April seems to be a non-fiction month so far with science and DIY taking center stage. Many of the things I’ve been reading this month have been through Kindle Unlimited and a lot of them are quite short. Rather than do a separate commentary on each one, I’m going to group a lot of them and make some general comments. I’m not going to include all the ones I’ve paged through and decided they’re not worth the time. I’d guess there’s about a dozen others in that category.

Apropos of Kindle Unlimited non-fiction: One of the most common reasons why I gave up on certain books is because they were so badly written, and the language so clumsy that many of them bordered on the incomprehensible. I do understand that English is not everyone’s first language, but if you’re going to sell to an English-speaking market at least hire a good, fluent editor. Another reason? Padding. When chapters reiterate information not once but many times, there’s not a lot of real content to be had. The KU non-fiction that hits the mark is a lot more rare than I had suspected, and overall it was disappointing. Still, it’s not a bad deal if you have the patience to work your way through the worthless stuff. Note: Not everything on this list came through KU.

First, the stand-alones:

Nature Obscura: A City’s Hidden Natural World – Kelly Brenner — I’m kind of a sucker for nature-in-your-backyard stuff because I have the sense that we don’t pay enough attention to the life around us. Kelly Brenner’s definition of backyard encompasses the whole of her city, but it’s still a satisfying read because her view of life is deep and broad. It amazes me what she finds just by paying more attention than the average person.

Dispatches from Planet 3 Thirty-Two (Brief) Tales on the Solar System, the Milky Way, and Beyond
By: Marcia Bartusiak — A series of science essays, all quite satisfying and informative.

The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance Jim Al-Khalili — I knew virtually nothing of the thinkers Al-Khalili has written about here, and that’s a shame, because their contributions to science and medicine have been substantial. If you want to know what was happening in the world while Europe was in the throes of the “dark ages” this is a really good place to start.

A Sense of the Mysterious, by Alan Lightman, narrated by Bronson Pinchot – When I was getting my second Covid jab, I got to talking books with the nurse and I mentioned Alan Lightman. I said that he writes about science but with the sensibility of a poet, and that his prose was “gorgeous.” She replied that that’s how she could tell I was a real book lover, that word, gorgeous. Well his prose is gorgeous, and the narration by Pinchot does it proud

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century By: Jessica Bruder Narrated by: Karen White – Recommended by a friend. This book felt like getting sucker-punched. You start out thinking “well this is interesting, but… oh I don’t know it’s a little depressing.” And then you get hit with the rage-making information about why there are so many more homeless/nomadic people out there today, and how they’re forced to make their livings. But then the relentlessly upbeat quality of the commentary kind of gets to you and you think, “it’s probably not as bad as it sounds.” And then more hard facts that make you realize that it probably is worse than it sounds. It’s not a life I could live; I’m too old and broken down. And the sad thing is that the median age of many of these nomads is not much lower than my current age. But in the end, Bruder has constructed a narrative that gives equal weight to all the different aspects of the nomadic lifestyle, and you’re left with a deep respect for the people who have opted to live their lives on the road, taking seasonal jobs, and even dreaming of a settled life off the grid.

The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality By: Richard Panek Narrated by: Ray Porter – While it’s a highly complex book about a highly complex subject, the narrative always remains reasonably comprehensible. You won’t catch all the science, but you’ll get enough of it to understand the whole process of defining and redefining reality in light of the discoveries of dark matter and dark energy. Sometimes chatty and amusing, always informative.

The Neil Gaiman at the End of the Universe By: Arvind Ethan David Narrated by: Neil Gaiman, Jewel Staite – The only fiction of the month. It’s an Audible Original and was free with my membership so I thought I’d give it a try. Meh, it was well-intentioned but nothing special.

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating — Elizabeth Tova Bailey — The author contracted some sort of debilitating disease that laid her low for the better part of two decades. At a point early on when she was at her weakest, a friend brought her a pot of wild violets with a snail tucked under the leaves. That snail became the focus of her world. His travels from pot to bedside table and back, and later his movement around the terrarium that she provided for him. Much of this book, which could easily have been about her illness, is about that snail, and its life, and is fascinating, not just in an objective sense, but for the deeper sense of how she found meaning and focus in something so easily overlooked, so commonly ignored. The snail was eventually returned to the wild place from which it was taken, and Bailey returned to her home to continue to recuperate. Beautiful book.

Gathering Moss — Robin Wall Kimmerer and Braiding Sweetgrass — Robin Wall Kimmerer — I love this woman’s writing! Gathering Moss is a reread, and I believe I took more away from it this time than last, not just about mosses but about Kimmerer’s native culture. It also led me to seek out Braiding Sweetgrass which is almost the polar opposite in focus, being more about Native American culture and its teachings about the world around us, than about science. There’s a good bit of scientific information here as well, but it takes a back seat to the philosophy and world view of native peoples. As such, these two books are truly complimentary works, and in my opinion can and should be read as such. Her work is just beautiful. She’s one of those writers of whom I can honestly say I would read anything she wrote.

