(Henry Holt, $28)
“It is not possible to overstate the importance of Elizabeth Kolbert’s book,” said Mary Ellen Hannibal in the San Francisco Chronicle. She isn’t the first writer who’s told us that human activity has so changed Earth’s ecosystem that we’re witnessing mass extinction on a scale not seen since dinosaurs were wiped from the planet some 66 million years ago. But Kolbert has found a way to make this disturbing story riveting. “Her prose is lucid, accessible, and even entertaining,” and by reviewing how scientists learned of the previous five mass extinctions and by traveling the world to report on numerous of today’s vanishing species, she’s made visceral an unfolding tragedy. Surely, her readers “will not be able to sleep” until they’ve done all they can to stem the crisis.
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Still, her book represents “a compelling call to action,” said Al Gore in The New York Times. Our species too could vanish from the earth if we don’t change course soon, but “fortunately, history is full of examples of our capacity to overcome even the most difficult challenges whenever a controversy is finally resolved into a choice between what is clearly right and what is clearly wrong.” Kolbert herself appears to be less optimistic, said Margaret Quamme in the Columbus, Ohio, Dispatch. She paints a picture of humanity as a force that can’t help but upset the planet’s ecological balance, destroying life as it does. “It’s a grim prognosis, but somehow this isn’t a grim book.” Kolbert “has a rare ability” to accept the broad movements of geological history, even the chapter that currently seems to be heading toward a dark denouement.
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The UK’s ‘wallaby boom’Under the Radar The Australian marsupial has ‘colonised’ the Isle of Man and is now making regular appearances on the UK mainland
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Fast food is no longer affordable to low-income AmericansThe explainer Cheap meals are getting farther out of reach
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‘The money to fix this problem already exists’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
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Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
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Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
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The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
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Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
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Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
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Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
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You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
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Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”