THE SAVAGE LANDSCAPE: How We Made the Wilderness, poetic and beautiful subject and discussion

THE SAVAGE LANDSCAPE: How We Made the Wilderness
CAL FLYN
Viking Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$18.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A lyrical exploration of the world’s wildest, most forbiddingly remote places—and the humans who have always been there, by an award-winning and critically acclaimed writer

From the blacksand beaches of Iceland, to river crossings deep in the Amazon jungle, to the barren beauty of Antarctica, wilderness is a powerful, ancient concept, lying at the intersection of landscape, philosophy, and ecology. And for thousands of years, people have sought out uncontrolled, unknown, or uncharted nature in search of religious epiphany, self-actualization, and an escape from modern life. More recently these “pristine” places have been seen as the subject of a last effort to repair a planet imperiled by humans.

But as award-winning writer Cal Flyn traverses the most forbidding, untamed and inhospitable wild lands—the supposedly uninhabited wilds of the world—she finds that such truly untouched lands don't Nearly every wilderness has been or is actively inhabited by humans. Here we meet ascetics in search of theophany in the desert; lonely shepherds running off wolves under the stars; missionaries preaching from shacks deep in the jungle; wise lamas meditating under lofty mountain peaks.

The Savage Landscape takes us into these breathtaking wilds—deep into dark forests, to the tops of mountains, and into the hearts of deserts—asking provocative questions about the nature of wilderness, its preservation, and its meaning.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Travel writing in the poetic mode:

Wolves, bears, the wild beasts of all kinds: those that frighten us, thrill us, go bump in the night. It's what's missing, they say, from the tight-leashed land: those lamplight eyes in the dark. Without them, without that element of fear, however faint or unformed, our relationship with the land is incomplete.

"If wildlife is removed," the environmental historian Roderick Nash has argued, "although everything else remains visibly the same, the intensity of the sense of wilderness is diminished!"

In other words: the fear is a part of it.

In the course of seeking out wilderness, Author Flyn makes the not-new case that "wilderness" is a societal construcy, it's about defining who gets to go where in the end..."wilderness" is reserved, apart from daily use for the great mass of people.

It's beautifully written...see quote above...but peculiarly impersonal. It's her musings, it's entirely about her responses to and thoughts about places the majority can never access. And, as the world shrinks and we humans use more and more of it for ourselves, a privileged subset of us have decided to define pieces of the world as "wild" thus off limits to the likes of you. You happen to live there? Move. This is wilderness now. I didn't see a lot of depth in her presentation of the responses to these diktats from indigenous people, but those stories are huge, deep, and outside this impressionist work's scope. I was sent off to look for the displaced's voices elsewhere—and a salutary reminder it was.

Auhor Flyn goes deep enough to present the inevitable, fundamentally irresolvable tension between the needs of humanity and the requirements of the planet's flora and animalia. It's not the first time I've read this story...Annie Dillard was my own first encounter with poetic prose telling nature's side of the story...but it is very well-made indeed.

Anyone who rethinks the relationship of human and nature has taken on an immense task, one that can't be finished, or even really grasped, in one book. Or one lifetime. We're always in need of people who look over the edges, across the horizons, under the fences, and tell us about what they saw and what they think it means. It's a perspective check...it's never possible for one person to see through all the other eyes there are looking at the world, perceiving it as we don't, even can't. It's the ultimate purpose of reading, acquiring those other perspectives in the best (albeit necessarily incomplete and skewed) way we can.

You know the lore of the woods in the 21st century, you most likely consume the stories about the denizens of the wild places on your TV. You most likely are watching vampire and werewolf media all the time. That mode of seeing these spaces has roots. Let Author Flyn show them to you, describe their planting and limn their growth for you; it will likely change how, even what, you see.

That's the point of reading, after all.

TINY NATURE: Discovering Nature's Hidden World Through the Lens of Macrophotography

TINY NATURE: Discovering Nature's Hidden World Through the Lens of Macrophotography
JAMIE ROSECRANS
Wellfleet Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$35.00 all editions, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Tiny Nature is a journey into the hidden world of the forest floor through the captivating lens of macrophotography. Marvel at the mysterious organisms of the forest floor, revealed in breathtaking macrophotography.

