Summer Reading Suggestions - Part 1 Natural History

Summer has arrived in England!  

Duck and ducklings swimming in the peace pond - Bristol UK

Here is a short list - just three books - to consider reading this summer if you are someone who is fascinated by natural history.    

While summer is a good time of year to get out and investigate nature and explore new places,  it is important to remember to bring some good books along.   They make the best companions when you have a chance settle into a hammock or comfy chair in a shady place with a cool drink and a few hours of free time.   And, these books seem well suited for taking us off on adventures, not only in natural history but in time travel as well.  So, I have all three packed in my bag for a week at the seashore in Wales.   They were also all three recommended by at least one friend so I while I haven't read them (yet) I feel confident passing on this suggestions......

Read the review by Clare Clark in the Guardian here

The Coral Thief by Rebecca Stott

Book Description: "Paris, 1815. Napoleon has just surrendered at Waterloo and is due to begin his exile. Meanwhile, Daniel Connor, a young medical student from Edinburgh, has just arrived in Paris to study anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes - only to realise that his letters of introduction and a gift of precious coral specimens, on which his tenure depends, have been stolen by the beautiful woman with whom he shared a stagecoach.

In the fervour and tumult of post revolutionary Paris, nothing is quite as it seems. In trying to recover his lost valuables, Daniel discovers that his beautiful adversary is in fact a philosopher-thief who lives in a shadowy world of outlaws and émigrés. As Daniel embark on a passionate love affair with the Coral Thief, he is drawn to join her salon of thieves to execute one last breathtakingly bold robbery" from Amazon

Read the review from goodreads - here

Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution by Richard Fortey

‘In Richard Fortey’s capable hands the humble grey trilobite has been transformed into the E.T. of the Lower Palaeozoic – a remarkable and fascinating book.’ SIMON WINCHESTER

Book Description: "Richard Fortey is one of Britain’s leading popular scientists. Life: An Unauthorised Biography, was short-listed for the Rhone Poulenc prize and has been reprinted five times. In all he writes, Fortey displays extraordinary range, delight and descriptive gifts which make complicated scientific facts and concepts not only easy to understand but a delight to absorb.

Trilobite! is an unashamedly trilobito-centric view of the world unravelling the history of the exotic, crustacean-like animals which dominated the seas for three hundred million years. These arthropods witnessed continents move, mountain chains elevated and eroded; they survived ice ages and volcanic eruptions, evolving and adapting exquisitely to their environment. They watched through their crystal eyes whilst life evolved. Their own evolution calibrated geological time itself.

Structured like a detective story, this is a light, but highly informative account of the wonders of scientific discovery and an engaging, quirky and fascinating introduction to evolution." from Amazon

Remarkable Creatures - Tracy Chevalier  

"the conventions shaken by these women, simply by who they are and what they are interested in, are the even more rigid ones of class and gender. Giant marine reptiles are not the only remarkable creatures in this book."  - Ruth Padel in her review in the Guardian (read the full review here)

Book Description:"In the early nineteenth century, a windswept beach along the English coast brims with fossils for those with the eye…

From the moment she’s struck by lightning as a baby, it is clear Mary Anning is different. Her discovery of strange fossilized creatures in the cliffs of Lyme Regis sets the world alight. But Mary must face powerful prejudice from a male scientific establishment, not to mention vicious gossip and the heartbreak of forbidden love.

Then – in prickly, clever Elizabeth Philpot, a fossil-obsessed middle-class spinster – she finds a champion, and a rival. Despite their differences in class and age, Mary and Elizabeth’s loyalty and passion for the truth must win out.

Remarkable Creatures is a stunning novel of how one woman’s gift transcends class and gender to lead to some of the most important discoveries of the nineteenth century. Above all, it is a revealing portrait of the intricate and resilient nature of female friendship." from Amazon