LIFE ON A LITTLE KNOWN PLANET: Dispatches From a Changing World by ELIZABETH KOLBERT

 LIFE ON A LITTLE KNOWN PLANET: Dispatches From a Changing World by ELIZABETH KOLBERT  ((Pgs 297)

Goodreads Review: "To be a well-informed citizen of Planet Earth," Rolling Stone has advised, "you need to read Elizabeth Kolbert." From her National Magazine Award-winning series The Climate of Man to her Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Sixth Extinction, Kolbert’s work has shaped the way we think about the environment in the twenty-first century. Collected in Life on a Little-Known Planet are her most influential and thought-provoking essays.

An intrepid reporter and a skillful translator of scientific idees, Kolbert expertly captures the wonders of nature and paints vivid portraits of the researchers and concerned citizens working to preserve them. She takes readers all around the globe, from an island in Denmark that’s succeeded in going carbon neutral, to a community in Florida that voted to give rights to waterways, to the Greenland ice sheet, which is melting in a way that has implications for everyone. We meet a biologist who believes we can talk to whales, an entomologist racing to find rare caterpillars before they disappear, and a climatologist who’s considered the "father of global warming," amongst other scientists at the forefront of environmental protection.

The threats to our planet that Kolbert has devoted so much of her career to exposing have only grown more serious. Now is the time to deepen our understanding of the world we are in danger of losing.

Not quite what I was expecting. I thought this was a brand new book from this author, but it was really just a book of her older essays and articles, previously published in newspapers or magazines.

The Restless Kings by Nick Barratt

 

The Restless Kings: Henry II, His Sons and the Wars for the Plantagenet Crown by Nick Barratt -320 pages

This is mostly a political history covering the reigns of King Henry II through Richard I and John until about 1215 when the Magna Carta was issued. Henry II had four sons, and all of them eventually rebelled against their father toward the end of his long reign. Henry created a tax bureaucracy in England to fund his campaigns in his French domains while both Richard and John used the system to maximize royal revenue resulting in a civil war that led to a more limited monarchy requiring regular parliaments in John's reign. The English barons even considered inviting a French prince to replace John since they preferred an absentee ruler to John's heavy-handedness. The book covers the details of Thomas Becket's martyrdom, the Magna Carta, and the crusades. This is an illuminating book on a time of great change in England and France.

EVIL BONES (Temperance Brennan #24) by KATHY REICHS

 EVIL BONES (Temperance Brennan #24)  by KATHY REICHS (Pgs 271)

GOODREADS REVIEW: Small creatures—a rat, a rabbit, a squirrel—have been turning up throughout Charlotte, North Carolina, mutilated and displayed in the same bizarre manner. But one day, as Tempe is relaxing at home alongside her aimless, moody great-niece Tory, she’s diverted by a disturbing call. Now, it seems, the perp is upping the ante. This find is larger. Could the remains be human?

Tempe visits the scene and discovers that the victim is a dog. Someone’s pet. As one who has always found animal cruelty deeply abhorrent, Tempe vows to help apprehend the person responsible for the killings, and due to Tory’s especially layered knowledge of animal behavior, the young woman turns out to be a valuable ally in the hunt for answers. Oddly, Tempe discovers that semi-retired homicide detective Erskine “Skinny” Slidell is equally outraged and committed. Needing a better understanding of possible motives, Tempe and Skinny seek input from a forensic psychologist. The doctor has no definitive answer but offers several possibilities, warning that the escalating pattern of aggression suggests even more macabre discoveries—and that the perp’s focus may soon shift to humans.

And then it happens. A woman is found disfigured and posed in a manner that mimics the earlier killings.

As Tempe and Slidell follow the horrifying clues to a shocking conclusion, they’re forced to confront an increasingly terrifying question: “What is pure evil?”

Not my favorite from this series. Main character make some very unprofessional decisions, in my opinion. 

THE FORGET-ME-NOT LIBRARY by HEATHER WEBBER

 THE FORGET-ME-NOT LIBRARY by HEATHER WEBBER  (Pgs 339)

GOODREADS REVIEW: Juliet Nightingale is lucky to be alive. Months after a freak accident involving lightning, she’s fully recovered but is left feeling that something is missing from her life. Something big. Impulsively, she decides to take a solo summer road trip, hoping that the journey will lead her down a path that will help her discover exactly what it is that she’s searching for.

Newly single mom Tallulah Byrd Mayfield is hanging by a thread after her neat, tidy world was completely undone when her husband decided that their marriage was over. In the aftermath of the breakup, she and her two daughters move in with her eighty-year-old grandfather. Tallulah starts a new job at the Forget-Me-Not Library, where old, treasured memories can be found within the books—and where Lu must learn to adapt to the many changes thrown her way.

When a road detour leads Juliet to Forget-Me-Not, Alabama, and straight into Tallulah’s life, the two women soon discover there’s magic in between the pages of where you’ve been and where you still need to go. And that happiness, even when lost, can always be found again.

Another good book from one of my favorite authors!

The Knight and the Moth

The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig | 385 pages | 2025

Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum's windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral's cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.

(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)

This book pulled me in and did not let me go, and I loved every moment. The magic and the world are fascinating. The gothic elements were creepy but not over the top. The romance was tense and banter-filled and fun. The character development was wonderful. Many of the twists had heavy foreshadowing and weren't necessarily surprising, but that didn't make them any less satisfying. And, of course, the gargoyle is everything.

The Caller

The Caller by Juliet Marillier | 480 pages | 2014

Just one year ago, Neryn had nothing but a canny skill she barely understood and a faint dream that the legendary rebel base of Shadowfell might be real. Now she is the rebels’ secret weapon, and their greatest hope for survival, in the fast-approaching ambush of King Keldec at Summerfort.

The fate of Alban itself is in her hands. But to be ready for the bloody battle that lies ahead, Neryn must first seek out two more fey Guardians to receive their tutelage. Meanwhile, her beloved, Flint, has been pushed to his breaking point as a spy in the king’s court—and is arousing suspicion in all the wrong quarters.

At stake lies freedom for the people of Alban, a life free from hiding for the Good Folk—and a chance for Flint and Neryn to finally be together.

(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)

This series overall was creative and immersive. I love a fantasy world that involves traditional faeries - the kind that come in all shapes and sizes from the humanoid to the bizarre. Marillier doesn't write a fast-paced book, but you truly love her characters and feel their struggles. These are classic fairy tales, where the hero overcomes adversity and justice overcomes evil, and in the end I'm left with a sense of deep satisfaction.

Accidentally Yours by Christina Lauren

Accidentally Yours by Christina Lauren -- 93 pages

When marketing consultant Veronica accidentally crashes the wrong Zoom meeting and brutally critiques their presentation, she’s shocked to receive a job offer from the company’s intriguing CEO. Their professional email exchanges quickly turn flirty, but Veronica’s mind keeps drifting to her reserved but gorgeous new neighbor. As Valentine’s Day approaches, she’ll discover that sometimes the most improbable meet-cute can lead to the perfect match.