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The peace of wild things

Feature by Alice Cary

There might be water on Mars, but we still only have one home, and it’s constantly surprising us. These imaginative books offer a lively look at our world—and beyond.

LET'S TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER
Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future brims with information so intriguing that it begs to be read in one lengthy sitting. It’s a visual treat, featuring Lauren Redniss’ arresting, atmospheric artwork, plus an original typeface she calls Qaneq LR, after the Inuktitut word for “falling snow.” Every aspect of this creation has been carefully considered by Redniss, a Guggenheim fellow and finalist for the National Book Award for her vivid biography of Marie and Pierre Curie, Radioactive. 

Redniss reports extensively, beginning with a mind-boggling stop at a Vermont cemetery where coffins, bodies and bones were washed away by Hurricane Irene’s floods. She discusses weather staples such as rain, fog, wind and cold, finding unexpected treats for each topic and weaving together seemingly disparate strands, such as a conversation with endurance swimmer Diana Nyad and a visit with a wind engineer at Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mosque.

This is hardly an ordinary weather book. Like a tornado, Thunder & Lighting will blow you away.

HUNDRED ACRE WOOD
A.A. Milne would have been pleased as punch with The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh: A Walk Through the Forest That Inspired the Hundred Acre Wood. Landscape designer and historian Kathryn Aalto combines historical photographs with biography to explore the places that inspired Milne and his artistic partner, E.H. Shepard. 

Throughout his books, Milne recreated many of the wonders he experienced as a boy, “hunting butterflies along the coast, bicycling across many shires, and climbing peaks in Wales.” The Hundred Acre Wood is based on Ashdown Forest, “a landscape of sweeping heathland and atmospheric woodlands thirty miles south of London.” In 1925, Milne and his wife bought Cotchford Farm as a country haven on the edge of the forest. (The property was later bought by Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones, who eventually drowned in its pool.) Every March, people gather at a nearby bridge for the World Poohsticks Championship, a game from The House at Pooh Corner that involves racing twigs downstream.

You’ll yearn for a real walking tour of this enchanted forest.  

PROTECTING THE SEA
When oceanographer Enric Sala sees swarms of sharks, he happily jumps in, knowing they’re a sign of healthy seas. In 2007 he left academia to actively help protect the ocean, founding an organization that shares its name with his book, Pristine Seas: Journeys to the Ocean’s Last Wild Places. It’s a gorgeous pictorial tour of 10 diverse ocean spots that remain untouched by human activity, ranging from Arctic waters to coral reefs, where vibrant colors abound in seemingly ethereal ways.

On an atoll south of Hawaii, Sala encounters a twinspot grouper with fangs “like an underwater vampire” who surprised him by tugging at his ponytail. Sala and his team discover that pristine seas feature an inverted food chain, with an abundance of predators like sharks, polar bears, seals and crocodiles, which thrive when safe from fishermen and hunters. 

Sala’s writing is snappy and informative, while the photos offer glorious, magical glimpses into underwater worlds seen by so few.


Young blacktip reef sharks of Millennium Atoll. Copyright © 2015 Enric Sala.
From Pristine Seas, reprinted with permission from National Geographic.

SNAPS FROM SPACE
You won’t see photographs like the ones in Earth and Space: Photographs from the Archives of NASA anywhere else. Photographing space, known as stellar astrophotography, is the result of collaboration among NASA’s many engineers, scientists and artists. Tour the universe with more than 100 brilliantly colored photos, starting with scenes of Earth, such as a satellite view of the massive debris field created by the 2011 Japanese tsunami. Venture farther into space and see stars being born amid Milky Way dust, an intergalactic “dance” performed by two faraway galaxies and a taffy-like strip that’s the supernova remnants from an exploded star. Detailed captions explain the science behind these unimaginable sights.

As Bill Nye remarks in the book’s preface, “The views amaze and astonish us; the images themselves are artwork.”

OVER HERE, BIRDWATCHER
Nextinction is a colorful, zany follow-up to Extinct Boids, a collaboration between filmmaker and bird lover Ceri Levy and gonzo artist Ralph Steadman. Dubbing themselves “Gonzovationists,” Steadman and Levy focus on the 192 critically endangered birds on the IUCN Red List, all of which can be saved. As with their first book, this one features both the aforementioned real as well as some imagined species.

All of Steadman’s avian caricatures ooze personality and attitude, while Levy’s descriptions are similarly lively. Accompanying the large illustrations are side panels filled with their emails, diary entries and phone conversations about the birds and the making of the book. Nextinction is a memorable, unique book that manages to infuse fun and fancy into a very serious subject.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

There might be water on Mars, but we still only have one home, and it’s constantly surprising us. These imaginative books offer a lively look at our world—and beyond.
NonfictionNature

Take your reading to new heights

Feature by Lynn Green

Spring has arrived, and along with it comes a flock of books about our feathered friends. Here are three new titles that bird watchers will find especially intriguing.

Jennifer Ackerman, longtime nature writer and contributor to Scientific American, thinks it’s time to ditch the term “bird brain.” In The Genius of Birds, she offers compelling evidence that birds are far smarter than we previously thought. In fact, she writes, new research has found “bird species capable of mental feats comparable to those [of] primates.” Birds can recognize human faces, use geometry to navigate, learn new skills from one another (like how to open milk bottles) and even work puzzles. The author travels from the South Pacific—home of the world’s smartest bird, the New -Caledonian crow—to rural China as she explores the surprising cognitive abilities of birds. Ackerman is a pro at parsing scientific concepts in an accessible style, and her lyrical writing underscores her appreciation for the beauty and adaptability of birds.

NATURE’S CREATION
While bird brains are the focus of many new studies, there’s nothing more beautiful or delicate than a brightly colored bird’s egg. In The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird’s Egg, ornithologist Tim Birkhead deconstructs every part of the egg to reveal how these small survival pods are “perfect in so many different ways.” From the shell (composed of upright crystals “packed against each other like a stack of fence posts”) to the albumen (the “absolutely remarkable, mysterious stuff” that most of us call the white part), the elements are described here in exquisite detail. Like a bird watcher who spots a rare specimen, the author shows palpable (and charming) excitement for his subject throughout, never losing his sense of wonder and admiration for nature’s “ingenious construction” of the egg.

