I received Does It Fart? for my birthday from my sister and brother-in-law, who know that I like to read all manner of animal-related information. “It’s a bit silly,” my sister warned. Silly, perhaps, but also revelatory. I often stick post-its on the pages of books I’m reading to help me locate the interesting bits when I’m writing my reviews (I can’t bring myself to underline), and I’ve applied a remarkable number for such a short (133-page) book! The Introduction explains why the authors decided […]
HOW in the world is a book about ROADKILL actually so FREAKIN’ (only I didn’t say freakin’) funny?????
This is my chosen for its cover book. At first, I thought it was a dancing dinosaur. I then wondered why the dinosaur was tip-toeing across the road. I then read the title. Oooo-kay. This is going to be. Interesting. Hopefully. I was afraid it was going to be very dull and academic. It is not. The author makes sure you are right there along for the journey. She presents her story just as that, a story. The facts are there, but you might be […]
Nutcrackers are like Sherlock, snowy owls are like Bedouin herders, and fairy wrens have more sense than most world leaders
It’s been awhile since I’ve reviewed a book about birds, so I figured I’d better remedy that. I do quite a bit of reading about animals, zoology, and natural history in general and at times it can get repetitive. In The Thing with Feathers, Noah Strycker spices things up a bit by drawing parallels between birds and humans. Strycker takes the reader on a journey of body, mind, and spirit while dazzling with tales of amazing avians, from the tiny bee hummingbird of Cuba (which […]
To the reference shelf with you
Some books seem like they were written with you in mind. I look at this cover and read the title, with words like fate, chance, and evolution, and I think this is exactly up my alley. And. . .it kind of is. No matter how hard I tried, though, I simply did not love this book. Jonathan Losos isn’t a bad writer, but I think at times he is too close to his own studies to know where to edit them down for the casual […]