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  • Book Cover

    Title:
    Bartram's Living Legacy: The Travels and the Nature of the South

    Date Published:
    Mercer University Press 2010

  • Book Cover

    Title:
    Ecoviews: Snakes, Snails, and Environmental Tales

    Date Published:
    University of Alabama Press 1998

    Book Review #1:
    Musings on the environment, particularly that of the southeastern US, delivered with an easy fireside manner, from the Gibbonses (he's author of Their Blood Runs Cold, not reviewed; she's a freelance editor). It is unlikely there's anything in these pages that hasn't been said before, much of it frequently and in more impressive prose, but it is impossible to deny the Gibbonses' enthusiasm for their topic: the protection of biodiversity. They see as their mission the firing of young imaginations to create an attitude that considers the protection of biodiversity estimable and commonsensical. To this end they spin out the web-of-life theories and the value-of- species-diversity theories most readers will already know (though often with a decidely anthropocentric cast: ``Perhaps the most important reason we should care about the environment is that natural habitats and wildlife are an essential foundation for human culture''). But where the Gibbonses will likely make their impact is in deploying ecological curiosities and vagaries peculiar to the American Southeast (he teaches at the University of Georgia) to make their point, a niche that hasn't been overexplored in popular environmental literature. There is fascinating material here on cottonmouths abroad in winter; how it is that aquatic turtles unerringly locate the next-closest body of water (``Do they look up at the sky and somehow perceive light reflected from the surface of the water?''); why one should never pause when slinging a seven-foot whipsnake between one's legs (which, of course, begs the bigger question). These are enthralling regional tidbits, the kind of stuff that makes readers yearn for more, for the big picture. Kirkus Reviews

    Book Review #2:
    In the hope that familiarity will breed appreciation, the authors (Whit is a professor of ecology, Univ. of Georiga, and Anne a freelance editor) attempt "to engender esteem for the wealth of biodiversity on earth" by delighting the reader with stories of plant and animal ecology. While many interesting vignettes are included?e.g., the Patrick McManus-like tale of a live alligator loose in a speeding vehicle?the book suffers from a lack of organization and focus, touching on topics as diverse as scientific research on animal behavior, environmental education ideas for children, and environmental degradation. One especially disjointed chapter includes segments on nature poetry, dragons, political correctness and "Peter and the Wolf," and the vagaries of weather prediction. Though Ecoviews does include much useful information, a book such as Jerry Dennis's It's Raining Frogs and Fishes (HarperPerennial, 1992) accomplishes the same goal with a narrower focus and more clearly defined audience. Library Journal

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  • Book Cover

    Title:
    Their Blood Runs Cold: Adventures With Reptiles and Amphibians

    Date Published:
    University of Alabama Press 1983

  • Title:
    A Selected List of Popular Articles by Whit Gibbons