As a nature writer, Arati Kumar-Rao employs an evocative and lyrical tone, even when she is describing the grim statistics of pollution or climate change. She has an acute sensitivity for the subtle nuances of imperiled landscapes, their brittle beauty and seasonal rhythms. The text is illuminated with the author’s own artwork, which presents haunting black and white images of the places she visits.
Author Zai Whitaker assumes no stand. She narrates with dispassion and sagacity, apportioning neither praise nor blame. It is for the reader to glean the canniness of the protagonists, the inherent wisdom that keeps them alive through the drastically changing circumstances in the story.
Author: Sejal MehtaPublisher: Penguin Viking “Sejal Mehta’s book opens up the rich and fascinating world of intertidal organisms to anyone with the inclination to pause and look at what a receding tide reveals. Day or night, this zone can thrill you with its inhabitants, be it an unexpected octopus on a Mumbai beach or the glowing plankton in the tidal…
Editors: Aparajita Datta, Rohan Arthur, TR Shankar RamanPublisher: HarperCollins India “Conservation is essentially an act of love. A testament to the dedication and passion of a group of scientists to protect the living world around them, At the Feet of Living Things chronicles multiple journeys, varied experiences, and moving self-reflections on what it means to want to conserve biodiversity in a world…
Author: Stephen AlterPublisher: Aleph Book Company “Stephen Alter’s Birdwatching reads like an unputdownable wartime spy thriller, but it is so much more than that with threads of nature writing, romance and historical fiction woven together dexterously. As the story unfolds, the reader is drawn in, chapter by bewitching chapter, each named after a beautiful bird who features in it, making the…
Ghosh returns to non-fiction with aplomb, giving us an in-depth and remarkable account of how one plant (opium poppy) has contributed to “the current unmaking of our world”.
Reviewed by Zai Whitaker Once in a while a spectacular natural history book comes along, and The Living Air: The Pleasures of Birds and Birdwatching is one of them. Aasheesh Pittie is in that category of ornithologists who are also good writers; who have not only seen the rare Jerdon’s Courser but describe the incident in a way that makes…
Except for an essay on the poisoners of the living world, the nightshade plant, the other essays are non-vegetarian, so to speak. By and large, the critters are of a size that wouldn’t require a microscope to see them. They can slither, bite, sting, trumpet, dash, bark and swim. The essays aren’t organized in any particular order. The chapter titles…