Tuesday, March 4, 2014

The Year in books - March

The Year in Books project continues over at the Circle of Pines blog. See that side bar link, because it will lead you to many good blogs and book recommendations and it can even further if you have the inclination.

Last month I had chosen 'Rare  Encounters with Ordinary Birds' by Lyanda Lynn Haupt. I liked it well enough. Several species of birds common to the west coast around Portland and Seattle were featured. Their rareness is in how little many of us know about these fairly ordinary birds. Cool facts about sparrows, swifts, owlets, crows and flickers kept me interested. There is a new genre of non fiction books that combines a travel log style with facts and introspection. I am more partial to the facts part if it is put into a context of some sort. The introspection or journey portion leaves me a little cold. Yet, here I go again with

Product Details



Anatomy of a Rose, Exploring the Secret Life of Flowers by Sharman Apt Russell from Perseus Publishing. Full disclosure is that I chose this book back in December when my Quilting Bee did our annual book exchange. We bring books that we have bought and read in the previous year and put them all out on the floor. With wine and nibbles, we hunt through an average of 30 books and pick out anything that seems interesting. It takes us up to a year to read and exchange and return them all. I chose the  Anatomy of a Rose at that time and have already read 70 pages. So, I am cheating a little bit this month. There are only 100 pages left. This book also uses the lure of fact plus personal relationship with the subject matter, actual or poetical. I will try to enjoy those bits.

2 comments:

  1. I think I would like the Anatomy of a Rose. I like non fiction and I am fascinated by orchids. So, not much of a leap to read a book about flowers. The book has been added to my wish list (knowing the my husband likes to give me non fiction books). A little bit of cheating is perfectly acceptable under the circumstances! Cx

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  2. That sounds like a interesting choice.

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