Category Archives: Book Reviews

A whole new world—Eaarth

22 Thursday Apr 2010

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Eaarth by Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben was right 20 years ago, and he is right today. Then, The End of Nature offered dire predictions about global warming. His new book, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet is named for the new planet we are creating. The news is not good. In December 2009, as the United Nations climate change meetings got underway in Copenhagen, Denmark, a team of computer jockeys from institutions including MIT built a model which demonstrated that the impact of global warming had already crossed seemingly irreversible thresholds.

“But now….it’s time to think with special clarity about the future. On our new planet growth may be the one big habit we must finally break.”—Bill McKibben, Eaarth

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Falling Into Light

12 Friday Mar 2010

Posted by in Book Reviews, poetry & poets

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The More Difficulty Beauty

Molly Fisk’s New Book

Molly Fisk’s new book, The More Difficult Beauty was released yesterday. Somewhere in the Sierra there was a great stirring and release party, I suspect.

See my short review in Sacramento News & Review, or read the full review below.

The More Difficult Beauty

by Molly Fisk

Publication Date: March 10, 2010

Pages: 96

Trim size: 5.5″ x 8.5″, soft cover

Price: $15.00

ISBN 10: 9780917658365

ISBN 13: 978-0-917658-36-5

Hip Pocket Press, 5 Del Mar Court, Orinda, California 94563

Reading Molly Fisk’s The More Difficult Beauty gave me the odd sensation of falling down a well, but instead of into darkness, I fell into light. Fisk’s words give us darkness and shadow, but these poems twist this into a kind of release, leaving the reader with a bittersweet, sobering hope. John Updike considers Fisk’s current poetic offering a “Fearless, clear-eyed work.”

This poet braves the more difficult places and reveals the world’s simple truths. —Dorianne Laux

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Rewilding the World

13 Wednesday Jan 2010

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Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution

by Caroline Fraser

Metropolitan Books, 12/22/2009

ISBN: 978-0-8050-7826-8, ISBN10: 0-8050-7826-6,

6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches, 416 pages, 1 8-pg. insert; 13 maps,

Book/Hardcover       $28.50

On sale December 22, 2009

Order: http://us.macmillan.com/rewildingtheworld

Reviewed by Pamela Biery

 

Rewilding the World by Caroline Fraser is a methodical and lyrical report on global conservation efforts to establish and preserve migratory corridors. Fraser revisits Aldo Leopold’s remarkable A Sand County Almanac essay Thinking Like a Mountain, wherein Leopold realizes that killing a predator wolf carries serious implications for the rest of the ecosystem. Fraser traces projects seeded by thought leaders like Michael Soule and Reed Noss in their landmark 1998 Wild Earth article Rewilding and Biodiversity, traveling the globe to witness and report on rewilding projects now underway in North America, Africa, Australia, Asia, Central and South America.

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