Adventures in Volcanoland by Tamsin Mather

TL;DR: While this one wasn’t entirely for me, I do think there is a lot to be gained for people who are interested.
Source: NetGalley via the publisher, thank you!

Structure: This one is billed as part memoir, which I don’t think is accurate. It’s more a study of the different volcanic events. It does flow well though.
Science: She made this fairly easy to read and visualize so it’s not too off-putting or challenging
Locations: For me this was the best part. She visits and talks about a lot of different volcanos and even looks at what we know of volcanos on other planets!

Thoughts:

This is one I struggled with and it had absolutely nothing to do with the book itself. I have some very specific phobias, and I didn’t know until now that volcanos are in that list. Now, as I’m someone who forces myself to face my fears when possible I did finish this one, but I did need to skim on some sections. A good chunk of the beginning really did cause me to put the book down. What I read I found interesting, from the way the plume forms to how high rocks and debris can fall from the top of the plume – terrifying. The middle to half I was able to dial in more and enjoyed a great deal of it.

The author uses her travels as a way to explain and look at different aspects of volcanos. She does this very well and the places she goes to are varied and diverse. My favorite was probably Atacama. The way she described it and referenced other literature about the place to enforce it’s beauty was lovely. My favorite portions by far were her looks at what volcanos might be like on other planets. That was absolutely fascinating and something I’d not given any thought to previously.

If you love volcanos and geology I’d really recommend this one. Even though I’m not putting a rating on it and I found the first part hard (again, all on me) I found so much to learn in the book that I’ll likely revisit it in the future as I work on this particular fear. Pick it up if you’re interested.