Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life, by Lulu Miller Chaos will get them.Chaos will crack them from the outside — with a falling branch, a speeding car, a bullet — or unravel them from the inside, with the mutiny of their very own cells. Chaos will... Continue Reading →
Nature Writing on the Elusive Owl of Eastern Russia
Book review: Owls of the Eastern Ice, by Jonathan C. Slaght Jonathan C. Slaght is a wildlife conservationist dedicated to preserving and documenting the Blakiston fish owl, a rare species found primarily in Siberia. In Owls of the Eastern Ice, he documents his time in the Russian Far East, and the unique challenges of trying to research... Continue Reading →
A Forensic Ecologist on Life, Death, and Crime-Solving
Book review: The Nature of Life and Death, by Patricia Wiltshire (Amazon / Book Depository) Patricia Wiltshire is a botanist, forensic ecologist, and palynologist -- what she defines as "one who studies pollen and other palynomorphs." She works with the police in the United Kingdom, drawing on decades of experience and meticulous microscopic examinations to... Continue Reading →
Finding Clarity in the Alaskan Wilderness
Book review: The Sun is a Compass, by Caroline van Hemert (Amazon / Book Depository) Biologist and ornithologist Caroline Van Hemert was burning out. PhD completed, nothing about the next steps into work or research felt right. She was happily paired with Pat, the man she'd bonded with over their mutual love of the outdoors... Continue Reading →
Nonfiction Classic: A “Young Writer’s Book” on the Natural World
Book review: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard (Amazon / Book Depository) I used to have a cat, an old fighting tom, who would jump through the open window by my bed in the middle of the night and land on my chest ... And some mornings I’d wake in daylight to find my... Continue Reading →
The Strange and Sad History of Humans and Orcas
Book review: Orca, by Jason Colby (Amazon - Book Depository) Author Jason Colby's father was one of the last orca hunters in Washington state, capturing the apex predator from its natural habitat to fill orders for aquariums worldwide. Colby writes this detailed, descriptive but very readable history of human-orca interactions from a place of lifelong... Continue Reading →
America’s Plant and Agricultural Immigrants
Book review: The Food Explorer, by Daniel Stone (Amazon / Book Depository) One of the humbling parts of being an American is the regular reminder that no matter how swollen America’s pride or power, nothing has been American for very long. A few years ago, it occurred to me that the same way immigrants came... Continue Reading →
Tales from Yellowstone: Triumphs and Struggles of Wolf Reintroduction
Book review: American Wolf, by Nate Blakeslee (Amazon / Book Depository) Maybe you've seen this video that made the social media rounds awhile back, about the effects wolf reintroduction has had on Yellowstone National Park: It's a beautiful, almost heartwarming story of humans helping nature to right itself (after humans messed it up in the first... Continue Reading →
Secrets and Stories from the American Museum of Natural History
My photo of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. I don't know why I took the picture from that angle with the tree barging in. It looks spooky. Book review: Dinosaurs in the Attic: An Excursion into the American Museum of Natural History, by Douglas Preston (Amazon / Book Depository) This magnificent... Continue Reading →