This blog’s Books of the Year 2023

It seems that I have reviewed 47 books on this blog this year – slightly fewer than in the last couple of years – but a wide-ranging varied selection including many high quality works. If you are looking for a Christmas present for a nature-loving naturalist then this list might give you some ideas and I’ve whittled it down to a short list of 14 books that most impressed me before plumping for the best, just in my opinion, of them all. Here is the full list in alphabetical order by author, with links to my reviews:

The Meaning of Geese by Nick Acheson – review

Nature’s Wonders by Jane Adams – review

Twitching by Numbers by Garry Bagnell – review

Wild Isles by Patrick Barkham and Alistair Fothergill – review

101 Curious Tales of East African Birds by Colin Beale  – review

Solitary Bees by Ted Benton and Nick Owens – review

Sea Mammals by Annalisa Berta – review

Big Bat Year by Nils Bouillard – review

Beastly by Keggie Carew – review 

Nature’s Calendar by Keira Chapman et al. – review

Landscape by Rosamunde Codling – review

The Tadpole Hunter by Arnold Cooke  – review

Terns of North America by Cameron Cox – review

Traffication by Paul Donald – review

The Peak by Rod Dunn – review

Shaping the Wild by David Elias – review

Cry of the Wild by Charles Foster – review

The Green Woodpecker by Gerard Gorman – review

A Connecticut Yankee goes to Washington by Will McLean Greeley – review

The Complete Insect by David Grimaldi (ed.) – review 

Finding W.H. Hudson by Conor Mark Jameson – review 

Inn Search of Birds by John Lawton – review

Wild Air by James MacDonald Lockhart – review

An Atlas of Endangered Species by Megan McCubbin – review 

Island to Island by Sally Mills – review

The Return of the Grey Partridge by Roger Morgan-Grenville and Edward Norfolk – review

Across a Waking Land by Roger Morgan-Grenville – review

Ghosts in the Hedgerow by Tom Moorhouse – review

Diary of a Secret Royal by Henry Morris – review

Ten Birds that Changed the World by Stephen Moss – review

Wildlife in the Balance by Simon Mustoe – review

Earth by Chris Packham and Andrew Cohen – review

Call of the Kingfisher by Nick Penny – review

When the Kite Builds by Mike Pienkowski – review

The Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife by Lee Ray – review

Reconnection by Miles Richardson – review

Two Lights by James Roberts – review

Treated Like Animals by Alick Simmons – review 

Yellowstone’s Birds by D. Smith et al. – review

The Biodiversity Gardener by Paul Sterry – review

Cruel Intentions by Alan Stewart – review

The Bone Cave by Dougie Strang – review

The Purple Sandpiper by Ron Summers – review

Collins Bird Guide, 3rd edition by Lars Svensson et al. – review

The Book of Wilding by Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell – review

Nature Conservation in Europe by Graham Tucker (ed)  – review

The Vegan Gardener by John Walker – review

The Painted Lady by Elvira Werkman and Maxime Beck – review

Planting with Nature by Kirsty Wilson – review

 

 *  *  *  *  *

Shortlist for my Book of the Year 2023

I have picked my book of the year, but I’ll reveal that right at the end of this post.

Is it even sensible to pick books of the year? If you have been waiting for a book about the Green Woodpecker, the birds of Yellowstone National Park  or the life of WH Hudson then the books that deal with those topics may be, far and away, your books of 2023.

And I haven’t read every ‘nature’ book going. I notice that there is less of an overlap than usual between Stephen Moss’s list this year, and mine, maybe because Stephen can’t read them all either!

I read and review books that I am sent and ones I buy. If I haven’t reviewed your book this year then that is because your publisher didn’t send it to me, or I turned down the offer to receive it, and I didn’t go out and buy a copy because I had plenty on my plate. There are a few books which I wish I had been sent but wasn’t.

I’ve reviewed many books published by Pelagic Publishing this year, not because they have published several of my own books, but because they publish quite a few books that interest me a lot – and three are on the shortlist below. I’ve also reviewed books published outside the UK, by Princeton University Press, Rochester Institute of Technology and Noordboek Natuur, as well as several excellent self-published works.

At this time of year I look back on the books I’ve read and try to judge them by their impacts on me – was I interested, challenged, informed? Very clearly, that makes these choices personal ones because what I find interesting you may not, and what I find challenging may seem commonplace to you.

Roger Morgan-Grenville’s and Edward Norfolk’s The Return of The Grey Partridge is a strong contender for Book of the Year but since it isn’t published until February it will take its chances next year (but do order it now!).

Here, though, are my top 14 books of the year (still in alphabetical order by author) so my Book of 2023 is one of these;

