Kingdoms of the Sky (2018)

The wild trees - Richard Preston

The wild trees: a story of passion and daring - Preston, Richard

Summary:Takes a close-up look at the world's tallest trees, the coast redwoods that grow only in the coastal regions of California, and at the previously unknown ecosystem that the trees form high in the air in the forest canopy. - (Baker & Taylor)

Booklist Reviews
Preston's previous galvanizing best-sellers, including The Hot Zone (1994) and The Demon in the Freezer (2002), deal with catastrophic viruses and biological weapons. Here he turns to a more uplifting subject, the world's tallest trees. Writing with his signature clarity and drama, Preston profiles a trio of champions of the coast redwood, "the blue whales of the plant kingdom." Botanist Steve Sillett developed acrobatic techniques for reaching the crowns of redwoods more than 300 feet tall. There he discovered an unknown world, the teeming temperate forest canopy, which Preston describes as "coral reefs in the air." Maverick Michael Taylor has discovered redwood giants in nearly impenetrable wilderness areas. So important are his finds, the locations of these redwood groves, some 3,000 years old, are kept secret. Marie Antoine also answered the call of redwoods and married fellow scientist Sillett in an arboreal ceremony. As for Preston, not content to merely watch from the ground, he underwent tree-climbing training and has assisted Sillett and Antoine in their invaluable, gravity-defying work. Preston's hands-on perspective, suspenseful chronicling of the adventures of these vividly portrayed redwood experts, and glorious descriptions of the tall trees' splendor and ecological significance make for a transfixing read. ((Reviewed February 15, 2007)) Copyright 2007 Booklist Reviews.

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Dust - Charles Pellegrino

Dust - Pellegrino, Charles

Summary: When a gigantic ecological eruption causes dust mites to rapidly reproduce and become flesh-eating insects, paleobiologist Richard Sinclair and a group of survivors must try to stop this deadly phenomenon before the world is destroyed.



Library Journal Reviews
It all starts with a massive die-off of fungus gnats. The fungus the gnats ate grows with nothing to control it. Worse, the bugs that eat the gnats have to find other food. Up the food chain the disaster moves until a horde of mites swarm ashore at a Long Island community, eating their way through every living thing. Scientist Richard Sinclair evacuates Long Beach with his daughter, Tam, leaving behind his wife, a victim of the mites' rampage. With other scientists around the world, Richard plots the course of nature out of whack as predators switch prey and entire species of insects die. As crops that depend on insect pollination perish, the commodities markets plummet, followed closely by the world's stock markets. When vampire bats start attacking humans, Richard fears the destruction of the world. Paleontologist Pellegrino has written a biological thriller that will convince readers to treat insects with more respect. His afterword discusses the events in the book and identifies which ones were based on fact.

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1493 - Charles C. Mann

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created - Mann, Charles C.

Summary: Reveals how the voyages of Columbus reintroduced plants and animals that had been separated millions of years earlier, documenting how the ensuing exchange of flora and fauna between Eurasia and the Americas fostered a European rise, decimated imperial China and rendered Manila and Mexico City the center of the world for two centuries.


Booklist Reviews
From the same mold as Mann's popular and critical success, 1491 (2005), this tome surveys up-to-date scholarship on the ramifications of Columbus' voyage. Eschewing condemnation or exaltation, Mann aims to explain all that was exchanged during the centuries in which ships connected continents. Diseases, pests, plants, people, and silver are the major transports into which he delves, and he presents them in their scientific, geographic, economic, and historical aspects. Where academic debates persist (e.g., over how slavery became established in America, about what rendered China ravenous for Spanish silver), Mann advocates his view of the particulars, supported by his on-site reportage from places significant in his accounts, such as Manila and Columbus' first settlement. Shaping a sprawl of information, he emphasizes how homogenization was unleashed by transoceanic trade, as is illustrated most minutely in discussions of the potato, the rubber tree, and mixed-race societies. With its theme of globalization, Mann's survey should interest not only history readers but also those concerned about the environmental and social impacts of contemporary world commerce.

