My Nerdy Friend

Welcome back to the Nerdy Friends Book Club! Just a quick reminder that if you want to join in the conversation about the first two short stories, you can do so here. Just scroll down to the comments.

This month we will be reading the next two stories in our selected book, Unnatural Creatures with stories selected by Neil Gaiman. First up, we have The Griffon and the Minor Canon, by Frank R. Stockton. Stockton was a contemporary of Mark Twain, and was best known for a series of children’s fairy tales popular in the late 19th century and none of which I had heard of. I regret this, because his Wikipedia page describes his children’s tales as poking fun at greed, violence, abuse of power, and other human foibles. Much better than kids hiking through the woods only to get eaten by a wicked witch!

Our second story is Ozioma The Wicked by Nnedi Okorafor. Nnedi is a contemporary writer, and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Eisner, and World Fantasy awards, and frankly needs to be added to my TBR list!

By the way, both of these stories are under 20 pages long and based on my reading of the first two, they will each take maybe 15-30 mins to read, depending on your reading speed.

Last thought: Erin had a great recommendation after reading the first two shorts, which is to skip Gaiman’s intro until after you’ve read the stories, as his comments can be a bit spoiler-ish (or anti-spoiler-ish, in one particular case).

With that, let’s read! Please feel free to post your spoiler-filled thoughts in the comments starting April 23.

Starter Villain, John Scalzi

I can’t believe I’ve never read a book by John Scalzi before. His writing is right up my alley – funny, cheeky, sarcastic. Just look at this amazing list of titles! “Redshirts: A Novel With Three Codas”, “Old Man’s War”, “The Book of Dumb”, “You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop”, “Virtue Signaling and Other Heresies”. Seriously, my TBR just jumped by about 20 titles!

In Starter Villain, our protagonist Charlie inherits a boatload of money from a long lost uncle (ah, dreams) as well as a thriving supervillain business. Charlie has to learn the business “tout suite”, while finding out his pet cats are actually super-intelligent spy cats who can communication with humans, and dealing with labour unrest among the super-intelligent dolphins that protect his secret volcano lair. But honestly, the most far=fetched part of this book is a secret society of the 12 riches people (men) on earth who interfere with world progress by subtly nudging things like governments and technology in the direction they want them to go. AS IS a bunch of rich people (men) all working together in a secret society would be subtle! Puh-lease!!! They would ALL be launching stupid-ass things like cars into space, building stupid-ass clocks that tick once a year, and buying entire social media platforms just to drive it into the stupid-ass ground for no good reason. But that’s why we love books, right? For the fantasy.

The Absolution (Book 3 of Children’s House), by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

I found this book at a library sale at the local Ameliasburgh Fall Fair and it’s really one of the most county things you could do to visit this village fair, unless it’s to visit the Milford Fall Fair! Unbeknownst to me, this is book 3 in a series of crime-fighting murder mysteries and there was definitely some important history between the key members of the crime-fighting p0lice force. I hindsight, I might better have elected to read this series in order.

Pretty quickly you figure out that The Absolution is a revenge story set around the theme of cyber-bullying and I have to say, it makes me extremely happy that I did not grow up in a world with no borders to bullying. In my day (which, really, how old does that expression make me sound?), it was possible to escape the presence of bullies by simply walking away from them. Home from school? No bullying! Except of course for the case where some doofus “friend” decided it would be fun to prank-call our house 35 times a day (this is not an exaggeration), but we just didn’t answer the phone. In fact, in one moment of sweet satisfaction, I got the loudest whistle known to mankind in a Christmas cracker and I started answering the phone and immediately blowing the whistle as loud as I could into the receiver, and what fun that was hahaha!!! Stupid bully. I can’t even imagine life today, with cyber-bullies dogging you every minute of every day everywhere you go. The book does a fine job of showing just how inadequately we, as a society, are prepared to deal with this kind of thing. But honestly, hasn’t it been long enough to at least start to figure it out? Also, eff-you, social media companies. (Now that I think about it, maybe all the rich people SHOULD just buy social media companies and burn them to the ground with their hubris.)