IN THE NEST
A contributing editor of Bird Watcher’s Digest, Julie Zickefoose has a particular fascination with baby birds and enjoys painting these scrawny, screeching creatures from the moment they hatch to the day they leave the nest as fledglings. Baby Birds: An Artist Looks into the Nest offers a rare and meticulously chronicled portrait of baby birds’ day-to-day development, with the author’s lovely watercolor paintings adding a vivid visual dimension. In her introduction, Zickefoose describes Baby Birds as “an odd sort of book, like a Victorian-era curiosity.” Fans of the rediscovered 1970s bestseller The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady will happily agree.

 

This article was originally published in the April 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Spring has arrived, and along with it comes a flock of books about our feathered friends. Here are three new titles that bird watchers will find especially intriguing.
NonfictionPhotographyNature

A window into the great beyond

Feature by Alice Cary

Five new books showcase the stunning natural beauty that surrounds us from below and above, whether it’s a delicate feather of a spotted owl or an ethereal vision of an ancient tree basking in the light of the Milky Way.

AMERICA'S MAJESTIC MONUMENTS
As the National Park Service celebrates 100 years, the time is right to enjoy the spectacular Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey Through America’s National Parks. It’s a unique treat, as photographer Q.T. Luong—who is featured in Ken Burns’ recent documentary about the parks—is the only photographer to have taken large-format images in each of the 59 parks. 

Born in France to Vietnamese parents, this outdoor adventurer fell so in love with the national parks that he left his job as a computer scientist in order to pursue his 20-year quest to photograph each of them. After enduring flash floods, summit overnights without a sleeping bag and a nerve-wracking encounter with a bear in Alaska that forced him to abandon his equipment, the results compiled in this large volume are simply magnificent. Calling the parks our nation’s “greatest treasures,” Luong writes that each “represents a unique environment, yet collectively they are all interrelated, interconnected like a giant jigsaw puzzle.”

Because one of Luong’s goals is to inspire readers to see the parks themselves, he includes helpful travel tips and notes on his photographic techniques along with the images of each and every park. Whether it’s a Rocky Mountain sunrise or a glimpse of glowing lava dripping into the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Luong’s shots are so luminous that you’ll likely be booking a trip soon. 

EYES ON THE UNIVERSE
Otherworldly is the best word to describe Beth Moon’s latest offering, Ancient Skies, Ancient Trees. Previously, in her bestselling Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time, Moon spent 14 years photographing the tangled trunks of some of the world’s oldest trees. In this sequel, she continues her journey to even more remote corners of the world, still photographing her beloved trees, but this time under night skies. During what she terms “celestial safaris,” she uses long exposures to capture the night skies and highlight the age of the trees. Her first such journey, to southern Africa, left her speechless—“I don’t think I was prepared to see the enormity of the universe laid out so starkly above me, the Milky Way stretching from one end of the horizon to the other.”

Moon focuses on specific species in this collection, including baobabs, bristlecone pines, junipers, Joshua trees, oaks and more. Not only do the stars beckon, but these trees become pieces of sculpture in their own right as their gnarled trunks and branches reach upward. 

Her images of quiver trees in Namibia are simply breathtaking, while the massive trunk of a sequoia seems like a ladder climbing to heaven. Ancient Skies, Ancient Trees allows readers to see the world in a new light. 

FASCINATING FEATHERS
While birds and their feathers surround us, most people rarely give their plumage a thought. “That’s a shame, because there’s no better way to confront evolution’s riot of invention and beauty,” notes science writer Carl Zimmer in his preface to Feathers: Displays of Brilliant Plumage. National Geographic photographer Robert Clark’s gorgeous homage to these overlooked gems captures both their brilliance and texture in photos worthy of a gallery. Many—like the golden, brown and white tail feather of a superb lyrebird—resemble exquisitely crafted pieces of jewelry, while feathers of a Victoria Crown Pigeon are reminiscent of flowers from an ornamental garden. Another intriguing shot shows all of the feathers (so many!) of a Bohemian Waxwing, best known for getting drunk on rowan berries—sometimes fatally so. 

Bird lovers and art lovers alike will find Feathers, along with Clark’s brief explanatory notes, to be an illuminating, iridescent delight. 

FLIGHT AND FABLES
It’s easy to lose yourself in Birds: Myth, Lore and Legend, an attractive and hugely informative book. Here you’ll learn that people in 70 countries found ducks to be the world’s funniest animals, prompting psychologist Richard Wiseman to advise, “If you’re going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck.”

Discussing a variety of species one by one, Marianne Taylor and Rachel Warren-Chadd’s text blends fact and fable surrounding each. In Babylon, for instance, ostriches were associated with the goddess Tiamat, while Harry Potter’s owl Hedwig is a Snowy Owl, widely considered in northern countries as an icon of bravery and a revealer of truths. And there isn’t actually a species called a seagull, although many (I’m guilty!) mistakenly call the entire family of birds by that name. 

The discussions are wide-ranging: The mockingbird entry discusses everything from Harper Lee and Charles Darwin to Hopi and Zuni traditions. Numerous illustrations and photographs add to the browsing fun. 

A SHEPHERD'S WORLD
“When English people dream of rural arcadia, they usually dream of our landscape,” writes James Rebanks. 

In 2015 Rebanks shared his life as a shepherd in the Lake District of Northern England in his glowingly reviewed The Shepherd’s Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape. Rebanks now offers a visual look into his world with The Shepherd’s View: Modern Photographs from an Ancient Landscape, which includes intriguing short chapters and 80 color photographs he took of the pasturelands, animals and people that surround him.

These images are a wonderful addition to his story, and the new book is filled with soulful observations as well as fun. “Truth be told, I don’t like shepherd’s pie,” he admits. “I know this is a bit like Kim Kardashian saying she doesn’t like shopping, but it’s true.”

Truth be told, Rebanks’ two books are an unusually satisfying treat. 

