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A review by zoe_
The Arbornaut: A Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us by Meg Lowman
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
The Arbornaut is the type of book I wish I could have read when I was a child. Me as a child was "weird" (whatever that even means) enough that I would have probably eaten it up and carried this book in my heart for the rest of my life. I am glad for all children that are now able to read it, though it is too late for me.
From my perspective as an adult who has read my fair share of books about plants written by scientists and others and who will continue reading such books, this was an easy win but not a stand-out. Lowman is very determined to teach the reader a couple of core messages: she wants equal opportunities for all, she wants us to have a more sustainable relationship with the environment, she wants to find out more about the world. All of those are great messages that I would support in all the ways she outlines. However, the heavy focus on these as well as a lack of common thread in the second half of the book (the first half is, basically, an autobiography but this seemingly stops about halfway through) result in a somewhat repetitive reading experience. For that reason, I would recommend reading this book chapter by chapter with some breaks in-between.
I've said it before, but I'm not a fan of memoirs and (auto)biographies, so I actually struggled a little bit with the first half of the book as well, resulting in the lack of enthusiasm (combined with the repetitiveness of the later chapters) leading to me rating this book "really liked it" instead of giving this more stars. Again, I think if I hadn't read so many books in my life, I think I would have loved this and I think this has the potential to inspire many future scientists, but from my current point of view I have not fallen in love with the Arbornaut. All of this is just to say that I would still highly recommend this book. I think it is a worthwhile read, and I think Lowman did a great job communicating not only those core issues but also many other interesting facts and anecdotes about trees and nature in general (including humans, including herself).
From my perspective as an adult who has read my fair share of books about plants written by scientists and others and who will continue reading such books, this was an easy win but not a stand-out. Lowman is very determined to teach the reader a couple of core messages: she wants equal opportunities for all, she wants us to have a more sustainable relationship with the environment, she wants to find out more about the world. All of those are great messages that I would support in all the ways she outlines. However, the heavy focus on these as well as a lack of common thread in the second half of the book (the first half is, basically, an autobiography but this seemingly stops about halfway through) result in a somewhat repetitive reading experience. For that reason, I would recommend reading this book chapter by chapter with some breaks in-between.
I've said it before, but I'm not a fan of memoirs and (auto)biographies, so I actually struggled a little bit with the first half of the book as well, resulting in the lack of enthusiasm (combined with the repetitiveness of the later chapters) leading to me rating this book "really liked it" instead of giving this more stars. Again, I think if I hadn't read so many books in my life, I think I would have loved this and I think this has the potential to inspire many future scientists, but from my current point of view I have not fallen in love with the Arbornaut. All of this is just to say that I would still highly recommend this book. I think it is a worthwhile read, and I think Lowman did a great job communicating not only those core issues but also many other interesting facts and anecdotes about trees and nature in general (including humans, including herself).