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Naturalist
Naturalist | Alissa York
9 posts | 2 read | 7 to read
1867, Philadelphia. Amateur naturalist Walter Ash is on the brink of setting off to travel up his beloved Amazon when fate intervenes, obliging his only son to take his place. More at ease among his books than in the field, Paul Ash takes a reluctant leave of absence from Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology to accompany his grieving stepmother and her young companion to the fabled River Sea. Paul holds no memory of the place, though he was born there; he was still an infant when his father carried him out of the jungle and away from the mixed-blood family he might have known. As it transpires, however, neither the region nor its people have forgotten Paul. The Amazon lays claim to him in no uncertain terms, but it also works a peculiar magic on both his father's lovely widow and her friend--a quiet little Quaker named Rachel Weaver who proves strangely at home in the wild.
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blurb
Lindy
The Naturalist | Alissa York
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Bingo category - By an author whose last name starts with X, Y or Z. Now that I've read Homegoing, I've got an author's first name (Yaa Gyasi) as well as a last name starting with Y (Alissa York).

quote
Lindy
The Naturalist | Alissa York
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Her eyes are chestnut brown, her gaze curious, vaguely concerned. There's nothing masculine about her curved moustaches and silky beard; if anything, she resembles a whiskery grandmother in a grizzled smock.

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Lindy
The Naturalist | Alissa York
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Any woman might marvel at a feather, but it takes a special turn of mind to appreciate a scale.

review
Lindy
The Naturalist | Alissa York
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Pickpick

1867. Adventurous women in the Amazon. Detailed botanic and fauna descriptions. Life simplified and slowed to the pace of a dugout canoe on water, to the cycle of life and death. Meditative. I felt like I was there, hearing jungle sounds and scratching insect bites.

Lindy Books that came to mind while reading this include: The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf; State of Wonder by Ann Patchett; Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger; Euphoria by Lily King; The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly; and 8y
22 likes2 stack adds1 comment
quote
Lindy
The Naturalist | Alissa York
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In dressing for today's ceremony, I realized my feet had become strangers to my shoes. Having shaken a host of cockroaches from the left, I walked a few pinched paces before stashing the offending articles in my trunk.

quote
Lindy
The Naturalist | Alissa York
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The vines are mighty, the atrium's hothouse varieties mere house cats to these muscular cousins with their split-leaved paws. The garden's scent, too, is part animal, an earthy bewildering funk.

20 likes2 stack adds
blurb
Lindy
The Naturalist | Alissa York
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TBR Tuesday for my two bingo cards.
Gift - Public Library & Other Stories
Sports - Night Work
Manga - Planetes
Essays - Shrill
Author's name starts with Y - The Naturalist

review
KendallMorganHall
Naturalist | Alissa York
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Mehso-so

There is a lot of Portuguese in this book. Some of it is translated, but a lot of it is not, which I found sort of frustrating. It broke up the flow of the reading for me, but I can see why some people would enjoy its authenticity.

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KendallMorganHall
Naturalist | Alissa York
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"The thunderhead hangs low behind them, as though positioned to block their return. Its underside flashes silver -- light like a tree branch, a clap like the world cracking in two." - Alissa York, The Naturalist