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

This book is a love story. It’s a love story about gaming (although you don’t have to be a gamer to love the book, me being a case in point. The last computer game I avidly played was Zork – what I remember being called ‘Adventure’. That’s right, you read that right.) It’s a love story about story-telling within computer game creation. It’s a love story about the game two gamers collaborate to create together. And in a strange and unusual twist, it’s a love story about a boy and girl who are friends, collaborators, roommates, partners, but never lovers. What a refreshing change! They have ups and downs, fights, breakups, makeups, boyfriends and girlfriends (with other people) but they, in the long run, are just best friends.

Apeirogon, by Colum McCann

Two fathers, a Palestinian and an Israeli, lose their daughters in acts of war – one shot by an Israeli soldier, and one a victim of Palestinian suicide bombers. Eventually they meet and travel the world together advocating mutual understanding and peace. Based on a true story and told through fragmented chapters, the book reveals nuances about the conflict that make it difficult to “pick a side”.

I admit to massive lack of knowledge about the history of the conflict in this area and it feels like something we are not supposed to have an opinion on. Politicians and governments tell us how to feel, and if we express dissent, we are bigoted in some way. But from what I read in this (one and only) book, it seems like Palestinians live in a land occupied by Israel. And it seems like Israel is creating settlements inside the occupied land, an action that is, I think, illegal. In fairness, the origins all seems traceable back to British colonization, another notch of their bedpost of ignorant and careless actions resulting in decades of bloody conflict. At any rate, I am interested in reading more about the history of this area, if you happen to have a recommendation please leave a comment.

Welcome to the first month of the Nerdy Friends Book Club!

Through popular request and strategic planning around busy schedules, I’ve selected Unnatural Creatures, a book of short stories curated by the great Neil Gaiman! There are 16 stories in all, so we will plan on reading two per month, and discuss them in the comments. I suggest that we aim to read the stories within the first 3 weeks of the month and leave the 4th week for commentary. This is not a hard and fast rule, you decide what works best for you, but be aware that after week 3, spoilers may appear in the comments.

This month features the first two stories in the book, one of which has a non-verbal “Arrival” style title that looks like an audio sound wave, and which we will simply refer to as “Story One”. The second story is titled “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchists Bees”. Authors are not provided in the table of contents, but do get credited at the start of each story. That’s it! Chat with you in 3 weeks!

The first thing that jumped out at me from this book was the dedication, which makes me think of my friend Chrystal not because she’s boring (she isn’t!) but because I think she may actually be a secret agent:

For Bigfoot, for the time travelers, for the pirates, for the robots, for any boring people (who obviously aren’t actually secret agents in boring disguise), for people in space rockets, and for our mothers. ~N.G.

The Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery series, by Vicki Delaney

I started an unseasonably (and alarmingly) warm winter with a quadruple cozy mystery binge. What exactly is a cozy mystery, you may be wondering! The key elements are: violence and sex occur offstage; there is an amateur sleuth who solves the crime, often a woman, with a community job such as librarian, shop owner, dog trainer, or caterer, and with some kind of personal connection to someone on the local police force; the crime occurs in a small town where the principle characters all know each other; maybe there is a cat.

The Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery series is a set of (currently) 9 books. The amateur sleuth character is a woman (check!) from England who has resettled in the small Cape Cod town of West London (check!) to manage her great uncle’s shop, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium (check!) which is also the home of Moriarty, the cat (check!). Her on-again/off-again boyfriend is a local police detective (check!) and her best friend works in an adjoining shop running a tea room. Both the book shop and the tea room are thematically based on Sherlock Holmes (BONUS POINTS!). The formula is strong with this one!

All of the books focus on a murder that takes place when a well-known out-of-towner comes to participate in a local event, that in every case is connected with or located at the bookshop. An amazing coincidence for little West London! I’ll say this, four books in and I would definitely not be hosting an event at the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. I’d be safer jaywalking across a busy 6-lane highway!

If you like cozy mysteries, and I do, this is a fun series. Vicki herself is local to Prince Edward County, and in fact, I bought these 4 books directly from her at a Christmas craft fair just down the way in Wellington. I could, perhaps, have reconsidered binging them all at once. The repetitive formula would be better served by having some space between each book (for me, at least), on top of which Vicki tends to annoyingly overuse the word “pastiche” which might be less apparent if you space the books out. Apart from that, however, 10/10 as cozies go.

