BIRDS AND BOOKS READING GROUP
Archives of all the Books we've read by year
In case you want to find a book to read about Birds, Nature, Evolution, Adventure....
Archives of all the Books we've read by year
In case you want to find a book to read about Birds, Nature, Evolution, Adventure....
2018 BIRDS AND BOOKS
January 16, 2018
To keep us entertained over the holidays, we are suggesting reading all or part of the following trilogy:
EVER SINCE DARWIN: REFLECTIONS ON NATURAL HISTORY BY STEPHEN JAY GOULD Part 1 of the Series
Ever Since Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould's first book, has sold more than a quarter of a million copies. Like all succeeding collections by this unique writer, it brings the art of the scientific essay to unparalleled heights. Paperback, 285 pages
Published July 17th 1992 by W. W. Norton Company (first published 1977)
THE PANDA’S THUMB: MORE REFLECTIONS ON NATURAL HISTORY BY STEPHEN JAY GOULD Part 2 in the Series
Were dinosaurs really dumber than lizards? Why, after all, are roughly the same number of men and women born into the world? What led the famous Dr. Down to his theory of mongolism, and its racist residue? What do the panda's magical "thumb" and the sea turtle's perilous migration tell us about imperfections that prove the evolutionary rule? The wonders and mysteries of evolutionary biology are elegantly explored in these and other essays by the celebrated natural history writer Stephen Jay Gould. (less) Paperback, 352 pages
Published August 17th 1992 by W. W. Norton Company (first published 1980)
HEN’S TEETH AND HORSE’S TOES: FURTHER REFLECTIONS IN NATURAL HISTORY BY STEPHEN JAY GOULD Part 3 in the Series
Over a century after Darwin published the Origin of Species, Darwinian theory is in a "vibrantly healthy state," writes Stephen Jay Gould, its most engaging and illuminating exponent. Exploring the "peculiar and mysterious particulars of nature," Gould introduces the reader to some of the many and wonderful manifestations of evolutionary biology. Paperback, 416 pages
Published April 17th 1994 by W.W. Norton & Company (NY) (first published 1983)
February 20, 2018
THE WINDBIRDS: SHOREBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, by Peter Matthiessen
In this nature-writing classic, now available for the first time in paperback, National Book Award winner Peter Matthiessen captures the essence of the world's most fascinating group of birds: "The restlessness of shorebirds, their kinship with distance and swift seasons, the wistful signal of their voice down the long coastlines of the world make them, for me, the most affecting of wild creatures," writes Matthiessen. He conveys the biological and behavioral intricacies of shorebirds without dulling their romance and wonder.
Paperback, The Curious Naturalist, 168 pages
Published September 25th 1996 by W. W. Norton & Co. (first published 1973)
March 20, 2018
NATURAL ACTS: A SIDELONG VIEW OF SCIENCE AND NATURE BY DAVID QUAMMEN Essay Collection #1
Most of the pieces found in this book appeared first as installments of thee 'Natural Acts' columns that Quammen wrote regularly for Outside magazine. In an upbeat and original way of thinking Quammen writes about beetles, bats, crows, snakes and other interesting animals. Paperback, 221 pages
Published March 1st 1996 by Avon Books (first published 1985)
April 17, 2018
UNTAMED; THE WILDEST WOMAN IN AMERICA AND THE FIGHT FOR CUMBERLAND ISLAND, by Will Harlan
Carol Ruckdeschel is the wildest woman in America. She eats road kill, wrestles alligators, rides horses bareback, and lives in a ramshackle cabin that she built herself in an island wilderness. She’s had three husbands and many lovers, one of whom she shot and killed in self-defense. A combination of Henry David Thoreau and Jane Goodall, Carol is a self- taught scientist who has become a tireless defender of sea turtles on Cumberland Island, a national park off the coast of Georgia.
Cumberland is the country's largest and most biologically diverse barrier island—over forty square miles of pristine wilderness celebrated for its windswept dunes and feral horses. Steel magnate Thomas Carnegie owned much of Cumberland, and his widow Lucy made it a Gilded Age playground. But in recent years, Carnegie heirs and the National Park Service have clashed with Carol over the island’s future. What happens when a dirt-poor naturalist with only a high-school diploma tries to stop one of the wealthiest families in America? Untamed is the story of an American original standing her ground and fighting for what she believes in, no matter the cost.
