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The BookShelf features monthly reviews of the latest environmental and energy books of interest to journalists, as well as an occasional question-and-answer in which published authors offer insight into the motivations behind their work and provide advice to environmental reporters and writers.

For questions and comments, or to suggest future BookShelf reviews, or to offer to review a book, email the SEJournal BookShelf Editor Tom Henry at thenry@theblade.com.

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December 16, 2020

  • “You Can’t Fool Mother Nature: The Once and Future Triumph of Environmentalism”

    It’s been a half-century since the first Earth Day in 1970 and a new book from an old hand catalogues the advances and the setbacks in the decades since. BookShelf contributor Francesca Lyman reviews “You Can’t Fool Mother Nature: The Once and Future Triumph of Environmentalism,” and explores how a long view from a veteran environmentalist informs the field of environmental reporting.

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November 11, 2020

  • “Man of Tomorrow: The Relentless Life of Jerry Brown”

    The memorable career of California Gov. Jerry Brown has at its core a spiritual connection to the environment, a connection that he successfully channeled into the political realm, particularly around climate change. That’s according to the writer of a new biography that delves into the origins of Brown’s environmental politics and his climate change legacy. Read our latest BookShelf review.

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October 14, 2020

  • “Diary of a Young Naturalist”

    With the heart of a naturalist, the head of a scientist and the weary bones of someone watching the destruction of the natural world, a prize-winning writer shares insights into the environment … and into a mind shaped by autism. That writer, by the way, is just 16 years old. BookShelf’s Melody Kemp reviews “Diary of a Young Naturalist.” 

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September 16, 2020

  • “The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think”

    Bird brains, despite the dictum, are anything but deficient. In fact, a new book by science and nature writer Jennifer Ackerman reveals how scientists, driven by rising diversity in their own ranks and by the leverage of new technologies, are gaining a dramatically new understanding of the complexities of bird behavior. BookShelf has a review of “The Bird Way.”

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July 15, 2020

June 17, 2020

  • “Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West”

    It’s a site of stunning natural beauty. It’s also the place with America’s worst income inequality. A new book details how Wyoming’s Teton County elite have, perhaps unwittingly, used their extreme wealth to remake the region through conservation easements and donations to environmental causes, but remain blind to the needs of the area’s poorer residents. The latest BookShelf review explains.

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May 20, 2020

  • “Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution”

    To better grasp how COVID-19 is linked to the persistent problem of polluted air, our latest BookShelf review recommends going back to a prescient text, “Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution.” While the volume predates the pandemic, it makes painfully clear why, during this crisis, healthy air matters more than ever.

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April 15, 2020

  • Go-To Books for Understanding and Surviving a Pandemic

    If you’re looking for perspective in your reporting connected with the coronavirus story, it might help to turn to the extensive library of non-fiction books offering insight into disease and epidemics. Our own Bob Wyss offers a helping hand, with a select list of the most useful texts. Plus, links to resource lists for many more, in the latest BookShelf.

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February 5, 2020

  • ‘Last Days of the Mighty Mekong’ and ‘Dead in the Water’

    The Mekong River is a lifeline for millions and a biodiversity hotspot. But massive hydropower projects have put the Southeast Asian body of water, as well as the lives of the people and natural world around it, in serious jeopardy. In the latest BookShelf, writer Melody Kemp, who lives alongside the legendary river, reviews two volumes that help explain what’s killing the Mekong.

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January 8, 2020

  • “Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle To Save the Florida Panther”

    Sometimes in the face of bad news, it can help to laugh a little. That’s what award-winning environmental writer Craig Pittman may help readers do with his new dispatch from the Sunshine State. Our latest BookShelf reviews Pittman’s upcoming witty, truth-telling volume,“Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle To Save the Florida Panther.”

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