Where the Deer and the Antelope Play

May 1, 2021

From world-famous neuroscientist Damasio (it all started with Descartes' Error), Feeling and Knowing relies on recent discoveries in neurobiology, psychology, and AI to explain what consciousness really is (originally scheduled for March 2021). Foster and Frylinck, creators of the documentary phenom My Octopus Teacher--one of Netflix's top 10 films of 2020--swam through South Africa's jaw-droppingly beautiful kelp forests without benefit of wetsuits or oxygen masks (but aided by their favorite octopus) to bring us Underwater Wild, illustrated with over 200 full-color photographs (100,000-copy first printing). A multi-award-winning blogger and founder of Planet Paws, Facebook's most popular pet health page, Habib joins forces with world-renowned veterinarian Becker to explain that dogs suffer from the same chronic illnesses as humans, then introduces a wealth of science-based information ensuring that The Forever Dog in your household will stay alive and well for a long time (150,000-copy first printing). In The Wires of War, Helberg, the former news policy lead at Google, limns the growing cyber conflict piting the West against primarily Russia and China over both software (e.g., news information and social media platforms) and hardware (e.g., cell phones and satellites (100,000-copy first printing). Having grown up in Bangladesh, which she describes as having minimal women's health care, Hossain expected expert maternal care in wealthy America--and nearly died in childbirth; All in Your Head is her impassioned critique of sexism in U.S. health care. Offerman humorously explores the great outdoors as he takes us where The Deer and the Antelope Play. New Yorker staffer Orlean, perhaps best known for The Orchid Thief, here writes On Animals, which explores the animal-human relationship in stories she has written throughout her career. Editor of the New York Times Book Review, Paul offers 100 never-before-published essays (with witty illustrations by Nishant Choksi) to explore 100 Things We've Lost to the Internet, from punctuation and good manners to the ability to entertain ourselves. In The Plant Hunter, enthnobotanist Quave relates her search for plants that can improve or save our lives. Having practiced medicine worldwide, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, Reisman takes us inside The Unseen Body to describe its functions by relating them to the world--the Arctic taught him the value of fat, for instance, while the Himalayas revealed the border between brain and mind (75,000-copy first printing). A prolific author of science titles, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Rhodes profiles Harvard biologist and naturalist O. Wilson--noteworthy for promoting sociobiology and biodiversity--in Scientist. In Being You, the codirector of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science at the Universitiy of Sussex, explains that we do not view the world objectively but through a series of constant predictions that are rooted in biological mechanisms we can now measure.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2021
The genially sardonic actor and comedian recounts occasionally misbegotten, always laugh-inducing travels. Offerman opens his latest book, at times reminiscent of the work of British traveler Redmond O'Hanlon, with a gimlet eye on billboards that proclaim the planks of fundamentalist Christianity. "I don't feel the need," he writes, "to erect a sign in my yard proclaiming 'BEEF TALLOW IS THE FUCKING BOSS.' " Offerman entertainingly chronicles his travels in the Montana Rockies with two perhaps unlikely companions, novelist George Saunders and musician Jeff Tweedy. Well-known as a fine woodworker, Offerman contrasts his love of fancy gear, a love shared by Tweedy, with Saunders' asceticism: "It was his water bottle that made me realize how his whole gear vibe was screaming 'unassuming pragmatism.' " Saunders got in a little less trouble than the other two as they hiked along the sheer cliffs of Glacier National Park, a place that prompts the author to meditate on the history and fate of public lands: "We three middle-aged white guys, ever aware of our privilege, had taken pretty full advantage of the recreation available in the glorious acreage that some other white guys had set aside for just that purpose." After a side journey among craftspeople and farmers in the English Midlands, where he gamely tried to build a stone wall in the old way, he took off on a Covid-evading RV road trip with wife and fellow actor Megan Mullally, a journey fraught with encounters with the denizens of the recent film Nomadland. "When it comes to navigating RV parks and their gatekeepers," he notes, "there is a substantial culture of unwritten laws of the jungle." Offerman's forays into social criticism are sometimes sharp but never elitist even as he professes disdain for the Jan. 6 crowd and its "batshit mouthpiece," the pillow king. A hoot and a half for fans of sometimes-hapless wandering.

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September 13, 2021
Parks and Recreation star and woodworker Offerman (Gumption) ponders the goodness of the land and the corruptions of white, capitalist Trumpistan in this painfully woke and often misfiring memoir. He narrates three journeys: a hiking trip in Glacier National Park, full of stunning scenery and ruminations on the dispossession of Native Americans; visits to an organic sheep farm in England in 2019, where he repaired stone walls and rails against agribusiness that use “chemicals and machinery”; and a recent road trip from California to Illinois, during which he shuddered at unmasked diners and campers whose Trump flags brought to mind “a Klan hood.” Offerman extols the virtues of manual labor and communion with nature while denouncing “the dominant, white culture that... has been wrong in almost every way,” and vows to “listen to the grievances of the indigenous folks, the Black folks, the gay folks, the Latinx familias.” Unfortunately, his labored jokes—“the main terror of park toilets: OPPPTYB (Other People’s Poop Particles Touching Your Butt)”—are overshadowed by fulsome rants: “If a person bases their worldview on the lyrics of these old songs... they could easily end up indoctrinated into the White Power army,” he huffs, the songs being “Home on the Range” and “America the Beautiful.” The result is a preachy, stridently unfunny travelogue. Agent: Monika Verma, Levine, Greenberg, Rostan Literary.

October 1, 2021

Offerman (The Greatest Love Story Ever Told) shares observations from the road with wry humor and sarcasm and an understanding of the privilege that allowed the Parks and Recreation actor to make these journeys. A trip to Glacier National Park with George Saunders and Jeff Tweedy is an opportunity to contemplate others' antics and examine ecology and history, including how the park came to be through violence and illegal land grabs from the Blackfoot Confederacy and Salish and Kootenai tribes. In later chapters, Offerman tags along as British farmer/writer James Rebanks rebuilds walls, negotiates livestock purchases, and discusses living on and respecting the land. In the final section, which takes place during the pandemic and loses some of the book's insight and relatability, Offerman and spouse Megan Mullally indulge in the consumerism they previously disparaged and purchase an Airstream to travel during the U.S. COVID-19 lockdowns in spring 2020. Offerman's narrative thread is peppered with tangential discussions that are almost always entertaining and informative, aside from somewhat overdone references to Aldo Leopold and Wendell Barry. VERDICT A great mix of wit and perceptive observation from travels in the United States and the United Kingdom just before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a surprising amount of history, nature, and ecology thrown in.--Zebulin Evelhoch, Deschutes P.L., OR

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.