Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape | 
pickA brilliant read that demonstrates the power of nature and how even after we have caused inexplicable and horrifying damage to an environment, there is hope that nature and new life can return. A very well written book that had me hooked from the first page.
pickJuly was my catch-up month for #NaturaLitsy reads! Another great book about the impact of humans on the earth. Though flora and fauna will retake their place after humans have built, then abandoned spaces, changes occur that cannot be undone and there will come a point where we‘ve gone too far. Exploring reclaimed landscapes all over the globe, Flyn excellently illustrates a topic with a particular place as the example. A fascinating read.
pick#naturalitsy read this in May or June- and I Finally finished it- 6 hours on Planes was all i needed to ficus and have time 🤣 This book is a combination- warning, hope, horror, compassion, disgust, fortitude. I‘m so glad i read it, and i wish high school and college students would read this in order to understand that Voting for leaders who believe in a safer healthier earth is imperative.
pickFeral cattle, slag heaps, exotics out of bounds, barren earth for 100 years - what happens when humans abandon a site that has been heavily used? Journalist Cal Flynn gives us a glimpse of various places around the world. None have come back to what they were before we were there, but many have regrown and diversified. #Naturalitsy
# @AllDebooks
pickFinished awhile ago, late to post a review. This #naturalitsy choice was one that had been on my TBR list for a long time. It was far more poetic and thought-provoking than I expected. I enjoyed the breadth of “abandoned“ places she includes, from Chernoybl, volcanic landscapes, mining sites, a New Jersey industrial site.
pickWhat a book. This book had me thinking both while I was reading it and now afterwards.
Flyn has traveled to different places on earth where humans have left and seen how nature deals with that, and generally nature does better without us.
Vernonin France, Amani in Tanzania, Swona outside Scotland and Plymout on Montserrat are particularly places I will remember.
A must read for everyone.
pick#Naturalitsy
This is a heart-aching, poignant book on the impact we have on our environment through disasters, both man-made and natural. A hard look in the mirror of what life on earth would be like if humans disappeared and nature is left to work its magic.
Highly recommended 👌
#Naturalitsy
The final discussion thread for Islands of abandonment.
I found this book and Flyn's narrative quite poignant.
How did it make you feel?
Rather than tag you all again, check my next post for July's reading schedule. 😊
https://litsy.com/p/V0IwQ3preTZO
pickThis book is about how we destroy the world and how nature gets creative rebuilding it. It's also very similar to the TV show Mysteries of the Abandoned.
#Naturalitsy @AllDebooks #NaturalitsyBingo #rewilding
#Naturalitsy
How is it our last week already? This month has flown by!
Discussion thread for Part IV will be on Saturday. Have a fab week x
I enjoyed reading this one with amazing #naturalitsy group. I went for hiking to this beautiful place . It was previously owned by a mining company, which was closed in 2006 to conserve nature. Now it is a part of reserve forest, with restricted entry and open only for hiking. It is a UNESCO heritage site. I just finished the tagged book , will write review after the discussion with my fellow littens. A spl thanks to @AllDebooks
I think I read more from the library - I restrict purchases to books the library doesn't have and/or ones I think I'll want to reread. Also, it restrains the book clutter at home 🌝🌞🥤🌈
#Naturalitsy
Discussion thread- week 3
What are your thoughts? I find this a difficult read facing all the damage and harm the human race has done. However, there is hope that the world can bounce back without us. Another lesson to let mother nature do her thing, maybe?
Do let me know if you wish to be added/removed from the taglist. All welcome to join.
A few miles north, off the coast of Staten Island, lies Shooter's Island. Once an oil refinery and shipyard - it has been abandoned now for nearly a century. . . .
Now owned by the Audubon Society . . . satellite images show it bosky, densely vegetated, and untrodden with paths. . .
