Based on the books we choose to feature in this weekly newsletter, you might guess that we’re quite open to alternative, out of the mainstream ideas about the natural and spiritual worlds, science and health. And it’s true, though... Read More

Phalaina / Alice Brière-HaquetEmma Ramadan, translator / Levine Querido / Hardcover $18.99 (320pp) / 978-1-64614-182-1 / Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop) / Phalaina is an enchanting dark fairy tale focused on an ethereal, red-eyed... Read More

If there is any doubt about God having a sense of humor, the old joke goes, you need only look at his decision to combine the human sex organs with the sewage disposal system. Questionable design, to be sure. Likewise, America’s city... Read More

Sweet in Tooth and Claw / Stories of Generosity and Cooperation in the Natural World / Kristin Ohlson / Patagonia / Hardcover $27.95 (384pp) / 978-1-952338-09-0 / Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop) / Descriptions of nature as... Read More

Would be nice to go a week without hearing the word “extinction” mentioned alongside some other hapless animal/insect/plant facing existential doom. Alas, prepare yourself to hear it even more: the rate of species loss is “tens to... Read More

Kibogo / Scholastique MukasongaMark Polizzotti, translator / Archipelago Books / Softcover $16.00 (160pp) / 978-1-953861-36-8 / Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop) / Two outcasts from a troubled Rwandan village try to save their country... Read More

If you spend your waking hours watching video of crocodiles attacking wildebeest and falcons downing doves in midair, you’d be forgiven for believing that relations between all species is merciless, that each form of life on earth is... Read More