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published May 6th 2014 by Grove Press
May 15, 2018
Rivers and Birds by Merrill Gilfallan
This book is a collection of 14 essays containing keen observations of rivers and birds — with an emphasis on the latter. His prose is highly evocative and his love for both wing and water is rendered in the language and cadences of poetry.
June 19, 2018
The Meaning of Birds by Simon Barnes
This is a passionate and informative celebration of birds and their ability to help us understand the world we live in. Besides exploring how birds do what they do, Barnes muses on the uses of feathers, the drama of raptors, the slaughter of pheasants, the infidelities of geese, and the strangeness of feeling sentimental about blue tits while enjoying a chicken sandwich.
July 17, 2018
A Sand Country Almanac and Sketches Here and There by Aldo Leopold
This is a classic, first published in 1949, that has brought many a person to an understanding of the ways of nature. It contains some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau. Leopold wrote these informal pieces over a forty-year period as he traveled through the woodlands of Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona, Sonora, Oregon, Manitoba and elsewhere. In a final section, he addresses the philosophical issues involved in wildlife conservation.
August 21, 2018
Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds by Scott Weidensaul
Scott Weidensaul follows kettles of hawks over the Mexican coastal plains, bar-tailed godwits that hitchhike on gale winds of 7,000 miles non-stop across the Pacific from Alaska to New Zealand, and myriad songbirds whose numbers have dwindled dramatically. Migration paths form an elaborate global web now showing serious signs of fraying. Weidensaul delves into the tragedies of habitat degradation and deforestation with an urgency that brings to life the vast problems these miraculous migrants now face.
September 18, 2018
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
When Desert Solitaire was written in 1968, it became the focus of a nationwide cult. It is thought-provoking and mystical, angry and loving. It is a view of Abbey's quest to experience nature in its purest form. And it asks if any of our natural treasures can be saved before the bulldozers strike again
October 16, 2018
The Homing Instinct: Meaning and Mystery in Animal Migration by Bernd Heinrich
Acclaimed scientist and author Bernd Heinrich has returned every year since boyhood to a beloved patch of western Maine woods. What is the biology in humans in this deep-in-the-bones pull toward a particular place, and how is it related to animal homing? He explores how geese retain true visual landscape memory, how scent trails are used by many creatures, from fish to amphibians, and how the tiniest songbirds are equipped for solar and magnetic orienteering over vast distances. Most movingly, he portrays the deep psychological emotion in sandhill cranes newly arrived at their home pond in the Alaska tundra. He reminds us that to discount our own emotions toward home is to ignore biology itself.
January 16, 2018
To keep us entertained over the holidays, we are suggesting reading all or part of the following trilogy:
EVER SINCE DARWIN: REFLECTIONS ON NATURAL HISTORY BY STEPHEN JAY GOULD Part 1 of the Series
Ever Since Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould's first book, has sold more than a quarter of a million copies. Like all succeeding collections by this unique writer, it brings the art of the scientific essay to unparalleled heights. Paperback, 285 pages
Published July 17th 1992 by W. W. Norton Company (first published 1977)
THE PANDA’S THUMB: MORE REFLECTIONS ON NATURAL HISTORY BY STEPHEN JAY GOULD Part 2 in the Series
Were dinosaurs really dumber than lizards? Why, after all, are roughly the same number of men and women born into the world? What led the famous Dr. Down to his theory of mongolism, and its racist residue? What do the panda's magical "thumb" and the sea turtle's perilous migration tell us about imperfections that prove the evolutionary rule? The wonders and mysteries of evolutionary biology are elegantly explored in these and other essays by the celebrated natural history writer Stephen Jay Gould. (less) Paperback, 352 pages
Published August 17th 1992 by W. W. Norton Company (first published 1980)
HEN’S TEETH AND HORSE’S TOES: FURTHER REFLECTIONS IN NATURAL HISTORY BY STEPHEN JAY GOULD Part 3 in the Series
Over a century after Darwin published the Origin of Species, Darwinian theory is in a "vibrantly healthy state," writes Stephen Jay Gould, its most engaging and illuminating exponent. Exploring the "peculiar and mysterious particulars of nature," Gould introduces the reader to some of the many and wonderful manifestations of evolutionary biology. Paperback, 416 pages
Published April 17th 1994 by W.W. Norton & Company (NY) (first published 1983)
February 20, 2018
THE WINDBIRDS: SHOREBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, by Peter Matthiessen
In this nature-writing classic, now available for the first time in paperback, National Book Award winner Peter Matthiessen captures the essence of the world's most fascinating group of birds: "The restlessness of shorebirds, their kinship with distance and swift seasons, the wistful signal of their voice down the long coastlines of the world make them, for me, the most affecting of wild creatures," writes Matthiessen. He conveys the biological and behavioral intricacies of shorebirds without dulling their romance and wonder.
