Mark Avery must have been somewhat busy this past week, as he only posted two books for this week’s Sunday Book Review – and the two books he chose are as different as cheese and chalk.
Mark Posts a Two-Fer
biology
Shark Biology and Conservation
Looking back over some of my recent favorite books about sharks, it caught my attention that two of them – “Sharks; the Animal Answer Guide” and “Sharks of the Shallows” – were published by Johns Hopkins University Press. And if how impressed I have thus far been by what I’ve discovered through my initial readings in their newly published “Shark Biology and Conservation; Essentials for Educators, Students, and Enthusiasts” holds true, three of my most favorite recent books about sharks will be JHUP publications.
Mark On the Importance of Wit
One of the qualities I admire most in authors writing on natural history subjects is their ability to communicate very complex or serious information using wit. It’s a skill that I find most in evidence these days among the finest of Britain’s natural history writers – Richard Jones, Helen Scales, Liam Drew, and Erica McAlister being particularly note-worthy examples whose works most readily come to mind.
To this list Mark Avery would certainly add Helen Pilcher.
Mark Goes Rock Pooling
Mark’s most recent Sunday Book Review has him stroling down by the Cornish sea-side (in his imagination, of course), having a look at the superb rock pools to be found there containing many fascinating forms of life – each with its own story – being guided by Cornwall’s own rock pooler par excellence: Heather Buttivant.