Book Review: Why Animals Talk by Arik Kershenbaum

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 …

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Call for Submissions: Companion Species

Edge Effects is a digital magazine produced by graduate students at the Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE). They are currently seeking submissions around the theme of Companion Species. Submissions are due by February 20th and there is no fee. Companionship is one of humanity’s foundational tenets. Scholars have recently challenged the anthropocentric view of companionship, …

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Animals in World History: The long-overlooked protagonists of our planet

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 …

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The Language of Trees, A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape by Katie Holten

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 …

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Going to Seed, Essays on Idleness, Nature, & Sustainable Work

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. …

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The best environmental books we’ve read in 2024

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 …

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New and forthcoming environmental books (December 2024)

This is the last “what’s new” post of 2024. Plenty of new books to check out! Happy reading — and happy new year! Crimes Against Nature: New Stories of Environmental Villainy Edited by Robert Lopresti The way we treat the world is a crime-fifteen of them, in fact. Some of the best and most honored …

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The most popular book reviews and pages of 2024

More than 35,000 people from more than 100 countries visited EcoLit Books this year. And this post shows where they spent most of their time. Here are the top 25 most-visited book reviews and web pages from January until now. The first page is no surprise but the second did surprise me given that it …

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Book Review: The Inhuman Empire: Wildlife, Colonialism, Culture

When the British colonized India throughout the 18th century they imported their narrative about the relationships between human and non-human animals. A narrative of violence and cruelty, in which wild animals were born to be hunted. But as author Sadhana Naithani writes in The Inhuman Empire, India was home to folk narratives that had existed …

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The Lives of Animals turns 25

In 1997, J.M. Coetzee delivered two lectures at Princeton University in the form of short stories. These stories ended up in the novella The Lives of Animals, which now is celebrating 25 years. In these stories, Coetzee introduced the world to the character of Elizabeth Costello, a famous Australian novelist who has reached the eff …

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New and forthcoming environmental books (November 2024)

I’m happy to share the latest assortment of environmental and animal books that have come our way… please check them out! Birds Beasts and Bedlam By Derek Gow Author of Bringing Back the Beaver and Hunt for the Shadow Wolf, Derek shares his personal, courageous, and highly entertaining tales in Birds, Beasts and Bedlam, including how he raised a …

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