Rainbow Shelf: 5 Green Books
The green shelf marks halfway through the rainbow (see the red, orange, and yellow shelves). Green also happens to be my favorite color, and I could not resist adding two of my little green dragon friends to the shelf picture.
I did not choose any dragon books for my 5 Green Books, but I think they are good choices nonetheless.
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1.
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean
Genre: Non-Fiction, Science
The periodic table of elements may remind you of high school chemistry class (a potential scene for some disappointing memories), but this book has fun with all the fascinating and funny historical tidbits surrounding the periodic table. Chemists and physicists have been having fun with science for centuries, but this brook brings it down to understandable level for the average lay person – no complex science background necessary!
Anytime a book that makes science more approachable and isn’t afraid to laugh at itself comes out I have to put it on my list.
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2.
The Pirates of Pacta Servanda by Jack Campbell
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy
This particular book is fourth in the series, but it quite the series. For this particular set of works I will plug the audio book over the written. I believe this series was written to be an audio book first and foremost. There are some minor typos scattered throughout the printed books, but the whole series is so much fun!
The setting is rather steampunk with some magic thrown in and you follow two primary characters as their paths intersect. One is a member of the Mages Guild, the other a member of the Mechanics Guild, two Guild that are at each others throats. That does not stop these two for long.
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3.
The Emerald Circus by Jane Yolen
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Short Stories
Jane Yolen puts a modern twist on childhood classics and fairy tales like Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Peter Pan. The summary teases a labor strike against the Lost Boys, a Jabberwock with a sense of humor, and Dorothy coming back to Kansas with impressive gymnastics skills.
I love short stories, and I love fairy tale retelling so this collection of sixteen stories seems like a shoe-in for me. I am even curious to read the Introduction.
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4.
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Genre: Fiction, Children’s, Poetry
“Once there was a tree…and she loved a little boy.”
The Giving Tree is a nostalgic book for me. It is one of the first books I remember being read to me, and also one of the first books that made me both sad and angry. The ‘See Spot Run’ books didn’t have quite the same impact.
Even re-reading this as an adult sends me into a spiral of thinking about love, sacrifice, and the gifts we choose to give versus the tings that are taken from us. This is a true ‘for all ages’ book.
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5.
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
Genre: Non-Fiction, Essays, Memoir
Essays about books are one of the best types of essays in existence in my personal opinion. However, as you are reading this on a book blog you are well aware that I do hold a certain level of bias.
One of the common themes that appear in first person book essays that amused me greatly was the ‘merging of the libraries’. Fadiman called it the ‘Marriage of the Books’. It brings me joy to read the perspective of someone else who loves books just as much as I do, even if it is not loving books in the exact same way.
List of my green books that you can see on the shelf above:
The Lore of the Unicorn by Odell Shepard Storm Thief by Chris Wooding The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. KirbyPeter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry & Ridley PearsonGreat Folk Tales of Old Ireland by Mary McGarryThe Sky Observer’s Guide by Mayall, Mayall, and WyckoffThe Hatred of Poetry by Ben LernerFangirl by Rainbow RowellQuidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp AKA J.K. RowlingThe Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard PyleDragonWorld by Pamela WissmanThe Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde Kings or People by Reinhard BendixLovecraft Short Stories by H. P. Lovecraft Literatures of Madness edited by Elizabeth J. DonaldsonThe Drunken Botanist by Amy StewartThe Outstretched Shadow by Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory
