Featured Book Review
Newly Noted 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.
The Rachel Carson Collection Boxed Set
This coming October, The Library of America will publish a new boxed set of their Rachel Carson Collection. I doubt that most regular readers of “The Well-read Naturalist” need any introduction to Rachel Carson or her work, but but for those who might be just beginning their journey into the wonders of natural history, she was a marine biologist whose trilogy of books about the sea have introduced the wonders of the ocean world and the challenges facing it to readers all around the world.
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.
Birdwatching in New York City and on Long Island (Second Edition)
For those birdwatchers living in or visiting the Big Apple, Brandeis University Press has recently published an updated second edition of “Birdwatching in New York City and on Long Island” by Deborah Rivel and Kellye Rosenheim.
Biographies
Life Science Books
Butterflies of Britain and Western Europe and Their Caterpillars
For those aurelians who have been eagerly awaiting the publication of Jean-Pierre Moussus’ “Butterflies of Britain and Western Europe and Their Caterpillars: An Identification Guide” to be published in the United States following its publication last December in the United Kingdom, the wait is finally over.
A Tour Through One of History’s Greatest Minds
The legacy of the late eighteenth, early nineteenth century polymath Alexander von Humboldt is as extraordinary as the life he lived. Natural philosopher, world traveler, explorer, mountain climber, geographer, social and political thinker, von Humboldt packed so much into his eighty-nine years of existence on our planet that in reading his biography it is sometimes […]
Physical Science Books
Interdisciplinary Natural Science Books
History (of Natural History, of Science, of Medicine) Books
A History of Transgender Medicine in the United States
If those of us in the United States are to hold an intelligent and mature public discussion (yes, I know… a person can hope though) about transgender matters, it is of the most high importance to our fellow citizens and ourselves that we become informed about the history and the science pertaining to the subject.
A Delightfully Aesthetic Science
Titled in reference to, and honor of, Phillip Henry Gosse’s classic 1861 book The Romance of Natural History , Dr. Lynn Merrill’s The Romance of Victorian Natural History presents an examination of not only Mr. Gosse’s own writings but those of his Nineteenth Century fellow amateur natural history practitioners as well. Yet even if this […]
Natural History Books
Then There Were Dragons
The phrase “here there be dragons,” so famously seen on old maps indicating places where there were great and mysterious dangers to be found, was not so very long ago not simply a metaphor. In fact, no less an authority on natural philosophy (what would later become known as natural history) than Linnaeus himself included […]
Wild Awakening
To quote Mr. Bruce Springsteen, “Born in the U.S.A / I was born in the U.S.A.” As such, and still residing there, I have too often found it too easy to become somewhat isolated from the rest of the world. As a country, the United States is both geographically large and culturally… well, loud might […]