ash.isreading
lover of lit fic, non fic, horror, poetry etc. pro-tomato š / she/her /šldn, uk
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ash.isreading commented on a List
1d
Book suggestions from the Ologies Podcast
by judgyweevil
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54 books
Ologies is a weekly science podcast hosted by Alie Ward. Each episode, Ward interviews an expert from a distinct scientific field.
This unofficial list contains book suggestions made by the host or by her guests. Currently from episode 1 to 83.
More details on these books and their associated episodes in -> my ever evolving spreadsheet
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ash.isreading TBR'd a book
1d
The Blackbird's Song & Other Wonders of Nature: A year-round guide to connecting with the natural world
Miles Richardson
'A wonderful "rough guide" to the planet we live on... Read it and pass it on as a gift of love from you to those around you so they can learn to feel comfortable in their own skins and ultimately, be happy.' ā Sir Tim Smit, The Eden Project An almanac, focused on reconnecting with the great outdoors for the benefit of both us and nature.Each month in The Blackbird's Song, Miles Richardson delves into the science and mythology behind our relationship with nature, exploring everything from our kinship with plants to the way in which nature influences our moods.Along the way, he offers a range of activities to help us access the benefits of the natural world.Whether it be 'joy-watching' birds, rediscovering wonder, foraging for Christmas crafts or going on an urban safari, this book contains all the tools and inspiration you need to unlock the transformative power of nature and find real meaning in your life.
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ash.isreading TBR'd a book
1d
Frostlines: A Journey Through Entangled Lives and Landscapes in a Warming Arctic
Neil Shea
A groundbreaking and sweeping exploration of the Arcticāand how itās being transformed by climate changeāthat blends natural history, anthropology, and travel writing, from National Geographic writer Neil Shea
As warming reshapes our planet, the Arcticāa region that once seemed unchangeable and immutable, beyond the reach of modern problemsāis quickly coming undone. While the old cold world can still be glimpsed in the movements of caribou, the hidden lives of wolves, or the hunting skill of an Inupiat elder, look closer and youāll find a new Arctic emerging in its place.
In Frostlines, Neil Shea reveals how the beauty, chaos, and power of change in the far north are reflected in the individual lives of people and animals. Structured as a revolution around the pole from east to west, Shea sojourns with a wolf pack on Canadaās Ellesmere Island and travels among the Indigenous Netsilingmiut and Tlicho peoples of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. He tracks dwindling caribou herds across Alaska and measures the potential of oil and gas developments along North Americaās wildest edge. And in the European Arctic, he explores the new Cold War rising between Russia, China, Europe, and the United States over who controls the pole and will reap its riches as the ice melts. What Shea finds is not one Arctic but manyāall still linked by shattering cold, seasons of darkness, and a pure, inimitable light.
Written with masterful prose and a spark of adventure, Frostlines is an expansive yet intimate revelation of the Arctic during a time of transformation, and a journey along the threshold of this stunning and sometimes frightening world thatās emerging right before our eyes.
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ash.isreading commented on ash.isreading's review of Stone Yard Devotional
1d
This book made me feel seen in very uncomfortable ways, and I will probably come back to review it properly when Iām in a better headspace.
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ash.isreading wrote a review...
1d
This book made me feel seen in very uncomfortable ways, and I will probably come back to review it properly when Iām in a better headspace.
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ash.isreading TBR'd a book
1d
Good Behaviour
Molly Keane
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize A wickedly funny satire of Irish society after WWI, featuring ādelicious and deleterious accounts of illicit sex and wild high jinks, and a mother-daughter duo who can scrap with the best of themā (Vulture). āHilarious and sinister.ā āThe New York Times Is it possible to kill with kindness? As Molly Keaneās Booker Prizeāshort-listed dark comedy suggests, not only can kindness be deadly, it just may be the best form of revenge. The novel opens as Aroon St. Charles prepares to serve her invalid mother a splendid luncheonāthe silver gleams, the linens glowāof rabbit mousse, a dish her mother despises. In fact, a single whiff of the stuff is enough to knock the old lady dead. āAll my life so far I have done everything for the best reasons and the most unselfish motives,ā says Aroon soon after. In the pages that follow she will make her case, reminiscing about her youth among the hunting-and-fishing classes of Ireland, a faded aristocracy dedicated to distraction even as their fortunes dwindle. Keaneās brilliant sleight of hand is toĀ allow her blinkered heroine to narrate her own developmentĀ from neglected child, to ungainly debutante, to bitter Aroon understands nothing, yet she reveals all.
