New EcoLit Books: Spring/Summer 2016
So many books, so little time! Because we can’t review every book that catches our eye I thought we should at least try to mention new and upcoming books periodically. So …
Nonfiction
Book Review: The Dog Merchants
Most dog lovers consider their canines loyal companions, best friends, or beloved family members. (Count me in that last category.) The American legal system considers them property. Journalist Kim Kavin, in …
Holy Mōlī: Albatross and Other Ancestors
The Laysan albatross is known as Mōlī in Hawaiian. It is difficult not to speak in superlatives when describing the albatross. The bird has a wingspan longer than most humans are …
Introducing The Hopper
I’m pleased to introduce the new environmental literary journal The Hopper, along with a Q&A with the founders. Tell us a bit about The Hopper and how it came to be. …
Cloak and Jaguar: Following a Cat from Desert to Courtroom
Living in Southern Oregon, we’ve followed the comings and goings of a gray wolf named OR-7. When it dipped into Northern California, it became the first documented wolf in that …
Book Review: The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell
The Penguin Lessons is the story of a young Englishman who, on vacation in Uruguay from his teaching job at a boarding school in Argentina, rescues an oil-covered Magellanic penguin. …
Book Review: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey is a meditative, thought-provoking book about one of our most underestimated and underappreciated animals—the wild snail—and the ways in which the natural …
Book Review: The Vegan Studies Project
Donald Watson is widely credited with having coined the term “vegan” in 1944, when he and others founded the Vegan Society. Since then, the word has become so heavily loaded with cultural and emotional …
Do Unto Animals: A Guide to Raising a More Compassionate Family
I grew up around cats, so it always struck me as odd when people didn’t understand what a cat’s purr signified. Then again, I did not grow up around cows …
The Narrow Edge
The Narrow Edge By Deborah Cramer Yale University Press, 2015. The “narrow edge” in the title of this engaging book by Deborah Cramer evokes the image of …
Flight Ways: Birds living on the dull edge of extinction
In Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction, environmental philosopher Thom van Dooren tells the stories of five species of bird: Albatross Little Penguin Indian Vulture Whooping Crane Hawaiian …