip (before I left Texas) and then to Karen, Thomas, and Molly who not only humored their tag-along librarian in the back seat, but even pretended to be interested!
Favorite quote? Hard to nail down since this book has so many compelling sections that BEG to be read aloud to a companion, but this one stuck in my mind.
"Every single year, at least one tree is cut down in your name. Here's my personal request to you: If you own any private land at all, plant one tree on it this year. If you are renting a place with a yard, plant a tree in it and see if your landlord notices. If he does, insist to him that it was always there. Throw in a bit about how exceptional he is for caring enough about the environment to have put it there. If he takes the bait, go plant another one. Baffle some chicken wire at its base and string a cheesy birdhouse around its tiny trunk to make it look permanent, then move out and hope for the best.
How about an oak? There are more than two hundred species and one is bound to be adapted to your specific corner of the planet...For my money, I'll take the bur oak, the slowest-growing but strongest of all; even its acorns are heavily armored, ready to do battle with the uninviting soil."
If you love science...or if you love a girl who loves science and can overlook a few impolite words she is sure to hear in a science lab...run, do not walk, to grab a copy of Lab Girl.
https://youtu.be/Yht9LrYRxqg
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/the-secret-life-of-plants-and-lab-girl-author-hope-jahren/
https://hopejahrensurecanwrite.com/
