Bringing Up Beaver

Bringing Up Beaver: Two Orphaned Beaver Kits, Their Humans, and Our Journey Back to the Wild by John Aberth (Simon & Schuster, 2025)

This is the chronicle of a licensed animal rehab person who lives in rural Vermont. He takes in lots different animals, owls, hawks etc. This book covers a little over a year of his taking in a baby beaver, whos parents were killed when there lodge ws demolished. Many people see beavers as a nuisance and try to elimate them from their property. The amount of work that the author goes through to accomodate this baby beaver is amazing. What is especially challenging is that he is rehabbing this animal with the goal of ultimately being released back to the wild and not kept as a pet. He does a lot of evangelizing about how we treat wild life and what should change. A great story of a dedicated volunteer.

Shade

Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource by Sam Bloch (Random House)

A thorough analysis of a timely and important topic. The author is an environmental writer who has produced this interesting volume on the history and importance of shade its impact on people’s health. Historically shade was engineered into the planning of towns and cities. If we think of the narrow streets of warm weather countries like Spain and Mexico, the narrow streets provide a lot of shade for people in the street during the day when they don’t want to be exposed to the blazing sun. Also, and abundance of trees on streets and in public places like parks providing cooling shades for people walking or hanging out. Several factors have influenced the disappearance of shade as a standard feature of cities, first air conditioning has replaced the need for shade, but this also has had social implications. Instead of hanging out on our shaded front porches and under a tree, we are now all inside and not mingling with our neighbors and socializing. Also in urban settings, law enforcement has suppressed the planting of trees and encouraged their removal as the block the ability of provide surveillance of an area and they provide cover for the ‘bad guys’.

This book could also have been titled ‘Heat’. The author spends a lot of time illustrating the health affects of excessive heat, particularly on people who spend a lot of time out of doors, such as agricultural workers and the homeless. The ill affect of excessive heat becomes exaggerated in the elderly. With the warming of the planet places that were typically very temperate all of a sudden find that they have to deal with excessive heat. Many homes and businesses in these areas do not have air conditioning because they never needed it. This now puts an economic strain on communities and individuals who have to have AC installed and who have to pay for the electricity to operate it.

There are also societal implications to excessive heat, people are much more likely to get angry during heat waves. As the author points out “Heat is an irritant that makes us angrier, more aggressive, and even more vengeful. It can override more rational thoughts.”

Everest, Inc.

Everest, Inc.: The Renegades and Rogues Who Built an Industry at the Top of the World by Will Cockrell

As the title suggests this is a history of the industry of guides bringing people up Everest. It is an interesting evolution of the business. The first people were guided up the mountain in 1982. Which I was kind of surprised about, since I would have thought it would have happened much earlier. Before that it was private adventurers and national teams that would attempt Everest. It is also interesting that after Tenzing Norgay summited Everest with Hillary, he never went up the mountain again. The first companies that would take clients up the mountain, and other Himalaya peeks, were western owned, but employed many native Sherpa to carry loads and set rope. Over the years that evolved into a situation that now most of the companies guiding people in the Himalaya are native Nepalese owned businesses.

There is also a lot in this book about how Everest is viewed in the world and presented in the press. The many failed attempts and deaths on the mountain and the more dramatic moments that receive a lot of publicity. But also presented are the statistics that show that it is not as dangerous as the reputation that it has.

The Light Eaters

The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger

Light eaters are plants, who through photsynthesis turn sunlight into energy. This is a well written history of how plants evolved, and how the continue to evolve to adapt to the planet. A lot of interesting bit of popular science.

The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780

The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 Book 2 of 2: The Revolution Trilogy | by Rick Atkinson

The second in his trilogy of the revolution, this very thorough history took a while to get through but was worth it. It is very dense and detailed tracking these three years of the war. He also spends a lot of time describing what is going on in Europe and England during the war, which is a different approach than a lot of people take.

Hunger Like a Thirst

Hunger Like a Thirst: From Food Stamps to Fine Dining, a Restaurant Critic Finds Her Place at the Table by Besha Rodell

Besha is a food writer with an interesting story. This memoir tracks her life and career from Australia to the US and back to Australia, and provides insight into how writing about food has its ups and downs and has been changing drastically over the last 20 years. Very entertaining.

When the Going Was Good

When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines by Graydon Carter

This is a memoir of Graydon, from his growing up in Ottawa, Canada to his career in the magazine business ending up as editor of Vanity Fair at a time when it was a major publication. Si Newhouse was major influence and guiding force that allowed him to excel at a gime when magazine's were at their height, arguably. Entertaining and personal.