Thirtieth challenge finish of the year.
I started this one in 2024, but with the news cycle of the campaigns and all, I had to put it down; I was just not in a place where I could deal with the topic. (There were a couple of other books that I had to push to the bottom of the pile also for similar reason.)
Once I got back to it (for the 'Climate Fiction' prompt of the challenge), it took FOR. EVER. I read it in ebook form, but the hard cover and paperback both indicated 576 pages; and reviews indicated the font size on those pages was very tiny, so no wonder it took forever to get through. Long. Long. Looooooong Like Moby Dick, it seemed as if the author got paid by the word. Also like Moby Dick, I had to resort to reading a few chapters of it in the morning, and then read other books the rest of the day.
It started out strong with a traumatic fictional heat event that killed millions. But after that, it kind of wandered off course. It jumped around, and the characters weren't really well developed. It gave a TON of scientific information which was over my head. Sometimes I read reviews of books after I finish them just to see what other people thought of them. One review mentioned, "as a story it gets 2 stars, but I added another star for the subject matter." I can completelty agree with that statement.
Thirty-first challenge finish of the year.
As the title indicates, this book IS actually about a feather thief. A young American man who has an obsession with tying fly-fishing lures, burgles a natural history museum in England to obtain a lifetime supply of feathers that are illegal to obtain on the open market due to wildlife conservations laws, and also to sell some of them to raise cash.
Very interesting, and I read it within two days. I kept stumbling over the word 'tiers' which I heard in my head as TEE-ers (like the levels of a structure), but which in this case is pronounced TIE-ers. Turns out that is the preferred spelling for those who tie fly-fishing lures.
Does anyone else stumble over word pronunciations while reading silently? Don't even get me started on unusual name pronunciations! (Dr. Zhivago took me forever to get through.)
Looking forward to reading more of this author's work in the future. He did a good job with the literary non-fiction (blends historical accuracy with compelling narrative). I love authors who do a great job with this genre...Tracy Kidder...Erik Larson...Brian Hicks...to name a few.
I decided not to read The Ministry of the Future as it seemed grim but I do think I read The Feather thief. Glad you enjoyed one of them!
ReplyDeleteI can take grim if it's written well. I thought this one could use better editing to make it more readable.
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