Wild New World
Dan Flores’ Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America presents the story of extirpation in the United States—or more precisely, of humanity’s insatiable thirst for animals (and animal habitat).
Please see the below book and film reviews from past editions of the AWI Quarterly.
Pests
Bethany Brookshire begins her engrossing book, Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains, with an eastern gray squirrel named “[expletive] Kevin” who is decimating her tomato plant. It is an illuminating anecdote, since Brookshire—an award-winning science...
A Warbler’s Journey
A Warbler’s Journey, written by Pennsylvania naturalist Scott Weidensaul and illustrated by Nancy Lane, is a beautiful and informative book. Through the travels of the yellow warbler, readers learn about the migratory path and the...
An Immense World
An elephant, a mouse, a robin, an owl, a bat, a rattlesnake, a spider, a mosquito, a bumblebee, and a human enter a school gym. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms...
In a Land of Awe
Dr. Chad Hanson’s In a Land of Awe: Finding Reverence in the Search for Wild Horses offers a sweeping vista of the wild horses that the author has come to know and cherish, particularly through...
The Swordfish Hunters
Thomas Armbruster / SandyHook SeaLife Foundation / 310 pages In The Swordfish Hunters: The Life, Death and Future of Xiphius gladius, marine biologist and physician Dr. Thomas Armbruster recounts in vivid detail his time spent...
The Social Lives of Animals
Dr. Ashley Ward is an engaging writer, with a Briton’s native wit. The best part of his book, The Social Lives of Animals, is his genuine fascination with the animal behavior he observes, but his...
When Animals Dream
When Animals Dream: The Hidden World of Animal Consciousness, by philosopher Dr. David M. Peña-Guzmán, is part storytelling and part dense academic text. The book tackles a fascinating topic: Is there evidence that nonhuman animals...
Our Great National Parks
During his time in office, Barack Obama protected more natural habitat than any president in history. His conservation ethos is on full display in Our Great National Parks, a Netflix docuseries he hosts. Through compelling...
The Meat Paradox
As Rob Percival, author of The Meat Paradox: Eating, Empathy, and the Future of Meat, recounts, an Inuit shaman stated a century ago that “the greatest peril in life lies in the fact that human...