Cooking

Meal Planning on a Budget: Save Money on Groceries, Master Meal Prep, & Reduce Food Waste to Reach Financial Freedom Kindle Edition by Jen Smith — The Housemate and I are working toward a more sane and sensible way of feeding ourselves, and this book seemed to lay out a good starting plan.

Madhur Jaffrey’s Instantly Indian Cookbook: Modern and Classic Recipes for the Instant Pot® Hardcover – by Madhur Jaffrey – A birthday gift, and a most useful one. Can’t wait to try out some of these recipes.

Green Tea All about the Miraculously Healthy Drink, Its Many Variations and History — Tadio Diller – Short and interesting.

Tea: An Easy to Read Guide to the Most Common Teas: Green, Black, Red, and Herbal Teas – All Tasty and Miraculously Healthy — Tadio Diller -Recapitulates a lot of what is in the Green Tea book.

All About Sprouting: How to grow your own fresh sprouts, microgreens, and wheatgrass in your kitchen Madeleine Steinbach — Pretty comprehensive.

Turmeric Tea: Health Benefits and Recipes for Golden Milk and More (Healthy-Living Recipes)Rachael D’Angelo — Everything you ever wanted to know about Golden Milk, turmeric, and, y’know, stuff.

Succulents and Air Plants

Air Plants: A Beginners Guide To Understanding Air Plants, Growing Air Plants and Air Plant Care Kindle Edition
by Louise Harvey — Not a bad reference.

DIY Succulents: From Placecards to Wreaths, 35+ Ideas for Creative Projects with Succulents by Tawni Daigle – Really nice book which I would have purchased if it hadn’t been so pricey.

Air Plants: Everything That You Need to Know About Air Plants. — Ray Abel — I knew air plants were epiphytes, growing (not parasitically) on other plants, but I never realized that they were also succulents. Hardy, varied, and usually quite attractive, they’re looking like good additions to a succulent terrarium. Nice starting point.

Essential Succulents: The Beginner’s Guide Ken Shelf – Much of what I liked about the DIY Succulents book and more, but at a price point I found reasonable, so I purchased it.

Snails

“All you need to know about pet snails”: Land snails, Slugs, Freshwater snails, Saltwater snails. How to keep pet snails, snail anatomy, interesting facts etc (First Edition) My Happy Snails My Happy Snails – Pretty much convinced me that snails were not going to be part of any terrarium I put together. At least no time soon.

Snail Biology and Management TechniquesCordelia Ebenebe – WAY too technical. Not useful to me at all.

How To: Keep & Care for Land Snails: The Easy & Educational Pet James Morelan — I read this before the My Happy Snails book, and it suggested to me that snails were not in my future. But it took the other snail book to cement that feeling.

Terrariums/Vivariums/Paludariums

Paludarium terrariums : Paludarium: Everything You Need To KnowViktor Vagon — I love Paludariums (Look them up, you’ll be amazed.) but boy that’s not something I’d take on. Apart from not having nearly enough room for something like that, the work involved is enormous. I do love looking at them though.

How to Make Terrariums: Tips, Tools, and Techniques A Beginner’s Guide to Making Terrarium — Will Kalif — Here’s a good beginning guide to what you need to know.

Mushrooms/Fungi

Fantastic Fungi: Expanding Consciousness, Alternative Healing, Environmental Impact // Official Book of Smash Hit Documentary. Paul Stamets et al. — More science essays, this time about mushrooms and other fungi, and the vast uses they can and are being put to. It’s not all about a pan of mushrooms on the stove, or a psilocybin trip, or truffles in a fancy restaurant. Rather Stamets and the contributors discuss topics such as mycoremediation which is a promising method for cleaning up the environment since mushrooms can be trained to digest just about anything. Really fascinating.

Growing mushrooms: The Complete Growers Guide to Becoming a Mushroom Expert and Starting Cultivation at Home, by Aaron Martinez — An exhaustive guide to growing mushrooms at home. And it was enough to convince me that more than the occasional mushroom kit was not for me. Too much work, too much attention, too much fol-de-rol. Still, a fascinating read.

Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World Paul Stamets – More technical than practical, which I wasn’t expecting at all. Stamets is one of the recognized world-class experts on mycelium, and this book is way out of my league.

So that was my month. I found it really refreshing, and I think I’m ready to get back to some fiction now. But I still have a stack of science books that are whispering sweet nothings in my direction, so you just never know.