Welcome to Litsy!

Damning account of how the English government suppressed Ireland's economy for centuries, then victim blamed them when the famine happened and mostly refused to help. Lots of quotes from respected English officials expressing anti-Irish and anti-Catholic bigotry and occasionally coming right out and publicly stating the famine was a fortuitous way to bring down the unsustainable population. Good but long and repetitive.

Read these to Jace just in time for #foodandlit and St. Patrick‘s Day. The tagged book was really funny, and the one about St. Patrick himself was very informative for a children‘s book. Thanks for the recommendations @TheBookHippie ! 🤗

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#Ireland
#childrensbooks
#StPatricksDay

My friend sent me a positive potato today for my birthday! Isn‘t it the cutest!?!

I just started reading The Bad Seed series to Jace this week. This is THE cutest series! This was my favorite page from this particular book - it‘s always great to see my favorite show, Mad Men, mentioned out in the wild. 😅 I would highly recommend this entire series and Jace really loved it as well. I love the artwork. #TheBadSeed #childrensbooks #MadMen #raisingreaders

The other two I‘ve read by her were home runs, but this one was more #goodnotgreat. I‘d still love to read more Ozeki, though! #AuthorAMonth

Yumi runs away from her tiny Idaho town at 14 after sleeping with a teacher. As her parents age, a neighbor takes care of them, but when their health falters she returns with three kids in tow. Meanwhile, a group of organic food activists have targeted the area to protest GMO potatoes.

What 12-year-old doesn‘t love potatoes and books?

This is the second Michael Pollan book I‘ve listened to this year, and once again it did not disappoint. He has a keen ability of making his subject accessible to the layperson. In The Botany of Desire his main conceit is to present the reader/listener with a view of humanity from the perspective of 4 different plants: apples, tulips, cannabis, and the potato. I‘m not sure if he really stays true to his thesis, but the plethora of info is great.

Definitely not Ozeki's best but still her trademark frankness and balance of bitter and sweet is too good to resist

This was a random library choice and I finished it because I'm stubborn, but it had its faults: too long, I couldn't stand the one main character and her shitty choices, and when a writer gets basic facts completely wrong, like thinking that human babies are born blind (🤯), that really pisses me off. I'm completely anti GMO. so that part was fine and done okay, just quite dated by now.