January 2024 Reading
A goal this year is to read more books. I finished four books this month:
Pastoral Song: An Inheritance - James Rebanks Rebanks is a regenerative farmer in England and this book is about his care for the fell farms in northern England. He writes like James Herriot in this memoir, lamenting the "advances" of modern farming as he works to keep hold of his family's traditional approaches.
Under Alien Skies: A Signseer's Guide to the Universe - Phil Plait Phil is an astronomer and writer of the Bad Astronomy newsletter/social media accounts. He explores various areas in our galaxy and explains how you would actually perceive some of these places if we could go there. The book is full of vivid imagery built from what we understand via observations mixed with some scientific fiction narrative worked in.
Leave the World Behind - Rumaan Alam This is a new suspense/disaster novel that I picked up because I watched the Netflix trailer. It's a slow-build suspense novel that has a ton of weird stuff happen to two unfortunate families stuck together. The premise was interesting but the characters felt a little flat to me.
The Sheperd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape - James Rebanks This is more of a memoir than Pastoral Song was as Rebanks works his way through a growing season as a shepherd. This is filled with lessons from his grandfather and father as he wrestles what it means to be his own farmer making decisions as a traditional farmer in a modern landscape. It also reads very much like James Herriott.
I'll keep posting here but I'm also keeping track on LibraryThing if you're there and would like to connect.
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