Welcome to Litsy!

Otherlands was like watching a series of Nature documentaries moving further and further back in time. I‘m very glad I read this on my Kindle so I could easily look up the strange creatures described, I do wish there were more pictures in the book though.

A history lesson of life on Earth. Though much of this is dense, Halliday does a great job explaining how evolution impacted our planet by highlighting specific organisms who lived throughout time. It‘s truly remarkable how much we‘ve learned about life from fossils. This book would certainly be better suited as a physical read, as much was difficult to grasp as I listened. A great read for #NaturaLitsy readers!

Otherlands reminds me of the recent slew of ultra HD nature documentaries—it‘s beautiful, dense, and full of wonder. Halliday takes us backward in time, using specific fossil sites around the world to give us a better understanding of what the earth was like in past epochs. The prose is fantastic but also very dense, and I‘m not sure an audiobook was the best way to enjoy this; I found it hard to concentrate. Definitely one I will revisit.

Fascinating stuff! This one gave me a delightful case of deep-time vertigo. He recreates various eras of prehistoric life on Earth, through the fossil record, going right back to the stromatolites. My dino-nerd self loved it (though how could he talk about the Permian without featuring dimetrodons?! 😉). I just wish there were more of the grey-scale illustrations that open each chapter, so as to better imagine the creatures that were new to me.

And on long list for nonfiction prize: https://lithub.com/heres-the-longlist-for-the-2022-baillie-gifford-prize-for-non...

Tagged book is a library hold that came in so I‘ll definitely be reading it for April #bookspinbingo.

Otherlands takes the reader on a journey back through time over 500 million years. The reader feels as if they have been whisked away in a time machine & deposited in the different time periods. It could get academic in parts, & I was glad I read it on an e-reader as it was handy to be able to look up the many terms I was unfamiliar with. 4🌟

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Allen Lane / Penguin Press UK, for the opportunity to read an ARC.