The beauty of the forest goes far beyond trees and wildlife. If you look closely—even closer!—the world beneath your feet holds tiny ecosystems that play a vital role in nature. To see them in all their glory, Tiny Nature harnesses the power of macrophotography. The term “macro” means large, but in photography, it refers to creating large reproductions of small subjects. It is the art of taking extreme close-up photos where the size of the subject on the camera sensor is life-size or greater. With this lens, take a closer look to see the wonders you’ve been missing.

Tiny Nature is a stunning display of the beauty and complexity of the natural world. More than just a photography book, every incredible photo offers insightful narratives that delve into the ecological significance of these miniature landscapes. With a keen eye for detail and an artistic vision, talented macrophotographer Jamie Rosencrans showcases a captivating collection of photographs along with guidance to gain a deeper appreciation for the forest floor. Unveil a mesmerizing microcosm teeming with life, including:

Enigmatic slime molds straddling the boundary between the world of fungi and animals through unique lifecycles and behaviors

Poetically sculptural fungi with a wide diversity and present year-round wherever rain and fungal spores coexist

Romantic, brightly colored lichens, from deep greens to radiant reds, that cling to fences and tree branches

Friendly gastropods such as snails, slugs, and more!

Every leaf, pebble, and tiny inhabitant has a story of resilience, beauty, and the timeless dance of life. Be inspired as you enter the heart of the forest floor and see the sheer wonder of nature’s design.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Not interacting with Meta/Facebook properties does mean I miss Instagram phenoms like @this_forest_floor, aka the author. Too bad...I'd like to see her work on the regular, but will not give fuel to that traitorous fuck Zuck.

I'm glad the publisher made the DRC available. I like interesting takes on Nature. This look at the reality of the tiny stuff we largely ignore is fascinating. A lot of y'all won't enjoy the creepy-crawlies or the moistness of it all. Me, I'm more curious about the weirdos than the cute fluffy boring ones.

contents...no, she doesn't say "icky little moist things" anywhere

What this book will do for the giftee is to discuss the realms of life we don't see much, with someone who knows a good deal about it. The focus is on the weird stuff, the way she takes their picture, the challenges of life at a scale we simply don't experience.

Look at these...really look, see them as the miraculous little survivors they are:

the slime molds

Not for everyone, but I'm not including the soil animals, or the fungi, because they're so very moist. I promise your science nerd giftee that they look great, though.

THE GENIUS BAT: The Secret Life of the Only Flying Mammal, one of the most fascinating creatures gets its literary due

THE GENIUS BAT: The Secret Life of the Only Flying Mammal
YOSSI YOVEL
St. Martin's Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$16.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: An awe-inspiring tour of bat world by the world’s leading expert

With nearly 1500 species, bats account for more than twenty percent of mammalian species. The most successful and most diverse group of mammals, bats come in different sizes, shapes, and colors, from the tiny bumblebee bat to the giant golden-crowned flying fox. Some bats eat fruit and nectar; others eat frogs, scorpions or fish. Vampire bats feed on blood. Bats are the only mammals that can fly; their fingers have elongated through evolution to become wings with a unique super-flexible skin membrane stretched between them. Their robust immune system is one of the reasons for their extreme longevity. A tiny bat can live for forty years.

Yossi Yovel, an ecologist and a neurobiologist, is passionate about deciphering the secrets of bats, including using AI to decipher their communication. In The Genius Bat he brings to vivid life these amazing creatures as well as the obsessive and sometime eccentric people who study them–bat scientists. From muddy rainforests, to star-covered night deserts, from guest houses in Thailand, to museum drawers full of fossils in New York, this is an eye-opening and entertaining account of a mighty mammal.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: My homeplace of Austin, Texas, has a huge population of Mexican free-tailed bats that live in the Congress Avenue Bridge; that's the way I've thought of bats as a result. Cultural icons, things to put up special habitats for, little mosquito-munching guano factories...there are caves in and around my old part of Central Texas that house colonies of the skeeter-eaters and welcome to 'em, y'all.

