One of the BTCD dogs has been in the hospital for 2 weeks, so there's been a lot of reading going on--in the lobby, in the visiting room, even to him. Both the dog and I loved one of these books, so I had to write a mid-month review.
The Ice at the End of the World by Jon Gertner I loved this book! Mr. Gertner provides a riveting history of exploration of the Greenland ice sheet and glaciers, beginning with Nansen, and progressing through ongoing research in 2018. Through the narrative, he outlines the historical growth of scientific research on the Greenland glaciers, the difficulties conducting these researches, and succinctly summarizes the evidence of the results for climate change and global warming. This book is beautifully written, with good illustrations (so good I wanted more of them), and based on extensive research and oral interviews. I cannot recommend this book enough. Best book of 2019 to date. (Net Galley)
A Plain Vanilla Murder by Susan Wittig Albert I've fallen behind in the China Bayles series, so looked forward to the latest entry in the series. I've traveled through the vanilla country of Veracruz several times, and am currently growing my first two orchids, so naturally I was interested in the premise of this mystery: the death of a professor and international orchid smuggling. The novel is fast paced and told from different points of view--and therein is my only objection. Not the different points of view--I don't mind that technique at all. But China's first person point of view, written in the past tense, but other character's chapters (largely told from the very pregnant Sheila's point of view) are written in the present tense. And the switch back and forth between these was very annoying. Otherwise, this is another good book from Albert, with some surprising twists at the end that kept the suspense level high and surprised even me. (Net Galley)
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