The 2015 National Book Award Nonfiction Longlist contains two books classifiable as natural history: Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett and The Soul of an Octopus; A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery.
Curiously, neither of these books was on my radar as no review copies ever arrived. Thus I am uncertain as to which I would prefer to see ultimately chosen as the winner.
Not so very long ago I needed to know what the primary language spoken in Tanzania is. I could have turned on the computer, waited for it to go through its start-up protocols, opened a browser and called up Google, in the search field of which I could have entered something like “primary language in […]
As the new year begins, I find myself reflecting upon not only the past one but upon many others more distant than that. 2015 will see the sixth anniversary of my publishing a review of Alan Detrick’s Macro Photography for Gardeners and Nature Lovers in what was then merely a new section I had named “The […]