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ash.isreading finished a book
1d
Stone Yard Devotional
Charlotte Wood
A deeply moving novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be 'good', from the award-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend.A woman abandons her city life and marriage to return to the place of her childhood, holing up in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Monaro.She does not believe in God, doesn't know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive life almost by accident. As she gradually adjusts to the rhythms of monastic life, she finds herself turning again and again to thoughts of her mother, whose early death she can't forget.Disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signalling a new battle against the rising infestation.Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who left the community decades before to minister to deprived women in Thailand - then disappeared, presumed murdered.Finally, a troubling visitor to the monastery pulls the narrator further back into her past.With each of these disturbing arrivals, the woman faces some deep questions. Can a person be truly good? What is forgiveness? Is loss of hope a moral failure? And can the business of grief ever really be finished?A meditative and deeply moving novel from one of Australia's most acclaimed and best loved writers..'Wood joins the ranks of writers such as Nora Ephron, Penelope Lively and Elizabeth Strout.' THE GUARDIAN UK
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ash.isreading TBR'd a book
2d
A Year with the Seals: Unlocking the Secrets of the Sea's Most Charismatic and Controversial Creatures
Alix Morris
For readers Jennifer Ackerman and Ed Yong, environmental journalist Alix Morrisās recounts the year she spent following seals, revealing their daily lives and fascinating habits, as well as the effects of their unprecedented return from the brink of extinction on many human communities, ultimately exploring how we can try to bring nature back into balance. It might be their large, strangely human eyes or their dog-like playfulness, but seals have long captured people's interest and affection, making them the perfect candidate for an environmental cause, as well as the subject of decades of study. Alix Morris spends a year with these magnetic creatures and brings them to life on the page, season by season, as she learns about their complex relationships with each other, their ecosystems, the changing climate, and the humans who hunt and rescue them, regulate their protections and compete with them for food sources, and sometimes adopt them as pets, or even friends. Ā Along with the enigmatic seals themselves, Morris gets to know all of the competing interests in the intense debate about the newly recovered seal population in our coastal waters, from local fisherman whose catch is often diminished by savvy seals, to tribes who once relied seal-hunting for food, clothing, and medicine, to the seal rescue workers and biologists, to surfers now encountering seal-hunting sharks. In a world where wildlife populations are disappearing at an alarming rate, A Year with the Seals is a rare look at what happens when conservation efforts actually work, and how human tampering with ecosystems continues to have unexpected consequences for a wide variety of species, humans included.Ā Ā
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ash.isreading created a list
2d
Edible Histories
by ash.isreading
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23 books
From spice routes to soup pots, this list explores how a single ingredient can shape empires, economies, and everyday meals.
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ash.isreading TBR'd a book
2d
The Herb Book: The Stories, Science, and History of Herbs
D.K. Publishing
Immerse yourself in stories and pictures of these useful plants, from herb gardens to remote wildernesses.Ā
Herbs have been used by humans throughout historyĀ āĀ for cooking, medicine, rituals, and more. They are also a huge part of the modern world, from gardening, food, and cosmetics to medicines fighting diseases such as malaria. With vibrant illustrations and expert knowledge, The Herb Book takes a close-up look at a wide range of herbs from around the world, showcasing their botanical characteristics, medicinal, cosmetic, and culinary properties and uses, and cultural impact on the lives of humans.Ā
Dive deep into the pages of this horticultural handbook to Ā
- Detailed original photography combines with historical and contemporary images to create a compelling visual mix.
- Provides a global view of herbs and their culinary, medicinal, and cosmetic uses around the world.
- Contains in-depth coverage of over 80 herb species.
