Words
The Historical Atlas of the Pacific Northwest, by Derek Hayes (UC Press)
It is difficult to describe all of the riches Derek Hayes’ latest atlas project offers to the armchair historian. Its 200-plus pages brim with more than 500 maps, photos, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, illustrations, advertisements and other historical ephemera, all succinctly explained and consolidated in Hayes’ descriptive yet succinct text. The journey begins with the earliest known maps of Washington and Oregon drawn up by explorers like Quadra, Barkley, Quimper, Gray, and Vancouver—scrawled yet often elegant relics reflecting the limits of knowledge of the first Europeans venturing in to this rugged landscape—and gains sophistication as missionaries, railroad workers, miners, loggers and other settlers begin to push into the territory. Later pages are devoted to the development of the interstate road system, national parks and forests, irrigation and hydropower, floating bridges and atomic and aerospace industries. Open to any page of Hayes’ bursting compendium and you’re likely to be engrossed by the diversity of materials and depth of research.
Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle, by Thor Hanson (Basic Books)
Winner of the 2011 Northwest Booksellers Association book of the year award and a Library Journal Top 10 Science Book, Feathers tells the natural and cultural history of the feather—one of the most highly evolved objects in nature. Hanson is a conservation biologist with experience in the field studying everything from trees and songbirds in Costa Rica, bears in Alaska and gorillas in Uganda, and he possesses the rare gift of translating scientific concepts into prose both captivating and poetic. Writing from his home on San Juan Island, Hanson takes the reader back to the Chauvet Cave in southern France, through Greek and Hindu mythology, up to recent discoveries using DNA fingerprinting, all the while exploring the development and uses of this evolutionary marvel.
Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug are Killing North America’s Great Forests, by Andrew Nikiforuk (Greystone)
Celebrated in Canada as one of their most engrossing nonfiction books of the year, journalist Andrew Nikiforuk focuses his honed investigative skills towards the tale of an insect “the size of a rice kernel” that has killed more than 30 billion pine and spruce trees from Alaska and northern British Columbia, down the Rocky Mountains range into Colorado and New Mexico. There are many villains in this man-made tragedy—climate change, unsustainable logging practices, misguided science, a century of fire suppression—and the author makes his best attempt to draw lessons and look ahead into the unknown future of one of the world’s greatest natural heritages.
Faith of Cranes: Finding Hope and Family in Alaska,by Hank Lentfer (Mountaineeers Books)
A finely wrought memoir of a life lived in a remote town in southeast Alaska, Hank Lentfer weaves together threads of conservation, natural history, parenthood and family. Sandhill cranes, passing over the author’s home every fall on their journey between California and Alaska, serve as the inspiration for his quest to find hope in a world seemingly intent on crushing all things beautiful and natural.
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