1) Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar. 2023. Princeton University Press. Hardbound: 448 pages. Price: $49.95 U.S.
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Madagascar’s mammals are some of the most remarkable on earth,
having evolved in isolation over millions of years. All of the country’s
approximately 175 native non-flying species are endemic, with an
extraordinary diversity of body forms and lifestyles, some utterly
unique. No other place boasts such a combination of species richness and
endemism. In Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar,
Nick Garbutt, an award-winning photographer and leading authority on
the island’s wildlife, provides an authoritative and beautifully
illustrated guide to all of its mammal fauna.
Illustrated
throughout with more than 370 exceptional photographs, including of
species rarely photographed before, the book covers all 217 native
species, including tenrecs, bats, lemurs, carnivores, and rodents, plus a
small number of introduced species. The species accounts are up to date
and include description, identification, habitat, distribution,
behavior, and where to see the species. The book also includes chapters
on Madagascar’s regions and habitats, threats to the mammals,
conservation and protected areas, and important mammal-watching sites,
as well as a section on extinct mammals.
RECOMMENDATION: This book is a must have for anyone with an interest in the mammals of Madagascar!
2) Heisman, Rebecca. Flight Paths: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration. 2023. Harper. Hardbound: 267 pages. Price: $30.00 U.S.
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: For the past century, scientists and naturalists have been steadily unraveling the secrets of bird migration. How and why birds navigate the skies, traveling from continent to continent—flying thousands of miles across the earth each fall and spring—has continually fascinated the human imagination, but only recently have we been able to fully understand these amazing journeys. Although we know much more than ever before, even the most enthusiastic birdwatcher may not know how we got here, the ways that the full breadth of scientific disciplines have come together to reveal these annual avian travels.
Flight Paths is the never-before-told story of how a group of migration-obsessed scientists in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries engaged nearly every branch of science to understand bird migration—from where and when they take off to their flight paths and behaviors, their destinations and the challenges they encounter getting there. Uniting curious minds from across generations, continents, and disciplines, bird enthusiast and science writer Rebecca Heisman traces the development of each technique used for tracking migratory birds, from the first attempts to mark individual birds to the cutting-edge technology that lets ornithologists trace where a bird has been, based on unique DNA markers. Along the way, she touches on the biggest technological breakthroughs of modern science and reveals the almost-forgotten stories of the scientists who harnessed these inventions in service of furthering our understanding of nature (and their personal obsession with birds).
The compelling and fascinating story of how scientists solved the great mystery of bird migration, Flight Paths is an unprecedented look into exciting, behind-the-scenes moments of groundbreaking discovery. Heisman demonstrates that the real power of science happens when people work together, focusing their minds and knowledge on a common goal. While the world looks to tackle massive challenges involving conservation and climate, the story of migration research offers a beacon of hope that we can find solutions to difficult and complex problems.
RECOMMENDATION: This book is a must read for anyone with an interest in bird migration.
3) McLean Greeley, Will. A Connecticut Yankee Goes to Washington: Senator George P. McLean, Birdman of the Senate. 2023. RIT Press. Paperback: 316 pages. Price: $34.95 U.S.
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Senator George P. McLean’s crowning achievement was overseeing passage of one of the country’s first and most important wildlife conservation laws, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. The MBTA, which is still in effect today, has saved billions of birds from senseless killing and likely prevented the extinction of entire bird species. A Connecticut Yankee Goes to Washington: George P. McLean, Birdman of the Senate puts McLean’s victory for birds in the context of his distinguished forty-five-year career marked by many acts of reform during a time of widespread corruption and political instability. Author Will McLean Greeley traces McLean’s rise from obscurity as a Connecticut farm boy to national prominence when he advised five US presidents and helped lead change and shape events as a US senator from 1911 to 1929. One reviewer writes: “And there’s a bonus: This book is also a love song to a distant relative. We need more historians who truly care about the people they’re writing about, and Greeley does just that.”
RECOMMENDATION: This book is a must read for anyone with an interest in the history of bird conservation.
4) Costa, James. Radical by Nature: The Revolutionary Life of Alfred Russel Wallace. 2023. Princeton University Press. Hardbound: 515 pages. Price: $39.95 U.S.
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: A major new biography of the brilliant naturalist, traveler, humanitarian, and codiscoverer of natural selection.
Alfred
Russel Wallace (1823–1913) was perhaps the most famed naturalist of the
Victorian age. His expeditions to remote Amazonia and southeast Asia
were the stuff of legend. A collector of thousands of species new to
science, he shared in the discovery of natural selection and founded the
discipline of evolutionary biogeography.
Radical by Nature
tells the story of Wallace’s epic life and achievements, from his
stellar rise from humble origins to his complicated friendship with
Charles Darwin and other leading scientific lights of Britain to his
devotion to social causes and movements that threatened to alienate him
from scientific society.
James Costa draws on letters, notebooks,
and journals to provide a multifaceted account of a revolutionary life
in science as well as Wallace’s family life. He shows how the
self-taught Wallace doggedly pursued bold, even radical ideas that
caused a seismic shift in the natural sciences, and how he also courted
controversy with nonscientific pursuits such as spiritualism and
socialism. Costa describes Wallace’s courageous social advocacy of
women’s rights, labor reform, and other important issues. He also sheds
light on Wallace’s complex relationship with Darwin, describing how
Wallace graciously applauded his friend and rival, becoming one of his
most ardent defenders.
Weaving a revelatory narrative with the latest scholarship, Radical by Nature
paints a mesmerizing portrait of a multifaceted thinker driven by a
singular passion for science, a commitment to social justice, and a
lifelong sense of wonder.
