My husband has always been a reader, but the last 9 months or so, he's really devoted more time to it and as a result has been tearing through "his" books with alarming speed.  He keeps coming to me, saying: "you need to order me some more books".  This past weekend, I said no.  Then I took him to the used bookshops I discovered a few weeks ago so he could happily pick out a pile and save us a heap in shipping fees.

 

Which I promptly spent on books for me.  Because honestly, anyone who has known me for 5 minutes knows you can't let me loose in a bookshop.  Oh, and he needed new work pants, which meant we had to go to the mall - it's a close thing as to which of us hates the mall more, but there's a new bookshop that opened and it's small, but wonderful.  MT found 4 books before he'd been in the store a full minute.  I'm not sure the house's foundations can support both of us having a book habit.

 

Latin for Birdwatchers - This was a freebie from one of the used bookshops that isn't a used bookshop - it sells remainders and everything in the store is $10 or 6 for $50.  This was my 6th book and I mostly bought it because it's beautiful but also because I'll learn something.  

 

A History of Birdwatching in 100 Objects - So it turns out I'm a hopeless sucker for history via objects.  

 

To See Every Bird on Earth - Anyone wondering if the bookshop had a birdwatching-themed display would not be wrong.  Since wanting to see every bird on Earth is something I would be apt to declare as a goal, I figured I read this and find out just how unpleasant such a goal might be in reality (not to mention expensive).

 

Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries: Uncovering Mysterious Sights, Symbols, and Societies - I love a good hidden room or cryptic symbol and I haven't read much on the subject so there should be a lot of 'new to me' stuff here if the writing is good.

 

Whispers in the Reading Room - Has anyone read this series?  The MC of this one is a librarian in Chicago and it takes place just after the World's Fair, so it was a done deal. Only, this one is the third in the series so I'm wondering if RIO is a must or not?

 

Equal Rites - My second Pratchett.  I started with death but I wanted to try one of the witches books next.

 

The Moonstone - Because I feel like I can't call myself a mystery reader without reading this one.

 

False Scent - Pure cover love (also, see above).

 

new books: 8

books read: 5

physical tbr: 220

As you’ve probably guessed, one of my favourite pastimes is birdwatching, but after reading To See Every Bird on Earth, it’s obvious that I’m a rank amateur compared to the people you meet in this book.

 

The author is Dan Koeppel and it’s the story of his dysfunctional relationship with his father Richard, and of Richard’s equally dysfunctional relationship with his father.

 

I found the book both fascinating and sad.  Richard was pressurised by his parents into becoming a doctor, even though he really wanted to be an ornithologist.  He married young to a woman who was too much of a free-spirit to be in a committed relationship.  And so he used his hobby as a way of avoiding work problems and trying not to think about his failing marriage.

 

Everything you need to know about bananas and how they influenced world politics. Very interesting.

Much better written than Chapman's Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World. The story includes the same indictments as Chapman's, but is better-told, though sometimes in less depth. There is more about bananas here, and less about governments. Read both to consolidate your knowledge.

Cruel enemies are stalking the world’s bananas and have been for decades. Who knew? Apparently Dan Koeppel. He has tracked not only the diseases that wiped out the every-day, Gros Michel, banana in the 1930s, but has an eye out for the Panama disease that is wiping out the Cavendish banana, that is, the one that we see today in every supermarket and fruit stand. There is yet another mortal enemy to the banana in the world, called Sigatoka. And the up and coming threat is from a disease called Bunchy Top, which sounds more like a character from Sesame Street, or Carrot Top’s heftier cousin, than a lethal virus. No one knows what effect it might have on our ability to add some slices of the world’s favorite fruit and fourth largest crop to our morning cereal.

There is a lot to learn about the impact of the banana on the world. And I would bet that all, or surely most of it, is in this book. Banana was a fun, educational and often surprising read. There is a lot of information to take in, and while you may know some of the info here, it is certain that there is a bunch you do not. Did you know that the banana tree isn’t properly a tree, but a very large herb? Neither did I. Or that the bananas we eat are considered berries? Say it ain’t so.

How about the notion that the banana was the fruit referred to in ancient texts about the Garden of Eden. The climate in the Fertile Crescent was not conducive to apples. And there is some softness in the translations of ancient writings. The forbidden fruit was called a fig, which is also what the banana was called. And really, doesn’t it seem a more fitting shape for the job? Which makes it all the more ironic that bananas are essentially asexual. They do not breed. The fruit we eat today came from cloned plants. Mass-consumption bananas have always come from plants that do not propagate themselves, but require man’s intervention.

There is a hybrid grown in Asia that is high in beta carotene, promising an easier way to get vitamin A into picky children. Koeppel even traces the linguistic trail of the banana as it made its way around the world, noting similarities in local names for the fruit in diverse languages.

He peels back the layers of time to reveal the banana’s place in history. Latin America is prime here, with many tales of corrupt agricultural corporations, such as United Fruit (now Chiquita) and their machinations against local governments. He also points out that many technological advances arose from the need to transport this perishable product long distances in a short time.

So you get the idea, lots of info about something most of us never gave, well, a fig about. It is a fun read and you will find yourself saying (or thinking, if you don’t want to make the person next to you on the subway slowly edge away) “I did not know that.” Given that there are existential threats abroad to the common banana, and that we are not yet ready with a cross-bred version that is resistant to those threats, we should probably do what we can to appreciate the banana before it…um…splits.