Here’s the list of the first four books:

• Book 1: Elementary, She Read
• Book 2: Body on Baker Street
• Book 3: The Cat of the Baskervilles
• Book 4: A Scandal in Scarlet

Thanks to everyone for the amazing suggestions for a 6th “bonus” bookish activity challenge for 2024! I ultimately decided to go with a co-challenge, where you get to share in the activity with me.* We are going to read a book together over the course of the next 10 months!

Respecting that everyone has different and differently challenging schedules, reading tastes, and access to books, I settled on the short story collection “Unnatural Creatures: Stories Selected by Neil Gaiman”. I chose this book because:

1. Although Gaiman selected the stories, he only authors one of them, so if you happen to hate him (wait, WHAT????), then you are only subjected to one story by him, which you can always skip. Mind you, I would assume his tastes run through the rest of the book.
2. Short stories means you can miss some of the reading, and still be able to participate fully in any discussions for stories that you did read.
3. The short stories themselves appear on first glance to really be short. The longest seems to be one at around 80 pages, and the shortest is around 12. Most are in the neighbourhood of 25.
4. There are 16 stories in all, which means we can read 2 per month and wrap up at the end of October with 2 months to spare.

I have no idea what the stories are about, but suspect a healthy does of the magical and the fantastical, being selected by Gaiman and all. This is an older book (2013) so copies may potentially be easier to come by, both in stores and in libraries. I’ve included some links to sources below. The plan is for us to read 2 stories per month, starting in March. I’ll create a post each month to kick it off, listing the two stories that are that month’s focus. At the end of the month, everyone can post their thoughts (good and bad) in the comments. I hope you’ll consider participating!

One final point, this may be a book aimed at younger readers, just so that you’re prepared for the reading level being potentially extremely easy 🙂 An interesting tidbit that I came across while looking for sources of the book: “Sales of Unnatural Creatures benefit 826DC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students in their creative and expository writing, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.” I’m curious if this still applies to sales a decade later?

Amazon (paperback $13.61 and kindle $11.99)

Indigo (paperback $13.61 and kindle $11.99 – same price fixing as Amazon, surprise surprise)

Thriftbooks (paperback $6.39 – $14.69)

Abebooks (price = ??? TBH I’m not a fan of Abebooks anymore, they hide a lot of costs in currency conversion and shipping that did not used to be the case)

*other suggestions have not been discarded, merely postponed for possible future use

This month is brought to you by word Agency. Let’s dive right in.

The Sleeping Car Porter, by Suzette Mayr

What stood out most for me in this book was how effectively Suzette Mayr describes the state of extreme exhaustion. Exhaustion to the point of hallucination and loss of basic motor skills. The book made me want to take a nap – not out of boredom (it is most assuredly not boring), but out of her near perfect description of what it’s like to be that tired.

The sleeping care porters are tired because they’re required to serve passengers all day, closing up bunks each morning, washing linens, providing food, cleaning toilets, and re-opening bunks each night for sleeping. They’re busy all night as well, shining shoes, cleaning passageways, washing more linens, and answering to passengers in the night who need ladders to climb down from their sleeping bunks to use the bathroom. All the while, they are required to be on their best behaviour in order to earn much-needed tips to supplement their meager wagers, and to avoid being penalized with demerits, which means being fired if their demerit count reached 60. I think most of us are just a little too used to speaking our minds to really understand how demeaning this life must have been. To just stand there and take whatever is given or said to you, quietly begging for coins and trying to avoid negative reviews.

The book itself follows the story of one porter, Baxter, who desperately wants to earn enough money in tips to go back to university and complete his degree in dentistry. He gets demerits for having a dirty uniform after a passenger accidentally spills coffee on him, and with no merit-earning options he simply struggles to stay below the fire-able offense of reaching 60 before he has secured his dental school savings. To add to his difficulties, Baxter is gay, an illegal offense for which he can be imprisoned if found out. Baxter ends up working the lengthy Montreal to Vancouver run, continually trying to please a group of unruly passengers who call him “George” because they can’t be bothered to learn his actual name.

