Welcome to Litsy!

The book that inspired a slump, through no fault of its own, but I had to present this to a group and I was so preoccupied by the presentation I couldn‘t read otherwise! An excellent read about our oceans, the creatures in them, how humans have and are causing distraction, what has been done to reverse the damage, and what we can do moving forward. I loved Scales‘ writing—blending personal stories and data. A real winner from the Women‘s Prize.

I don't usually pick up books about the environment, but this was a fascinating look at our changing oceans.

A thanks to the Women's Prize for NF as I wouldn't have picked it up otherwise!

...efforts are already underway to clean up the plastic debris floating in the ocean. The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit organisation, was founded in 2013 by a then-teenage entrepreneur, Boylan Slat, from the Netherlands. Outraged by disastrous plastic pollution... began sending out ships towing U-shaped barriers to skim floating plastic from the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch....
https://theoceancleanup.com/

Elsewhere, coral species are gathered up, and their cells, sperm, and eggs are frozen. It's a similar scheme to seed banks, which aim to preserve all the world's plants, so people in the future can use them to breed the crops they need or replant species that are lost from the wild. Coral DNA is also being sequenced and archived to preserve the genetic codes that would be lost forever if those species went extinct.

The puffadder shyshark lives on coasts around the tip of South Africa. They are small and slender, brown with rusty orange saddles resembling the markings on their namesake, the puffadder snake. When disturbed, these sharks curl up in a tight circle and hide their eyes with their tails....
😍
(Also known as Happy Eddie...
https://saveourseas.com/worldofsharks/species/puffadder-shyshark)

If corporations and governments do nothing to decelerate the climate crisis, emperor penguins will dwindle within the lifetime of human babies now being born. Not long after 2100, the species will most likely be extinct-if not sooner. But this is not an unstoppa-ble fate for these giant, ice-walking birds. There is still a chance to prevent them from becoming little more than memories of a species that people knowingly allowed to disappear.

Here‘s my review for this book I read for the #naturalitsy buddy read. This was the January book.

#naturalitsy

Here‘s my progress on other books I‘m #currentlyreading.

Sherlock Holmes: I‘m caught up on the #noplacelikeholmes buddy read.

Assassin‘s Apprentice: I have 5 hours left in the audiobook I‘m reading for the #realmofelderlings buddy read. I haven‘t read any more of this book.

What The Wild Sea Can Be: I‘m reading this book for the #naturalitsy buddy read. I have 9 hours left in the audiobook. I haven‘t read any more of this book.

I‘m still reading the tagged book but I found out about this webinar that was hosted on Zoom recently and I registered for it but I didn‘t get to watch it live. It‘s about the ocean and deep sea imaging. The webinar was posted on YouTube. I just watched it and I found it very interesting. If you‘re interested in watching it too, here‘s a link to it: https://www.youtube.com/live/6Xp_zikdUfQ?si=sqIFVRJ8v9VbUU5b

#naturalitsy

Here‘s my progress on this book for the #naturalitsy buddy read. It‘s interesting but she‘s using a lot of scientific words that I don‘t understand. I feel like I need Cliff Notes to understand what she‘s talking about but when she‘s not using scientific words, I understand what she‘s talking about. I‘ve never read a book by a marine biologist. I will keep going with this though.

I decided to start this book for the #naturalitsy buddy read. I bought this audiobook with a credit I got this month with my Libro FM membership. I‘m not very far into this book but I like it. It‘s interesting so far.

I loved this one.

Scales looks at how the modern human is affecting the wild life in the seas, and looking especially at emperor penguins, sharks and orcas. She also looks at kelps and reefs, and makes it obvious how connected everything is and how even small interferences by humans can cause great destruction to the sea

Very interesting and informative, but a bit technical at times.

The TL;DR summary:
People are the worst. We destroy everything with our greed and short sightedness. But not all is lost, and some people are doing awesome things. To save the oceans (and our future) we need to work together globally, but also give the local people of each area a say. And we need to cut carbon emissions. By a lot. Immediately.

#WomensPrizeNF #shortlist

Step 1 - Get the governments of poor countries to sell you fishing quotas for a steal
Step 2 - Overfish their waters, wreak their coastline, and destroy the natural habitats of the area
Step 3 - When the impoverished former local fishermen of the area risk their lives getting to Europe in search for work, call them "economic refugees" and "illegal migrants" and deny them entry.

??

The matriarch remains the head of the family into her old age, at eighty, ninety, even a hundred years old and way past her menopause; orcas are one of only five animal species in which females are known to outlive their fertility. * Grandmother orcas are the wise elders, keepers of expert knowledge of where to hunt, and they call other members of the pod to them with a splash of their tail.