Paperback, The Curious Naturalist, 168 pages
Published September 25th 1996 by W. W. Norton & Co. (first published 1973)
March 20, 2018
NATURAL ACTS: A SIDELONG VIEW OF SCIENCE AND NATURE BY DAVID QUAMMEN Essay Collection #1
Most of the pieces found in this book appeared first as installments of thee 'Natural Acts' columns that Quammen wrote regularly for Outside magazine. In an upbeat and original way of thinking Quammen writes about beetles, bats, crows, snakes and other interesting animals. Paperback, 221 pages
Published March 1st 1996 by Avon Books (first published 1985)
April 17, 2018
UNTAMED; THE WILDEST WOMAN IN AMERICA AND THE FIGHT FOR CUMBERLAND ISLAND, by Will Harlan
Carol Ruckdeschel is the wildest woman in America. She eats road kill, wrestles alligators, rides horses bareback, and lives in a ramshackle cabin that she built herself in an island wilderness. She’s had three husbands and many lovers, one of whom she shot and killed in self-defense. A combination of Henry David Thoreau and Jane Goodall, Carol is a self- taught scientist who has become a tireless defender of sea turtles on Cumberland Island, a national park off the coast of Georgia.
Cumberland is the country's largest and most biologically diverse barrier island—over forty square miles of pristine wilderness celebrated for its windswept dunes and feral horses. Steel magnate Thomas Carnegie owned much of Cumberland, and his widow Lucy made it a Gilded Age playground. But in recent years, Carnegie heirs and the National Park Service have clashed with Carol over the island’s future. What happens when a dirt-poor naturalist with only a high-school diploma tries to stop one of the wealthiest families in America? Untamed is the story of an American original standing her ground and fighting for what she believes in, no matter the cost.
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published May 6th 2014 by Grove Press
May 15, 2018
Rivers and Birds by Merrill Gilfallan
This book is a collection of 14 essays containing keen observations of rivers and birds — with an emphasis on the latter. His prose is highly evocative and his love for both wing and water is rendered in the language and cadences of poetry.
June 19, 2018
The Meaning of Birds by Simon Barnes
This is a passionate and informative celebration of birds and their ability to help us understand the world we live in. Besides exploring how birds do what they do, Barnes muses on the uses of feathers, the drama of raptors, the slaughter of pheasants, the infidelities of geese, and the strangeness of feeling sentimental about blue tits while enjoying a chicken sandwich.
July 17, 2018
A Sand Country Almanac and Sketches Here and There by Aldo Leopold
This is a classic, first published in 1949, that has brought many a person to an understanding of the ways of nature. It contains some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau. Leopold wrote these informal pieces over a forty-year period as he traveled through the woodlands of Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona, Sonora, Oregon, Manitoba and elsewhere. In a final section, he addresses the philosophical issues involved in wildlife conservation.
August 21, 2018
Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds by Scott Weidensaul
Scott Weidensaul follows kettles of hawks over the Mexican coastal plains, bar-tailed godwits that hitchhike on gale winds of 7,000 miles non-stop across the Pacific from Alaska to New Zealand, and myriad songbirds whose numbers have dwindled dramatically. Migration paths form an elaborate global web now showing serious signs of fraying. Weidensaul delves into the tragedies of habitat degradation and deforestation with an urgency that brings to life the vast problems these miraculous migrants now face.
