1) Wolf, Heather.The Experiment. Paperback: 268 pages. Price: $
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: A gorgeously photographed trove of 111
ingenious tips for seeing more birds wherever you are—from crowd
favorites (hummingbirds, owls, eagles) to species you’ve never spotted
before.
Seeing more birds than you ever imagined and
witnessing exciting avian drama is possible—whether you’re on the go or
in your own neighborhood, local park, or backyard. As Heather Wolf
explains, it all comes down to how you tune in to the show happening
around you, the one in which birds—highly skilled at staying under the
radar—are the stars. In Find More Birds, Heather shares her very best tactics—and the jaw-dropping photographs they helped her capture.
- Look for birds at their favorite “restaurants”— from leaf litter to berry bushes, and ball fields to small patches of mud.
- Watch for “tree bark” that moves . . . you may find it has feathers.
- Try simply sitting on the ground for a revealing new perspective.
Plus, special tips point the way to crowd favorites such as hummingbirds, owls, and eagles—and can’t-miss bird behaviors. As your senses sharpen and “noticing” becomes second nature, Find More Birds will turn your daily routines into bird-finding adventures, too. Whether you’re strolling down the block or parking your car, you never know what will surprise you next!
RECOMMENDATION: Best for beginning or intermediate birders.
2) Grimaldi, David A. (editor). 35.00 U.S.
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: With an astounding 3.5 million species occupying virtually
every habitat on Earth, insects are one of the most diverse groups of
animals on the planet, from the humble bee to the agile praying mantis.
Taking you inside the extraordinary world of insects, The Complete Insect
explores all aspects of the natural history of these remarkable
creatures, providing a close-up look at their fascinating anatomy,
physiology, evolution, ecology, behavior, and more. It features hundreds
of stunning color photographs and illustrations and draws on a broad
range of examples, from familiar ants to iridescent jewel beetles. A
celebration of the rich complexity of insect life, The Complete Insect is a must-have book for insect enthusiasts and armchair naturalists.
- An absorbing, wide-ranging, and beautiful exploration of the fascinating natural history of insects
- Features a wealth of stunning full-color photographs from the field
- Includes photomicrographs and electron micrographs that offer a rare view of normally invisible structures
- Examines the complex relationship between humans and insects
- Integrates physiological adaptations with ecology and behavior
RECOMMENDATION: A well illustrated introduction to the insects!
3) Penny, Nick. 16.99 U.S.
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Call of the Kingfisher is the enchanting debut from composer and wildlife recordist, Nick Penny. This love letter to a short stretch of Northamptonshire’s River Nene celebrates all the wild things that live there, especially the kingfishers. Uniquely, it comes with bonus audio content to complement the text, accessed via QR codes.
For four decades, Penny has walked beside the river at Oundle – a lovely but little-known part of England where where Clark Gable and thousands of American airmen were stationed during World War II, and where bandleader Glenn Miller performed his final airfield concert before going missing in action. For a whole year, Penny gave the waterway all the time it asked for. The more attention he gave, the more he saw the kingfishers and heard their high whistling calls.
Call of the Kingfisher relates a year by the river, the author’s experiences there and the people he meets. Other strands weave around the feathered protagonist: explorations of history and landscape, from Roman and Bronze Age sites to watermills and centuries-old stone churches; homages to naturalists who lived nearby; forest dawns and dusks listening to the precious song of nightingales. But the background tapestry is the riverbank’s sights and sounds, and its greens and browns, shot through with the blue and orange threads of a kingfisher’s glowing feathers.
As a composer and wildlife recordist, Penny has a deep interest in sounds in the natural environment. He uses the local landscape and wildlife sounds as inspiration, and brings fresh insights into countryside sounds. The book includes access to an hour of high-quality birdsong recordings made alongside the River Nene – audio soundbites of nature’s riches, from kingfishers and nightingales to owls and cuckoos.
This is a book about the things that can be seen and heard when we approach nature with patience and curiosity. It celebrates people who have used that focus to help preserve wildlife and pass on their knowledge to future generations. Above all, Call of the Kingfisher serves as a call to appreciate what we’ve got, wherever we are, and to use our ears as much as our eyes when we experience the natural world.
RECOMMENDATION: To me this book seems like a modern version of Gilbert White's The Natural History of Selborne.
