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Natural History features women quietly leading the way in science since the late 1800s. The stories feature various female scientists in various times in their lives. In one story they are young, starting their career and falling in love (or not) and in another they are older, retiring, and teaching what they've learned to the next generation. My favorite part was the last chapter which showed the legacy of the women in modern times and their effect on future generations they would never know.

I have read and loved Ms. Barrett's previous books, but I found this one more difficult to get into. The author has linked short stories which follow the main character, Henrietta through her life and her interaction with other scholars and her own students. The linking stories technique I have liked with other authors, but this one falls flat for me. I like that she shows women working in self-fulling ways other than housekeeping; and that they worked in a non-traditional field as science.
Thank you for the advanced reader's copy of the book.

I really wanted to love this book, as I usually enjoy books with strong female characters navigating familial relationships - and I'm a nature lover to boot. But I found the stories boring and there were too many side characters for a short book. I never felt connected to the main character Henrietta, and even though she was part of each story, I did not feel that I knew or understood her. However, the author has an incredible talent for truly beautiful writing.

This stories collection is my first exposure to Andrea Barrett's writing. While on a personal level I had a connection with some of the stories, in that I have raised butterflies - love nature, and have taken a few flying lessons and in fact did a solo skydive in my youth. However, it was soon evident in the reading that I was hovering awkwardly over a tightly woven net of characters with backstories unknown to me.

I found that unlike short stories these were like journal entries about family which were interconnected by the characters, therefore seeming more like chapters of a sort. That being said, the one …more entitled The Accident stood most independently having memorable characters and being told in a fresh voice. A voice more energized than the other chapters/stories for sure. I also enjoyed the final entry Natural History as it flowed wonderfully revealing insights and offering digs in a dry humorous way.

The renowned writer I'm sure deserves the accolades. For this book, I feel certain those who have read her other books and are familiar with the "family tree" will gain more and appreciate this offering more than first timers such as myself. (less)

I truly wanted to like this book more than I did because I know the author has a legion of fans. However, I found the stories, while beautifully and precisely written, were like a beautiful but staid piece of music: you know you are supposed to like it, but you feel instead a sense of admiration rather than pure enjoyment. Ms Barrett's language skills are formidable, evoking an 18th century drawing room filled with well-educated but rather dry guests. The stories are a very, very dry sherry and will please those for whom a dry sherry is a welcome evening's companion.

This is an uneven collection of linked short stories. I'm not particularly interested in early airplanes, botany, bugs, or biochem, all of which are described with lots of detail. Taking that away, I was interested in some of the characters. But the last story skipped generations ahead, introducing new people and I found it to be both boring and a curious way to end the book.

Authors spend a considerable amount of time and effort on writing, rewriting, and editing their books and I truly would like to like Andrea Barrett's "Natural History." However, I could not warm up to any of the characters in her short stories. The stories felt like I was dropped into a party where I knew no one, didn't know what was being discussed, and where the guests were all trying to play a game of one upmanship. I wanted to leave the party as soon as possible. Barrett did include some lovely images but they were not enough to make up for the very unpleasant people who populated her stories.