Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature

by David Quammen

Hardcover, 2008

Status

Available

Genres

Collection

Vince Matulionis Collection

Publication

W. W. Norton & Company (2008). Revised and Expanded edition

Description

A revised and expanded edition of Quammen's first book of nonfiction, including the best of his recent work. "Lively writing about science and nature depends less on the offering of good answers, I think, than on the offering of good questions," said David Quammen in the original introduction to Natural Acts. For more than two decades, he has stuck to that credo. In this updated version of his first essay collection, Quammen's lively curiosity leads him from New Mexico to Romania, from the Congo to the Amazon, asking questions about mosquitoes (what are their redeeming merits?), dinosaurs (how did they change the life of a dyslexic Vietnam vet?), and cloning (can it save endangered species?). This expanded edition returns to print Quammen's best-loved "Natural Acts" columns, which first appeared in Outside magazine in the early 1980s, and includes recent pieces such as "Planet of Weeds," an influential Harper's cover story. The new Natural Acts is an eye-opening journey that will please both Quammen fans and newcomers to his work.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Devil_llama

This author has a style that, at his best, is a cross between Stephen J. Gould and Edward Abbey. The problem is, while the book started out very promising, with the most enjoyable writing I've read all year, it soon loses steam. When he writes about the quirks and oddities of the animal kingdom, he

is not to be beat, but once he turns his attention to the human animal, the book drops into the ordinary. The people he writes about are interesting, and could perhaps make a good book, and in fact, did make a good book, but the stories were a total disappointment after the solid beginning of the first few chapters, a promise of something different and special that was never quite fulfilled. Perhaps if the author had excised those chapters, and focused on just the human stories, the lack would never have been noticed; or if he had ended with those wonderful notes instead of beginning, it would have seemed more like a sublime conclusion than an unfulfilled promise. Either way, the book has some real strong points, but don't expect it to be consistent.

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