Summer World is yet another of Bernd Heinrich’s prodigious collection of works. Coming six years after Winter World, which I really enjoyed, Summer World is good, but not great. Part of the problem is the theme. For Winter World, everything always came back to freezing temperatures and surviving the freezing temperatures, often without food. But with Summer World, it’s just… everything. For instance, it’s as much spring as it is fall–or summer. The theme gets lost. The author attempts to fix this by inserting passages he wrote while at his cabin in Maine, using them as a thematic jumping off point. However, they aren’t in order, nor do they really add to the imparted ecological knowledge. To be fair to the author, part of my problem with this is that in these passages (and outside of them) he waxes poetic about the nature he sees on those dates, but this has never been the kind of writing I find interesting, and that is subjective. It contrasts with what I like so much about Heinrich’s writings, his experiments and studies of flora and fauna. He does write of these some in the book. Like how he analyzed water temperatures around frog eggs or observed ants moving colonies or making slave raids. As a side note, I appreciated the ant studies more, especially his correspondence with Bert Holldobler and Edward O. Wilson, since I read and reviewed their book The Ants just before this.

I also found the author was more preachy than normal, and on a few occasions spread through the book. I didn’t usually mind, since I am part of the choir (or perhaps the organist, since you wouldn’t want to hear me sing), but I think anyone reading the book is also part of the choir, so it wasn’t really necessary. On the other hand, were non-choir members reading Silent Spring? They must have been for it to have had such an impact, so maybe it’s a good thing. That said, there was some light religious preaching, which was odd. Perhaps I should define it as more spiritual.

Most of what I gained from this book wasn’t the author’s own studies or observations, but his explanation of what was happening based on other’s writings. Which is fine and not an indictment of the work. It’s actually pretty typical, and I enjoys his typical works. It just wasn’t my favorite Heinrich, Mind of the Raven. Each chapter typically covered some topic, like frogs breeding in vernal pools, mud dauber wasp nesting, or leaves falling at the end of the season, explaining them in sufficient detail and leaving questions when they were still unanswered by scientists. I learned a lot and enjoyed the experience, and I’m sure the author could write multiple sequels in the same format without remotely nearing the end of topics.