I’ve reviewed over 40 books here this year – a record. Here’s where I reveal my shortlist of eight books which might have been my book of the year, and then the two of them, because I gave up trying to choose between them, that are my joint Books of 2020. I’ll give you my…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Nature books and gender
It is a privilege to have published Stephen Moss’s round-up of nature books for the last three years, including this year’s which was published here yesterday. The number of books covered increases every year and many have said that this year provided not only a bumper crop but also more really good books than usual….
Friday book review – Naturalist by Edward O. Wilson adapted by Jim Ottaviani & C.M. Butzer
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This is a graphic adaptation of the great E.O. Wilson’s memoir Naturalist. I haven’t read the original but I have pretty much read all of this graphic book, and enjoyed it very much. On the back cover it is claimed that this book is ‘Perfect for all, young naturalists and accomplished scientists alike‘ and whereas…
Stephen Moss’s 2020 Round-up of Nature books.
Stephen Moss is a naturalist, author and course leader of the MA Travel & Nature Writing at Bath Spa University. His latest book, The Swallow: A Biography, is published by Square Peg (£12.99). Here is his annual round-up of books about wildlife, nature and the environment. @stephenmoss_tv [Mark writes: where I have read and reviewed…
Sunday book review – The Ring Ouzel by Vic Fairbrother and Ken Hutchinson
This superb book is the result of 20 years’ study of this one species by two men. I don’t know much about the two authors but they describe themselves as neither professional ornithologists nor academics – they are amateurs in only the best senses of the word. And rather than an amateur study we should…
Sunday book review – The Disappearance of Butterflies by Joseph Reicholf
This book is a great read. We should be grateful that we now have the opportunity to read this book, first published in German in 2018, in English. The author is a distinguished German entomologist. The book’s title is just slightly misleading in that it is not just about the disappearance of butterflies, for two…
Book review – The Law of the Wild by Ian Swingland
Ian Swingland is a friend of mine and it’s his 74th birthday tomorrow, so I thought I’d mention his recently-published book which is an autobiography. Ian came into my life in my 20s in the late 1970s in Oxford through a friend of a friend and we were in the same circle of Oxford-associated biologists…
The Well-read Naturalist
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I’ve been catching up with John Riutta’s recent book reviews on The Well-read Naturalist. I read all of his book reviews even those that are rather local to his part of the world, of northern Oregon. I read them because they are so thoughtful and so well written. I sometimes feel I’d rather read John’s…
Sunday book review – Bird Senses by Graham Martin
The cover of this book shows a beautiful Great Grey Owl with yellow eyes, barred feathers and trailing legs in flight, with what looks like snow falling off its legs and feet. The blurred background looks like a forest and the book’s title is in yellow with the rest of the writing in white but…
Best bird book of 2020?
The Birdwatch Birders’ Choice awards allow you to vote for the best bird book of the year. These are the five short-listed books: Red Sixty Seven All the Birds of the World Multimedia Identification Guide: shearwaters Diary of a Young Naturalist Moult and Ageing of European Passerines I’ve only read one of these books, but…