Well, dang! What a way to open a book!

The introduction title, The Judas Goats, is a reference to an ecological conservation project that involved eradicating goats from an island. It is upsetting and a lil detailed, so if you are especially sensitive to animal cruelty proceed with caution!

The point of sharing this story, though, is to establish how thoroughly lacking our current approaches to ecology are. Eradication does not make a healthy ecosystem, and even if it does, the world burning down around that ecosytem hardly does that ecosystem any good.

I LOVE that we open the book with this poem,

Kinder than Man

And God, please let the deer on the highway get some kind of heaven. Something with tall soft grass and sweet reunion. Let the moths in porch lights go some place with a thousand suns, that taste like sugar and get swallowed whole. May the mice in oil and glue, have forever dry, warm fur and full bellies. If I am killed for simply living, let death be kinder than man. —Althea Davis

What a sweet, sweet poem! 🥹

Some other incredible quotes,

"Funding ecosystem restoration without any steps to mitigate climate crisis or build a more sustainable way of living ignores the elephant in the room—or perhaps it takes good care of the elephant while allowing the room to burn."

"In a society built on exponential growth, our relationship to our world can only be extractive in nature. On a finite planet, eternal extraction in pursuit of profit can only lead to a hollowed-out, dead world—a world that has been exhausted of all its profitable offerings. Food, water, air, land—that is to say, life—are all absorbed into the blind consumption machine that is capitalism. It is this definition, and this simple and logical conclusion—this natural catastrophe of capitalism—that I am implying when I speak of capitalism throughout this book. Capitalism is a death sentence for our world. We are part of our world. Capitalism is a death sentence for us."

She goes on to establish the scope of the book, • Breaking down current methods of the "storytelling" surrounding invasive species, evaluating what words/imagery/symbolism are used and why they are effective • Explore science's relationship with public communication • Expose political, ethical, cultural, and scientific holes in the invasive species story & how the true purpose is to distract from the real source of conflict: capitalism

Y'all I am so excited for this book! Follmann seems ready to grapple & I am ready!!

Today's prompt brought to you by the cover of N.R. Walker's Upside Down.

Pick a colour, purple vs pink. Vote by suggesting a book with that colour cover. You can vote for both if you want.

I'm going to use childhood faves this week 🩷 - Jewels of Fairyland by Shirley Barber 💜 - Witch Way Did She Go? by Paul Ruditis

I gotta say I know I'm only a fraction of the way through the book but I'm already split on my feelings. It's a really cool premise that's already pulling me in super early, but idk if im vibing with the milennial/reddit/Joss Whedon kind of humor from the MC so far.

I'm NOT gonna be pessimistic though and im sure he'll grow on me as I get invested. It's been over a decade since I read The Martian but I remember the book and movie didn't really land with me. I could be fuzzy on the details but the MC already seems more fun here. I guess I'll find out if I have an Andy Weir bias or a Matt Damon bias soon enough!

Hi all, happy April! For all who participated in last month’s buddy read of The Milkweed Lands: An Epic Story of One Plant by Eric Lee-Mäder, I hope you had a good time! It was great seeing so many folks in the forum - and personally, I really love seeing active nonfiction forums!

Most importantly, a big thank you to everyone who has joined the quest so far!!! There’s over 550 of you guys, can you believe it?! By the end of this month, I’ll no longer be working as an entomologist, so having this quest is going to feel extra meaningful to me as a way to stay connected to the critters I love. I’m glad there are so many of you here with me! It makes my little bug nerd heart happy to see people reading these books 💚

Are there any books in the quest you’ve particularly enjoyed? Any that you can’t wait to get to? If you weren’t a bug nerd already, have any of these books inspired you to take a closer look when you’re out and about? I’d love to hear about any little stories or tidbits on ways any of these books might have impacted your perspective!

Posted April 1, 2026