Category: Environment/Nature/Ag

October 1, 2024

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese **** (of 4)

In the fictional riverside town of Parambil, in Kerala, India, 12-year-old Big Ammachi is taken from her home at the beginning of the 20th century...

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January 26, 2024

Fire Weather by John Vaillant **** (of 4)

Just as every year is now the hottest on record, so too the number and intensity of wildfires across the planet break annual records for...

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November 23, 2023

Birnham Wood by Eleanor Catton *** (of 4)

The premise is simple enough. A guerilla environmental group in New Zealand, calling itself Birnham Wood, illegally plants gardens on vacant properties. As you would...

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September 19, 2023

Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins *** (of 4)

An ambitious book that centers the Owen’s Valley in California, the valley’s desertification following rerouting all of the valley’s water to Los Angeles, and the...

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August 2, 2023

Grandma Gatewood’s Walk *** (of 4)

In 1955, when the Appalachian Trail (AT) was still in its infancy, Emma Gatewood walked its full length, 2050 miles from Mount Oglethorpe, Georgia to...

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July 3, 2023

An Immense World by Ed Yong *** (of 4)

Philosophically, a wonderfully provocative account of what other organisms can sense that we humans cannot. Ed Yong introduces us to umwelt the idea that our...

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April 21, 2023

The Devil’s Element by Dan Egan *** (of 4)

Kudos to Egan for calling out the devil’s bargain humanity has made with a single element: phosphorus. On one side of the equation, phosphorus is...

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January 5, 2023

Ducks by Kate Beaton *** (of 4)

Newly graduated from college with artistic talent, a liberal arts degree, and a mountain of college loans, 21-year-old Kate Beaton departs her economically depressed home...

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December 7, 2022

The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian *** (of 4)

A somewhat predictable, but well-told story about a motherless, white daughter with an abusive father living in a 1920s Mississippi swamp. Once Dad disappears from...

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August 19, 2022