LAS Birds & Books Reading Group
Birds & Books is a flock of readers interested in books about nature, especially birds and birding. You are encouraged to attend a meeting to see if this group is for you.
Meets - 3rd Tuesday of the month-7:00-8:30 pm
Sundance Bookstore
1155 W. 4th Street
# 106-Keystone Square Shopping Center
For more information, please contact coordinator Kenn Rohrs at karohrs@charter.net or 775-849-9530.
Book Reviews - by Kenn Rohrs
2010 Schedule
- January 19, 2010 - In Search of Nature, Edward O. Wilson, Laura Southworth (Illustrator)
- February 16, 2010 - Waiting for Aphrodite: A Journey Into the Time Before Bones, Sue Hubbell
- March 16, 2010 - Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, The Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the West, Michael Punke
- April 20, 2010 - On the Wing: To The Edge of the Earth With the Peregrine Falcon, Alan Tennant
- May 18, 2010 - My First Summer in the Sierra, John Muir
- September 21, 2010 - Dawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day by Diane Ackerman
- October 19, 2010 - Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Temple Williams
- November 16, 2010 - A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson
- December 21, 2010 - No Meeting
January 19, 2010
In Search of Nature, Edward O. Wilson, Laura Southworth (Illustrator)
Reading Wilson is always a deeply satisfying experience because he conveys, quite lyrically, the wonder he feels in observing nature, both in its tangible forms and in the abstract. Here, in these vivid essays, Wilson elucidates two main themes: his theory, based on the study of parallels between human beings and animals, that "culture is ultimately a biological product”; and his belief in biophilia, "the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms." Wilson elaborates on these two resonant propositions with revealing anecdotes and facts about various species, especially ants, who have been around for 100 million years--enough time to generate 9,500 species and perfect their social organization.
February 16, 2010
Waiting for Aphrodite: A Journey Into the Time Before Bones, Sue Hubbell
Hubbell is a sunny naturalist who writes stimulating prose. Her newest book is a free-roaming survey of the busy lives of invertebrates: "small animals that creep and jump and slither and flutter." More than 95 percent of Earth's animals fall into this immense and spectacularly diverse category, and Hubbell deftly conveys her fascination with some of its more curious representatives. As philosophical as she is descriptive, Hubbell introduces the modest but sensitive pill bug, gives her readers the creeps by chronicling massive invasions of millipedes, and muses on the essentiality of invertebrates, who are perpetually "tidying up the world." Sponges, earthworms, bees, spiders, horseshoe crabs, and Aphrodite, the elusive, wormlike sea mouse, all engage Hubbell's astute attention and fluid sense of wonder.
March 16, 2010
Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, The Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the West, Michael Punke
The near extinction of the buffalo herds of the Great Plains in the nineteenth century was the product of several factors, including the greed of buffalo hunters, the callousness of "sportsmen," and the desire of the federal government to deprive the Plains Indians of their food source. But the buffalo did (barely) survive, and one of their unlikely saviors was Grinnell, a Brooklyn-born, Yale-educated anthropologist and naturalist. Grinnell was entranced by the West. He took part in one of the last great buffalo hunts in 1872 and even accompanied Custer on his 1874 Black Hills expedition, which opened this sacred ground to the depredations of gold seekers. But as native westerner Punke shows, his deep interest in and love for the land and the people led him to become an ardent conservationist, forming a surprising alliance with hunters and fishermen that launched a stream of environmental initiatives. As seen by Punke, Grinnell was a major figure in imagining our wilderness areas as places to be preserved rather than to be "tamed," exploited, and ravaged.
April 20, 2010
On the Wing: To The Edge of the Earth With the Peregrine Falcon, Alan Tennant
Twenty years ago, peregrine falcons were slowly recovering after being decimated by DDT, and ornithologists were attempting to learn about their extraordinary transcontinental migrations (peregrine means wanderer). Tennant, an ardent naturalist and renegade, joins an official radio-tracking project on Padre Island, Texas, but becomes impatient with its limited scope. So he launches his own boldly improvised, unsanctioned, and terribly dangerous mission in partnership with George Vose, a skilled and courageous pilot just as crazy as he is. Outfitted with deviously acquired equipment and bereft of any affiliation or permission, they set out to accompany migrating falcons in Vose's battered single-engine Cessna, flying deep into Canada and the Alaskan tundra, then south into Mexico, encountering hazards ranging from raging storms to lakes of toxic petroleum sludge to angry men with guns. An exhilarating and illuminating storyteller, Tennant offers exquisitely poetic descriptions of peregrine falcons--magnificently aerodynamic, keen-sighted, and fearless birds of prey--a galvanizing history of falconry, and a sobering accounting of the consequences of rampant chemical pollution and environmental destruction.
May 18, 2010
My First Summer in the Sierra, John Muir
Following the American Civil War in the summer of 1869, John Muir signed on with a crew of shepherds to drive a flock of 2500 sheep to Yosemite National Park at the headwaters of the Merced river. It wasn't until 1911, however, that he published "My First Summer in Sierra", an account of that experience which would inspire many to visit the Yosemite region and has become a classic of environmentalist literature.
No LAS Birds & Books Reading Group meetings in June, July, and August
September 21, 2010
Dawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day by Diane Ackerman
Starred Review. These pieces are accessible and lyrically written, and they flow well, one after another, making reading the book a true pleasure. Ackerman's fans and readers who appreciate nature writing at its finest will love this. (Library Journal)
[Y]ou're immersed in Ackerman's glorious prose, studded with arresting phrases and breathtakingly beautiful images....Her gift to us is the sheer pleasure of seeing the world through her loving eyes. (Wendy Smith - Washington Post)
October 19, 2010
Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Temple Williams
From 1982 to 1989 Williams, a naturalist in residence at the Utah Museum of Natural History, suffered two traumatic events: her mother's unsuccessful battle with cancer and the flooding of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge by the rising waters of the Great Salt Lake. Here she attempts to come to terms with the loss of her parent and that of the birds in the refuge by juxtaposing natural history and personal tragedy, alternating her observations on each. In an epilogue that might well serve as the subject of another book, the author also maintains that her mother--and many other people in Utah--probably contracted cancer as a result of radioactive fallout from atmospheric testing of atomic weapons in Nevada in the 1950s and '60s. And she concludes that, even though it is not in the tradition of her Mormon background to question governmental authority, she must actively oppose nuclear tests in the desert. The book is a moving account of personal loss and renewal.
November 16, 2010
A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson
A charming love triangle in Nairobi, Kenya, forms the center of a novel that manages to be both sweet and gripping. Mr. Malik, a quiet widower guided by a naïve crush, spends his Tuesdays on bird walks led by Rose Mbikwa, the Scottish widow of a Kenyan politician, whom he secretly wishes to escort to the Nairobi Hunt Club Ball. Enter Harry Khan, Mr. Malik's playboy nemesis, who also takes a liking to Rose. Mr. Malik's social club organizes a bet—whoever can spot the most bird species in one week earns the right to ask Rose to the ball. While Harry heads off on expensive safaris, Mr. Malik is beset by a plague of problems, including the theft of his car and bird-watching notebook, and an ambush by renegade Somalis. The competition takes on a surprising page-turning urgency, thanks largely to Mr. Malik's delightful nature and his unexpected secrets. With captivating character sketches and glimpses into Kenyan life and politics, Drayson meets the inevitable comparisons to Alexander McCall Smith without breaking a sweat.