 

This article was originally published in the December 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Five new books showcase the stunning natural beauty that surrounds us from below and above, whether it’s a delicate feather of a spotted owl or an ethereal vision of an ancient tree basking in the light of the Milky Way.
NonfictionNature

Troubled waters

Feature by Henry L. Carrigan Jr.

The vastness and untamed energy of oceans, seas and lakes both fascinate and frighten us. Two new books explore our complex relationships with iconic American bodies of water.

In his vivid The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea, University of Florida historian Jack E. Davis narrates the history of the Gulf of Mexico from its origins in the Pleistocene epoch and its flourishing aboriginal cultures—still evident in burial and ceremonial mounds. Davis traces various eras of exploration and conquest by Spanish, British and French explorers, the development of towns on the Gulf as tourist destinations in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and oil booms and ecological catastrophes of the late 20th century. Along the way, we meet figures who shaped the history of the Gulf: ethnologist Frank Hamilton Cushing, who explored the ancient mounds; 16th-century Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca; and Randy Wayne White, the fishing guide (and bestselling author) whose promotion of the tarpon lured hundreds of anglers to the Gulf Coast.

Though Gulf waters once teemed with “crabs, shrimp, and curious jumping fish called the mullet,” by the mid-20th century, the thirst for development had disastrous consequences. In the 1960s, many scientists recommended eradicating mangroves, which prevent erosion, in order to build condominiums closer to the water. When beaches began to erode, communities built seawalls, which actually worsened the problem. As Davis demonstrates in this absorbing narrative, the history of the Gulf teaches us that nature is most generous whenever we respect its sovereignty.

ECOLOGICAL THREATS
The Great Lakes span 94,000 square miles and provide 20 percent of the world’s supply of fresh water. Yet, as award-winning journalist Dan Egan points out in The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, these inland seas face challenges unimaginable when explorer Jean Nicolet first paddled across Lake Huron in the 17th century. At that time, the Great Lakes were isolated from the Atlantic, unreachable by boat not only because of their unnavigable shorelines but also because of the challenges of crossing waterfalls. With the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway, begun in 1955, ships gained what Egan calls a “front door” to the lakes, turning cities like Chicago into inland ports.

By the mid-20th century, industrial and municipal pollution created dead zones in the lakes. While the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972 prompted some recovery, the law didn’t prevent ships from dumping contaminated ballast. Egan chronicles the ways that such pollution has decimated native fish populations, created toxic algae outbreaks and introduced the DNA of non-native species into the lakes. In this compelling account, Egan issues a clarion call for re-imagining the future of the Great Lakes.

 

This article was originally published in the March 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

The vastness and untamed energy of oceans, seas and lakes both fascinate and frighten us. Two new books explore our complex relationships with iconic American bodies of water.

NonfictionNature

Taming the wilderness

Feature by Keith Herrell

Ah, the American wild: teeming with animals roaming free, right? Two new books might change your thinking on that, as well as the role of humans and government.

In American Wolf, Nate Blakeslee gives us a tale of survival and obsession, replete with impressive detail gleaned from numerous interviews, diaries and personal observations. His account mostly takes place in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park, where wolves were reintroduced starting in 1995 after becoming nearly extinct in the United States by the 1920s. As the wolves go about the unending business of survival, they become the objects of obsession for cattle ranchers, trophy hunters and people who rise before dawn to get a glimpse of the skilled predators. All of this plays out against a background of political, bureaucratic and court battles as opposing interests clash, with the wolves caught in the middle.

Wisely—and compellingly—Blakeslee focuses much of the narrative on one particular wolf, an alpha female known as O-Six. While she becomes a media star thanks to interviews given by park personnel, Blakeslee goes behind the scenes to give readers a richly detailed look at the complicated dynamics of pack life (and death) in the Rockies, all while avoiding the cuddly tone of a Disney-esque documentary. He also takes care not to fawn over heroes or superficially target villains in an account that, like the wolves themselves, has many shades of gray.

ECOLOGICAL CONUNDRUM
While the reintroduction of wolves brought with it a number of challenges, it was practically a walk in the park compared with the sad dilemma presented by America’s wild horses, also known as mustangs. While not native to the United States (Spanish conquistadors brought them here), there are thousands of mustangs in the West, living on hardscrabble land almost exclusively owned by the federal government. As David Philipps recounts in Wild Horse Country, their current situation is deeply troubling and marked by helicopter-aided roundups, segregation of horses by sex in long-term holding ranches where they await adoption that rarely comes and, in the worst cases, sale to slaughterhouses. There are (again) multiple competing interests, and the federal Bureau of Land Management is tasked with keeping the horses’ numbers down in response to demands by cattle ranchers. Even so, the mustangs’ numbers continue to grow as every “solution” is met with fierce opposition.

Philipps tells the horses’ story in entertaining fashion, with side trips to prehistoric times, the world of Western pulp novels and the life of an early animal-rights activist bent on dynamiting slaughterhouses. Philipps also indulges in some old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting, getting to the bottom of modern-day slaughterhouse rumors and even confronting a U.S. Cabinet member. And he offers up a solution of his own that makes just enough sense to ensure it won’t be adopted.

 

This article was originally published in the October 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Ah, the American wild: teeming with animals roaming free, right? Two new books might change your thinking on that, as well as the role of humans and government.

NonfictionNatureArt

Hold the universe in your hands

Feature by Alice Cary

Explore the far corners of the natural world in five new books, where you’ll find fascinations ranging from the remnants of a supernova to killer whales kicking up white spray in the Atlantic.

How do we see our universe? The answer to this question continually changes as science marches forward, which the gorgeous, thought-provoking Universe: Exploring the Astronomical World thoroughly illustrates. Universe pairs 300 images from art and science, selected by a panel of astronomers, curators, astrophysicists and art historians. A photograph of Buzz Aldrin’s footprint on the moon occupies a spread alongside Andy Warhol’s stylized screen print of Aldrin in his space suit next to the American flag. Vincent Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” is coupled with a luminous 2015 print that re-creates a picture of the cosmos in pigment and gold.

The images are bold, beautiful and intriguing, drawn from a tremendous range of sources, including an image painted around 15,000 B.C. in France’s Lascaux Cave, thought to be one of the earliest celestial maps; an Infinity Mirrored Room by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama; and the “First Moon Flights” Club Card issued by Pan Am Airways in 1968.

