New and forthcoming environmental books (October 2024)

As we enter fall we (in the Northern Hemisphere) can be grateful for reasons to stay inside — and read. Which leads me to this list of new(ish) and upcoming books that have passed across on desks… Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death By Susana Monsó When the opossum feels threatened, she becomes paralyzed. Her …

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Book Review: Honeymoons in Temporary Locations

What will a post-climate-disaster America look like? In Ashley Shelby’s short story collection, Honeymoons in Temporary Locations, the results range from devastating to absurd to all-too-plausible. This trifecta is what makes Shelby’s eclectic mix of stories unique in a genre that tends toward the dystopian.  First up is Muri, featuring talking polar bears being relocated to the South …

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Animal Tales: Novels old and new that every animal lover should read

From the snake tempting Adam and Eve to the sheep that saved Odysseus from the Cyclops, animals have featured prominently in literature from the very beginning of literature.  Today, animals play leading roles in many bestselling novels, from the dog Almondine in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle to Marcellus, the Pacific octopus in Remarkably Bright Creatures. In a …

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Book Review: The Burning Earth, A History

Reading non-fiction books about climate change has, over the years, come to feel like a form of masochism. Rarely do I come away feeling optimistic about the future of this planet and, honestly, it has taken an emotional toll. Which is why I’d much rather read novels that tackle climate change (and not necessarily of …

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Book Review: Stowaway: The Disreputable Exploits of the Rat

We have the pandemic to thank for this eye-opening, empathetic and long-overdue tribute to one of our most misunderstood and widely despised relatives. The rat. And I use relative intentionally as I learned from the book that the human species descends from rats. During the early days of Covid, while so many people were out …

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North Woods, a novel by Daniel Mason

Random House, 2023 “Shivers of lust passed through his elytra as he found her scent grow stronger,” and there we are, in the head of an Elm Bark beetle, one of many POVs in the thoroughly enchanting novel North Woods by Daniel Mason. The beetle had been deposited in this wooded piece of land in …

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Book Review: How Far the Light Reaches: A Life In Ten Sea Creatures

What do we know about life in the ocean, and what can the varied forms of life there teach us about our own lives and selves? These are the questions Sabrina Imbler (they/them), a writer and science journalist living in Brooklyn, New York, artfully, playfully, and joyfully explores in How Far the Light Reaches: A …

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Book Review: Wild Chorus: Finding Harmony with Whales, Wolves, and Other Animals

Guest book review by Gene Helfman. “…a woman’s place…is in the wild.” This remarkable book is a memoir, a unique lesson in natural history, a love poem to the wild, and a plea for peaceful coexistence with the natural world. Brenda Peterson is a multiple-award-winning, tremendously versatile, and prolific author, having published adult novels (mystery, drama, humor), …

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Book Review: The Rotting Whale

While a good many mystery novels have environmental themes, it’s rare to find a book specifically labeled “eco-mystery”—but Jann Eyrich’s new series is just that.  The Rotting Whale introduces Hugo Sandoval, a San Francisco building inspector specializing (despite his aquaphobia) in port projects. Though his job in the city has an environmental angle (he hopes to …

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Book Review: The Pelican Tide

Sharon J. Wishnow’s debut novel, The Pelican Tide—set on Grand Isle, Louisiana, in 2010, just before the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill—is both an intense environmental disaster story and a heartwarming story of a family finding their way back to one another after a series of devastating events. Josie Babineaux is a chef, mother, newly …

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