Recently Read: Strange Harvests by Edward Posnett

Greetings friends and welcome to Recently Read ™, a brand-new subset of me providing my unasked for opinions to you good citizens of the internet, in which I’ll provide thumbnail sketches of what I’ve been reading recently and do my part to combat the current literacy crisis by hopefully encouraging you all to pick up a book or two.

For my first foray into book reviewing I’d like to highlight Edward Posnett’s Strange Harvests (2019), a fascinating little volume that I picked up for the princely sum of 25 cents from my local library’s discard shelf. In this book, Posnett explores the collection, processing, and use of rare materials including edible bird’s nests, felid feces, and sea-bird feathers, as well as the social and political processes that surround and impact their global dissemination. On one level it’s an extremely entertaining adventure story that details the often epic harvesting processes for these materials, while on the other providing a sobering portrait of how the hungers of an affluent few have wreaked havoc on the homes and traditional lives of the many.

Recommended for those who enjoy reading about: social issues, natural science, adventure and travel, animals and plants, and global cultures