While I was reading, I remembered that my grandfather worked for the railway for many years after immigrating to Canada from Poland. I have no idea what he actually did, but I wish now I has asked more (or any) questions about that. There were probably some amazing stories there, sadly now lost.

My Dark Vanessa, by Kate Elizabeth Russell

When fifteen year old Vanessa transfers to a boarding school for her sophomore year of high school (that’s grade 10 for us Canadians), she becomes involved in an affair with her forty-two year old English teacher, Jacob Strane. Seventeen years later, another student publicly accuses Strane of sexual assault, and reaches out to Vanessa asking her to add her own story of abuse to the accusations. The trouble is that Vanessa doesn’t see herself as a victim of abuse (whaaattt????) and in fact believes that she and Strane fell deeply in love. I’m pretty sure I know what you’re thinking about this … situation, but here’s the thing. The story, both the past and the present, are written from Vanessa’s point of view, and she is a young woman who thinks she had as much agency in her own love story and the teacher who (allegedly) seduced her.

It’s a thought-provoking book that is sure to generate conflicted opinions and heated discussions. From my perspective, I am absolutely convinced that the teacher, Strane, is a sexual predator. I am certain that he manipulated Vanessa into falling in love with him, groomed her to consent to his sexual advances, and then gaslighted her into believing the reverse was true, that she lead him on instead. I am certain that he absolutely ruined her life. But the book reveals nuances and complexities, not the least of which is this. How do we deal with situations of abuse and assault where the women feel they have had agency and control over their own lives, and who feel they have consented to what they view as a real relationship based on love. How do we, in good conscience, tell them that all this time they have been molded, manipulated, and victimized by horrible men that do not actually love them? How do these women find and maintain self-worth in the face of these humiliating implications? I’m wondering if we are having the conversations incorrectly and without appropriate empathy. This book is troubling, but important.

Inspired in part by the Reading Glasses podcast Reading Challenge of 2024, here is my personal list of reading goals for 2024.

Book Reading: It’s all in the name; these are goals specifically about reading books.

This brief 8-book wrap up indicates to me that I need to work on toning down my amazing procrastination skills. With apologies, most of these books were the best of the year, and I do not give them proper due. But isn’t that what Goodreads is for!?

Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus

Elizabeth Zott is fired from her Chemistry PHD program after refusing to apologize for fighting off her rapist, gets a job as a chemist where she is mistaken for a secretary, endures her boyfriend getting credit for her ideas, is fired again for being pregnant while unwed, is rehired as a lab tech for which she is massively overqualified, and has her groundbreaking work stolen by her boss. AKA life as a woman. Ultimately, Elizabeth lands a job on TV where she uses the cover of a cooking show host to teach chemistry to her viewers. It may not sound like it, but this is a tragically funny book, and you should absolutely read it!

The Observer, by Marina Endicott

I have a terrible time writing about Marina Endicott’s books, she is SUCH a good writer and everything I want to say seems so blah by comparison. See? “Blah” is the best word I could come up with in short order. So amateur. Not a problem Marina suffers from! Marina has a talent (among many talents) for writing books where the narrator is, in a way, more of a secondary character to the story. An ‘observer’, if you will. This book is a story about a young RCMP officer, and the brutal conditions in which he works that ultimately lead to depression and PTSD, told from the viewpoint of his wife, Julia. The couple have just moved to a small-town community in Alberta where Julia tries to fit in with other RCMP wives, with the neighbours, and with the community, while supporting her husband during his mental decline. To earn a bit of extra money, she takes a part-time job at the local newspaper, The Observer (layers)! The book draws on fragments of Marina’s own memories in Mayerthorpe, Alberta, and ends with an acknowledgement of sorts to the 4 RCMP officers killed in a shoot-out while executing a search warrant of a local farm.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine, by Gail Honeyman

I loved this book right up until the end. For some reason, the ending made me feel cheated, like either the author didn’t do as good a job with the through-line as she maybe could have, or she rushed through it at the end just to get it done. Without spoiling the book, that’s about the extent of my critique. Have you read it? I’d like to know your thoughts.

normal rules don’t apply, by Kate Atkinson

Kate Atkinson has so much range! From Life After Life (loved it) to the Jackson Brody detective series (loved it) to this entertaining collection of short stories. Although I read them very rarely, I have a soft spot for short stories. I love how precise the writing has to be when an author writes a great short story – no words wasted. Kate Atkinson has upped the ante on short story writing, with a series of shorts that are ultimately connected in (sometimes) unexpected ways. She threads through some scifi, although more your magical world / omniscient being scifi versus space opera / starship scifi. A very satisfying read.

