A stunning book, patient and aware. "A bone-deep identification with the place of one's origin can be almost as strong in some humans as it is in animals and birds." I guess my only critique is that Proulx is writings as a descendant from settlers and not sure what this all entails for the people who are indigenous to these regions.

Very well written, nonfiction book that was well researched by the author. I did not know that she also wrote nonfiction books, but this was a very interesting! I look forward to more nonfiction from her as well as fiction

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick. Our library purchased and our patrons have been checking out and and enjoying the book. I see it is a popular book club choice as well we hope to have more oppurtinies to support authors like them

Fen, Swamp, and Bog” by Annie Proulx is a mixture of an anthropological dig, environmental lesson, and political manifesto. Proulx intertwines stories of the ancient and current people of the swamps, bogs, and fens with how governments’ policies have impacted these fragile ecosystems.

Although I enjoyed learning about these terrains and their people, I struggled with following Proulx’s organization. Subjects/topics would switch rather abruptly causing me to reread sections to try to figure out how they are connected.

As a high school English teacher, I would not recommend this book to students but would recommend it to science or agricultural teachers, especially since our district is surrounded by one of the marshes mentioned in the book.

I would like to thank Annie Proulx, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.

This was an entertaining and informative read. I found myself sharing what I learned from this book with those around me. I recommend it to fans of good and highly readable non-fiction.

Annie depicts the history of the fen, bog, and swamp. This is a compilation of essays she wrote while she researched what is happening in our environment. She details what we have done to destroy these items and also what has been done to conserve them. You can tell by reading her words, how passionate she feels about these parts of our natural environment.

This was a fantastic read and I'm grateful for the chance! The history, the rage. I recommend it to my environment law class.

Fen, Ben and Swamp is a short and beautifully written argument for the preservation of wetlands. It a historical account of wetlands and how they have been and are being destroyed, putting into perspective their importance and our need to preserve them.

As an avid gardener who learned about bogs in 6th grade, this book stood out to me from the get-go. I enjoy certain types of non-fiction more than others and this one satisfied my environmental cravings with a mix of scientific facts and personal essay-type sections. Nothing too earth-shattering by way of environmental discovery but reinforced my appreciation for different environments!

This book is beautifully written, thought-provoking, and topical - but I still found myself putting it down and forgetting about it for days. Annie Proulx is a master, however, so I'm giving this 4 stars.

In four dense, throughly researched essays, Annie Proulx (novelist best-known for The Shipping News) documents peatlands' role in holding one third of the earth's organic carbon, among other feats necessary for preventing planetary catastrophe. Most useful are her plain-language definitions of peat, as well as fens, bogs, and swamps -- which are all peat-forming wetlands. The book combines biology, history, archaeology, and personal reflection. I found it heavy and dismal at times, but then again, that's part of Proulx's point. Overall, it was an informative, well-written natural history and call to action.

[Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book.]

I loved The Shipping News. This book by Annie Prouix is captivating simply in the way she writes, eloquent, lovely, descriptive! Who knew that bogs and peat would become front page news. Her prose reminds us that she really is a custodian and wordsmith of scientific descriptions. What an education reading this book was! I loved it and found it absolutely fascinating. We are truly in danger with our climate crisis and Ms. Prouix tells us why! Thank to Ms. Prouix for her brilliant descriptions of our world. Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner Publishing for this incredibly brilliant arc!

This was a really fascinating blend of biology, history, and literature! Definitely at times felt a bit like an earlier era of environmentalism, but still enjoyed it! Audio was also well done--fun for a long solo car trip. Also got me thinking about the role of humans in nature-based solutions, which is always fun. Thanks for Scribner for the early copy, and apologies for my delay in reading it!

I really wanted to love this book. I make my family visit swams and marshes for nature walks and asked to camp next to a cypress swamp for Mother's Day. There was a lot of great information about swamps, but I felt like the book couldn't decide whether to be science writing or personal reflections, and it just was incredibly slow-going. Proulx is indisputably a great wordsmith and the writing was good, but the pacing and the mishmash of science and opining just made the book a bit disappointing.

Thanks to @netgalley and @scribnerbooks for the eARC of Fen, Bog and Swamp.

How do you feel about peatland? Do you have any real feeling about it? Before this short book I probably would’ve just shrugged.

Annie Proulx started writing about fens, bogs and swamps for an article and it turned into this book about peatlands and their role in climate change.

Did you know that these types of lands help hold methane gases out of the atmosphere? So, former peatlands that have been transformed into “farmable land” are actually emitting more methane gases into the atmosphere than the peatlands that resided there for centuries beforehand. 🤦🏼‍♀️

This is just one small piece of information within this richly informative read. Proulx did an excellent job of keeping the technical scientific words to a minimum since she, in fact, isn’t a scientist. She simply wanted to appeal to the average reader, informing them of peatland destruction and what that is currently doing in our environment. I love a good scientific read that translates well into layman’s terms.

If you’re interested in learning yet more about what we need to do to save our planet 🌎 this is a good book to pick up. Climate change is real and I feel like it’s my job to learn as much as possible in order to help counteract what we’ve already done.

A short dive into how fens, bogs, and swamps are essential to sustaining life on earth. Being relevant to the times as well as digging into the history of mires has made this read enlightening and informative.

Annie Proulx collected so much information for her book Barkskins that she she realized she had another book, because Fens, Bogs and Swamps are experiencing eradication at about the same rate as forests. Greenhouse gases are trapped below the surface of peatlands and when the peat is harvested, Co2 is released into the atmosphere increasing warming, the same future we dread in tropical forests.

Fens are a peat-forming wetland, partially fed by contact with minerals in soils. They support reeds and marshes. And by the way, did you know how you can tell reeds from sedges? Per a friend of mine, sedges have edges and reeds are round. Peatlands have a long history as burial grounds and when a body is unearthed in a fen, all that remains is the skeleton.

Bogs are a peatland with a water source not in contact with mineral soil, e.g., rainfall. When a body is unearthed in a bog all that remains is a bag of skin. The skeletal remains are gone. Also, bogs tend to be more shallow than fens.

Swamps are dominated by trees and shrubs and are more shallow than either fens or bogs.

I found the chapter on bogs to be the most entertaining as bodies tend to retain their human characteristics and reveal more about more recent periods of history. We learn the root of designating certain areas as moors. The effect is international but I tend to think of it as belonging to Great Britain, I suppose because of Agatha Christy and Sherlock Holmes and their dark dark tales. This is a short book and well worth the read.

In her introduction, Proulx states she wants to avoid specialized vocabulary. She adds, the “gulf of esoteric languages” contributes to the disconnection between science and ordinary readers. I thought to myself, great, no multi-syllable words I’ve never heard of.

Started reading definitions for fen, bog, and swamp. Ran across these words on these pages: ombrotrophic, sphagnum, minerotrophic. Huh? Maybe the book itself will be better. Sigh. I’m not a scientist. This was a difficult book for me to understand. Depressing because of climate change affecting the fens, bogs, swamps, and other areas of our earth.

So many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this! Annie P. is one of my favorite writers of all-time, Her books are a joy. This was so good. Obviously, very different from her usual fare but I enjoyed this and learned so much. Highly recommend this for any of Annie's fans AND for anyone interested in this eco-history.

Annie Proulx delivers on this excellent exploration into ecological importance of wetlands. Her essays are well researched, with particular attention to history, archeology, ecology, and sociocultural decisions made about removal, or preservation, of this habitat. Proulx's musings are poignant and meaningful. A book that utterly pulled me in and one I will be recommending.