In Which I Read a Book That is Way (Way, Way, Way) Over My Head (Personal Testimonial)

 

 

I avoided science in school. I took every advanced class I could take in every subject (even math!) except science. I made my first C when I was in sixth grade, and it was in this awful science class that I decided ever after that I hated science and that I would avoid science.

Until now. Suddenly, in the last few years, I've started reading everything I can about science. Butterflies...oak trees...climate change...oceans...moss...citizen science...octopi...birds...these are just some of the subjects I've read about in 2021.

And today I'm reading She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity. Heredity, folks. This book is about DNA and genes and mitochondria and lots and lots of other things that are unfamiliar to me. 

Let me say that again: I am reading a book about things I know nothing about. 

And I love it. Even though I don't understand much of what the author is talking about.

I thought it might help me to take a closer look at some of the key vocabulary from the book. But, it turns out, the glossary in the back of the book really just gives you the run-around. Example:

DNA: The double-stranded molecule that encodes genes.

Gene: A segment of DNA that encodes a protein...

See what I'm saying? Not really helpful.

Instead, I'm just going with the whole idea of DNA and genes as...well, let's just call them things...things that control how a person or another...let's just say creature...creature turns out. 

And it turns out that I can read an entire 600+ page book about heredity without the faintest idea of what I'm really reading about. 

And did I tell you that I love it? Yes, I love it.

Here are a few more words that I really don't understand...but nevertheless find quite intriguing...from the book:

Mosaicism: Genetic variation among somatic and germ cells in a single multicellular organism.

Single-nucleotide polymorphism: A site in DNA where a single base varies in a population.

Methylation: An epigenetic mechanism to silence a gene through the addition of a methyl group (-CH₃) to a site on a DNA molecule. 

Before I go, let me remind you that I love this book. And, trust me, you will, too. Even if you, like me, are completely clueless about the workings of the tiniest parts of our beings.

Have you ever read a book that was way (way, way, way) over your head?

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered, or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative! It was first created by Kathy over at Bermuda Onion and is now hosted at Elza Reads.

Characters I’d Love An Update On

Whatever became of my favorite fairy tale characters from my childhood?

Red Riding Hood...Bet she was reluctant to visit Grandma again...

Rumpelstiltskin...Did he change his name to something a bit easier on the tongue?

The Three Bears...Did they install a home security system?

The Emperor (from The Emperor's New Clothes)...How did he face his people the next day?

Rapunzel...Her long hair came in handy, but did she ever just get tired of the whole thing and get a bob?

Hansel and Gretel...Sentenced to justifiable manslaughter? 

Aladdin...Does he keep his magic lamp over the fireplace? 

The Three Pigs...Perhaps they do commercials for Acme Brick...

Sleeping Beauty...Hired a castle seamstress?

The Gingerbread Man...Well, we know what happened to him, but if he had a chance to do it over, would he have steered clear of wolves as well as people?

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.  

Nonfiction November: Week 4: Stranger Than Fiction

This week during Nonfiction November we are focusing on great nonfiction books that almost don't seem real. Here are some incredible, almost-unbelievable true stories that I have loved.

Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders by Joshua Foer...amazing places in the world...

The Roads to Sata: A 2,000 Mile Walk Through Japan by Alan Booth...Booth walks 2,000 miles through Japan and takes in the sites and talks to people along the way...

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder...I wanted to nominate Dr. Paul Farmer for sainthood...

The Splendid and the Vile: A Sage of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson...I read this during the presidency of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, and I kept wishing Churchill was our leader here in America during the Covid crisis...

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson...The Lusitania...but, honestly, anything by Erik Larson is going to be an amazing story...

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand...You won't believe the life of Louis Zamperini...

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides...Grand and terrible is right...

A Night to Remember by Walter Lord...The best story ever about the Titanic...

Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938 by R. A. Scotti...The only time a Cat 5 hurricane hit the mainland US...

The Radium Girls: The Dark Side of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore...yes, young women were employed by big companies to paint radium on watches...you can imagine how that turns out...

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown...indigenous people are living happily in a beautiful place in America...Europeans arrive...Europeans want the indigenous people's land...indigenous people make a treaty with Europeans...Europeans break the treaty...indigenous people are all killed or moved...repeat...repeat...repeat...

I had to include some kids' books, too:

Lives of the Writers: Comedies, Tragedies by Kathleen Krull (also Lives of the Musicians, Presidents, Athletes, Scientists, Artists, Explorers, Extraordinary Women)...amazing biographies...

Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine...He boxed himself up and mailed himself off to secure his freedom...

WildLives: 50 Extraordinary Animals that Made History by Ben Lerwill...If you are interested in celebrity animals...

All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team by Christina Soontornvat...Nothing short of amazing...

Week 4: (November 22-26) – Stranger Than Fiction with Christopher at Plucked from the Stacks: This week we’re focusing on all the great nonfiction books that *almost* don’t seem real. A sports biography involving overcoming massive obstacles, a profile on a bizarre scam, a look into the natural wonders in our world—basically, if it makes your jaw drop, you can highlight it for this week’s topic.

What? Reading Two Fiction Books During Nonfiction November?

 

What's this? Reading two fiction books during Nonfiction November? Yep, that's what I did last week. Not what I would have wished, but I had to finish Gracelin O'Malley for book club and Baron in the Trees for my Classics Club spin. 