Yellowface, by R.F. Kuang

Prediction: there will be many, many different opinions on this book, particularly around the morality of the actions of the protagonist, June Hayward. When June witnesses the accidental death of her friend/rival Athena, she discovers an unpublished, type-written manuscript and, on impulse, steals it. She then publishes the novel under her own name, justifying her actions on the grounds that she had to rewrite virtually the entire thing to make it submissible. This marks the first – or maybe the second – in a series of questionable decisions that June continually justifies on increasingly dubious grounds. The book raises issues around plagiarism, racism, cultural appropriation, as well as the isolating addiction of social media validation. Bonus: it’s also entertaining, humourous, and engaging.

How to be Perfect, by Michael Schur

I’ll bet you didn’t think there existed a book on moral philosophy that was fun, funny, and enjoyable, did you? Well there is, and it’s this one. (I’ll have more to say on this in a much later post, so this is it for now. )

A Place of Execution, by Val McDermid

I’m having a deja vu moment, convinced I’ve already written about this book, but it seems not to be the case. A bit of a different spin on the murder mystery book, it is written in 3 parts. In part one, a girl goes missing and after a load of circumstantial evidence comes to light, a man is found guilty of her murder and is executed. In part two, decades later a journalist interviews the investigating detective while writing a book about the infamous “cold case”. In part three, new information comes to light that forces all the players to revisit the case. An interesting book, but a wee bit on the long side which found me flipping ahead frequently to see when the chapter would end, because humans have no patience anymore.

Chapter and Curse, by Elizabeth Penney

A textbook Cozy Mystery. Set in a small town in England, a bookstore owner (even better, her new friend owns the bakery across the street), not one but TWO handsome gents (one for her, one for the baker), a murder-most-foul that the inept police fail to investigate properly, and a happily-ever-after ending. A happy ending for everyone except for the people who are murdered along the way, of course. I’ve read two classic Cozies now, and I think it’s safe to say there are not directly in my wheelhouse per se, but enjoyable books to read if you are a) sick, b) getting over a reading slump, c) avoiding Harlequin Christmas movies. I have a few more lurking around the house for just such emergencies.

As 2023 slinks out with a whimper, I find myself several books behind schedule in my blogging efforts, sitting in a heat-less home with a case of COVID to welcome in 2024. Hopefully this isn’t a harbinger of things to come …

I *will* go back and finish writing up the final 6 or so books of 2023, but in the meantime, I figured a quick summary of the year was something my covid-infected self could manage. In between naps and drinking water and tea.

I did end up reading 42 books, MUCH more than expected (although 3 of them were children’s books, all read on the same day).

I had an unspoken goal this year to read more books by female authors, and ended with year with 31 of 42 books written by women. It’s telling, I think, that I thought it was more.

Half (22) of the books were classified (by me) as Great or very very close to great, falling into a category called “pretty darn good” that I only created to try and split the “great” list up a bit and tease out the best of the best. Better, only two books were disappointingly “meh”.

To revisit my reading challenge for 2023, here is how it all fell out. A 2024 challenge will be along at some point in January.

