Chad Hanson’s gorgeous book The Wild Horse Effect: Awe, Well-Being, and the Transformative Power of Nature combines beautiful imagery of the West and wild horses with reflections on mindfulness, nature, and the science of awe. Sociologist and photographer Hanson shows how “the wild horse effect”—witnessing these majestic wild animals in their natural environment—can evoke our …
In Charlotte McConaghy’s lovely new novel, Wild Dark Shore, Dominic Salt and his family—eighteen-year-old Raff, seventeen-year-old Fen, and nine-year-old Orly—moved to Shearwater Island eight years earlier, when Dominic “needed a job, and I needed it to be far away.” While formerly living among researchers, the rising seas have forced the scientists to evacuate, and the …
Nearly 30 years ago, the first genetically modified (GM) seed produced a tomato known as the Flavr Savr. The tomato was engineered for longer shelf life which was where it spent most of its time. Consumers didn’t like the way it tasted and it soon went the way of history. But that didn’t stop Monsanto …
Christina Lynch’s Pony Confidential is a light, highly readable mystery co-narrated by murder suspect Penny and her childhood pet, Pony, who comes to her rescue despite his lingering resentment that Penny sold him when he was young. When Penny is arrested and extradited for a murder she allegedly committed in New York State when she was twelve …
So many amazing books. So little time to review them all… Solar Adobe: Energy, Ecology, and Earthen Architecture By Albert Narath How a centuries-old architectural tradition reemerged as a potential solution to the political and environmental crises of the 1970s Against the backdrop of a global energy crisis, a widespread movement embracing the use of …
In his book Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication, Arik Kershenbaum notes that animal communication is a young science, and this addition to it, focusing on seven animals, six of them nonhuman, is a fun and fascinating read. In looking at these six nonhuman species, Kershenbaum concludes that nonhuman “animals can talk. Just …
In Fiona Warnick’s novel The Skunks, recent college graduate Isabel moves back to her hometown to housesit, babysit, work at a yoga studio, and try to avoid thinking about boys. She knows she is a bit obsessed; as her longtime friend Ellie tells her, “I can probably name more boys you’ve liked than classes you’ve taken.” …
If history is written by the victors, then this book is a much-needed step forward in our awareness and understanding of the non-human animals who have suffered at the hands of humans for millennia. Judging by the title, I expected to find a book weighing in at a thousand or more pages. But at just …
Tin House, 2023 Hermann Hesse once wrote that the key to existential joy was in learning how to listen to the trees. There is also great pleasure to be had from reading about trees, and now you can enjoy arboreal texts translated into Tree. Conceptual artist Katie Holten has reimagined the alphabet, centering trees instead …
By Kate J. Neville Texas Tech University Press, 2024, The Sowell Emerging Writers Prize Winner I read Going to Seed right before the U.S election, when I was full of hope for the future of the earth, frantically writing postcards and going to purple states to canvass door-to-door, ready to usher in a woman president. …
We published 30 book reviews this year and read many more. And out of all the books we’ve read, here are a handful of our favorites. You’ll find a mix of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did! Nicole Emanuel You Are Here Whether you are craving a …