Universe is an imaginative, informative and unexpected cosmic journey.

STORIES OF THE STARS
Discover the wonders of the night in What We See in the Stars: An Illustrated Tour of the Night Sky. Naturalist illustrator Kelsey Oseid has created a delightful compendium of constellations, celestial bodies, asteroids, deep space and more. What We See is a handy reference guide for all ages with its brief, clear explanations that combine mythology with modern science.

There are sections devoted to Ptolemy’s constellations as well as “modern” constellations such as Microscopium (the microscope), Fornax (the furnace) and Tucana (the toucan). Did you know that shadows cast on the moon are much darker than those cast on earth? Or that Mercury has craters named after Duke Ellington and Van Gogh, while Mars has a crater named after “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry?

Oseid’s luminous illustrations act as eye-catching anchors on each page, in hues of black, slate blue and white that remind readers of the mysteries of the night sky.

ALL THOSE WHO WANDER
We’ve come a long way from the days when John James Audubon tied threads to the legs of birds to prove that certain ones returned to his farm year after year. As geographer James Cheshire and designer Oliver Uberti explain in their fascinating collaboration, Where the Animals Go: Tracking Wildlife with Technology in 50 Maps and Graphics, today’s scientists can rely on any number of innovations, including radio, satellite and GPS to track animals.

Not only does Cheshire and Uberti’s book contain gorgeous graphics (maps of sea turtles swimming through the seas, Burmese pythons slithering through the Everglades, geese migrating over the Himalayas), it also presents an amazing series of stories to accompany their maps. Who can resist tales like “The Elephant Who Texted for Help,” “The Jaguars Taking Selfies” or “The Wolf Who Traversed the Alps”?

Whether you’re a lover of data, animals or informatics, you’ll soon find yourself caught up in this wonderful book.

LOVELY, DARK AND DEEP
If you’re in the mood for some armchair forest viewing, cozy up with The Living Forest: A Visual Journey into the Heart of the Woods, written by Joan Maloof and exquisitely photographed by Robert Llewellyn. Leaf through this book and you’ll be transported to a world of soaring branches, misty mountains and a treasury of living things that includes acorns, fungi, eagles, coyotes, snakes and millipedes.

Moving from the canopy to the ground, Maloof, who founded the Old-Growth Forest Network, writes eloquent essays that read like personal tours, concentrating on both the scientific and the spiritual. As she concludes, “The forest offers beauty and poetry to those who are open to it, perhaps waiting in silence for it to appear. It feels like a shift of the heart, like falling in love.”

OFF THE MAP
Islands have long fascinated travel writer Malachy Tallack, who grew up on Scotland’s Shetland Islands and edits The Island Review. He takes readers on a journey to isles real and imagined in The Un-Discovered Islands: An Archipelago of Myths and Mysteries, Phantoms and Fakes. This unusual travelogue, full of history and stories, is illustrated with fanciful creations by noted botanical illustrator Katie Scott.

There’s a section on Atlantis, of course, and many other mythical kingdoms that you’ve likely never heard of, such as the “fraudulent” island of Javasu, which a strange woman who called herself Caraboo claimed to have come from when she appeared on the doorstep of an English village home in 1817, wearing a turban and speaking unrecognizable words. (Turns out she was an imposter named Mary Willcocks.)

Even in our modern age of satellites and GPS, mysteries like Sandy Island, noted in 2012 on maps and Google Earth as being near New Caledonia, still crop up. In fact, the island doesn’t exist, and was simply an error that had persisted since a supposed sighting in 1876.

Sit back and prepare to pleasantly lose yourself.

 

This article was originally published in the November 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Explore the far corners of the natural world in five new books, where you’ll find fascinations ranging from the remnants of a supernova to killer whales kicking up white spray in the Atlantic.

NonfictionChildren's & YANatureCrafts, Hobbies & HomeCookbooks

Unwrap and get busy: Hands-on gifts for little ones

Feature by Alice Cary

After a wild Christmas morning of unwrapping, there’s nothing better than the silence of children who are completely absorbed in their new gifts. With these books, kids can create, build, bake, imagine and marvel all year long.

Kids and adults alike will want to try out Oscar Sabini’s alluringly creative Paper Monsters: Make Monster Collages! Following on the heels of Paper Zoo, Italian illustrator and educator Sabini presents a variety of templates to make a menagerie of unbelievably cute critters. Cardstock and colorful paper are included, so all that’s needed is glue to follow his simple instructions for assembling a collage and slipping it into a pocket with a monster-shaped window. Add a few eyes, noses and teeth, and the creatures come to life. Sabini notes that any paper can be used, such as newspaper and even stamps. This self-contained art class will appeal to a wide variety of ages and act as a springboard for future collage projects. Believe me, you’ll want to try this yourself!

PINBALL WIZARDS
Open this ingenious box and have fun exploring Pinball Science: Everything That Matters About Matter by Ian Graham and Owen Davey. Inside you’ll find an instruction book and all the components needed to build a retro, science-themed pinball machine. There are no electronics here: Just insert and fold the tabs of 63 pieces of cardboard (a sturdy box slips out of the package to form the base of the pinball machine), and you’re ready to play. Meanwhile, there are accompanying lessons about gravity, force and acceleration—everything that matters when that pinball rolls out of its starting gate. In addition to instructions and science lessons, the book contains suggestions for very simple science projects using common household items. Budding scientists will have a ball.

FOR THE LITTLEST SOUS-CHEF
Roll up your sleeves and get out the oven mitts for Baking Class: 50 Fun Recipes Kids Will Love to Bake! This colorful, spiral-bound guide, presented by the aptly named kids’ cookbook writer Deanna F. Cook, features easy instructions paired with helpful pictures. There are eye-catching recipes for crispy cheese squares (think Cheez-Its) and brownie pizza, plus adorable bread art (bake an octopus or a snail) and cake and cookie decorating ideas, all rated for difficulty using a scale of one to three rolling pins. Who knew you could put designs and initials on toast using foil shields? A section on the basics gets young bakers started, and additional bonuses include stickers, bake-sale tags and design stencils to use with confectioner’s sugar.