September 18, 2018
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
When Desert Solitaire was written in 1968, it became the focus of a nationwide cult. It is thought-provoking and mystical, angry and loving. It is a view of Abbey's quest to experience nature in its purest form. And it asks if any of our natural treasures can be saved before the bulldozers strike again
October 16, 2018
The Homing Instinct: Meaning and Mystery in Animal Migration by Bernd Heinrich
Acclaimed scientist and author Bernd Heinrich has returned every year since boyhood to a beloved patch of western Maine woods. What is the biology in humans in this deep-in-the-bones pull toward a particular place, and how is it related to animal homing? He explores how geese retain true visual landscape memory, how scent trails are used by many creatures, from fish to amphibians, and how the tiniest songbirds are equipped for solar and magnetic orienteering over vast distances. Most movingly, he portrays the deep psychological emotion in sandhill cranes newly arrived at their home pond in the Alaska tundra. He reminds us that to discount our own emotions toward home is to ignore biology itself.
2017 Birds and Books
January 17, 2017
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING, by Naomi Klein
The most important book yet from the author of the international bestseller The Shock Doctrine, a brilliant explanation of why the climate crisis challenges us to abandon the core “free market” ideology of our time, restructure the global economy, and remake our political systems. Klein meticulously builds the case for how massively reducing our greenhouse emissions is our best chance to simultaneously reduce gaping inequalities, re-imagine our broken democracies, and rebuild our gutted local economies. She exposes the ideological desperation of the climate-change deniers, the messianic delusions of the would-be geo-engineers, and the tragic defeatism of too many mainstream green initiatives. And she demonstrates precisely why the market has not— and cannot—fix the climate crisis but will instead make things worse, with ever more extreme and ecologically damaging extraction methods, accompanied by rampant disaster capitalism. The changes to our relationship with nature and one another that are required to respond to the climate crisis humanely should be viewed as a kind of gift—a catalyst to transform broken economic and cultural priorities and to heal long-festering historical wounds.
February 21, 2017
DOLPHIN DIARIES, by Denise L. Herzing
Dr. Denise Herzing began her research with a pod of spotted dolphins in the 1980s. Now, almost three decades later, she has forged strong ties with many of these individuals, has witnessed and recorded them feeding, playing, fighting, mating, giving birth and communicating. Dolphin Diaries is an account of Herzing's research and her surprising findings on wild dolphin behavior, interaction, and communication. Readers will be drawn into the highs and lows―the births and deaths, the discovery of unique and personalized behaviors, the threats dolphins face from environmental changes, and the many funny and wonderful encounters Denise painstakingly documented over many years. This is the perfect book for anyone who loves these incredibly versatile and intelligent creatures and wants to find out more than the dolphin show at the zoo can offer. Herzing is a true pioneer in her field and deserves a place in the pantheon of naturalists and scientists next to Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall.
March 21, 2017
THE INVENTION OF NATURE, by Andrea Wulf
Go all around the globe with Alexander von Humbold, explore deep into rain forests, climb the world’s highest volcanoes, influence princes, presidents, scientists and poets alike. His thinking was so far ahead of his time that it is only coming into its own now. He wanted to know and understand everything, and in doing so he invented the way we now look at nature. He inspired Charles Darwin and fueled Simon Bolivar’s revolution. Wulf will illustrate just why his life, ideas and philosophy remain so important today.
April 18, 2017
THE FEATHERY TRIBE: ROBERT RIDGWAY AND THE MODERN STUDY OF BIRDS, by Daniel Lewis
This book gives long due tribute to the shy, impassioned man, the Smithsonian's first curator of birds, who was so instrumental to the emergence of professional ornithology. It does so as it masterfully explores the history of that science. It also helps us better understand how science is practiced today, including tensions between indoor and outdoor work. Lewis helps us to appreciate what it took for bird-lovers to cross the bridge from old school natural history, suffused with belief in the immutability of species, to Darwinian evolutionary theory. He makes us appreciate the massive amount of exhausting, meticulous work that went into classification and clarifying names of species at this crossroads.
