Featured Book Review
Newly Noted Books
Lesser Living Creatures of the Renaissance
As someone who nourishes active interests in both the arts and the sciences, particularly natural philosophy, and the literature and history of early modern England, I could scarcely believe my good fortune to have been made aware of “Lesser Living Creatures of the Renaissance.”
The Sceptical Botanist
One of the challenges facing the reader when the subject of a book, article, or particularly social media post is plants is sorting through what is accurate, well-established information from what is… well, manure. Fortunately, some authors who possess genuine, well-founded knowledge of the subject, such as Prof. Tim Entwisle, are making the effort to weed out the bad information so that the good may bear fruit.
Reading the World
If one was to make a list of the words potentially appearing on the cover of a book that would most likely stop me in my tracks whilst perusing the shelves in a bookshop, “reading,” “British,” and “natural history” would all be in the top ten.
Extracting the Future
Once a very unusual type of battery, lithium cells in their many different forms have become more than just common, they have become essential to technology-dependent societies in such ubiquitous devices as mobile phones and electric motor vehicles. And therein lies the problem.
Biographies
Birds in a Cage
As is now taught in special courses designed to aide military personnel in the event of their being captured, one of the greatest dangers to the psychological health, and thus the physical endurance and well-being, of a person held in captivity is that of boredom.
Life Science Books
A Remarkable New Type of Field Guide
Back in May of 2025, whilst attending The Biggest Week in American Birding, Dr. Robert Kirk, Princeton University Press’ Publisher of the Press’ Princeton Field Guides and Natural History categories, drew my attention to the then recently published Habitats of North America: A Field Guide for Birders, Naturalists, and Ecologists. Right away I could tell […]
Bats of the World
Newly published in the U.S. as of March 2026, “Bats of the World: A Guide to Every Family” by Winifred Frick and M. Teague O’Mara offers a richly illustrated profile of every family of the Order Chiroptera.
Physical Science Books
Resisting the Post-factual World
They were special books – you could tell that just from the fact that they were kept in an unique set of shelves all by themselves in my middle school’s library. And of course by their size – they were so large that the set of shelves in which they were kept had a slanted […]
Going Deep
When taking up Jan Zalasiewicz’ and Mark Williams’ Ocean Worlds; The Story of Seas on Earth and Other Planets be prepared to go deep – deep into the oceans, deep into the Earth, deep into space, and even deep into time itself. For as the authors make very clear, an understanding of the Earth’s oceans […]
Interdisciplinary Natural Science Books
History (of Natural History, of Science, of Medicine) Books
Introducing Medieval Animal Names
Ben Parsons’ “Introducing Medieval Animal Names,” the most recent addition to the superb Medieval Animals series from Gwasc Prifysgol Cymru / University of Wales Press is now available in both the UK and the US.
Goats in America
Tami Parr’s newly published “Goats in America; A Cultural History” presents the long and multi-faceted relationship of these remarkable animals in America from the beginning of the colonial period right up to the present day.
Natural History Books
Living with Lynx
For those who live in areas that have been without such large animals as lynx, wolves and bears for decades and even centuries, the proposition of them being returned to their former ranges is one fraught with a range of emotions, some positive and others no so much. Dr. Jonny Horton’s “Living with Lynx” explores these as well as the research and arguments behind re-wilding.
Born of Fire and Rain
While I’ve reviewed and reported on more books than I can reliably count that present the natural history of many a geographic area, I’ve not previously had the pleasure to be able to do so about one that presents such information about the place that I’ve called home for approaching three score years – not, at least, until the recent arrival upon my desk of Dr. M. L. Herring’s “Born of Fire and Rain; Journey into a Pacific Coastal Forest.”