- Continues the warm visual aesthetic of The Tree Book
Featuring key scientific facts along with historical and mythological stories, this book provides a rich blend of information on these extraordinary plants and their role in our world. Proving a must-have volume for gardeners, horticulturalists, and amateur herbalists alike, as well as anyone interested in natural remedies, cooks and foodies too!
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ash.isreading TBR'd a book
2d
Herbs: A Global History
Gary Allen
Salsa and guacamole wouldnāt be the same without cilantro, and you canāt make pizza without oregano or a mojito without mint. You can use peppermint to settle an upset stomach, ease arthritis pain with stinging nettle, and heal burns and wounds with aloe vera. And then there is cannabisāperhaps the most notorious and divisive herb of all. Despite the fact that herbs are often little more than weeds, cultures around the globe have found hundreds of uses for them, employing them in everything from ancient medicines to savory dishes. While much has been written on cooking and healing with herbs, little has been told about the history of the plants themselves and the incredible journeys they have made.
This book elucidates how these often overlooked plants have become a staple in our lives. Unlike spices that quickly traversed the globe through trade, Gary Allen shows that herbs were often hoarded by their cultivators and were central to distinctive regional dishes. He draws on his extensive knowledge of food history to examine herbs in new ways, making Herbs essential reading for any serious foodie. Filled with beautiful illustrations and delicious recipes, this book will complete the kitchen library.
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ash.isreading commented on a List
2d
Beyond Sustainable Cities
by ash.isreading
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20 books
Inspired by Chelssicleās list āThe Cities We Deserveā. How might we build urban spaces that care for both people and the planet? Fic and nonfic.
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ash.isreading commented on ash.isreading's update
2d
ash.isreading TBR'd a book
2d
The Mighty Red
Louise Erdrich
In this stunning novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Awardāwinning author Louise Erdrich tells a story of love, natural forces, spiritual yearnings, and the tragic impact of uncontrollable circumstances on ordinary peopleās lives.
History is a flood. The mighty red . . .
In Argus, North Dakota, a collection of people revolve around a fraught wedding.
Gary Geist, a terrified young man set to inherit two farms, is desperate to marry Kismet Poe, an impulsive, lapsed Goth who can't read her future but seems to resolve his.
Hugo, a gentle red-haired, home-schooled giant, is also in love with Kismet. Heās determined to steal her and is eager to be a home wrecker.
Kismet's mother, Crystal, hauls sugar beets for Gary's family, and on her nightly runs, tunes into the darkness of late-night radio, sees visions of guardian angels, and worries for the future, her daughterās and her own.
Human time, deep time, Red River time, the half-life of herbicides and pesticides, and the elegance of time represented in fracking core samples from unimaginable depths, is set against the speed of climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and the sudden economic meltdown of 2008-2009. How much does a dress cost? A used car? A package of cinnamon rolls? Can you see the shape of your soul in the everchanging clouds? Your personal salvation in the giant expanse of sky? These are the questions the people of the Red River Valley of the North wrestle with every day.
The Mighty Red is a novel of tender humor, disturbance, and hallucinatory mourning. It is about on-the-job pains and immeasurable satisfactions, a turbulent landscape, and eating the native weeds growing in your backyard. It is about ordinary people who dream, grow up, fall in love, struggle, endure tragedy, carry bitter secrets; men and women both complicated and contradictory, flawed and decent, lonely and hopeful. It is about a starkly beautiful prairie community whose members must cope with devastating consequences as powerful forces upend them. As with every book this great modern master writes, The Mighty Red is about our tattered bond with the earth, and about love in all of its absurdity and splendor.
A new novel by Louise Erdrich is a major literary event; gorgeous and heartrending, The Mighty Red is a triumph.
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ash.isreading TBR'd a book
2d
The Mighty Red
Louise Erdrich
In this stunning novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Awardāwinning author Louise Erdrich tells a story of love, natural forces, spiritual yearnings, and the tragic impact of uncontrollable circumstances on ordinary peopleās lives.
History is a flood. The mighty red . . .
In Argus, North Dakota, a collection of people revolve around a fraught wedding.