May 16, 2017
THE GENIUS OF BIRDS, by Jennifer Ackerman
Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. In The Genius of Birds, acclaimed author Jennifer Ackerman explores the newly discovered brilliance of birds and how it came about. As she travels around the world to the most cutting-edge frontiers of research
the distant laboratories of Barbados and New Caledonia, the great tit communities of the United Kingdom and the bowerbird habitats of Australia, the ravaged mid-Atlantic coast after Hurricane Sandy and the warming mountains of central Virginia and the western states
Ackerman not only tells the story of the recently uncovered genius of birds but also delves deeply into the latest findings about the bird brain itself that are revolutionizing our view of what it means to be intelligent. But beyond highlighting how birds use their unique genius in technical ways, Ackerman points out the impressive social smarts of birds. They deceive and manipulate. They eavesdrop. They display a strong sense of fairness. They give gifts. They play keep-away and tug-of-war. They tease. They share. They cultivate social networks. They vie for status. They kiss to console one another. They teach their young. They blackmail their parents. They alert one another to danger. They summon witnesses to the death of a peer. They may even grieve. This elegant scientific investigation and travelogue weaves personal anecdotes with fascinating science. Ackerman delivers an extraordinary story that will both give readers a new
August 15, 2017
ARE WE SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW HOW SMART ANIMALS ARE? by Frans de Waal
In this New York Times bestseller, de Waal asks this question: what separates your mind from an animals? Elephants, crows, bats, whales, wasps and octopuses all amaze with their feats of memory and cognition. This book reviews the rise and fall of the mechanistic view of animals and opens our minds to the idea that animal minds are far more intricate and complex than we have assumed. De Waal’s landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal―and human―intelligence.
32 illlustrations
September 19, 2017
THE HIDDEN LIVES OF OWLS, by Leigh Calvez.
A naturalist probes the forest, mainly at night, to comprehend the secret lives of owls in this book that will appeal to readers of "Crow Planet "and "H is for Hawk." These birds are a bit mysterious, and that’s part of what makes them so fascinating. Calvez makes the science entertaining and accessible while exploring the questions about the human-animal connection, owl obsession, habitat, owl calls, social behavior, and mythology.
eBook, 224 pages
Published August 16th 2016 by Sasquatch Books
October 17, 2017
SEA FEVER, by Anne Cleeves
Amateur sleuth George Palmer-Jones and his fellow bird-watchers abroad the Jessie Ellen catch sight of a rare sea bird. But when one of the party goes missing and is found, floating in the sea, his head bludgeoned, Palmer-Jones must found out who murdered the man, and why.
Mass Market Paperback, 192 pages
January 17, 2017
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING, by Naomi Klein
The most important book yet from the author of the international bestseller The Shock Doctrine, a brilliant explanation of why the climate crisis challenges us to abandon the core “free market” ideology of our time, restructure the global economy, and remake our political systems. Klein meticulously builds the case for how massively reducing our greenhouse emissions is our best chance to simultaneously reduce gaping inequalities, re-imagine our broken democracies, and rebuild our gutted local economies. She exposes the ideological desperation of the climate-change deniers, the messianic delusions of the would-be geo-engineers, and the tragic defeatism of too many mainstream green initiatives. And she demonstrates precisely why the market has not— and cannot—fix the climate crisis but will instead make things worse, with ever more extreme and ecologically damaging extraction methods, accompanied by rampant disaster capitalism. The changes to our relationship with nature and one another that are required to respond to the climate crisis humanely should be viewed as a kind of gift—a catalyst to transform broken economic and cultural priorities and to heal long-festering historical wounds.
February 21, 2017
DOLPHIN DIARIES, by Denise L. Herzing
Dr. Denise Herzing began her research with a pod of spotted dolphins in the 1980s. Now, almost three decades later, she has forged strong ties with many of these individuals, has witnessed and recorded them feeding, playing, fighting, mating, giving birth and communicating. Dolphin Diaries is an account of Herzing's research and her surprising findings on wild dolphin behavior, interaction, and communication. Readers will be drawn into the highs and lows―the births and deaths, the discovery of unique and personalized behaviors, the threats dolphins face from environmental changes, and the many funny and wonderful encounters Denise painstakingly documented over many years. This is the perfect book for anyone who loves these incredibly versatile and intelligent creatures and wants to find out more than the dolphin show at the zoo can offer. Herzing is a true pioneer in her field and deserves a place in the pantheon of naturalists and scientists next to Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall.
