Staff Review: The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan

First let me say that The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan is not a feel-good read, but it is a very fine and important book -- fascinating, well-written, and entirely accessible to the layperson. It is receiving a lot of attention -- it's the 2018-2019 selection for the University of Wisconsin's Go Big Read program for one thing -- so hopefully it is sounding a loud alarm that our incomparable Great Lakes are once again in dire need of help.

I read the book because I love the Great Lakes. I was also under the mistaken impression that the passage of the Clean Water Act decades ago had solved most of their problems. The Clean Water Act did help -- immeasurably. But new challenges, including farm run-off (exempted from the Act), unbelievably destructive invasive species, water shortages in distant places, and the myriad threats of climate change, once again endanger the lakes.

Egan spends several chapters describing some of the most harmful invasive species -- quagga mussels, zebra mussels, round goby, Asian carp, and alewives, to name just a few of the 180 invaders. These creatures were introduced by way of ballast water in shipping freighters (ballast water was also exempted from the Clean Water Act) and through the channels and canals dug to connect the lakes with the Mississippi River basin and eastern seaboard. The author then meticulously examines the lakes' other threats, from pesticide run-off (which causes eutrophication) to climate change.

All things considered, Egan closes the book on a cautiously hopeful note. The Great Lakes ecosystem has proven somewhat adaptable, which is heartening. Even more heartening is that a lot of hardworking, educated people have a very good idea of what should be done to stop the degradation: the concrete steps we need to take to shut the gates to invasives, reduce farm run-off, and otherwise rehabilitate the lakes. Most heartening of all is that, following the book's publication, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, as the rehab plan is called, survived the 2018 budget process with its full funding intact. Perhaps Great Lakes area lawmakers read Egan's book and recognized its clarion call.

~Ann, Adult Services

Staff Review: The Hour of Land by Terry Tempest Williams

The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks by Terry Tempest Williams stands a very good chance of being my 2017 best book of the year. I loved it so much I'm about to read it all over again. The book combines all my favorite genres: history, nature writing, memoir, travel. Published in 2016 to coincide with the National Park Service's centennial celebrations, The Hour of Land is a very personal tour, conducted by Williams herself, through a dozen of the nation's 58 national parks.

And what a tour guide she is. A naturalist, writer, and native of Utah, Williams is probably best known for her 1992 memoir Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place about losing her mother to cancer just as the Great Salt Lake floods, threatening the migratory birds Williams treasures. She's extremely knowledgeable, she loves wild places with a passion, and she possesses what I can only call a beautiful spirit: generous, gentle, peace-loving, compassionate. Plus, she's a terrific and highly poetic writer.

It's a pleasure to tour the country in her company, even when she's surveying wrenching scenes like the damage inflicted on Gulf Islands National Seashore by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 or the encroachments of the Bakken oil fields on Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. More often what she surveys is sublime, from Alaska's Gates of the Arctic and Wyoming's Grand Teton to Acadia National Park in Maine. She even makes a stop at Effigy Mounds National Monument here in Iowa.

Particularly pleasurable is the variety of approaches Williams takes to her park descriptions, focusing closely at times on ecology or American history, then shifting her lens to her own life and family. She includes letters, emails, and journal entries to fine effect and provides a wonderful personal anecdote about Lady Bird Johnson. Modern readers, who may be unaware of how our great park system got started, learn about the unflagging philanthropic and environmental efforts of such National Park greats as Laurence Rockefeller, Theodore Roosevelt, Stewart Udall, and many others. This book's a lavish banquet of luscious park detail and I, for one, could not get enough of it. How I wish Williams had visited all 58.

~Ann, Adult Services

Staff Review: Breaking Wild by Diane Les Becquets

I plucked Breaking Wild off the library shelf by chance, while selecting books for a wilderness display. I love stories set in wild places and this one garnered some nice reviews. It's a story of search, survival, and rescue. The book is fast-paced and the plot delivers rapidly mounting suspense. Both main protagonists are women, strong women more than capable on their own in the wild. The novel's backdrop allows author Diane Les Becquets to paint luscious portraits of Colorado's hinterlands, an area she knows well and clearly loves.

The novel is told from two points of view, Amy Raye's and Pru's. Amy Raye is a troubled individual. Happily married, ostensibly, she cannot stop herself from seeking out encounters with strange men on the side, the consequence of an unfortunate childhood event. Her actions torment her and threaten her marriage. To clear her head, she heads off alone with a compound bow to redeem her elk tag. She gets hurt and then lost in a craggy wilderness of ice and snow, coyotes and mountain lions. A massive search effort ensues.

Pru is an agent of the Bureau of Land Management, and she and her dog, Kona, are part of the search-and-rescue team. Pru, whose own past includes plenty of heartache and loss, finds herself unusually compelled by Amy Raye's disappearance. Her diligence and persistence in tracking the woman are unflagging, even after the official search is called off.

We move back and forth between two points of view, one woman's search and the other's efforts at survival, with both women's histories fleshed out as the gripping story moves forward.

I recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a good, suspenseful read and particularly for readers entranced by nature, in this case the gorgeous but harsh, high desert landscapes of southwestern Colorado.

~Ann, Adult Services

Nine Books that will Inspire You to Explore Nature

Did you know that June is Great Outdoors Month? It's hard to resist the call of the outdoors in the early days of summer, whether you're strolling the River Walk, hiking through the Mines of Spain, or just relaxing in your own backyard.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, though our first National Park (Yellowstone) is even older. Whether you're planning a visit to a National Park this summer, or just interested in reading up on their history, we've put together a list of helpful books to get you started.

If you're looking for some inspiration for outdoor fun (or if the weather's just too muggy for your taste), we've gathered together a list of Nine Books that Will Inspire You to Explore Nature!

