A fine work of environmental journalism that, at just a glance, makes its own open-and-shut argument.
A spirited call for preserving a large, fertile piece of Alabama wilderness that may be unfamiliar to many readers.
As journalist and environmental activist Raines notes many times, the rivers that drain into the Mobile-Tensaw Delta produce a watery haven for wildlife that vastly exceeds in biodiversity many much larger ecosystems: “The 11 states that are drained by the Colorado River system are collectively home to 26 species of fish, while Alabama is home to 450 species.” “When it comes to turtles, the system’s estuary…has eighteen species, more than any other river delta in the world. More than the Amazon. More than the Mekong. More than any other river system on Earth.” The comparisons are not invidious, for, as the author points out after documenting the geological and meteorological reasons for this eco-diversity, Alabama is well behind most states in protecting its lands. If the book were to serve as an extended work of advocacy alone, it would not be any less powerful, but for those who admire both wild lands and nature writing and photography, it has considerable value. Raines has been doing his homework for many years, and he’s found things that no one else knew even existed: the burned hulk of Clotilda, the last ship to bring slaves to the U.S., in 1860; the largest remaining cypress tree, which he calls “the Lord of the Delta,” at a staggering 27 feet in circumference. The author has a strong, urgent case to make. Even as he instructs readers in why preserving such places is essential, Alabama’s plant bogs are being converted to pastures and subdivisions, such that Raines rightly worries that the superlatives he recites proudly will soon be given to records such as the most extinctions within the borders of a single state. E.O. Wilson provides the foreword.
A fine work of environmental journalism that, at just a glance, makes its own open-and-shut argument.Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-58838-338-9
Page Count: 200
Publisher: NewSouth
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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