READ AROUND THE WORLD
“How [do you] love a story?” asks prolific children’s author Jane Yolen. “Read it aloud. Let it melt in your mouth. There is magic between the mouth and ear when a story is involved.” Yolen has assembled a wonderful collection of more than 30 short folk tales for preschoolers, Once There Was a Story: Tales from Around the World, Perfect for Sharing. Old favorites (“The Gingerbread Man,” “The Ugly Ducking”) mix with little-known offerings, such as “The Little Old Lady Who Lost Her Dumpling” from Japan and “Plip, Plop,” a rabbit tale from Tibet. Yolen partners with longtime collaborator Jane Dyer, whose softly colored illustrations bring these stories to life. This enriching, thoughtful collection is sure to be a bedtime favorite.

NATURE’S BUILDERS
“Welcome to nature’s very own super-clever construction world,” writes Moira Butterfield in How Animals Build. There are fun facts and lifting flaps galore in this lively compendium, with entire pages that unfold to reveal a bunny warren and a beehive, the many animals living in one tree and the wonders of a coral reef. Paired with Tim Hutchinson’s illuminating illustrations are brief discussions of everything from a naked mole rat’s burrow to the nearly five-foot wide nest of a European white stork. Readers also learn about some extreme builders, like two orb spiders who traveled to the International Space Station. This nicely laid out book will engage a variety of ages and interests.

DID YOU KNOW?
Somehow kids never tire of fun facts and trivia, especially when they’re alongside eye-popping photos. Middle school and older elementary readers will find plenty of tidbits to entertain everyone in the family with 13½ Incredible Things You Need to Know About Everything. Each of the book’s two-page spreads has a theme, such as “Blood Rush” (circulation), “Medical Marvels,” “A Way with Words” (language) and “On the Ball” (sports). In “Making Movies,” we learn that not everyone eats popcorn at the movies. In Norway, movie snacks can include reindeer jerky, while Indians might eat samosas, Japanese love dried sardines, and South Koreans munch on chewy dried cuttlefish. Each spread contains 13 facts, plus a “½” fact, which addresses a half-truth or misconception, such as: “Whales and dolphins don’t squirt water out of their blowholes—they use them to breathe. The stream of water vapor often seen shooting out is the result of the warm expelled air condensing when it meets the cold outside air.” Get ready for a trivia smackdown.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

After a wild Christmas morning of unwrapping, there’s nothing better than the silence of children who are completely absorbed in their new gifts. With these books, kids can create, build, bake, imagine and marvel all year long.

NonfictionPhotographyNatureMemoirAnimals

For the animal aficionado

Feature by Julie Hale

Do you know someone who likes animals a lot more than they like people? We’ve rounded up a gaggle of delightful books that celebrate creatures great and small.

Award-winning naturalist and author Sy Montgomery has visited remote regions of the world to study some of nature’s most uncommon creatures. She looks back on what she’s learned from them about communication, sensitivity and kindness in How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals, beautifully illustrated by Rebecca Green. In this funny, moving book, Montgomery recounts transformative episodes with beasts both domesticated and exotic. “Being with any animal is edifying,” she writes, “for each has a knowing that surpasses human understanding.” From Clarabelle, a “pretty and elegant” tarantula, to the playful, 40-pound Pacific octopus Octavia, the animals in Montgomery’s book have unique dispositions that align them with humankind. Montgomery’s writing is rich and lyrical, her insights invaluable. And as all animal lovers know, “Knowing someone who belongs to another species can enlarge your soul in surprising ways.”

HONORING THE ANIMALS
A touching tribute to the creatures we let into our hearts and homes, Love Can Be: A Literary Collection About Our Animals brings together contributions from a remarkable lineup of authors. Susan Orlean, Lalita Tademy, Rick Bass, Joyce Carol Oates, Alexander McCall Smith and Juan Felipe Herrera are among the 30 writers spotlighted in this excellent anthology. Standout selections include a moving essay by Delia Ephron about the bond between pets and humans; Dean Koontz’s remembrance of his golden retriever, Trixie; and an ingenious cat-inspired poem by Ursula K. Le Guin. Literature fans will love the photos of authors and their animal companions that accompany each piece. In keeping with the spirit of the season, proceeds from sales of the book will go to animal charities. This is a heartwarming, hopeful anthology.

PAMPERED POOCHES
In Puppy Styled: Japanese Dog Grooming: Before & After, Grace Chon celebrates dog grooming the Japanese way, with hand-scissoring techniques to create cuts that play up the personalities of canine clients. For this irresistible volume, Chon—an acclaimed pet photographer—snapped nearly 50 pups as they transitioned from scruffy to smart. She writes that Japanese dog grooming “has one objective: to make the dog as cute as possible!” Cuteness undoubtedly abounds in the book, along with fresh ideas for turning your frowzy mutt into a chic chien. Check out Rocco, a Yorkshire terrier whose bangs get lopped into an asymmetrical ’do, or Bowie, a bichon frise whose wayward tangles are trimmed to form a fluffy nimbus. From start to finish, Puppy Styled is crammed with tail-wagging glamour.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Do you know someone who likes animals a lot more than they like people? We’ve rounded up a gaggle of delightful books that celebrate creatures great and small.

NonfictionPhotographyNature

It’s home, and it’s the only one we’ve got

Feature by Alice Cary

The world never stops being amazing and mysterious, as these four books remind us. Each offers a unique perspective, challenging readers to observe their surroundings as never before.

Who wouldn’t want to see the photo album of astronaut Scott Kelly, who spent a year aboard the International Space Station? Infinite Wonder: An Astronaut’s Photographs from a Year in Space is a remarkably mesmerizing accomplishment, especially given the microgravity environment. Kelly not only had to brace himself and his camera to keep from floating around but also had to pan the camera quickly when focusing his lens on Earth, galloping by at 17,500 miles per hour.