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The deep - Claire Nouvian (Ed.)

The deep - Nouvian, Claire (Ed.)

Summary: Readers are taken on a voyage into the darkest realms of the ocean in this visual and scientific tour that reveals nature's oddest and most mesmerizing creatures in crystalline detail, in a study that brings together two hundred full-color images with information on the latest scientific discoveries. - (Baker & Taylor)

Publishers Weekly Reviews
Before the recent development of submersibles capable of exploring the ocean more than six miles down, oceanographers gleaned most of what they knew about the denizens of the deep from dead fish in trawler nets. One such creature first captured in 1901, the "vampire squid from hell," turned out to be a living fossil whose origins date back more than 200 million years. Now known to be quite benign, so are most of the creatures depicted in this stunning collection of more than 160 color photosâ€"even the Pacific viperfish, with fangs so long it can't close its mouth, and the spookfish, with its enormous telescopic eyes. Species from as far down as four and a half miles are depicted in exquisite detail; most are mere centimeters long, though the giant squid, a timid creature despite its size, grows to almost 60 feet. Fifteen short, jargon-free essays assembled by editor and French journalist Nouvianâ€"who became enthralled with the deep after visiting the Monterey Bay Aquariumâ€"flesh out the fantastical images with scientific fact. They dismiss the myth of deep sea monsters and describe the amazing persistence of life around hydrothermal vents and methane flues; a thoughtful glossary adds to this impressive book's popular appeal. (Apr. 28)

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The Lorax - Dr. Seuss

The Lorax - Dr. Seuss

Summary: The Once-ler describes the results of the local pollution problem.

"Unless someone like you...cares a whole awful lot...nothing is going to get better...It's not."

Long before saving the earth became a global concern, Dr. Seuss, speaking through his character the Lorax, warned against mindless progress and the danger it posed to the earth's natural beauty.

"The big, colorful pictures and the fun images, word plays and rhymes make this an amusing exposition of the ecology crisis."—School Library Journal. - (Random House, Inc.)

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Crow planet: essential wisdom from the urban wilderness - Lyanda Lynn Haupt

Crow planet: essential wisdom from the urban wilderness - Haupt, Lyanda Lynn

Summary: A scholarly tribute to crow life and mythology explains how increasing crow populations are reflecting various ecological imbalances while providing opportunities to connect with the animal world.


Kirkus Reviews
A self-described posthippie ecofeminist offers a quiet, genial book of "hopeful possibility" amid the current ecological crisis. Wildlife researcher and rehabilitator Haupt (Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin's Lost Notebooks, 2006, etc.) writes gracefully about the interactions between crows and humans in the urban landscape and what those interactions portend for the future of the zoöpolis (where human and animal geographies overlap). For most people, notes the author, crows are the most commonly encountered native wild animal. Her fascination with the unusually intelligent birds began after a long depressive funk. One day she looked out her study window, saw an injured fledgling perched on an electrical wire and took the bird in. While nursing it back to health, she began to feel better. Haupt then spent two years studying the shiny black songbirds in her backyard and neighborhood. Found in growing numbers—there are more than 30 million in the United States—in densely populated towns and suburbs, the omnivorous American Crow thrives on the detritus of modern urban life, consuming everything from road kill to bread crumbs, bagels and McDonald's fries. The author discovered that watching the creatures mate, nest, forage and help one another encouraged a necessary awareness of the continuity between human lives and that of other species. Like her beloved Thoreau—who wrote, "There is no wildness distant from ourselves"—Haupt celebrates the interconnectedness of all life and urges readers to pay close attention to their home places. The chapter on the habits of amateur urban naturalists is a neat how-to guide for anyone interested in learning how the wild, nonhuman animals around us live. Even though we are unable to view our entire planet, she writes, we can take positive action by cultivating a sense of wonder at the wildlife at our door: "We practice wonder by resisting the temptation to hurry past things worth seeing." A fresh take on conscious living in the everyday world. Copyright Kirkus 2009 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

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