Pick-a-Shelf discussion

January Shelf is nature

What did you read? Did it inspire you? Did you learn something new?

I read Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce. ✭✭✭✭

I really liked this story about the unconventional, rebellious Marge Benson and her unlikely friendship with the (seemingly) flighty and emotional Enid Pretty. The book certainly had its dark moments, but it could be humorous at times, too. In the end, I came to like the quirky characters and appreciated the adventure and "follow your dreams" theme.

PAS Challenge(s) used for: By the Month... (2023)

I'd like to nominate: Book Club

Midnight at the Blackbird Café


Midnight at the Blackbird Café by Heather Webber
Completed ~ 1.2.22
Pages ~ 333
Relevance ~ FEATHER (Blackbird)


I don't read much magical realism, but I'm always surprised by how much I enjoy it when I do. This was a charming little book!

I read Subpar Parks: America's Most Extraordinary National Parks and Their Least Impressed Visitors by Amber Share. 4 stars

This book did a great job of giving a brief overview of the various parks and monuments in the US, as well as tips and hints when planning trips to various parks to get the most out of them. The focus was very much on the art with the subpar review getting a tongue-in-cheek treatment. A breezy read with plenty of breadth but not much depth. It was fun comparing my personal experiences with various parks to the one-star review as well as to the author's observations.

I'd like to nominate: Australian Books

I'll second Elaine's nomination.

I read The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World and I give it 5 stars.

I really enjoyed this book. It gave me a lot of information about how cats have gone all over the world and won our hearts. It went over history of how cats were hated and loved in certain times. It keep it light most of the time. But there are a few triggers here for some people.

I would like to nominate: Ghost Books

I'm reading The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions by David Quammen but it's huge so there's no way I'll finish it this month. Love it so far though, as I am very interested in island biogeography.

I read The Snow Child. 4 stars


Jack and Mabel are homesteading in Alaska...year 1920. They find themselves drifting apart with all the work, loneliness, and the loss of their only child. Soon a little girl, who calls herself Faina appears in the woods. The girl seems to live and survive in the wilderness all alone. Jack and Mabel befriend her and not everything seems real or is it.

I could have used this book for February's theme!

I did read it for LOST 2023

I nominate female-detective

I read Aranyak: Of the Forest - finished 25/1/23 - 3.5 stars

Written in 1939, and translated from Bengali, this was a beautiful portrait of an area of wilderness that is gradually being lost as parcels of land are rented out to small farmers.

I used this for Trim that TBR 2022/23.

I would like to nominate Golden Age (of detective fiction).

I read Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard. 4+ stars.
The author is a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia and is an early researcher of plant communication and intelligence. It's part memoir, but mostly an explanation of how she got interested in the subject of plant communication and the research she has done on it. Very interesting!!

(No nomination idea at this time)

LynnB wrote: "I read Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard. 4+ stars.
The author is a professor of forest ecology at the University of ..."

That sounds good Lynn, maybe a bit like Lab Girl?

Meg wrote: "That sounds good Lynn, maybe a bit like Lab Girl?"

I haven't read that one yet, but I plan to do do.

I read Psalm for the Wild-Built, which I really enjoyed. It's a tiny little book with a lot of punch, and I'm going to check out its sequel, hoping that more are coming.

I also read Paddle to the Sea, which I'd seen in a museum gift shop earlier this year. It was published in 1941, and hasn't aged well, even though the artwork is very good. It strikes me as a book a teacher might once have read to a very young class learning about the upper midwest US, nearby Canada, and the great lakes. I'm glad I didn't buy it, but waited to check it out first.

The Puma Years by Laura Coleman
3.5 stars

This is a memoir about volunteering at a wildlife sanctuary in Bolivia, over about a decade. Mostly, it is a love story about a puma called Wayra. The writing is good, it really captures the personalities of the animals and the feeling of the jungle. But there was something missing for me, maybe a narrative or structure that I like to hold a memoir together and hold my interest. I still recommend this book though.

Used for fifteen fifteen Lucky 7
I nominate happy

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
4 stars

A bittersweet story with a mystery. The mystery unfolds as the story unfolds and I was content to get wrapped up in the characters and let the story just happen. Tova is someone I want to meet. And then there is Marcellus. I want to know Marcellus. I want him to give my arm an octopus-ish hug and look at me with his knowing eye and know I've earned his trust and his friendship like Tova did. This was a really good story.

I nominate survival

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
5 stars

Don't listen to me. At this point, I'll read anything that Becky Chambers writes. I'm smitten with this lefty utopian futures where people are nice to each other and generally mean well. The books are lovely, the interactions peaceful and kind. This book has the monk (Dex) and the Robot (Mosscap) journeying about their planet interacting with different towns and villages, talking to each other and the folks they meet along the way, and generally going about their days.

There's discussion of the environment, community, balance, family, and identity. It feels like a break from thinking of people as inherently selfish and mean-spirited.

The narrator does a great job.

Used for Seriously Serial and Fifteen for Fifteen

I nominate weird.

I read H is for Hawk and gave it 4*. I learned a lot about her experiences and personal growth while she was training and flying a goshawk. Yet, I started this book expecting a book about hawks and found I was reading a memoir about her experiences and growth. I did enjoy the memoir, but it was not what I was wanting to read when I picked the book for this shelf. So...a bit disappointed. Yet overall the book raised some questions of how humans relate to wildness...and how it relates to us.

I nominate Graphic Novels

These Silent Woods

8/2 🌟🌟

The book is about a father /daughter duo who have been living in the woods for the past 8yrs hiding from her rich grandparents who want custidy of her. This book talks in detail how theyve survived with the bare minimum stocks that are bought to them ince a year, their game hunting for meat and general survival methods to be used when hiding in the woods.
I personally didnt care much for the boo
k as I felt it extremely stagnant and pretty much nithing happens exeot for silence.