Challenges related to books:

1. Read a favourite book of a close friend or loved one.
   • It’s hard to get my avid-reader friends to specify a favourite book, so I went with “here’s one I liked” instead. Based on that, I read Little Fires Everything (Sharl’s recommendation) and Magic for Liars (Erin’s recommendation). Both totally worth it! My friends have good taste in books.
2. Read a graphic novel
   • This is the reason I read The Sandman, and I enjoyed it! Would I read another graphic novel “just because”? Likely not, but I would definitely read one as part of a challenge or book club pick.
3. Give a book a second chance
   • Americanah, which turned out to be simultaneously not amazing, but better than I thought when I abandoned it the first time. I don’t regret picking this one back up.
4. Read a book by a non-cis-white author
   • I think the closest I came here was Christian Cooper, but I don’t think he passes the non-cis test? This challenge will likely reappear in my 2024 list.
5. Read a book by a local PEC author
   • Blackwater Bluff. I will be repeating this goal in 2024, and already have a 4-book collection lined up.

Challenges related to activities:

1. Figure out my wheelhouse and my doghouse (a fun list coming in Dec, and yes, “wheelhouse” will definitely include murder mysteries!)
   • Okay this is harder than I thought, so maybe I’ll start broad and narrow it next year.
   • Wheelhouse:
     • Books with a bright, fun cover (yes, I’m just that shallow, but it worked like gangbusters for Eleanor Oliphant and Lessons in Chemistry, so just let it be)
     • Muuuuurder most foul
     • A few choice authors who I’ll read unconditionally (Guy Kay, Emily St John Mandel, Marina Endicott, Tana French, Megan Miranda…)
   • Doghouse:
     • Family drama and generational trauma
     • Romance, unless the romance is secondary to, say, a murder mystery
     • Most self-help books. Maybe all self-help books.
2. Write a blog about the books I have read (since you are reading this, check!)
   • I am behind schedule, with about 6-7 books to go. A bit of a writing slump, sadly. But in general, I upheld this goal pretty well.
3. Read at least 2 books per month
   • Going with an overall count, I needed to read 24 books and ended up at 42 (excellent!!) so I’m calling this a win.
4. Buy books from independent booksellers, ideally local stores OR borrow from the library
   • I’m just going to say I spent way too much money at the local book store, Books & Company, and highly recommend it to anyone who is in the area.
5. Read more diversity
   • I think I can call this a win: Christian Cooper, Michelle Good, Celeste Ng, R.F. Kuang, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Finally, a summary of my 2023 reading, by category.

So Great!!

1. The Witch Elm, by Tana French
2. Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng
3. Sea of Tranquility: A Novel, by Emily St John Mandel
4. Shit, Actually, by Lindy West
5. Five Little Indians, by Michelle Good
6. The End of Everything (astrophysically speaking), by Katie Mack
7. The Witches are Coming, by Lindy West
8. Atlas of the Heart, by Brene Brown
9. How to be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question, but Michael Schur
10. The Observer, by Marina Endicott
11. Normal Rules Don’t Apply, by Kate Atkinson
12. Yellowface, by R. F. Kuang
13. Eleanor Opliphant is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman
14. Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus

Pretty Darn Good!

1. Such a Quiet Place, by Megan Miranda
2. What an Owl Knows, by Jennifer Ackerman
3. Living with Cannibals & Other Women’s Adventures, by Michele Slung
4. Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey
5. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
6. The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes – Book I, by Neil Gaiman etc
7. Killers of a Certain Age, by Deanna Raybourn
8. Better Living Through Birding, by Christian Cooper

Okay.

1. Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story, by Christopher Moore
2. The Appeal, by John Grisham
3. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, by Sarah Vowell
4. The Word is Murder, by Anthony Horowitz
5. Briefly, a Delicious Life, by Nell Stevens
6. The Six-Figure Student Playbook, by Jackson Thornley
7. Ottawa Rewind 2: More Curios and Mysteries, by Andrew King
8. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
9. Why Birds Sing, by Nina Berkhout
10. Blackwater Bluff, by S.M. Hurley
11. Furbidden Fatality, by Deborah Blake
12. Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
13. Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng
14. A Place of Execution, by Val McDermid
15. Chapter and Curse, by Elizabeth Penney

Meh 🙁

1. Field Notes from an Unintentionial Birder, by Julia Zarankin
2. Better Living Through Plastic Explosives, by Zsuzsi Gartner

For Kids

1. Night Owl Night, by Susan Edwards Richmond
2. A Warbler’s Journey, by Scott Weidensaul
3. Two Green Birds, by Geraldo Valerio