Zachary Bos and Nora Delaney
Some New & Recommended Reading

What we've been reading recently on the theme of "man and nature"...

• Our World of Water by Beatrice Hollyer, from Francis Lincoln (2008). $9.43. Follows six children from different countries, answering the question of: How does water play into one's daily life? Topics range from how the children use water to drought and flood threats in their areas.
• Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans by Tony Angell, from Free Press (2012). $16.50. Highlights the intelligence of corvids and their similarities to human beings through storytelling and diagrams, accompanied by full illustrations.
• Building on Nature: The Life of Antoni Gaudi by Rachel Rodriguez, from Henry Holt and Co. (2009). $16.99. Children's book about Antoni Gaudi, with a focus on how his architecture reflected his observations in nature.
• My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, from Puffin Books (2004). $6.99. A young adult novel about a young man who leaves city life to live in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. He lives in a burnt-out hemlock tree, befriends a hawk, a weasel, and a raccoon, and learns self-reliance. See also the sequels On the Far Side of the Mountain (1990) and Frightful's Mountain (1999).
• "A Place for the Bees" by Virgil, translated from Latin into English by the Boston-area poet and scholar David Ferry. Appearing in the January/February 2005 issue of The Atlantic, these lines of verse specify the ideal setting for establishing a bee-hive. Agricultural acumen and a gentle, humane sensibility are hard at work here: "And there should be a limpid spring nearby, / Or a moss-edged pool, ... / And there should be sweet blooming marjoram near... / and violets / Drinking from the trickling spring or stream." An excerpt (Book IV: 8-32) from Ferry's complete translation of the Georgics, published by FSG in 2006.
• In "Everywhere an exile," an essay in The Guardian (May 2009), Adam Foulds argues that we should not dismiss John Clare's "poems of peasant life" as "naive and unliterary." Rather, we should view Clare as "our greatest ecological poet." Foulds's The Quickening Maze, a historical fictionalization of Clare's madness, was published by Jonathan Cape last year.
• Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt. Little, Brown 2009 ($23.99). An examination of the crow and its presence in nature, especially in urban, developed areas.
• Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass by Harold Gatty, from Dover Publications (1999). $10.95. Includes chapters on deserts, forests, and even cities. Teaches one how to navigate terrain using vegetation, weather patterns, animals, the sun and moon, and other methods. Don't get lost without it.
• Field Guide to Your Own Backyard, by John Hanson Mitchell, illustrated by Laurel Mok, Countryman Press, 1985. Introduces readers to the often disregarded complex ecosystem as close as their own back yard.
• Nature's Beloved Son: Rediscovering John Muir's Botanical Legacy by Bonnie J. Gisel. Heyday Books, 2008. Environmental historian Gisel provides a thorough portrait of Muir.
• Online at poets.org, new poems about flowers, gardens and spring. Despite your allergies, there are plenty of reasons to stay inspired throughout the season. Read newly added poems about flowers, gardening, and spring by historical and contemporary poets including Joshua Beckman, Robert Burns, Henri Cole, Barbara Guest, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Amy King, Claude McKay, Carl Sandburg, and more.
• Planet Earth: The Complete BBC Series (2007), narrated by Sir David Attenborough. This 11-part series covers a different habitat or location and each episode and has some of the most stunning footage you will ever see. It is simply beautiful. Sir David narrates with calm panache.
• Proteus, directed by David Lebrun Nightfire Films, 2004 ($24.95). An exposition of the beatific vision of 19th-century artist and marine biologist Ernst Haeckel.
• Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod by Gary Paulsen, from Mariner Books (1995). $15.00. An account of the hardships—including frostbite, snowstorms, moose attacks, and hallucinations—that Paulsen experienced in the Iditarod. Complete with a map and color photographs.

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