*The others are short-finned pilot whales, belugas,

Something to think about

When sharks and rays are finally ready to begin reproducing, things still happen at a slow pace. Female sharks are typically pregnant for a year of more; short fin makos give birth after a year and a half, basking sharks after two and a half. Female greeneye spurdogs, […], are pregnant for between thirty-one and thirty-four months, one of the longest recorded gestations of any animal.
[…]
Except now, of course: Humans are changing the rules, and

Each female produces a single egg, […] She quickly transfers it to her partner, and he balances it on his feet to keep it off the ice […] During storms, the males huddle together to preserve body heat, and their feathers are so good at keeping them warm that now and then they break apart and steam, as if they‘d just stepped out of a sauna. While the fasting males wait out the winter with nothing to eat on the empty ice, they run down their fat

Wintertime temperatures in Antarctica plunge to - sixty degrees Celsius. The lowest temperature ever recorded on the earth‘s surface -89,2 degrees Celsius, was made in the heart of winter in July 1983 at a research base toughly halfway between Antarctica‘s coast and the South Pole.
[…]
Most living organisms simply could not exist in Antartica‘s winter, especially out of the sea and on the exposed ice. But this is where one species comes each

I joined the #naturalitsy buddy read but I haven‘t read any of the books for it yet. I‘m disappointed. I was hoping to read some of the books for the buddy read this month but I‘m not going to get around to it this month. Maybe I‘ll have time next month to catch up with the buddy read. These books are all about nature and I love anything to do with nature.

#wpnf25

#atozultimatechallenge #a #aqua @AudiobookingWithLeah

#52bookclub25 #nonhumanantagonist (climate change)

Oh no. Everyone loves this and I am struggling. This is taking me back to college where to get my chem degree I had to take some geology and biology classes and was bored outta my mind. I do love that she is using the Māori word Aotearoa for what we call New Zealand.
I hope I can get more interested in this as we go along but 2 chapters in and so far, not so good

Book 11 from the #wpnf25 longlist.

All about what damage humankind is doing to the oceans, and thus to global ecological structures, this was alternately depressing and slightly hopeful.

This is one occasion where the author reading their own book really worked - you could hear her passion and enthusiasm shining through.

I‘ve read Scales before and liked her, so I was happy to see this in the #WPNF25 list. It shows the havoc we have and continue to wreak upon the oceans, but also gives a little hope for some of the things we‘re doing that‘s helping to slow and fix the damage. Excellent read.

I can‘t imagine I‘d pick this up if not for the women‘s prize but I really liked it! I learned a lot about ocean life (past & present), how much effects ocean life like climate change and overfishing and how all of those things have an effect on the way ocean life thrives (or doesn‘t). The bit about emperor penguins though 😢 it‘s very accessible and she writes with hope but also a real sense of urgency. It will stick with me. #wpnf25

#NaturaLitsy January's #buddyread discussion thread.

🌊 Did you enjoy the author's style?
🌊 What stood out for you?
🌊 Did you find the tone optimistic about the future?

All are welcome to join us. Please let me know if you wish to be added/removed from the taglist list.

🦉🐦‍⬛🦃Next up - Ten birds that changed the world. https://litsy.com/p/NGNZWXBVZllk

Great pick for #Naturalitsy @AllDebooks

I loved this well researched audiobook. The author read it herself and you can hear the emotion in her voice when she talks about the ocean. I grew up near the coast in Massachusetts and this made me so homesick. Must get back to see the ocean soon.

I am finally reading this book-I grew up going to the Connecticut shores in summer like my Dad before me, while my mom was born at the shore in Saybrook CT- then we discovered Cape Cod when I was 11 & never went back-I feel strongly, almost genetically, that I am the sea & the sea is in me- it is the place where I feel totally connected & at peace with the world. #naturalitsy

5✨It is well written, has a plethora of examples, and the author is obviously a leading mind in this field. I did the audiobook read by the author making an even better story. Very well done and informative. #NaturalLitsy @AllDebooks

Plans for my #hyggehour #readathon #litsolace #midwintersolace #naturalitsy
My plans tonight: The book, tea, my reading corner, & my Em on my knees. Bliss.

My January #BookSpinBingo list is chockful of 14 #buddyreads 😅🫣
The rest of the list is made up of ARCs, tbr, and library books.
#NaturaLitsy #MidwinterSolace #VirginiaBloomsberries #BookedInTime #Pemberlittens #Hashtagbrigade #AuthorAMonth #WithTheBanned #LiteraryCrew #RiseUp #WhatTheDickens #LitsyBookclub

@TheAromaofBooks

repost for @AllDebooks:

#NaturaLitsy

Our first read of the year is a discourse on the future of our oceans from an experienced marine biologist, Helen Scales.

https://helenscales.com/portfolio/what-the-wild-sea-can-be/

All are welcome to join us. Please let me know if you wish to be added/removed from the taglist.

#NaturaLitsy

Our first read of the year is a discourse on the future of our oceans from an experienced marine biologist, Helen Scales.

https://helenscales.com/portfolio/what-the-wild-sea-can-be/

All are welcome to join us. Please let me know if you wish to be added/removed from the taglist.

@LitsyEvents