I’m old enough to remember when Ed Brenn, the master of plate spinning, used to perform his magic on TV, usually on the Ed Sullivan Show. He’d get four, then six, then nine, then ten plates all spinning at the same time—some balanced on the top of tall slender sticks, others spinning on edge on a tabletop.
That plate-spinning image has become a metaphor for trying to keep lots of simultaneous projects and priorities in focus—or multi-tasking to the extreme.
So far, 2026 has been a wild plate-spinning experience for me! I’ve got so many plates balanced atop sticks! My annual Read Your Way Through Earth Month events are represented by a delicate green-glass plate, one of the Depression glass dessert plates I inherited from my Grandma. My adoption memoir’s first draft manuscript (Strangers in My Blood), due to my editor by Sunday night, is symbolized by a sturdy blue-and-white stoneware dish from my childhood. A bright sunflower-yellow Fiestaware dinner plate stands in for all the social events, birthday celebrations, club gatherings that I love to attend with friends. Daily life, with laundry and cooking and errands, looks like a chipped pottery dish, decorated with hand-painted birds, that was one of the first dishes I bought when I first started adulting. (Notice how I almost avoided mentioning social justice? There’s a plate for that, too.)
And now I’m a grandma to baby Lia. Since her birth nine days ago in Boston, I’ve been walking on air, my head in the clouds. I have now added, in her and her parents’ honor, a fine china plate, with a golden rim and wreath of painted flowers, to the other plates! Can you picture them all spinning atop slender sticks?
It’s finally here! I have been reading books, curating lists, and planning for my annual Earth Month reading extravaganza since early fall. I’ve chosen 30 books, one for each of April’s 30 days, from across genres, finding something for every reader and every nature-lover. Historical fiction, sci-fi or speculative fiction. Mysteries and thrillers. Memoirs and scientific nonfiction. Romance, adventure, and even a children’s book.
Ta-da!
There are two ways to win a book!
First, several of the authors have donated paperback copies of their books to be given away in a random drawing at the end of the month. You can enter to win one of the books (including a copy of my own Force of Nature) by filling out an entry form (a mini-survey format). You can enter to win a book on my website by clicking HERE or on the image above. Or, you can enter by using the QR code in the image above. Winners’ names will be drawn randomly by May 2 and notified by email.
Second, is for Kindle users. I am hosting a Goodreads giveaway of 100 Kindle versions of my book, Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail. You can enter to win an ebook on the Goodreads website by clicking HERE or on the image above. The winners will be chosen at the end of the month.
Rather than one LONG newsletter/blog at the start of the month, for Earth Month only, I’m going to write several shorter newsletters highlighting a week’s worth of the books in the Earth Month calendar of books. #30TitlesEarthMonth
The first week in April is a short one, four days & four books.
One hybrid memoir, one nonfiction, one speculative fiction set far in the future, and one historical fiction. I loved them all for very different reasons.
I chose The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer (author of the best-selling Braiding Sweetgrass) to kick off the month in the prime position of April 1. It’s a quick read, a heartfelt read, an optimistic look at the potential relationships between humans and the natural world. It’s full of hope and beauty.
The Arrogant Ape, a narrative nonfiction by Christine Webb, takes a deep plunge into human history and our relationships with the rest of the world, with all the other creatures who inhabit Earth alongside of us. It’s a serious look at who we are and what we’ve done and what we can do in the future. Another great forward-looking book for the first week.
Susanna Kwan’s futuristic speculative novel Awake in the Floating City takes us to San Francisco after the oceans have risen to inundate coastal cities. She creates a world where the remaining inhabitants, the stubborn ones who refuse to run away, live in the top floors of high-rise buildings, farming on the rooftops, and moving about over bridges spanning from building to building, never touching the ground.
Before Dorothy, written by accomplished historical fiction author Hazel Gaynor, takes a familiar story and turns it upside down. We begin in Kansas, on the homestead and once-thriving farm of Auntie Em and Uncle Henry of The Wizard of Oz fame. The story begins before their orphaned niece Dorothy comes to live with them. Gaynor drops “Easter eggs” throughout this Depression-era Dust Bowl story about a family and a community in the midst of a human-made environmental disaster.
Check out the entire list of #30TitlesEarthMonth on my website. There, you can download a PDF version of the calendar and book list.
I have scheduled several in-person events in my local area to celebrate Earth Month with talks about books and the environment… with games with prizes!
There is also one Virtual Gathering on Zoom scheduled for Earth Day, April 22. I will be joined by other author-storytellers to talk about our books and about the environments we spotlight in our stories. More information next week. Join us!
I love books! I have always loved books! I love my new granddaughter Lia, whom I will meet for the first time next week when I fly to Boston.
As Grandma Joan, I have hit the local bookstores and indulged in buying board books. There are so many to choose from! A dear friend, just gifted this pair of books to me for my Lia. OMG! Perfect for Earth Month, these books hit two of my obsessions: books and national parks. Perfect. Heavenly. There are little sliders to make the sun rise and set, the moon rise, the whale breach, and the fireflies emerge. Be still my heart!
I am eagerly accepting board book suggestions!
The Sacramento Book Festival on Sun, Apr 19, at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in East Sac, promises to a full day of fun for bibliophiles of all ages. I will be there with my books, as will hundreds of other authors.
Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail is available in hard cover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats. It’s also available in Spanish. You can find it (or order it) at your local library. You can find it (or order it) at your local bookstore. And it’s available online at Amazon, Bookshop.org, and BarnesandNoble.com
Thanks for reading It's Dawning on Me! This post is public so feel free to share it.
I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. I donate to Sierra College Food Pantry and/or the Interfaith Food Bank of Auburn.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.