book burn

"Although having a girlfriend or wife didn't exempt some of the men from being assholes, they were usually more comfortable with me"

That's a quote from a book I'm currently reading. [Hotshot: A life on Fire]. It's a memoir written by a woman who'd worked several seasons as a wildland firefighter. (Note: they currently identify as nonbinary, but during the firefighting days, "they" was "she").

I'd originally picked up the book for tips on building trails and managing the surroundings at our boonie property, but it's interesting learning her experiences in such a physically grueling, male-dominated job. I purposely chose a book written by a female author for those latter reasons. 

It's also interesting to me since we live in a state that gets its share of wildfires. In fact, our new property is in recovery mode from a 2012 fire. The book isn't just memoir, it gets into ecology and pros and cons of wildfires. I'm learning stuff.

It also marks my 26th book of the year. Recall I'd set a goal to read 26 books in 2026, and I'm ahead of the pace. Here are the books I've completed since my last update in April. Recognize any?

 

Goodreads profile pic

I will note that none of these scream "Favorite book of the year!" for me. They were all fiction except for "Eager" and "Cheap Land Colorado.

For the most part, I liked all of them well enough or I wouldn't have finished them. But they're quite a mix. "Bunny" is super weird, for lack of a better term. The two books by Emily Austin deal with pretty flawed main characters and read like a series of random journal entries. Some readers don't like that, but heck, I read blogs, so that works okay for me.

Whacha readin'?