The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger

Progress: 199 of 304 pages

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Award-winning environment and science reporter Zoë Schlanger delivers a groundbreaking work of popular science that probes the hidden world of the plant kingdom and reveals the astonishing capabilities of the green life all around us. It takes tremendous biological creativity to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. In recent years, scientists have learned about their ability to communicate, recognize their kin and behave socially, hear sounds, morph their bodies to blend into their surroundings, store useful memories that inform their life cycle, and trick animals into behaving to their benefit, to name just a few remarkable talents.

The Light Eaters is a deep immersion into the drama of green life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence. In looking closely, we see that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing and make its way toward it? Zoë Schlanger takes us across the globe, digging into her own memories and into the soil with the scientists who have spent their waking days studying these amazing entities up close.

What can we learn about life on Earth from the living things that thrive, adapt, consume, and accommodate simultaneously? More important, what do we owe these life forms once we come to understand their rich and varied abilities? Examining the latest epiphanies in botanical research, Schlanger spotlights the intellectual struggles among the researchers conceiving a wholly new view of their subject, offering a glimpse of a field in turmoil as plant scientists debate the tenets of ongoing discoveries and how they influence our understanding of what a plant is.

We need plants to survive. But what do they need us for—if at all? An eye-opening and informative look at the ecosystem we live in, this book challenges us to rethink the role of plants—and our own place—in the natural world.

How it’s going:

Apparently I did not lose access to this book on my Nook. The library copy is gone, but it remains on my separate device. So that’s a benefit because he wait list is long to get it again. I really am loving this book. It reveals the potential for a much more complex web of life than we ever thought existed. Animals wouldn’t exist without plants, humans wouldn’t either. Prior to plants making their way out of the ocean the atmosphere was toxic to anything living. It was plants inhaling all those toxic chemicals and exhaling oxygen that made the atmosphere habitable. Without plants we never would have left the ocean. We couldn’t have. And so human evolution has been intrinsically intertwined with plan evolution ever since. But we are also just beginning to understand all the amazing things that plants can do. Right now I’m reading about a vine in the rainforest of Chile that can alter its leaves to camouflage itself and resemble the plant that it is growing next to. At first they thought that the vine was genetically recognizing the other plant’s structure through bacteria exchange. But then they found that this plant could mimic the leaves of plastic plants…so there would be no bacteria to exchange. So, how does it do it? Scientists still have no idea. They have a few theories but they don’t actually know. Maybe someday we will.

The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean

Progress: 60% of 10 hours

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life is turned upside down when she gets the call Ellie Black, a girl who disappeared years earlier, has resurfaced in the woods of Washington state—but Ellie’s reappearance leaves Chelsey with more questions than answers.

It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.

Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.

But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.

The debut thriller from New York Times bestselling author Emiko Jean, The Return of Ellie Black is both a feminist tour de force about the embers of hope that burn in the aftermath of tragedy and a twisty page-turner that will shock and surprise you right up until the final page.

How it’s going:

This is my audiobook for the week. So far it’s been very good. It has a slower plot than a lot of thrillers, which I like. I’m also enjoying the full cast of voices for the audiobook, it helps keep the different narrators straight. This book seems to be slowly leading me to the conclusion and engrossing me in the characters on our journey. It’s a character study almost. And a societal commentary also. This book isn’t just about Ellie Black, it’s about how society treats and views missing and kidnapped girls and women. I am enjoying this journey very much so far.