Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin

I’m not sure how this came to my attention in the first place (it’s been on my TBR list too long). I read it now because it gives me a letter in my Reading the Alphabet Challenge.

Subtitle: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

Published: 2008

Genre: nonfiction science

Length: 201 pages of text, 229 pages total

Font: Ehrhardt

Summary: Short version: Read the subtitle

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The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin

It’s Gretchen Rubin’s new book. I’ve read all her books and her blog. I knew this book was published last year, but just finally get around to reading it.

Subtitle: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People’s Lives Better, Too)

Published: 2017

Genre: nonfiction

Length: 244 pages of text, 257 pages total

Summary: Short version: Understanding this personality trait will help you get things done

The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks by Donald Prothero

I picked this up for the kids’ geology this year. After Mr. Curiosity read a chapter and shared all the fascinating tidbits he’d learned, I decided I needed to read it as well.

Subtitle: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them

Published: 2018

Genre: nonfiction science

Length: 337 pages of text, 354 pages total

Summary: Short version: That’s what subtitles are for

Becoming Native to This Place by Wes Jackson

This book was discussed in The Contrary Farmer and has been sitting on my TBR list for five years. I decided it was finally time to get it off the TBR list and onto the read list.

Published: 1992

Genre: nonfiction agriculture

Length: 136 pages

Summary: Short version: Essays on living with the landscape

The Yellow-Lighted Bookstore by Lewis Buzbee

This came from an Off the Shelf post on books set in bookstores. It’s one of my favorite subgenres, and I’m always up for more books in this genre.

Published: 2006

Genre: nonfiction books

Length: 216 pages

Setting: a variety of bookstores on the West Coast, 1980s to the present

Font: Concorde

Summary: Short version: Bookstores are awesome & always have been

What I Will Be Reading #36: Mostly Nonfiction

I’ve been saving up new books for my reading list. I’ve been doing a good job of reading down my TBR list – time to add some new ones.

First up is If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?: My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating by Alan Alda. It certainly wins an award for the longest title. I listened to Alan Alda  on the ID10T podcast. The book seems to be all about communicating science to non-science people. That’s basically my teaching job. I’m always on the lookout for ways to improve my teaching, so on the list it goes.

My next addition is Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling. I learned about this one when doing some research for a new class I’m teaching in the fall about environmental issues and geography. For one of their assignments, I want my students to play around with data on Gapminder. When I went onto the website, I saw they had a book. It sounded interesting, so I’m putting it on my list.

One more nonfiction book for my reading list is Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story by Michael Rosen. I found this one in my library catalog as I was looking for versions of Beowulf that the library had. (I thought there was a graphic novel version of Beowulf, but if there is, my library doesn’t have it.) I love origin stories and learning about the origins of all of the Arabic letters sounds right up my alley.

And one last book, this time some fiction: Black Widow by Daniel Silva from The Modern Mrs. Darcy post on long novels. (I can’t write a post about new books without mentioning The Modern Mrs. Darcy at least once.) I don’t really care that it’s a long novel. I’m interested in it because it’s recommended as a high quality spy thriller (which is a genre I haven’t been reading much lately but do really enjoy) AND it gets me an S author (which I don’t have yet this year).

So, anything look good to you? Anything else I should add to my reading list?

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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

I enjoy Kingsolver’s novels so I was interested, even if this was a nonfiction work. Plus, it was about eating locally and raising much of your own food, which I’m also interested.

Subtitle: A Year of Food Life

Additional writing by: Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver

Published: 2007

Genre: nonfiction, gardening

Length: 370 pages

Summary: Short version: An example of eating locally and in season