1. Twitching by Numbers by Garry Bagnell – review (A book about the strange hobby of twitching – trying to see as many bird species as possible, in this case, in the UK. It’s an addiction, and it’s mainly blokes who are addicted. This is a very honest and revealing account).
2. 101 Curious Tales of East African Birds by Colin Beale – review (A book which clearly describes the fascinating biology of these species).
3. Sea Mammals by Annalisa Berta – review (The biology of cornerstone marine species – many extant, some extinct)
4. Beastly by Keggie Carew – review (Different, quirky, fascinating – a series of tales about wildlife)
5. Nature’s Calendar by Keira Chapman et al. – review (How would the 72 Japanese seasons fit the changes in nature in the UK, from four authors)
6. Terns of North America by Cameron Cox – review (A photographic identification guide to terns found in North America (and most of them in many other places too) which is beautiful and useful all in one)
7. Traffication by Paul Donald – review (The author makes the case for road use being a major factor in wildlife loss. Beautifully written and clear science)
8. Shaping the Wild by David Elias – review (A loving but not sentimental look at land use issues through the case study of one upland farm in Wales)
9. Cry of the Wild by Charles Foster – review (Eight species’ stories told through gritty anthropomorphic accounts of individuals. I haven’t read anything like this before)
10. Ten Birds that Changed the World by Stephen Moss – review (Ten species chosen as vehicles to explore wider issues of conservation, economics and more. I loved it)
11. Earth by Chris Packham and Andrew Cohen – review (A companion book to an excellent television series which allows one to get deeper into the events on our planet at leisure. Superbly illustrated)
12. Treated Like Animals by Alick Simmons – review (Reviewed last year but published this year. A very good review of the ethics of how we treat animals, and importantly for me, including wild animals in hunting, shooting, fishing and nature conservation. Should be widely read and is a good read)
13. The Purple Sandpiper by Ron Summers – review (Self-published book about a dumpy wader of rocky shores. Clearly written and beautifully illustrated)
14. The Painted Lady by Elvira Werkman and Maxime Beck – review (A familiar butterfly across much of the northern hemisphere but this short book brings together fascinating aspects of its ecology, particularly its migrations)

 *  *  *  *  *

Covers?

I’ve rated all of the reviewed books’ covers as well. Although you can’t judge a book wholly by its cover (or its title) you can expect to see something that tells you about the book that lies between the covers. I’m looking for a cover that is attractive (or if not, then striking) and which informs (it would be odd for a cover to be full of birds if the pages are not) and which in some way captures the tone and mood of the writing. That isn’t easy to do – and it must be easier for some books than others.

The breakdown of my scores for covers is as follows; 9/10, 7; 8/10, 18; 7/10, 8; 6/10, 9; 5/10, 2;, 4/10, 2 and 3/10, 1.

Here are three examples of covers – scoring 9/10, 6/10 and 3/10 respectively.

The Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife: this cover immediately conjures up olden days and times when we knew much less about the wildlife around us. And that’s what the book is about. It is uncluttered and I found it quite arresting. If I saw it in a bookshop I’d pick up the book. I gave it 9/10.

 

 

Inn Search of Birds: the cover shows pub signs and so conveys something of the content of the book, and that the title is not a typo! But, to my mind and eye, the fonts are too big, the changes in colour of letters aren’t necessary and the pub signs are too small. The cover looks cluttered and too fussy. I gave it 6/10.

 

 

Collins Bird Guide, 3rd edition: Who cares who the publisher is? Black is an unattractive and uninviting colour.  It’s hard to see who are the authors. And the words under the Swallow are simply a boast about which many readers will  be unimpressed and about which many others will make up their own minds. I think it’s a poor cover – but it is still a top book if you want to identify birds! I gave its cover a mark of 3/10.

 

 *  *  *  *  *

Previous Books of the Year on this blog

This year’s chosen Book of the Year joins these past selections;

2022    In Search of One Last Song by Patrick Galbraith – review

2021    The Implausible Rewilding of the Pyrenees by Steve Cracknell – review

2020    Red Sixty Seven curated by Kit Jewitt – review  

and      Cottongrass Summer by Roy Dennis – review

2019    Green and Prosperous Land by Dieter Helm – review

2018    Wilding by Isabella Tree – review

2017     Sky Dancer by Gill Lewis – review

2016    Fingers in the Sparkle Jar by Chris Packham – review

2015    The Shepherd’s Life by James Rebanks – review

 *  *  *  *  *

And so, which is my Book of the Year for 2023? Well, after swithering for quite a while I decided that I had to have two this year. There were a few others which came into my thinking but these two stuck there and I found it so difficult to choose that I chose them both. They are very different books and so here they are:

Traffication: how cars destroy nature and what we can do about it by Paul Donald (Pelagic Publishing). This book tells us that roads are a much bigger problem for wildlife than we realised and coins a phrase for that problem. It is about an overlooked problem and also offers solutions (many quite tricky ones). It is brilliantly written – with clarity and wit. It’s a must-read.

 

Cry of the Wild: eight animals under siege by Charles Foster (Doubleday). Eight stories about eight individual animals (fox, orca, human, mayfly, rabbit, gannet, otter, eel). The stories are told in an anthropomorphic manner, entering the individual’s thoughts, emotions and intentions but this is gritty, intelligent anthropomorphism rather than soppy, lazy anthropomorphism. You won’t read a similar new book this year. I was riveted. And I intend to re-read it over the Christmas break.

 

*  *  *  *  *

There is another book out this year – Reflections by me.

If you’d like a signed copy then get in touch ([email protected]).

Softback £20 (incl UK P&P), hardback £26 (incl UK P&P).

Published by Pelagic – click here – and has attracted a range of good reviews (and no bad ones that I’ve seen). It has a lovely cover, by Rachael Hudson, too!

 *  *  *  * *  *

Lastly…if you’ve only just noticed that I write book reviews, around one a week through the year (but not every week and sometimes there are several on a Sunday) and want to keep in touch with them, then an easy way to do so is to subscribe to my free monthly newsletter which will zoom into your inbox on 21st of each month with links to conservation news and views as well as links to the past month’s book reviews by me – sign up here.

And lastly, lastly…that’s not quite it for books on my blog for 2023 as I have one book to review which arrived this week, I know there is another in the post and there is certainly one, maybe more, that I intend to buy. Reviews of those books will appear over the Christmas/New Year break.

[registration_form]