In the seclusion of the pandemic many of us have more time and silence to pay attention to detail, especially in books. With the natural world having a rest from all our fossil fuels, it is timely to read books written about our bond with nature, including the nature of our human selves.

I always have a hefty pile of books to read and, madly, agreed to be part of a book club with my university colleagues to help us all feel some camaraderie during isolation. My contribution to our list was an early Margaret Atwood novel, The Edible Woman, which connects to my interest in female embodiment. I haven’t read it yet, but I’m excited to get into it. I explored the female experience in Fauna through a mother carrying a genetically altered child and have been reading another view on the female body from Erin Hortle in her novel, The Octopus and I.