naturalhistory

The Secret Life of Trees: How They Live and Why They Matter | Colin Tudge

A Tale Of Three Trees
One tree clinging to summer.
A second tree conceding it is time for fall.
The third tree embraces fall in red-leafed glory.

These three trees caught my attention yesterday at our local park. Each in different stage of fall, despite their close proximity to each other. 🍃🍂🍁

#fall #falltrees #October #fallcolors

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Gorgeous 🍁🍂 4w

Cheryl_Russell_BookNotes @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Oct. is one of my favorite months. 4w

14 likes2 comments

arlenefinnigan

Owls: Their Natural and Unnatural History | John Sparks, Tony Soper

Aw. RIP Tony Soper.

19 likes

cant_i'm_booked

The Desert: Further Studies in Natural Appearances | John Charles Van Dyke

so-so

Published in 1901, The Desert is one of the first books that wrote about, and espoused the beauties of, (you called it) the desert. Traveling through the American Southwest, and specifically the Mojave, (an experience that probably augmented his post as art advisor to industrialist Andrew Carnegie), Van Dyke points out the vivid and stark beauty of his surroundings, or what he calls “the sublimity of the waste.”

12 likes

RobES

The Lost Rainforests of Britain | Guy Shrubsole

pick

Everybody needs to read this book! It is inspiring, informative and beautifully written. The best thing I've read this year 💚💚💚

43 likes

rachaich

Orison for a Curlew | Horatio Clare

pick

Less than a hundred pages and crammed with urlew facts, spottings and demise... yet told through the last few countries to have tracked or sighted one.
The detrimental impact of human and so called progress on the natural world 🗺 :(

16 likes

AllDebooks

The Life of Mammals | David Attenborough

#Naturalitsy

A new series from BBC with Sir David Attenborough, can't wait. ❤️

https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/mammals

37 likes

Robotswithpersonality

The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter | Colin Tudge

so-so

Not sure this book knew what it wanted to be.
It succeeded at being a book about trees written by a zoologist who seems just as happy to talk about other living things.
First part does have tree history, right back through evolution, but it does seem to get snagged up in the greater story of the evolution of life.
The second part has at least as many mentions of beings in Orders that are not trees, as trees themselves. 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? Also wasn't really expecting the frequent listing of all the uses that humans put the various tree parts to, apparently there are lots and lots of different timber with different colours and patterns. This makes a bit more sense linked to the point made in the last chapter about a tree-based economy, but it's a long time between evidence and argument. 10mo

Robotswithpersonality 3/? First and second parts could be a reference guide, if colour photos were added.
I think I'd excerpt into a separate paper the many mentions/discussions of the recategorization and renaming of various levels of trees and tree families (order, genus, etc), because it comes up a lot, and isn't necessarily helpful in keeping straight what a tree is, or how it relates to other trees.
I just needed a one time disclaimer that 'this may be out of date in five years and won't match up with older sources based on the ongoing science.' 10mo

Robotswithpersonality 4/? The author seems happy to list encounters with various trees, pleasant and unpleasant, which I think would have been suited better to a brief memoir of his traveling and encountering various trees in various parts of the world; I would have loved to read it. 10mo

Robotswithpersonality 5/6 Probably written with the understanding that people may dip in and out of the book, but it makes a fun fact less fun when I kept encountering them in duplicate.
I think part three was mostly what I thought this book would be, but even it reflects the problems listed above. 10mo

Robotswithpersonality 6/6 I will always be grateful for works written by scientists with last chapters that end with hopes, with suggestions for the future, but I'd rather it not be the only bright spot in a long DRY spell. 10mo

7 likes5 comments