Reading the Forested Landscape is a bit like a cross of The Diversity of Life and Sherlock Holmes. It’s broad, about all sorts of nature like Biophilia, but also a mystery novel where the crimes often include who killed the trees. At times the book could be easy to read and others a little tedious… Continue reading Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England
I went back to trying out a text book because there were surprisingly few books on cockroaches. In fact, something I learned from this book is that there is surprisingly little research on cockroaches. A numerous and diverse group of insects, most research seems to be on the pest varieties and how to kill them.… Continue reading Book Review: Cockroaches: Ecology, Behavior, and Natural History
This book has great balance of being in-depth, technical, and readable, making it a very digestible way of learning a lot about this relatively small group of ants. I learned a lot, recalled more, and enjoyed the experience.
Edward O. Wilson, one of the authors of The Ants reviewed earlier, was an accomplished author as well as researcher. The book is, as clearly titled, about the diversity of life–how it appears, how it disappears, and what we can do about it.
Tales From the Ant World is an easy, casual read, and perhaps a decent introduction to further reading, but further reading is necessary.
Summer World is yet another of Bernd Heinrich’s prodigious collection of works. Coming nearly a decade after Winter World, which I really enjoyed, Summer World is good, but not great.
This is a mammoth of a book and not for the casual reader. It straddles the line of book and text book, so be warned. I doubt a similar book could be written today, as it is so encompassingly thorough, that to expand it would be to break your desk.
Read this book to learn about owls and you will not be disappointed, but it’s not as in-depth as the title may have you expect.
Each time I read Bernd Heinrich, the experience improves–and I enjoyed the first book I read. I don’t know if that is that I have gotten used to his style or just luck that each one I read actually is better, Perhaps a bit of both. This is one of the longest, if not the longest, book I have reviewed, and it is the most exhaustive on a single subject.
While social media loves to rehash the apparent cleverness of octopi and their cousins, it never really explains what that means, if it means anything at all. A philosopher and lover of octopi, cuttlefish, and squids, Peter Godfrey-Smith wants to discuss that issue with the reader.