One of the main strands in this read was about the intense social nature of the bat as a genus. I am fascinated by their lives, so similar to ours as humans packed in together, so full of care and altruism to balance out the conflict and crowding. A neurobiologist is very much able to bring the reality of bat sociality to its most advantageous light. Author Yossi's clear fascination with and sympathy for the bat makes me feel some hope for these persecuted, threatened members of our world.

Habitat loss is a main threat to bats worldwide. These are beings with simple enough needs that humans, with our tremendous cognitive abilities, ought to be able to come up with better solutions than "watch and hope" to the issues of their protection. The book's structure, starting chapters with Author Yossi's personable, warm voice telling his own tales of events and incidents, then moving as seamlessly as I could hope for to the researches and results of others, kept me in the flow of this read.

While it is non-fiction with an advocate for the subject's point-of-view, it does not read as a hectoring or pleading or accusatory polemic. It felt to me as though a charming guest came to my living room to enjoy himself, and to express that pleasure by sharing his own experiences. It is a welcome feeling, a relaxed and...to my bat-friendly self...relaxing way to learn some really surprising new-to-me information.

I took a half-star off for some of the author's possibly-meant-as-humor slaps at people not like him.

THE GOLDEN TOAD: An Ecological Mystery and the Search for a Lost Species, brothers on a mission to do good for Toadkind

THE GOLDEN TOAD: An Ecological Mystery and the Search for a Lost Species
TREVOR RITLAND & KYLE RITLAND
Diversion Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$30.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: The Costa Rican cloud forest, a mysterious amphibian killer, and a vanished species: with support from Re:wild campaign, twin brothers follow their father’s footsteps into the heart of the modern extinction crisis.

As young boys, Trevor and Kyle Ritland were fascinated by the magnificent golden toad of Costa Rica, a brilliant species their biologist father showed them in his projector’s slideshows. Native to only one wind-battered ridgeline high on the continental divide above the cloud forests of Monteverde, thousands of golden toads would congregate for a few weeks each year in ephemeral pools among the twisted roots to mate, deposit their offspring, and retreat again beneath the earth. But from one year to the next, the toads disappeared without a trace; the last of them vanished more than thirty years ago. Since then, only rumors remain—alleged sightings by local residents, which beg the question: Could the golden toad still be alive?

In The Golden Toad, Trevor and Kyle set off to investigate an environmental mystery with unexpected revelations, a story that speaks to our own collective and uncertain future. Guided by Costa Rican naturalists—including the last person to have seen the golden toad alive—Trevor searches for survivors while Kyle hunts the killer. Their paths lead them through an imperiled forest, a deadly pandemic, and a changing climate, finally intertwining at the site of the golden toad’s last emergence deep in Monteverde’s Bosque Eterno de Los Niños.

The toad’s demise becomes a haunting foretelling of approaching ecological crises, but with a gold lining on the horizon. The Golden Toad changes the conversation around extinction, climate change, and conservation while exploring environmental grief, resurrection, and hope in a changing world.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: If a conversation ever needed changing towards hope in dark times, it's the one around the worldwide amphibian extinction. In point of fact there aren't too many subjects that we do not need to find ways of discussing that include hope, hopefulness at the minimum.

The Ritland siblings found a way to do that. They have not found any surviving populations of the golden toad, but they have contributed a lot to the information store about the fungal enemy of amphibiankind that is globally decimating the world's population of all amphibians.

A family inheritance of curiosity and wanderlust, plus a strong grounding in biology and science more generally, sent this pair to a global biodiversity hotspot, Costa Rica, to do anything they can for the decades-missing golden toad. I know the story here is factual but it reads like a fictional adventure. The men are the kind of competent and driven people that make compelling reading; they are traveling in a landscape so replete with unique life as to be alien to sedentary US readers; and they encounter so many people intent on their own business who either help the men in their quest *because* of the quest, or in spite of it, or try to influence them away from their golden-toad search. It's a bit, well, repetitious at times. I don't think that's surprising at all. There is a great deal of information important to understanding the way things need to unfold to accomplish the needed tasks. It naturally will require periodic refreshers of facts readers most likely won't have fresh in their minds.