Following the Wild Bees: the craft and science of bee hunting by Thomas D. Seeley
(595.799 SEE) Following the Wild Bees is a delightful foray into the pastime of bee hunting, an exhilarating outdoor activity that used to be practiced widely but which few people know about today. Thomas Seeley, a world authority on honey bees, vividly describes the history and science behind this lost pastime and how anyone can do it.

Happy Home Outside: everyday magic for outdoor life by Charlotte Hedeman Guéniau
(747.49 HED) Taking in garden rooms, outdoor spaces such as cabins, canopies, and dining areas as well as moveable spaces such as vintage vans and tents, Charlotte brings her everyday magic and glorious sense of relaxed living with bright color to every corner of the garden.

Vitamin N: The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life by Richard Louv
(155.91 LOU) Vitamin N is a one-of-a-kind, comprehensive, and practical guidebook for the whole family and the wider community, including tips not only for parents eager to share nature with their kids but also for those seeking nature-smart schools, medical professionals, and even careers. It is a dose of pure inspiration, reminding us that looking up at the stars or taking a walk in the woods is as exhilarating as it is essential, at any age.

The Rarest Bird in the World: the search for the Nechisar nightjar by Vernon R.L. Head
(598.99 HEA) In 1990, a group of research scientists performed a survey of birds in the Plains of Nechisar in Ethiopia, returning with hundreds of specimens, including a single wing from a bird unlike any ever seen before. Vernon Head joins an expedition two decades later that will attempt to locate the rarest bird in the world.

The Wander Society by Keri Smith
(153.35 SMI)  Several years ago when Keri Smith discovered cryptic handwritten notations in a worn copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, her interest was piqued. Little did she know at the time that those simple markings would become the basis of a years-long, life-changing exploration into a mysterious group known only as The Wander Society.

Patterns in Nature: why the natural world looks the way it does by Philip Ball
(500.2 BAL) Though at first glance the natural world may appear overwhelming in its diversity and complexity, there are regularities running through it, from the hexagons of a honeycomb to the spirals of a seashell and the branching veins of a leaf. Revealing the order at the foundation of the seemingly chaotic natural world, Patterns in Nature explores not only the math and science but also the beauty and artistry behind nature’s awe-inspiring designs.

The Book of Camping and Woodcraft: A Guidebook for Those Who Travel, in the Wilderness by Horace Kephart
(796.54 KEP) In the early 20th century, travel writer Horace Kephart published a series of articles in Field and Stream, which served as the foundation for this classic book on wilderness camping. His work as an outdoorsman led to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The Parkour & Freerunning Handbook by Dan Edwardes

(796.046 EDW) An illustrated introduction to parkour--freerunning--that provides step-by-step instructions on basic moves, which include landing, rolling, jumping, mounting, balance, and more, along with tips to avoid injuries. The book also discusses clothing, culture, and other related topics.

GoatMan: how I took a holiday from being human by Thomas Thwaites
(BIOG Thwaites) A research grant offers Thomas Thwaites the chance to take a holiday from the complications of being human--by transforming himself into a goat. What ensues is a hilarious and surreal journey through engineering, design, and psychology, as Thwaites interviews neuroscientists, animal behaviorists, prosthetists, goat sanctuary workers, and goatherds.

Staff Review: H Is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald

H Is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald is one intense book: grief-intensive, nature-intensive, language-intensive, and raptor-intensive, just for starters. Its genesis was the unexpected death of the author's father, a vibrant newspaper photographer with whom MacDonald shared a close and sympathetic relationship all her life. Indeed he sounds like an exceptional dad. MacDonald learned to love nature right by his side and accompanied him on expeditions, such as his personal project to photograph every bridge over the River Thames. Receiving news one day of his sudden death by heart attack, MacDonald is devastated. She doesn't recover for months.

For at that point in her life, she feels she has nothing: no partner, no kids, no permanent job, no house.  She's winding up a fellowship and will soon be jobless and homeless (in the less urgent sense of the latter term). MacDonald is no ordinary woman though: she is a writer, poet, naturalist, historian, research scholar, and falconer, falconry having been a mad passion since childhood.

In an attempt to deal with her overwhelming grief, MacDonald acquires a hawk -- and not just any hawk, but a goshawk, notoriously the most difficult and murderous of raptors -- and raises Mabel the Hawk to be her wild companion. Her narrative of their time together is interspersed with memories of her father and with a biographical sketch of the writer T. H. White, a tortured man, avid falconer, and author of The Once and Future King, a series of books about King Arthur. H Is for Hawk moves back and forth between MacDonald's life and White's, the two linked by their love of hawks and their hope for healing through their birds. The extensive White passages may wear on some readers.

The story of MacDonald's training of Mabel is compelling; the author becomes almost feral herself in her attempt to drown her grief in the hawk's wildness. MacDonald's writing is dazzling: unbelievable, really, the freshest, most original I've encountered in ages. Reading the book you feel the author has never met a cliché, never witnessed anything through any eyes but her own.

H Is for Hawk won the Costa Book Award for 2014 (formerly known as the Whitbread Prize, with a £30,000 purse) and the Samuel Johnson Prize (worth  £20,000) for nonfiction. The awards are well-deserved but the author's intensity began to wear on me just a bit by the end, as did the murderous intent of Mabel, whose blood-lust the author often seemed to share.

For MacDonald's a rare poet-scholar, one who doesn't have a problem snaking her hands down the rabbit hole Mabel's legs have penetrated, grabbing the frantic rabbit ensnared by sharp talons, and snapping its neck. It's a merciful act, but I found myself appalled that MacDonald could do it. Her intensity has created a rare book though, even if by its final pages I was ready to head my own less-intense way.

~Ann, Adult Services