4) Cagle, Nicolette. University of Virginia Press. Paperback: 210 pages. Price: $27.95 U.S.
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Snake populations are declining around the globe, but calls for their conservation are muted by fear and prejudice. Saving Snakes offers a new approach to understanding snakes-one built on respect. From Cuba and Nicaragua to Costa Rica and Australia, Nicolette Cagle has traveled the world in search of snakes. She also has spent decades conducting natural science research on snake activity, specifically in regions of the U.S. where urban development encroaches upon their habitat.
Beautifully written, Saving Snakes entwines Cagle's personal narrative with deep scientific and historical research. By tracing the author's evolution as a field naturalist, it provides a blueprint for developing a conservation consciousness among young people and paves the way for increased inclusivity in the male-dominated field of herpetology. Fundamentally a book about snakes, this is also the story of one woman's pursuit of her passion as she searches for, studies, and advocates for these enigmatic creatures.
RECOMMENDATION: A must read for anyone with an interest in snake biology and/or conservation!
5) Alcalá, Kathleen. 2016 (2019). University of Washington Press. Paperback: 344 pages. Price: $24.95 U.S.
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: As friends began "going back to the land" at the same time that a
health issue emerged, Kathleen Alcalá set out to reexamine her
relationship with food at the most local level. Remembering her parents,
Mexican immigrants who grew up during the Depression, and the memory of
planting, growing, and harvesting fresh food with them as a child, she
decided to explore the history of the Pacific Northwest island she calls
home.
In The Deepest Roots,
Alcalá walks, wades, picks, pokes, digs, cooks, and cans, getting to
know her neighbors on a much deeper level. Wanting to better understand
how we once fed ourselves, and acknowledging that there may be a future
in which we could need to do so again, she meets those who experienced
the Japanese American internment during World War II, and learns the
unique histories of the blended Filipino and Native American community,
the fishing practices of the descendants of Croatian immigrants, and the
Suquamish elder who shares with her the food legacy of the island
itself.
Combining memoir, historical records, and a blueprint for sustainability, The Deepest Roots
shows us how an island population can mature into responsible food
stewards and reminds us that innovation, adaptation, diversity, and
common sense will help us make wise decisions about our future. And
along the way, we learn how food is intertwined with our present but
offers a path to a better understanding of the future.
RECOMMENDATION: An interesting overview of what it's like to live on an island in Puget Sound.
6) Fukuda, Andrew. Tor Teen. Hardbound: 382 pages. Price: $17.99 U.S.
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: In 1935, ten-year-old Alex Maki from Bainbridge Island, Washington
is disgusted when he’s forced to become pen pals with Charlie Lévy of
Paris, France―a girl. He
thought she was a boy. In spite of Alex’s reluctance, their letters
continue to fly across the Atlantic―and along with them, the shared
hopes and dreams of friendship. Until the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor and the growing Nazi persecution of Jews force them to confront
the darkest aspects of human nature.
From the desolation of an
internment camp on the plains of Manzanar to the horrors of Auschwitz
and the devastation of European battlefields, the only thing they can
hold onto are the memories of their letters. But nothing can dispel the
light between them.
Winner of the American Library Association's Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature.
RECOMMENDATION: As someone who grew up in Alex Maki's home region, I'm familiar with the history of the Japanese-American internment during World War II. Students of World War II history should read this book!
7) Eski,Yarin. Palgrave Macmillan. Hardbound: 142 pages. Price: $44.99 U.S.
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: The book sketches out how the criminological lens could be used in the climate change debate around possible human extinction. It explores the extent to which the human species can be considered deviant in relation to other species of the contemporary biosphere, as humans seem to be the only species on Earth that does not live in natural balance with their environment (anymore). It discusses several unsettling topics in the public debate on climate change, specifically the taboo of how humans may not survive the ongoing climate change. It includes chapters on the Earth’s history of mass-extinctions, the global state of denial including toward the possibility that the human species could go extinct, and it considers humans' future as a deviant, fatal species outside of Earth, in outer-space, possibly on other planets. It puts forward and enriches the critical criminological tradition by conceptualizing and setting an unsettling tone within criminology and criminological research on the human species and our extinction, by daring criminologists (and victimologists) to ponder and seek empirical answers to controversial imaginations and questions about our possible extinction.
RECOMMENDATION: An introduction to the field of "
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