BookShelf

TV journalist Jacob Soboroff grew up in Pacific Palisades, so when the Los Angeles neighborhood was swept by wildfires in 2024, he reported from familiar sites as they burned. He writes about the experience in “Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster,” whose strength BookShelf contributor Jennifer Weeks says is its street-level descriptions of chasing the fast-developing story. Read her review.

With billions of North American birds lost during recent decades, a survey of the successful efforts to save their species is a welcome read. Author Scott Weidensaul highlights winning initiatives, such as rewilding, innovations to protect puffins and more, along with appraisals of less fruitful projects. BookShelf contributor Jennifer Weeks has a review of “The Return of the Oystercatcher.”

Massive kelp groves, little-noticed despite their proximity to populated coastlines or their importance to ecosystems and to us humans, face numerous pressures and a drastic decline. In “Forest of the Sea,” author David Helvarg dives into the subject, literally, to help reveal this unique undersea world. BookShelf contributing editor Jennifer Weeks has a review.

The population of Siberian tigers, the second-largest subspecies in the world, took a turn for the worse after the fall of the Soviet Union. But an international team of biologists in remote Russia has been working to try to save the big cats. “Tigers Between Empires” traces that effort, in a new BookShelf review from contributing editor Jennifer Weeks.

The new book by renowned thinker and author Jeremy Rifkin, “Planet Aqua,” immerses the reader in a fascinating premise: that we live not on a land planet but within a great hydrosphere, and that water is no mere resource but a life-sustaining source. BookShelf editor Tom Henry explores how Rifkin’s wide-reaching narrative strives to upend conventional wisdom about our Earth.

Writers with disabilities and chronic illnesses explore perspectives on nature and environment in a unique anthology, “Moving Mountains.” Editor Louise Kenward discusses the recent volume with contributor William Allen in a new BookShelf “Between the Lines” Q&A — the connection between climate change and disability, the benefits of learning to rest, the value of engaging with different perspectives and more. 

In “We Are Eating the Earth,” author Michael Grunwald explains masterfully how good intentions have led us astray over our food system and climate change, writes BookShelf editor Tom Henry. Whether it’s our obsession with meat, myths about biofuels and regenerative agriculture, or feel-good ideas based on bad science, Grunwald argues it’s time for a fundamental shift in values.

A simple query about harmful chemicals in airline attendant uniforms started sustainable fashion writer Alden Wicker down a reporting path that uncovered a long history of toxic fashion, took her to India and ultimately inspired her award-winning book, “To Dye For.” In this BookShelf interview, Wicker talks about the challenges, the surprises and the choices made in telling this little-known story.

The story behind the story that captures the “real” Florida is the essence of a new volume from veteran journalist and author Craig Pittman. BookShelf editor Tom Henry writes that “Welcome to Florida: True Tales from America’s Most Interesting State” not only taps into the state’s rich vein of the weird but offers a hefty dose of environmental topics, from climate change to manatees.

A project begun to explore ways to protect the Amazon seemed to end with the murder of the journalist who conceived it, along with his guide and research partner. But others picked up the mantle and completed a volume exploring ways to save this precious and rapidly disappearing ecosystem. BookShelf reviewer Elyse Hauser on how this unusual book tries to meet that promise.