Take a look inside the phone booth-size quarters where Kelly slept in a green sleeping bag attached to a wall. Check out his space-walk selfies and a shot of him watching his twin brother Mark’s appearance on “Celebrity Jeopardy.” Kelly took dazzling shots of sunsets, sunrises, auroras, New York City, Hurricane Patricia and Paris after the 2015 terrorist attack. Following in the footsteps of his artist mother, to whom this book is dedicated, he also created “Earth Art,” amazingly colorful photos that vary from realistic shots to the seemingly abstract, showing islands in the Bahamas, fiery Peruvian volcanoes and an opalescent Iran resembling shimmering gold filaments.

True to its title, Infinite Wonder offers an amazing array of jaw-dropping photographs unlike any you’ve ever seen before.

Lotus flower from Flora. © Dorling Kindersley: Gary Ombler/Kew Gardens, 2018.

 

PLANT PEERING
How about a botany primer on steroids? The subject bursts to life with a winning combination of stunning photographs and clear, concise scientific explanations in Flora: Inside the Secret World of Plants. Such lavishness comes naturally; the book is a joint venture between the Smithsonian and London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. As Smithsonian Gardens Director Barbara W. Faust explains in her foreword: “The otherworldly beauty of the magnified subjects made me feel like I had landed on Lilliput and happened upon old friends who had been supersized!”

This weighty tome takes on the fundamentals with chapters on stems and branches, seeds and fruits, roots, leaves, flowers and plant families. Within each chapter are fabulous arrays of topics: nitrogen fixing, the strangler fir, fragrant traps, exploding seedpods and a variety of mini essays on plants in art. The photographs will lure you in like insects to a Venus flytrap. See the fine hairs that cover stinging nettles, the volcanic center of a corpse flower and the soft, springy tissues of a furled fern.

Spend some time with Flora, and you’re bound to look at the world differently.

FRESH, FANCIFUL TAKES
It’s easy to get lost in the pages of Seeing Science: An Illustrated Guide to the Wonders of the Universe, a marvelous mishmash of facts and illustrations by artist and lay scientist Iris Gottlieb. This unusual collection, perfect for browsing, is divided into sections covering life, Earth and the physical sciences. Readers of all ages and diverse scientific backgrounds will find factoids of interest: In 1970, two bullfrogs were sent into space to test motion sickness because their internal systems of balance are similar to humans’. Or how about this: Some ghost “encounters” can be explained by the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning, which causes hallucinations.

Gottlieb’s illustrations are fun, funky and informative, and her quirky sense of humor and intellectual curiosity up the entertainment value of Seeing Science.

FOREST BATHING
If all the data about climate change has left you down in the dumps, revitalize yourself with The Hidden Life of Trees: The Illustrated Edition, an abridged edition of German forester Peter Wohlleben’s bestselling book about the many secrets of our deep-rooted forest friends. This seems like a book that’s meant to be illustrated, after all, and these luminous photographs from around the world underscore Wohlleben’s intriguing explanations and arguments.

Just as Temple Grandin has revolutionized the way people think about livestock, Wohlleben is changing the conversations people have about trees by revealing the ways they react and communicate in social networks. While this book is full of inspiring photographs, it’s also meant to be read, not simply perused. Happily, Wohlleben’s lively writing style makes that a snap, with passages that ask, “So why do trees live so long? After all, they could grow just like wild flowers: grow like gangbusters for the summer, bloom, set seed, and then be recycled into humus.”

Tackling everything from “Community Housing” (animals and insects that inhabit trees) to “Street Kids” (urban trees), The Hidden Life of Trees: The Illustrated Edition leads readers on a thought-provoking nature expedition.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

The world never stops being amazing and mysterious, as these four books remind us. Each offers a unique perspective, challenging readers to observe their surroundings as never before.

Nature

Lifestyles: September 2019

Feature by Susannah Felts

★ Dark Skies
I’d never heard of astrotourism until Dark Skies crossed my desk. At a time when 80% of the planet sleeps under light-polluted skies (make that 99% in the USA), stargazing is, more than ever, a brush with the exotic. “Less than one hundred years ago, seeing the unobscured night sky was a birthright; now it is inaccessible to urban and suburban residents across the globe,” writes Valerie Stimac. This thorough book lays out the best dark-sky spots worldwide and contains everything you need to know about astronomical phenomena like meteor showers, aurora and eclipses through 2028. There’s even a section on space tourism (the future is now!). 

One-Pot Vegetarian
“One-pot” cookbooks have popped up everywhere lately, but none has drawn me in like Sabrina Fauda-Rôle’s One-Pot Vegetarian. Why? It could be that I’m eager to incorporate more plant-based cooking into my family’s daily routine. But it might also be the nifty design of this title, which makes the most of its double-page spreads. On the left, we see the raw ingredients collected in the pot—everything neatly parceled, as if in a pie chart—and on the right, the finished, cooked dish. Wildly satisfying, this conceit. Chapters include all-veg dishes, those that mix in plant-based proteins (grains, lentils, soy and such), pasta- and rice-driven meals, soups and even desserts. Some recipes call for a fair amount of chopping and slicing, but otherwise the preparations could not be simpler.

How Your Story Sets You Free
Everybody has a story to tell. Though the line has become a bit cliché, let’s not overlook its useful truth. Personal stories are powerful stuff, and that power can be summoned in so many ways: sharing your story, listening to others, learning to craft the story itself. With How Your Story Sets You Free, co-authors Heather Box and Julian Mocine-McQueen distill the storytelling process into a tiny, bright yellow volume that feels like its own kind of golden ticket. “When you take the mic and share your story,” writes Box, “you immediately make more space in our culture for someone else.” The title is part of Chronicle’s HOW series, which all seem like jewels of compressed wisdom. 

★ Dark Skies
I’d never heard of astrotourism until Dark Skies crossed my desk. At a time when 80% of the planet sleeps under light-polluted skies (make that 99% in the USA), stargazing is, more than ever, a brush with the exotic. “Less than one hundred…

NonfictionNature

Gift books: For the eternally, incurably curious

Feature by Julie Hale

They’ve got probing minds and roving intellects. They simply must unlock the secrets of every subject. And they’re going to love these books.

Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds by Ian Wright
Nowadays, maps do much more than keep us on the proper path. Researchers use cartographic methods to harness all sorts of information, and the results, as Ian Wright demonstrates with Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds: 100 New Ways to See the World, are intriguing. In this fascinating atlas, Wright—the mastermind behind the popular website Brilliant Maps—sheds light on the politics, economies, customs and cultures of countries across the globe. Wright uses colorful, easy-to-decode infographics to answer questions many of us might never think to ask (e.g., Where can the highest speed limits for driving be found? Which countries have no rivers?). He also analyzes in-the-news issues, presenting maps that depict the world’s open borders and the nations with the greatest immigrant populations. His book connects readers with an astonishing range of international data—no passport required.

The Amusement Park by Stephen M. Silverman
Readers are bound to get a rush from The Amusement Park: 900 Years of Thrills and Spills, and the Dreamers and Schemers Who Built Them by historian Stephen M. Silverman. Delivering a wonderfully detailed account of how the amusement park as we know it came to be, Silverman traces the roots of tourist hot spots like Ferrari World Abu Dubai—home of the fastest roller coaster on the planet—back to the medieval pleasure gardens of Europe. In this exhilarating compilation, Silverman spotlights noteworthy parks of the 19th and early 20th centuries and the innovative, often controversial thinkers behind their construction. He also considers contemporary attractions such as Disneyland, Cedar Point and Six Flags Great Adventure, and discusses today’s daringly designed roller coasters, including theme-park behemoths Steel Vengeance and Kingda Ka. Filled with photographs, illustrations and archival advertisements, this high-flying history will thrill adrenaline junkies and history buffs alike.

Airline Maps by Mark Ovenden & Maxwell Roberts
Anyone who’s curious about the early years of commercial flight—those distant days when tickets, terminals and take-offs inspired excitement (the good kind) in the hearts of travelers—will want to log some hours with Airline Maps: A Century of Art and Design. Map historians Mark Ovenden (author of the bestselling Transit Maps of the World) and Maxwell Roberts organized this nifty volume, which explores the evolution of air travel through a fabulous selection of visuals, with an emphasis on maps and flight charts. Beginning in 1919, the book documents the growth of the industry, marking milestones like the rise of big-brand carriers and the debut of the jumbo jet, and shows how that growth was reflected in the creative work of cartographers and designers. From the art deco-influenced flight maps and stylish travel posters of the 1930s and ’40s to the heady ads of the ’60s and beyond, this volume is a fun, informative flashback.

Sun and Moon by Mark Holborn
Capturing a sense of the infinite unknown that enraptures dedicated stargazers, Mark Holborn’s Sun and Moon: A Story of Astronomy, Photography, and Mapping is an extensive—and stunning—visual history of space exploration. The volume begins with a look at the space observatories of prehistoric times and moves forward to chronicle the rise of telescopes and satellites that brought the vast reaches of the heavens closer to home. The book also examines the allure of the moon, which endures even 50 years after the Apollo 11 mission, and its particular appeal to astronomers and intellectuals. Holborn used materials from the collections of the Royal Observatory Greenwich and the Royal Astronomical Society in producing this majestic volume. Elegantly designed, with nearly 300 images, Sun and Moon is an altogether grand retrospective of humankind’s attempts to make sense of the mysteries of space.

Consider the Platypus by Maggie Ryan Sandford
For readers who take pleasure in pondering the enigmas of the natural world, Consider the Platypus: Evolution Through Biology’s Most Baffling Beasts is a can’t-miss gift. In this frequently funny, thoroughly accessible volume, science writer Maggie Ryan Sandford investigates the nature of genetic development through a study of 40-plus animals. Tracking the history of each creature, she reveals how its traits and behavior have adjusted over time for the purposes of survival. Along with the friendly and familiar (bottlenose dolphin, domestic dog), Sandford’s cross-section of specimens features examples of evolution’s odder offerings, like the hoatzin—a red-eyed, blue-faced tropical bird that, despite sizable wings, is a flying failure—and that great hodgepodge the platypus, to all appearances a cross between beaver, otter and duck. Rodica Prato’s masterful illustrations showcase the quirks and foibles of her singular subjects. If only biology class could have been this much fun.

They’ve got probing minds and roving intellects. They simply must unlock the secrets of every subject. And they’re going to love these books.

NonfictionNatureArt

Gift books: For the outdoorsy person who’s always planning the next hike

Feature by Megan Reardon

Find your way home with these special books.

The cold and dark of winter can lead to neglected boots and seriously unrequited wanderlust for trekkers of a certain latitude. Although they might not fit into an ultralight pack, these five books will inspire the avid hiker in your life to plan their next adventure.

National Geographic Atlas of the National Parks by Jon Waterman
Any outdoor lover will appreciate the lush and comprehensive National Geographic Atlas of the National Parks. Former ranger Jon Waterman profiles 60 national parks, from the Gates of the Arctic to American Samoa’s jungles, with detailed maps, photographs and plenty of stories of the parks’ histories and ecosystems that are perfect for omnivorous readers. The information is practical for planning a visit, but more importantly it’ll make you itch to see them all. It’s hard to read a book like this without being awed by the enormous treasure these parks represent. (Send copies to your elected officials.) There’s no substitute for visiting, but this atlas is a fine alternative.

Hiker Trash by Sarah Kaizar
Sarah Kaizar’s unique Hiker Trash is neither a guidebook nor a personal memoir, but rather a collage of the places and personalities along the Appalachian Trail. Although it celebrates the beauty of the landscapes with Nicholas Reichard’s photographs and Kaizar’s graceful illustrations of the trail’s iconic shelters, the real star of the book is the community of tired, inspired hikers who have built a network of communication through the shelters’ trail logs. Through their handwritten messages, this eclectic group of modern nomads (with trail names like Food Truck and Dr. Pickles) tell their stories: jokes, lamentations, triumphs, shout-outs to friends ahead and behind. Evocative scenes of hikers in repose—with Sawyer filters, socks and snacks—feel instantly relatable to anyone already seasoned on long-distance trails, but these images will also resonate with anyone looking for a glimpse into a sometimes smelly, always fascinating hiking subculture.