March 21, 2017
THE INVENTION OF NATURE, by Andrea Wulf
Go all around the globe with Alexander von Humbold, explore deep into rain forests, climb the world’s highest volcanoes, influence princes, presidents, scientists and poets alike. His thinking was so far ahead of his time that it is only coming into its own now. He wanted to know and understand everything, and in doing so he invented the way we now look at nature. He inspired Charles Darwin and fueled Simon Bolivar’s revolution. Wulf will illustrate just why his life, ideas and philosophy remain so important today.
April 18, 2017
THE FEATHERY TRIBE: ROBERT RIDGWAY AND THE MODERN STUDY OF BIRDS, by Daniel Lewis
This book gives long due tribute to the shy, impassioned man, the Smithsonian's first curator of birds, who was so instrumental to the emergence of professional ornithology. It does so as it masterfully explores the history of that science. It also helps us better understand how science is practiced today, including tensions between indoor and outdoor work. Lewis helps us to appreciate what it took for bird-lovers to cross the bridge from old school natural history, suffused with belief in the immutability of species, to Darwinian evolutionary theory. He makes us appreciate the massive amount of exhausting, meticulous work that went into classification and clarifying names of species at this crossroads.
May 16, 2017
THE GENIUS OF BIRDS, by Jennifer Ackerman
Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. In The Genius of Birds, acclaimed author Jennifer Ackerman explores the newly discovered brilliance of birds and how it came about. As she travels around the world to the most cutting-edge frontiers of research
the distant laboratories of Barbados and New Caledonia, the great tit communities of the United Kingdom and the bowerbird habitats of Australia, the ravaged mid-Atlantic coast after Hurricane Sandy and the warming mountains of central Virginia and the western states
Ackerman not only tells the story of the recently uncovered genius of birds but also delves deeply into the latest findings about the bird brain itself that are revolutionizing our view of what it means to be intelligent. But beyond highlighting how birds use their unique genius in technical ways, Ackerman points out the impressive social smarts of birds. They deceive and manipulate. They eavesdrop. They display a strong sense of fairness. They give gifts. They play keep-away and tug-of-war. They tease. They share. They cultivate social networks. They vie for status. They kiss to console one another. They teach their young. They blackmail their parents. They alert one another to danger. They summon witnesses to the death of a peer. They may even grieve. This elegant scientific investigation and travelogue weaves personal anecdotes with fascinating science. Ackerman delivers an extraordinary story that will both give readers a new
August 15, 2017
ARE WE SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW HOW SMART ANIMALS ARE? by Frans de Waal
In this New York Times bestseller, de Waal asks this question: what separates your mind from an animals? Elephants, crows, bats, whales, wasps and octopuses all amaze with their feats of memory and cognition. This book reviews the rise and fall of the mechanistic view of animals and opens our minds to the idea that animal minds are far more intricate and complex than we have assumed. De Waal’s landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal―and human―intelligence.
32 illlustrations
September 19, 2017
THE HIDDEN LIVES OF OWLS, by Leigh Calvez.
A naturalist probes the forest, mainly at night, to comprehend the secret lives of owls in this book that will appeal to readers of "Crow Planet "and "H is for Hawk." These birds are a bit mysterious, and that’s part of what makes them so fascinating. Calvez makes the science entertaining and accessible while exploring the questions about the human-animal connection, owl obsession, habitat, owl calls, social behavior, and mythology.
eBook, 224 pages
Published August 16th 2016 by Sasquatch Books
October 17, 2017
SEA FEVER, by Anne Cleeves
Amateur sleuth George Palmer-Jones and his fellow bird-watchers abroad the Jessie Ellen catch sight of a rare sea bird. But when one of the party goes missing and is found, floating in the sea, his head bludgeoned, Palmer-Jones must found out who murdered the man, and why.
Mass Market Paperback, 192 pages
