For full review, click on titles:
The Sound of a Wild
Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. This book is an exquisite meditation on the restorative connection between nature and humans. Bailey, isolated and immobile due to a debilitating illness, finds herself in the company of a woodland snail. The snail becomes both her mirror and her mentor. By observing the snail through all the phases of the day, Bailey reflects on her own constrictions of mobility, placement, and relationships. Researching the genealogy and habits of the snail, Bailey finds evidence of the richness of its existence and proof that she herself is still living, and as vibrantly and with as much persistence as her tiny companion: "The life of a snail is as full of tasty food, comfortable beds of sorts, and a mix of pleasant and not-so-pleasant adventures as that of anyone I know."
The Hidden Life of Deer by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. What is striking about this book, and other books by Thomas, including The Hidden Life of Dogs,
is that there is nothing so much that these animals hide but there is
very, very much that we just do not see for lack of looking. We take
neither the time nor the space to sit still and watch what the animals
and birds all around us do, both as individuals and as members of a
social group (and I mean that both ways: for the most part humans don't
individually or socially observe animals or birds individually or in
groups). But Thomas does watch, and she writes about what she sees.
We are lucky to be treated to nature through her eyes.
The Peregrine
by J.A. Baker. This is the most beautiful piece of nature writing I
have ever read. It is the account of the six months Baker spent
following a pair of peregrine falcons along their hunting routes in the
east midlands English countryside, but it is more than that: it is an
artistically precise and penetrating rendering of a certain place in
time, and a shatteringly lovely and loving exposition of what one man
felt and saw in that place at that time.
Crow Planet
by Lyanda Lynn Haupt. This is a wonderful exploration into the everyday
connections between human and wild. Even in suburban and urban
landscapes, we are surrounded by wild life in all its forms: spiders,
bugs, mammals, and birds. Birds are Haupt's speciality, her love, and
during one difficult patch in her life, her anchor. The persistence of
one crow brought her back to attention, back to the world outside
herself, and back to the naturalist she was born to be. We may not all
have our own "crow story" as Haupt says, but after this book, we should
all be grateful to that one crow which set Haupt on the path to this
glorious book.
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