The good news is that they were both really good reads. Gracelin O'Malley is page-turning, soap-opera-ish historical fiction set in Ireland during the potato blight. The Baron in the Trees is a folktale-ish story of an adolescent aristocrat who fights with his dad and decides to spend the rest of his life living in the trees. 

 

She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity by Carl Zimmer

 The Gastronomical Me by M.F.K. Fisher

Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training by Adam Stern

Bicycling with Butterflies: My 10,201-Mile Journey Following the Monarch Migration by Sara Dykman

Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life by Zena Hitz

Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke

Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott

They all came in for me at once, as they always do. 

Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:

Nonfiction November: Week 3: Be the Expert: The Best Books about Trees

Help Me! What Books Would You Recommend for Someone Who Loves SciFi/Fantasy?

Hiking Through Arkansas: Pedestal Rock Hick and Glory Hole Falls Hike

Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinko spoke about his new book at Inprint Houston.

100 Scope Notes: Gallery: NYT Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2021

Jenn at Jenn's Bookshelves will be hosting the Thankfully Reading Weekend November 24 through 28. No rules...just hoping to get some good solid reading time in. To join in, sign up here.

Good Thing #1

Our book club met in person at the library.

Good Thing #2

Yoga at the Y!

Good Thing #3

We got together with a bit of family for an early Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. 

Pedestal Rock Hike and Glory Hole Falls Hike

We recently returned from a week of hiking in Arkansas.

The first day we did two hikes: Hiking in Arkansas: Lost Valley Trail and Hawksbill Crag Trail.

The second day we hiked Pedestal Rock.

PEDESTAL ROCK HIKE

Ozark National Forest

2.99 mi.

484 ft. elevation gain

1 hr. 45 min.

Our third day we hiked to Glory Hole Falls.

GLORY HOLE FALLS HIKE

Ozark National Forest

2.46 mi.

562 ft. elevation gain

2 hrs. 4 mi.

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Help Me! What Books Would You Recommend for Someone Who Loves SciFi/Fantasy?

One of the questions I am often asked is for recommendations for someone to read who loves science fiction and fantasy series. 

Typically the person asking has read the Harry Potter series and/or The Lightning Thief series and/or The Hunger Games.

I don't often read series though I love science fiction and fantasy, so I never know what to recommend.

Please help me. Please share as many series as you can think of. It can be recent or old. It can be science fiction or fantasy. It can be for children or for adults. 

What would you recommend?

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.  

Nonfiction November: Week 3: Be the Expert: The Best Books about Trees

A forest in Arkansas, October 2021

Nothing awes me more than trees. I've been obsessed lately with reading about trees, and I thought there might be some of you who are also inexplicably drawn to reading about them. Here are some tree books I have loved.

The best nonfiction books I've read about trees...

Around the World in 80 Trees by Jonathan Drori 

Remarkable Trees of the World by Thomas Pakenham

The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees by Douglas W. Tallamy

Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness by Qing Li

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohleben

A few fiction titles you shouldn't miss if you love trees...

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

The Word for World is Forest by Ursula LeGuin

The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino

A few wonderful nonfiction and fiction titles for children...

Redwoods by Jason Chin

Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa by Jeanette Winter

Can You Hear the Trees Talking? Discovering the Hidden Life of the Forest by Peter Wohleben

The Tree in Me by Corinna Luyken

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Zonia's Rain Forest by Juana Martinez-Neal

I Hear You Forest by Kali George

The Bear Who Wasn't There and the Fabulous Forest by Oren Lavie

Week 3: (November 15-19) – Be/Ask/Become the Expert with Veronica at The Thousand Book Project: Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert). 

Adventure on the Wine Route; Extraordinary Insects; and What's So Special About Dickens?

 

During the first week of Nonfiction November, I finished four nonfiction books. I've heard about Kermit Lynch's Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France for years, and now I know why...it is a great travel book for anyone interested in knowing more about wine. Bonnie at Bonnie's Books recommended If God is Love Don't Be a Jerk, and it sounded so wonderful that I bought it the same day. If you, like me, are worried about the contemporary Christian church and its ties to right-wing politics, you might be interested in reading this book. I'm slowly making my way through David Copperfield, and it seemed like the right time to read a little more about the author, so I picked up What's So Special about Dickens? It is aimed at the middle school crowd, but it hit just the right notes for me. And Extraordinary Insects told me every cool fact I've always wanted to know about bugs. Even if you aren't an insect person, you might find this book fascinating.

The Gastronomical Me by M.F.K. Fisher

On Animals by Susan Orlean

Rewild Yourself by Simon Barnes

She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity by Carl Zimmer

I've been creating a library for our naturalist group for over a year. I had to find books, sort them, catalog them, and label them. This week I finally wrapped up the project, and I will be placing them on a new bookshelf at the meeting room of our Texas Master Naturalist group soon.

I've managed to find and read 69 of the Cybils nominees for Fiction Picture Books and Board Books so far. That sounds good, right? Until you learn that I have to find and read a total of 251 books...

I'm delighted to see that Jenn at Jenn's Bookshelves will again be hosting the Thankfully Reading Weekend November 24 through 28. No rules...just hoping to get some good solid reading time in. To join in, sign up here.

Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:

Nonfiction November: A Book Pairing

Memorable Things Characters Have Said: Quotes from Book Characters that Have Stuck With Me

Wondrous Words: What's Nonfiction Anyway?

Good Thing #1

No traveling this week! 

Good Thing #2

I went back to my Christian meditation group for the first time since early last summer.

Good Thing #3

I went back to the Y for yoga for the first time since early 2020.

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below.