Featured Book Review
Newly Noted Books
Black Gold
In his new book “Black Gold; The Rise, Reign, and Fall of American Coal,” Prof. Bob Wyss presents a detailed and multi-faceted narrative history of the industry that includes the effects it has had upon American society, organized labor, governmental policy, and U.S. natural resource management.
National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of the United States and Canada, 8th Edition
After what I see as a rather long hiatus since the last major updates of two of the cornerstone field guides to the birds of North America, Peterson and Sibley, I was particularly pleased to learn that the third, the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of the United States and Canada, has recently been published in a new, fully revised, significantly expanded, and extensively updated Eighth Edition.
Essential Entomology (Second Edition)
The new second edition of “Essential Entomology” by Dr. George McGavin and Dr. Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou very favorably reminds me of a long-lost and much-beloved physical science textbook of my youth in which I found both inspiration and information that serves me well to this very day.
Making Entomologists
The rise of journals in the fields of natural history in general and entomology in particular greatly assisted in the formation of communities of interest in the study of such subjects. Dr. Matthew Wale explains in his “Making Entomologists.”
Biographies
The Life and Times of a Self-Made Snakeman
When I was a boy, every Sunday evening after the dinner dishes had been washed and the kitchen tidied up, my parents and I would sit down in front of our wood cabinet console encased (first for our family) color television set and watch Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. Hosted by the eminently calm Marlin […]
Seeing the Forest and the Trees
When I was a boy growing up in the small Pacific coast fishing and logging town of Astoria, the federal and state agencies responsible for overseeing the rivers, wildlife, and trees were a part of daily life. The agents and rangers were part of our community; not a day went by that you didn’t bump […]
Life Science Books
An Infuriatingly Delightfully Complex Bird
When I first took up birdwatching, any mention I heard, any reference I read, any non-verbal cue I perceived regarding the European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) – at least when in regard to their existence in North America – was universally negative. “Trash birds!” was a common epithet. “Ought to be exterminated” and “invasive” were two […]
Bugwatching
In his recently published “Bugwatching; the Art, Joy, and Importance of Observing Insects,” Eric R. Eaton presents his readers with a method for developing a practice of observing arthropods that is not dissimilar to that of watching birds.
Physical Science Books
Looking Up in Wonder
I remember it distinctly. It was the summer of 1976 and I was eight years old. I was standing by the door of the Pig & Pancake Restaurant in Astoria, Oregon, waiting while my father paid the bill for our meal. There was a coin-operated newspaper box in the entryway, through which the front cover […]
Bringing Light to Darkness
On Monday, 26 February 1979, the public schools in my hometown were closed. Not for any designated holiday or scheduled late winter vacation; rather they were closed as the result of an astronomical event: a total eclipse of the sun. Despite the fact that for weeks we had all been rigorously instructed about the dangers […]
Interdisciplinary Natural Science Books
History (of Natural History, of Science, of Medicine) Books
Palaeontology in Public
Edited by Dr. Chris Manias, “Palaeontology in Public” features a collection case studies, each published as a chapter, by a remarkable assembly of noteworthy authors in the field. It’s as informative as it is lively and interesting, and if you’re interested in the subject, it’s a book about which you should know.
Reflections Upon a Truly Transformative Book
In describing the absurd, unique manner by which American law has long treated – and indeed, often continues to treat – non-procreative, non-heteronomative sexual behavior, I can do no better than to quote from Alfred Kinsey et al.’s 1949 work Concepts of Normality and Abnormality in Sexual Behavior: [The law] proscribes [sexual acts which do […]
Natural History Books
The California Naturalist Handbook (Second Edition)
Substantially updated and expanded from the original 2013 edition, the new second edition of “The California Naturalist Handbook” provides very user-friendly introductions to and overviews of the plant and animal communities in the various ecoregions of the state.
Beastly Britain
In her recently published book “Beastly Britain; An Animal History,” Prof. Karen R. Jones delights her readers with recountings of the natural as well as social, folkloric, literary, and even linguistic histories of ten iconic British animal species.