Coyote America by Dan Flores

Book review: Coyote America by Dan Flores This history of the Coyote is the history of human interaction and intervention with the animal. In particular the manipulation of the environment and the elimination of other predators that allowed the coyote to flourish. Coyotes are now in every state and in every city in North America, and along with the coyote comes the long folk lore that has followed them. From being spirit animals with special powers to the myth of being a super predator that takes down animals many times their size, which just does not happen. An interesting history also of humans trying to manage the environment by poisoning so many things that results in lots of collateral damage.

Never Out of Season by Rob Dunn

Book review: Never Out of Season by Rob Dunn Maybe unnatural history is more accurate. The author outlines how currently in wealthy countries there are no seasonal foods as you can buy any food year round. He also shows how the trend to breed and grow only a select number of crops is depleting the planets resources, and not leaving much room to get back from a catastrophe. When one time of grain is grown, if a pest arises that attached that particular strain the results can be quickly devastating. He provides extensive information on the history of seed banks and their purpose and uses.

Cooked by Michael Pollan

Book review: Cooked by Michael Pollan Well known food writer Pollan provides a classic narrative of how food is prepared. Pollan is well known for his work on nutrition and where our food comes from, so in this book he takes a slight side step and looks at how we prepare food. It has to be handed to Pollan that he does not shy away from being hands on. In this book he describes his experience of ‘apprenticing’ to different styles of cooking, southern barbecue, baking and really getting his hands dirty immersing himself in the world of cooking.

Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr

Book review: Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr As the title perfectly implies, this is the narrative of a year spent living in Rome. What gives this memoir a twist is that the author and his wife go to Rome with their two small twin boys. He is on a year fellowship in Rome, so has some help in getting set up with housing etc, however, navigating a country where you don’t speak the language while trying to take care of two small children bring unique challenges to say the least. This is a nice story of how you can do something that at first seems impossible, and provides insight into living in Rome and its day to day trials.

Shadows in the Vineyard by Maximillian Potter

Book reivew: Shadows in the Vineyard by Maximillian Potter A specific story about wine culture. This is the story of how a person tried to hold for ransom a vineyard in France, threatening to ruin the vineyard if a ransom was not paid. The vineyard in question is one that produces very exclusive high quality wine that is only available to a select few on the planet. Of particular interest in this book is the history of the French wine industry after World War II. The industry was pretty much in a shambles after the war, and a creative group of people managed to completely rebuild this industry to what some consider to be an even superior industry than before the war. While promoted as a mystery/detective story, it is really the background story of the wine culture of France that makes this worth reading.

The Stranger In the Woods by Michael Finkel

Book review: The Stranger In the Woods by Michael Finkel This is the fascinating story of a man who lived in the woods in Maine alone for 27 years. The person lived off the grid, in a secluded area of Maine near vacation homes. Labeled a ‘hermit’ by local people, this allowed him to have a legendary quality about him, and he developed a strong following and also a strong hatred among people. It is an interesting aspect of many public lives, that when you don’t provide a lot of information about yourself, you are given an aura or personality that in some cases has no bases in reality. As a hermit, he ‘lived off the land’ for 27 years by raiding local businesses and vacation homes for food and clothing and anything else he needed. This lead to many people living in fear of him, not knowing when he would show up, if he was in there homes at night when they slept or when he would steal again. When finally caught he was charged with multiple burglary accounts, and left with probation and counseling as his punishment. What I find most fascinating about this story is when the author speculates on whether this person was autistic or some similar condition. This idea is pursued in relation to how someone could have almost zero contact with any other human being for 27 years, and basically like it that way. This brings up many aspects of what it is to be in society, what are the evolutionary traits that allow this to happen, and if this is a genetic trait, how this would not persist as there would not be conditions for people with this trait to reproduce, as that would involve interacting with other people.

The Outrun by Any Liptrot

Book review The Outrun by Any Liptrot This was a very enjoyable memoir written by a women who grew up in the Orkney Islands, north of Scotland. It is the story of her growing up, not leading a very great life with troubled parents, not liking the rural life she was born into and then finding the means to escape by going to college and moving to London. In London she was adrift, getting into various kinds of trouble and ending up in rehab. After rehab she returned to the islands north of Scotland for a ‘visit’ and ended up staying. The island life, the starkness, the geology and the wildlife, which she had zero interest in as a person growing up there, turned out to fascinate her as a sober adult. She became an expert on the flora and fauna of the islands, working for conservations groups, becoming a part of the community that she never could as an unhappy child growing up there. Among her other ruminations, she speculates on the nature of addiction, family, heredity, connection to the land and other themes that are present in other books that are listed here. In particular she talks about the aspects of being alone and in silence, or at least in nature and what this means to people’s lives and well being.