See also https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Shooters_Island
#Naturalitsy
Reading schedule for week 3 - Part III - The long shadow. I'll post the discussion thread on Saturday
On impulse my husband and I just bought a houseboat on Priest Lake, Idaho. A unique oppportunity…we canoes by and 3 days later…we have a houseboat! Perfect place to catch up on my #naturalitsy read! We‘ve named the boat Latibulum. #BlameitonLitsy #weirdwords. A word that came too my attention thanks to @CBee The noun for verb latibulate, meaning to hide from cares, worries, responsibilities, say in a corner of a room. Or on a houseboat!
#Naturalitsy
Week 2 - Part II discussion thread.
Are you still enjoying the writing style?
Likes/dislikes
I still haven't started the book yet. I have it... you know... life... Anyway, I saw this article and “assume“ it might be relevant.
https://theconversation.com/if-humans-went-extinct-what-would-the-earth-look-lik...
#NaturalLitsy
@AlldeBooks
#Naturalitsy
This week's reading reminder. Have a great week x
#Naturalitsy
Our 1st weekly discussion for Cal Flyn's Islands of abandonment.
*Do you like the author's style and content?
*Likes/dislikes
All welcome to join in. Please do let me know if you wish to be added/removed from the taglist.
Kids swim lessons = uninterrupted reading time #naturalitsy
repost @Alldebooks #Naturalitsy
Our June #Buddyread reading schedule for Islands of abandonment. Discussion thread will be posted on Saturday.
All welcome to join in. Please do let me know if you wish to be added/removed from the taglist.
#Naturalitsy
Our June #Buddyread reading schedule for Islands of abandonment. Discussion thread will be posted on Saturday.
All welcome to join in. Please do let me know if you wish to be added/removed from the taglist.
@LitsyEvents
#Naturalitsy
I will post a reading schedule tonight. It's the last day of my holiday and I am travelling home later this afternoon. 🌞
Pic - Little house on the bridge, Ambleside, Cumbria
It is cool in the tunnels, not cold as it was outside.
Last line: It may already have begun; the enemy may already be inside the walls. But we must find faith enough to fight. For in one hour is thy judgement come.
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
. . . knowledge deepens appreciation. Leopold saw a marsh, veiled in a thin gauze of mist. . . and saw not only this, but the history of the cranes and all their evolutionary predecessors. . . he held to his eyes like binoculars an understanding of how this momentary pastoral scene formed a necessary component to, or a synecdoche of, a greater, wondrous whole.
repost for @AllDebooks:
#Naturalitsy #buddyread
Our winner is Cal Flyn's amazing prize-winning book, Islands of abandonment - Life in the post-human landscape.
Thank you all for your participation and enthusiasm. As you can see, it was a very close run race. We'll start on Monday 5th June, to give a little longer to source your copies. I'm happy to extend into July if needed.
All welcome to join in.
#Naturalitsy #buddyread
Our winner is Cal Flyn's amazing prize-winning book, Islands of abandonment - Life in the post-human landscape.
Thank you all for your participation and enthusiasm. As you can see, it was a very close run race. No doubt more groaning tbr bookshelves, if you're anything like me.
We'll start on Monday 5th June, to give a little longer to source your copies. I'm happy to extend into July if needed. ⬇️⬇️
@LitsyEvents
pick“Absence of man is often all the stimulus required to restart the resurrection.”
This was a compelling look at the amazing healing and regeneration of the natural world that takes place when humans are out of the way. Flyn examines several landscapes that humans have been forced to abandon due to natural disasters, war, disease, etc. A strong and hopeful case for rewilding.
#NaturaLitsyBingo2023 #RegenerationRewilding
pickIt‘s taken me a while to get through this one as it was quite dense but it was an incredibly thought provoking read
Taking you to places which humans have abandoned for one reason or another this describes how nature takes over when humans are not around to destroy everything.
It left me hopeful of a better future for the planet
A must read!
“Fifteen miles south west of Edinburgh, a knuckled red fist rises from a soft green landscape: five peaks of rose-gold gravel stand bound together by grass and moss, like a Martian mountain range or earthworks on the grandest of scales. They are spoil heaps.”
