What We Are Reading Today: Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea, by Barbara Demick

Updated 11 May 2018
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What We Are Reading Today: Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea, by Barbara Demick

This is often referred to as the book you must read on North Korea if you only choose one.

It is based on interviews with refugees from Chongjin, an industrial city in the north of the country.

The award-winning text, by the Los Angeles Times journalist who oversaw the newspaper’s bureaus in both Seoul and Beijing, follows the lives of six people in a city completely off limits to outsiders.

It spans the chaotic years in which the Orwellian regime’s first leader, Kim Il Sung, died and his son Kim Jong Il rose to power.

It includes details of the devastating effects of a famine that is thought to have killed 20 percent of the population.

Rather than focusing on the geopolitics and the nuclear program, Nothing to Envy shows the reader the everyday lives of ordinary people living within one of the world’s most repressive regimes. 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Natural Habitats and Wildlife Gardening’ by Shaun Mccoshum

Updated 10 March 2026
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Natural Habitats and Wildlife Gardening’ by Shaun Mccoshum

Native plants are essential for healthy ecosystems that support insects and animals, but vegetation alone does not provide the necessary resources for most creatures or their life cycles.

This book breaks down ecological processes that regulate habitats and explains how to recreate vibrant, gorgeous, natural habitats in your own backyard—ones that attract pollinating insects, birds, and other suburban wildlife while appealing to neighbors and friends.

It focuses on how to rebuild broken processes and covers a wealth of topics.