Welcome to Litsy!

I did actually finish this, and I enjoyed most of it a lot, but I had a big old rant about the two aspects that irritated me... which I won't type again, because I can't have it living rent-free in my head ALL week. But, if you're interested: https://breathesbooks.com/2021/09/29/review-the-apple-orchard/

This guy keeps managing to be wrong incidentally, which is really annoying. No, CRISPR isn't just for turning genes on and off, it's full-on gene editing.

Also, borrowing a gene from a moth to confer resistance to a bacterium is not going to result in “moth bits“ in your apple, you cretin. And you definitely aren't going to sprout antennae. He does say this all in a slightly jokey way, but it isn't funny, people do have those idiotic objections.

Pete Brown should probably stick to writing about apples and leave Arthurian mythology alone, because ouch, that bit was embarrassing.

My parents gave us a whole bag of apples from the tree I helped to plant about 26 years ago. These apples have been yearly companions for so long now!

So it seemed like a good time for this book. So far it seems like it's going to be interesting, though he is really down on morris dancers as being smug and boring. (Though he does note that Bellowhead, still active at the time of writing, were an exception when they did some morris dancing.)

Field trip to the apple orchard today!! 🍎🍎🍎

I‘m giving this a “pick” because I learned a lot. But this is about England. English apple varieties, customs, orchards, funding, research, cider, etc. There are varieties well known in England that I have never heard of. I would really have liked some maps and color plates, as I was constantly using google maps to look up locations he assumes the reader is familiar with. Update: bought on amazon U.K., but the $ price is printed. #nonfiction

I got a book for Christmas! My sneaky husband found something he wants to read that is completely up my alley—and it hasn‘t been released in the US yet, so he knew I hadn‘t read it. My prolific library use makes it hard to know what I have read lol.