Still takes time and energy out of what was from the start a very propulsive narrative style, so I can't honestly award a fifth star to the reading experience. As a story told, it gets all five stars, however, so that explains the compromise half-star I polished up for the Ritlands.

Batrachochytrium dedrobatidis is a terrible, fatal scourge, one unleashed in its scope of havoc-wreaking by our changing climate. Anyone who contributes to the knowledge base regarding it, its impacts, and ultimately the ways and means of its future control or eradication, should be celebrated and praised. The Ritlands are large figures in this world-wide effort. Please help celebrate their passion and their contribution. Get a copy, give a copy, read a copy. It's definitely not time wasted.

THE PLACE OF TIDES, privileged man has mid-life crisis in the Arctic

THE PLACE OF TIDES
JAMES REBANKS
Mariner Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$14.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: We are all in need of lights to follow.

One afternoon many years ago, James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild Eider ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich, but had long been in decline. Still, somehow, she seemed to be hanging on.

Back at home, Rebanks couldn’t stop thinking about the woman on the rocks. She was fierce and otherworldly—and yet strangely familiar. Years passed. Then, one day, he wrote her a letter, asking if he could return. Bring work clothes, she replied, and good boots, and come her health was failing. And so he travelled to the edge of the Arctic to witness her last season on the island.

This is the story of that season. It is the story of a unique and ancient landscape, and of the woman who brought it back to life. It traces the pattern of her work from the rough, isolated toil of bitter winter, building little wooden huts that will protect the ducks come spring; to the elation of the endless summer light, when the birds leave behind their precious down for the woman to gather, like feathered gold.

Slowly, Rebanks begins to understand that this woman and her world are not at all what he had previously thought. As the weeks pass, what began as a journey of escape becomes an extraordinary lesson in self-knowledge and forgiveness.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Author Rebanks, "an expert advisor to UNESCO on sustainable tourism", tells us an amazingly convenient story of going to learn the old folk ways of Anna, an elder who has made her life as far away from others as she can get; has devoted herself to maintaining a lifeway that, should any significant number of just this book's readers attempt to emulate would result in environmental devastation; but which fuels the itchy sense the world is enshittifying everything worthwhile without offering any remotely practicable solution to that real and accurate feeling.

I admit I'm a grouch, an also am in existential crisis about the world's horrifying trajectory. This book's pretty, nicely turned and selected sentences, all supporting a beautiful fantasy of life utterly in harmony with nature, are NOT A HELPFUL HOW-TO. They should not be read as anything inspiring you to reproduce the actions the author took. Inspiring you to look into ways to work with local nature-preserving groups? Absolutely. Don't think it's going to be like the author's time with Anna.

There are not a lot of ways to experience the thrill of being able to immerse yourself in unmediated nature. The author does it as long as it suits him, and his emotional needs. Then he returns to his 21st-century life. That's a whole huge pile of unexamined privilege there, sir. The majority of us can't find an Anna, still less go spend a lot of time not doing what people with lives and families must. After all, that was what drove you to seek Anna out.

“Anna’s example was simple: if we are to save the world, we have to start somewhere. We just have to do one damn thing after another. Hers was a small kind of heroism, but it was the most powerful kind. The kind that saves us. We all have to go to work in our own communities, in our own landscapes. We have to show up day in, day out, for years and years, doing the work. There will be no brass band, no parade. And we have to accept and keep the faith in each other, and somehow work together. It is the only way we can make our own tiny deeds add up to become the change we all need.”

As lessons go, this one is hard to fault. It applies to all people everywhere. If your pretty sentences do good for the world, this is the good they do. It was, however, a lot more like a very good Longreads piece instead of a resource-heavy printed book; hence my mingy rating.

Just don't think it's going to look like an isolated life in a beautiful Arctic setting. See the message not the movie, and set out to make a small, undramatic difference wherever you are, however you can.