Gary Geist, a terrified young man set to inherit two farms, is desperate to marry Kismet Poe, an impulsive, lapsed Goth who can't read her future but seems to resolve his.
Hugo, a gentle red-haired, home-schooled giant, is also in love with Kismet. Heās determined to steal her and is eager to be a home wrecker.
Kismet's mother, Crystal, hauls sugar beets for Gary's family, and on her nightly runs, tunes into the darkness of late-night radio, sees visions of guardian angels, and worries for the future, her daughterās and her own.
Human time, deep time, Red River time, the half-life of herbicides and pesticides, and the elegance of time represented in fracking core samples from unimaginable depths, is set against the speed of climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and the sudden economic meltdown of 2008-2009. How much does a dress cost? A used car? A package of cinnamon rolls? Can you see the shape of your soul in the everchanging clouds? Your personal salvation in the giant expanse of sky? These are the questions the people of the Red River Valley of the North wrestle with every day.
The Mighty Red is a novel of tender humor, disturbance, and hallucinatory mourning. It is about on-the-job pains and immeasurable satisfactions, a turbulent landscape, and eating the native weeds growing in your backyard. It is about ordinary people who dream, grow up, fall in love, struggle, endure tragedy, carry bitter secrets; men and women both complicated and contradictory, flawed and decent, lonely and hopeful. It is about a starkly beautiful prairie community whose members must cope with devastating consequences as powerful forces upend them. As with every book this great modern master writes, The Mighty Red is about our tattered bond with the earth, and about love in all of its absurdity and splendor.
A new novel by Louise Erdrich is a major literary event; gorgeous and heartrending, The Mighty Red is a triumph.
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1Reply
ash.isreading created a list
2d
Beyond Sustainable Cities
by ash.isreading
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20 books
Inspired by Chelssicleās list āThe Cities We Deserveā. How might we build urban spaces that care for both people and the planet? Fic and nonfic.
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ash.isreading commented on ash.isreading's update
2d
ash.isreading made progress on...
2d
The Northern Question: A Political History of the North-South Divide
Tom Hazeldine
31%
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ash.isreading created a list
2d
The Earth Remembers Us
by ash.isreading
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16 books
Books about how nature endures and carries traces of us. These stories explore our connection to the natural world through decay, memory, and renewal.
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ash.isreading commented on a List
2d
Polymath 2026 Inspiration
by Storyteller
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29 books
A list of books that fit the prompts for the 2026 Polymath Training Challenge. (Egypt / Sleep, dreams / Astronomy and space exploration / Gastronomy and foods / Interior design, furniture / Chemistry / Mines and mining / Exploration and explorers / Art and nature /Agriculture /Economics) plus the "choose 1" prompts (Microbiome / Chocolate and coffee / Cultural history / Boardgames and role-playing games / Linguistics / Ethology / History of science / Cosmetics / Empathy). Open to suggestions!
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ash.isreading TBR'd a book
2d
A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Karen Armstrong
Over 700,000 copies of the original hardcover and paperback editions of this stunningly popular book have been sold. Karen Armstrong's superbly readable exploration of how the three dominant monotheistic religions of the worldāJudaism, Christianity, and Islamāhave shaped and altered the conception of God is a tour de force. One of Britain's foremost commentators on religious affairs, Armstrong traces the history of how men and women have perceived and experienced God, from the time of Abraham to the present. From classical philosophy and medieval mysticism to the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the modern age of skepticism, Armstrong performs the near miracle of distilling the intellectual history of monotheism into one compelling volume.
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ash.isreading TBR'd a book
2d
Ain't I a Woman?
Sojourner Truth
'I am a woman's rights. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I am as strong as any man that is now'A former slave and one of the most powerful orators of her time, Sojourner Truth fought for the equal rights of black women throughout her life. This selection of her impassioned speeches is accompanied by the words of other inspiring African-American female campaigners from the nineteenth century.One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas series. This new selection showcases a diverse list of thinkers who have helped shape our world today, from anarchists to stoics, feminists to prophets, satirists to Zen Buddhists.
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