#NaturaLitsy
Some great reads listed here, including our next book, Braiding Sweetgrass. The tagged book is in my top 10 books of the year.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/28/top-10-nature-memoirs-sarah-thomas...
pickCal Flyn explores places that have been abandoned by humans (for various reasons) and what has happened to them in the intervening years. This is both a fascinating and hopeful book. If you find yourself a bit paralyzed by climate change, this is a good one to read.
Just started on audio on this morning‘s walk. It‘s about the wreckage we humans leave behind on the earth and how wildlife finds refuge in such places. This was an impulse audible buy, and I‘m so glad I got it. ..Very interesting, and the author narrates in a beautiful healing voice 👍🏻💫
pickThis was my nonfiction book for February and I just finished today. It is really fascinating subject and the author has put a lot of research into all this abandoned places.
Today's reading
pickI almost didn‘t buy this book and oh boy, what a loss it would have been. Poignant, evocative, wise, and sharing things about well-renowned places, or on the contrary bringing to light new places, this book is a meaningful exploration of human impact on environment. But it is also a wonderful exploration of nature‘s resilience and resistance. What a treat this book has been!
I heard some of this read on Radio 4 and it was fascinating
Lately I have been buying some nonfiction books. I look forward to them all, in February will start with the tagged book.
My #December #12BooksOf2021 took me to abandoned places all over the world. This is a fascinating look, as well as a sobering reminder of how humans affect the environment. Whether it is due to war, human disasters, natural disasters, or another reason, each abandoned area tells a story, and Flyn beautifully tells the stories of those abandoned areas she visited.
pickThis book was beautifully written. The author travels to twelve different places that have been dramatically changed by humans. In some places, life is thriving. In others, it is poisoned and changed beyond aid. A haunting look at what can happen when we can‘t…stop. A quote from the film The Day the Earth Stood Still: ‘if the earth dies, you die. If you die, the earth survives.‘ That is, unless we change this endless cycle of destruction.
Again—this latency of life. It drifts around us all the time, invisible, like an ether. It‘s in the air we breathe, the water we drink. Savor it: each breath, each sip, is thick with potential. In this cup of nothing is the germ of everything.
Shown: Minnehaha Falls, Tiger, GA
pickFlyn visits twelve locations in the world that have been abandoned for one reason or another and examines the way the ecological system at each location has been impacted. Written with beautiful pose and reflection, Flyn paints a portrait of both devastation and a tiny bit of light and hope in some aspects. It‘s a good primer on the calamities in the world, how humanity affects the ecological system, and what we can do to help solve the problem.
pickCal Flyn visited sites all over the world where humans have left, for one reason or another, and nature is in different ways creeping back in.
Some high points- endangered sheep coming back from the brink in demilitarized Cyprus, pupfish in the Californian Salten Sea able to survive in water hotter and saltier than any other species, types of lichen which may be able to absorb heavy metals from contaminated war zone in Verdun, France.
“I remind myself: if one goes in search of nature in its wildest forms, you shouldn‘t expect it will be pleased to see you.”
The author visited Swona, Scotland, a small island off the tip of northernmost mainland Scotland. It was abandoned in the mid 1970‘s, and the cattle and rabbits raised there were turned loose and have rewilded. Flyn found herself attacked or threatened by Arctic Terns, seals, cattle, and Great Skuas.
This is the location⬇️
It definitely would have been nice to spend the whole day like this, but alas, I had to go to work. I‘ll be back to Venkman and this book in a little bit. Snuggle to be continued.
Yes! I‘m looking forward to both my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin, and they both fit well for this month‘s topics bookclub: “Something You‘ve Obsessed About.”
Islands of Abandonment is about areas that people have moved out of and how nature is moving back in, which is something I‘ve spent a ton of time thinking about.
Kicked, Bitten, Scratched is my life as an animal caretaker. I‘ve done many animal jobs, currently a dog groomer. 🐕🐩🦮