She Explores by Gale Straub
The digital community She Explores, created by author Gale Straub through her website and podcast of the same name, comes into gorgeous, tangible form in a new book. With personal vignettes by outdoorswomen and stirring photography, Straub curates stories that challenge the one-size-fits-all archetype of what it means to be “outdoorsy.” Nomads, entrepreneurs, mothers, activists and artists all share space in these pages. Tucked between their anecdotes are tips on skills from solo hiking to how to stay creatively inspired. Unlike outdoor narratives that focus on elite extremes, She Explores feels accessible, inspiring and affirming that the outdoors is for all. You’ll find yourself wanting to connect with these women and write your own story, too.

Expeditions Unpacked by Ed Stafford
Spend too long with a group of outdoor nuts, and talk will inevitably turn to gear. You’ll watch a dreamy look come into someone’s eyes as they wax poetic about the weight of their favorite tent. British explorer Ed Stafford’s fascinating Expeditions Unpacked details the stories of 25 adventurers and their famed expeditions by analyzing their gear. Poring over beautiful flat-lay illustrations for each expedition, armchair travelers can compare the kits of pioneers like Roald Amundsen, Amelia Earhart and Thor Heyerdahl, as well as lesser-known adventurers like Clärenore Stinnes, the first woman to circumnavigate the world by car. In each chapter, Stafford examines how the chosen gear impacted the expedition. The minutiae of the selections reveals not only the hazards of their journeys but also the explorers’ personalities, as with Percy Fawcett’s accordion in the Amazon and contemporary balloonist Fedor Konyukhov’s religious icons. Curious outdoor lovers of any stripe will find something to inspire them here.

An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo
U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s An American Sunrise is an important companion for the thoughtful hiker ready to wrestle with complex questions of land ownership and stewardship. Harjo, the first Native American laureate, synthesizes history, memory and contemporary issues in her collection of poetry that laments the treatment of Native peoples and sings tribute to her Muscogee Creek heritage and ancestors. The legacy of the Trail of Tears and its echoes in today’s political landscape weave together with her personal experiences, benedictions and exhortations for us to care for the earth—and to listen. Leave the other books on your nightstand; this one is slim but powerful, with plenty of complexity to unravel as it keeps you company on a solo trail. It deserves to be appreciated in the wild spaces that Harjo celebrates: “for even the land is a singer, a lover of poetry.”

Find your way home with these special books.
NonfictionNatureCrafts, Hobbies & Home

Gift books: For the gardener, the composter, the lover of flowers

Feature by Annie Peters

As in one of the loveliest lines attributed to Margaret Atwood, “In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”

For those who love to spend time outside in their garden, four entertaining books on clouds, bees, flower scents and Emily Dickinson’s gardens will provide ample diversion during the cold, wet days of winter.

A Cloud a Day by Gavin Pretor-Pinney
How often do you really notice the beauty and diversity of clouds? Readers of Gavin Pretor-Pinney’s A Cloud a Day will be hard-pressed to ignore the skies again. He has gathered a year’s worth of cloud pictures from all over the world, many of which were taken by members of his Cloud Appreciation Society. Thought-provoking quotations and explanations of lesser-known cloud formations accompany the photos. He even includes clouds from unexpected places like distant planets and famous paintings. Fun charts aid readers in navigating the book by helping them locate certain cloud formations, artworks, optical effects and imaginative descriptions. In his introduction, Pretor-Pinney explains that we live upon an ocean of gasses, and that it would improve the quality of our lives to spend a bit of time noticing that ever-changing ocean around us. After perusing this enlightening book, many readers will agree.

The Little Book of Bees by Hilary Kearney
Most of us are aware that our honeybees are endangered, but few may realize how fascinating these helpful creatures really are or the ways we can support them. Hilary Kearney’s The Little Book of Bees proves an excellent remedy for these shortcomings. A beekeeper, writer and artist who hosts workshops for other beekeepers, Kearney starts by providing brief, digestible descriptions of flowers, pollination and bee evolution. She goes on to describe bee anatomy, the many types of bees and their various social organizations. Next, she turns to honey: what it is, the different types and its uses. Finally, she offers an introduction to beekeeping, an explanation of why bees are endangered and a list of easy steps the average person can take to help them. For readers who wish to know more, Kearney provides a brief list of additional resources. For all its usefulness, The Little Book of Bees is also filled with wonderful illustrations by Amy Holliday and fascinating tidbits of bee trivia, making this book not only a treasure trove of information for those interested in bees but also delightfully entertaining.

The Scentual Garden by Ken Druse
Bees naturally bring flowers to mind, and Ken Druse delivers a unique approach to flower gardening in The Scentual Garden. Druse focuses on plants solely through their significance to our sense of smell. He begins by providing a brief but provocative explanation of why plants produce a scent, how our olfactory sense works and methods for capturing scent. By far the bulk of the book, however, is an encyclopedia of fragrant plants with incredibly sensual descriptions that will help even the most dejected gardener endure the darkest days of winter. The most striking aspect of the book is the absolutely exquisite garden photographs by Druse and botanical photographs by Ellen Hoverkamp. While the information contained in the encyclopedia may prove eye-opening to new and experienced gardeners alike, the photographs make The Scentual Garden a gorgeous addition to any home.

Emily Dickenson’s Gardening Life by Marta McDowell
Finally, for gardeners with an affection for poetry, Marta McDowell’s Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life may prove a perfect choice. In this newly revised and expanded edition, McDowell, a past Gardener-in-Residence at the Emily Dickinson Museum, first surveys Dickinson’s life, describing the garden at the poet’s lifelong home throughout the seasons. McDowell frequently quotes Dickinson’s poetry to highlight pertinent connections between her garden and her writing.  Although no photographs of Dickinson’s garden taken during her lifetime have been discovered, McDowell includes lovely hand-drawn botanical illustrations by Dickinson’s contemporaries and colorful, present-day photos of some of the plants in question, as well as vintage and modern photographs of significant buildings and landscapes. McDowell also includes chapters on how to plant a garden similar to Dickinson’s, the painstaking efforts to restore Dickinson’s garden and a detailed list of the plants cultivated by the Dickinson family. Taken as a whole, Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life gives readers the real sense that they can almost slip back in time and survey Dickinson’s garden with her.

As in one of the loveliest lines attributed to Margaret Atwood, “In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”

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