The Perfect Book for Coal Lovers (and Also Haters)

It’s Coalmas! Around this time of the year, some people threaten to leave coal in our stockings like it’s a bad thing. Pfft. Geologists know coal is actually a very amazing rock and very cool to have a lump of.

If you’re not convinced that holding a several hundred year-old shiny black flammable vestige of a really unique geological era is a fabulous thing, or if you just want to marvel at its remarkable past, let me suggest Coal: A Human History by Barbara Freese. This is one of the best books I read in 2022. And I’m not just saying that because I’m a coal miner’s daughter with a soft spot for rocks that burn. I would have loved it even if I hated the vile, polluting stuff.

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