This book goes straight into my shortlist of books of the year for 2020: no doubt about it. I wish I had written this book but since I didn’t, I’m very glad that someone else did so that I could read it. I guess I am sounding enthusuastic about it – I am. It’s a…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Sunday book review – Rock Pool by Heather Buttivant
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Here in east Northants we are a bit lacking in coastal habitats and my nearest coast is muddy and sandy rather than rocky. If I lived at the coast I would love to explore the wildlife making its living, or temporarily made captive in the pools between the tidelines. As the author explains here so…
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 think of John, who I will…
Sunday book review – Into the Tangled Bank by Lev Parikian
This is as much an exploration of how we, people, interact or not with nature as it is about nature. The author talks to people and observes them as he watches nature and visits places associated with former greats such as Peter Scott, Gilbert White, John Clare, Etta Lemon, Thomas Bewick and the tangled bank…
Sunday book review – His Imperial Majesty by Matthew Oates
This is a good summery book about arguably our most spectacular of butterflies, the Purple Emperor. The author is an expert on this species and an unrestrained and unrestrainable enthusiast for this butterfly. And that makes this a very good book, packed with stories, anecdotes, history but also with good solid facts. And all wrapped…
Sunday book review – Europe’s Dragonflies by Dave Smallshire and Andy Swash
This photographic guide to Europe’s dragonflies is amazing, although WILDGuides have built up such a reputation for producing high quality books of this sort that it doesn’t come as a surprise really. But it is still amazing. Now, I have to confess that my knowledge of odonata is miniscule so the book could be riddled…
Sunday book review – On the Trail of Wolves by Philippa Forrester
Philippa Forrester, the UK broadcaster, spent over a year in the greater Yellowstone area with her film cameramen husband and their school-aged children. This book chronicles her encounters with wildlife and with Americans. I’ve been to Yellowstone twice and seen Grey Wolves there both times (and Grizzlies and Black Bears and a bunch of other…
The Well-read Naturalist
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I’ve been terribly remiss in not bringing you any news of John Riutta’s book reviews for quite a while, but he went a bit quiet for a time. I see he is back in the swing of things again now. Here are some books reviews by him that made me think in general, and think…
Sunday book review – The Accidental Countryside by Stephen Moss
It’s quite difficult to keep up with reading Stephen Moss’s books – I wonder how he writes them so quickly. But what we have come to expect is good writing with good knowledge of natural history. That is what we get here. The theme of this latest book is urban, or at least man-made, patches…
Sunday book review – Under the Stars by Matt Gaw
It is only March, and I hope to read lots of brilliant books through the rest of 2020, but I am pretty sure this volume will be in this blog’s list of books of the year. It’s a slim volume, fewer than 200 pages of text and quite well-spaced text at that, but it packs…