so-soI had to bail about 35% in. It was just too stressful it‘s like reading a documentary about a recent catastrophic fire in an area not too far from my home. It‘s well-written and interesting, just too overwhelming for me to keep going.
pickExcellent, page turning description of the development, physics, chemistry, weather, evacuation and defending the city from the Canadian fire in 2016. The explanation of how hot the fire was, how it moved, and the citizens‘ reactions was so good. For me, the last 1/4 of the book lost a little momentum, but that could be because the first 3/4 was so good.
Chapter 1
“If a tree burns in the forest and nobody sees it…”
pickThis is an excellent audiobook! The author uses the catastrophic, unprecedented Canadian fire that hit Fort McMurray to frame the narrative. This illustrates how and why fires are burning out of control in our current climate. Asides on the weather, the climate crisis, scientists studying this, firefighters, insurance companies, and policy makers—both historical and current all feature for an educational yet entertaining read. Scary stuff!
pickAn absorbing history of oil, fire, Fort McMurray, climate science, and the corporate and political backlash to the science, as well as an intense retelling of the experiences of Fort McMurrayites in the fire of 2016, this is an in-depth and engaging, vitally important book. It is also terrifying (I think I would have been okay without ever knowing about FIRE TORNADOES), sad, stark, and honest. Cont'd in comments...
#Naturalitsy
The Baillie Giifford prize winner for non-fiction announced. Have you read it?
https://www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk/
For the nonfiction NBA list, the upper 5 are their shortlist and the circled are mine. This was the hardest one for me to whittle down, as I want to put the King bio in the top 5 but can‘t make it fit. I‘d love to see Fire Weather win this one. Overall, this is a really solid list.
pickThis has been my book to read at school, and it‘s taken a long time since I just get a few minutes a day. I didn‘t enjoy it quite as much as Gratz‘s previous books. It felt too heavy handed in the lessons on climate change, and I also had a harder time with the transitions between the three story lines. I did think each of the main characters had an interesting and action packed story.
#MiddleGrade #TRS2023
Here they are, the National Book Awards nonfiction longlist books! I‘ve read the tagged and can attest it is indeed fantastic. I have 2 others and just picked up 2 more from my library. I can‘t wait to read this whole list!
https://www.nationalbook.org/2023-national-book-awards-longlist-for-nonfiction/
![[tagged book]](https://image.librarything.com/pics/litsy_webpics/icon_taggedBook@3x.png){kind=icon}