We can’t review every book we receive. But that doesn’t stop us from highlighting them.
Here is a selection of new titles worth checking out…
Horse Show
By Jess Bowers
“From the tale of Lady, the mare who read a Duke University psychologist’ s mind, to television palomino Mr. Ed’ s hypnotic hold over Wilbur Post, the thirteen tales in Horse Show explore how humans have used, abused, and spectacularized their equine companions throughout American history. Wrestling with themes of obsolescence, grief, and nostalgia, Bowers guides us through her museum of equine esoterica with arresting imagery, unflinching intensity, and dark humor.”
Museum Beasts: Poetry
By Ray Keifetz
Poet Ray Keifetz imagines a vivid world into being in his second collection.
This new poetry collection begins with images of violence and loss, of “blood prints / on the wall.” It tells of a world where “All that can be lost / has been lost.” That would seem to make for a grim undertaking, except it’s not quite true, for there remains memory, and imagination, and Ray Keifetz has imagined a vivid world into being – perhaps our world, or what it was, or what it will be – strange but recognizable, and strangely beautiful even when he ventures into dark places.
The Story is in Our Bones: How Worldviews and Climate Justice Can Remake a World in CrisisBy
By Osprey Orielle Lake
The dominant cultural worldview is based upon extraction and exploitation practices that have brought us to the precipice of social, environmental, and climate collapse. Braiding poetic storytelling, climate justice and deep cultural analyses, and the collective knowledge of Earth-centered cultures, The Story is in Our Bones opens a portal to restoration and justice beyond the end of a world in crisis.
Author, activist, and changemaker Osprey Orielle Lake weaves together ecological, mythical, political, and cultural understandings and shares her experiences working with global leaders, systems-thinkers, climate justice activists, and Indigenous Peoples. She seeks to summon a new way of being and thinking in the Anthropocene, which includes transforming the interlocking crises of colonialism, racism, patriarchy, capitalism, and ecocide, to build thriving Earth communities for all.
TOK: poems
By Gabriele Belletti, translated by Pasquale Verdicchio
With this collection of poems, Gabriele Belletti embarks on a new journey among seemingly distant places that will be discovered to be indissolubly linked. The creatures that inhabit them, foremost among them trees, birds, and children, will begin to communicate with each other once again through a song-like element capable of reconnecting the multiple destinies of a single planet.
Hitman for the Kindness Club: High Seas Escapades and Heroic Adventures of an Eco-Activist
By Paul Watson
Spanning 1961 to 2022, this electrifying collection of essays captures the spirit, mettle, and moxie of one of the most intrepid environmentalists of our times. Paul Watson developed an enduring passion for the wild as a youngster. This zeal propelled him on an uncharted adventure of outward exploration and inner evolution, with pivotal turning points bringing him to the realization that his life’s mission was to defend the natural world and all its inhabitants. Watson takes you along for the ride as he upends the Sierra Club, cofounds Greenpeace, and eventually establishes Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. His courageous, often audacious campaigns, held on every ocean and every continent, are hallmarks of his stalwart defense of Indigenous people, marine wildlife, and ecosystems worldwide.
Restoring the Pitchfork Ranch
How Healing a Southwest Oasis Holds Promise for Our Endangered Land
By A. Thomas Cole
Today the 11,300 acres that make up the Pitchfork Ranch provide an important setting for carbon sequestration, wildlife habitats, and space for the reintroduction of endangered or threatened species. A. Thomas Cole’s “Restoring the Pitchfork Ranch: How Healing a Southwest Oasis Holds Promise for Our Endangered Land” weaves together stories of mine strikers, cattle ranching, and the climate crisis into an important and inspiring call to action. For anyone who has wondered how they can help, the Pitchfork Ranch provides an inspiring way forward.
Coming Home: A Novel
By Kay Tobler Liss
Four generations of a family return to cherished places in nature from their youth and uncover buried secrets about themselves. From the coast of North Carolina to New York, from Savannah, Georgia to Switzerland, the special places include a meadow, a pine grove, a river, and mountain valley. Their journeys begin after a Christmas dinner and end a year later when they gather again to share their stories and start to heal as a family. They finally face a pivotal event-the death of a sibling and son. The most valuable lesson they learn is that nature can not only be a source of beauty and solace but of personal transformation and expanding compassion for all life.
John is co-author, with Midge Raymond, of the eco-mystery Devils Island, forthcoming in 2024. He is also author of the novels The Tourist Trail and Where Oceans Hide Their Dead. Co-founder of Ashland Creek Press and editor of Writing for Animals (also now a writing program).
