What is Botanyspeaking reading?

Mountains beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

An amazing true story about Dr. Paul Farmer who took on multidrug resistant TB, first in Haiti, then Peru and world-wide. Having read Strength in What Remains, and loving it, I found Mountains a bit slow at first, but now I am being enlightened by the life of “Dr. Paul”. If only to be able to adhere to Matthew 25 as he does, just a little…

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood.

I’ve been reading it in spurts so I’m actually having a hard time keeping up with the characters. This may have something to do with my going back school full-time after a 16 year hiatis- it’s much harder than I expected. Anyway, The Year of the Flood is a dystopian future narrative which I was lead to believe had something to do with scientists tinkering with nature. There is a prequel, Oryx and Crake which I intend to read next. I chose it because I heard an interview with Atwood on NPR’s Science Friday. It’s part of my quest to decide how I feel about genetic engineering our foodstuffs. Having engineered a plant or two myself, for purposes of virus resistance, I’ve tried to be on the pro-biotech side- but I’m wavering. The Year of the Flood is not scientifically based, so I cannot debate their science. I’ll let you know how I feel after finishing the book.

Got through The Year of the Flood and then read Oryx and Crake,

the original book in the 2 part series. I enjoyed Oryx and Crake because I knew what was going on having read The Year of the Flood First. Next I launched into another dystopian future series of 3 books called the hunger games series, culminating in MockingJay by Suzanne Collins. Both the Collins and Atwood books hold a dim view of a future ruined by human intervention with genetic modification of animals. There are no genetically modified animals released, unregulated in the world yet, but Aqua advantage has  modified a Salmon species for faster growth. The controversy over this is enormous.

Slumdog Millionaire:

I took advantage of the sad closing of my closest bookstore, Borders, and stocked up books in what they dubbed the “literature section.” This is an interesting light fairy tale like book. I recommend it to anyone seeking a quick read with the extra a benefit of literary journey to India.