Earthly Remains

Earthly Remains by Donna Leon 308 pp. 

Commissario Guido Brunetti returns in the 26th book in the series. During an interview of suspect, Brunetti does something completely out of character causing a medical incident. As a result Brunetti and the doctor decide he needs at least a two week break from his job. Through his wife's connections, Brunetti goes to stay in a small villa on an island at the outskirts of Venice. There he partakes of the three "Rs," Relaxation, Reading, and Rowing. The rowing leads to a developing friendship with Davide Casati, a man who knew and rowed with Brunetti's late father. The two become companions who enjoy their time paddling on the Laguna and visiting Casati's beehives scattered on small islands. Casati is concerned because his bees are dying and is trying to find the cause. One night Casati goes out alone in his small boat and is lost in a storm. Brunetti joins the search for the boat, hoping that Casati managed to make it to shore. Brunetti launches his own, unofficial investigation into his new friend's past in spite of his orders to be relaxing. Once again corruption is at the heart of story.

Braiding Sweetgrass

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer  391 pp.

Dr. Kimmerer is a botanist and plant scientist and a professor in the SUNY Environmental and Forest Biology Department. She is also a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and learned about Native plant science from her family and tribal elders. Using her scientific and traditional knowledge, Kimmerer explains how living beings, including plants and animals, rely on each other for growth and survival, and how the current methods of farming, logging, industry, and construction have destroyed the fragile connections between all living things leading to environmental catastrophes and climate change. She also describes programs she has developed where botany students spend an extended time in a wilderness area studying and tabulating plant information while learning the ancient Native ways of survival and living a hunter-gatherer existence and the importance of being connected to the natural world. I have been recommending this book before I even finished it. I listened to the audiobook which is read by the author. 

Skinny Dip

Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen  355 pp.

Marine biologist, Chaz Perrone, is inept at his profession and murdering his wife, Joey. The only thing he's good at is womanizing and since he threw his wife off a cruise ship even that is going wrong. Chaz is so inept at his profession he not only gets the direction of the current wrong, he also forgets Joey is an expert swimmer. She makes her way to a floating bale of marijuana and then floats to an island inhabited by an ex-cop. Together they plot to make Chaz's life miserable before they turn him over to the police for attempted murder. Add in a plot to hide everglades pollution, a large and very hairy bodyguard with a well hidden heart of gold, the crooked head of an agribusiness, more failed murder attempts, and a Florida detective who can't wait to move back to back to Minnesota and you have classic Hiaasen hijinks all the way. There is even a couple of brief appearances by Hiaasen's recurring character "The Captain" aka "Skink." It's not his best but not his worst either--just a fun light and entertaining story.

The Rime of the Modern Mariner by Nick Hayes

The Rime of the Modern Mariner by Nick Hayes, 336 pages.

Well, the art was very good. The poem, and its message, kind of hits you over the head. Repeatedly.
But, by the end, this story of a callous mariner who develops an ecological conscience grew on me.
And the art was really good, though my nine-year-old, who thought I was reading a comic book and came over to look at it, thought the male nudity was "gross."
It really was pretty tame though.

Check our catalog.