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La Foresta Nascosta: Un Anno Trascorso A Osservare La Natura (2014)

by David George Haskell(Favorite Author)
4.27 of 5 Votes: 2
ISBN
8806218425 (ISBN13: 9788806218423)
languge
English
genre
publisher
Einaudi
review 1: A thoughtful book, really a meditation, one the ecology of southern hard wood, old growth forests, told through the passage of a single small patch, over a single year. This book does not have any consistent plot or characters (in fact the narrator strives to remove himself as much as possible) and it should be best thought of as a collection of essays. Because of this structure it is easy to pick up, put down, and use as literary mortar, filling in the 10min holes in our days. The single best part of this book is the way with which it was written. I have rarely encountered such poetry, such lyricism in a nonfiction book. The author truly is a wordsmith and almost every chapter had a turn of a phrase that stopped me. You don't want to rush these, rather you want to slow do... morewn and let the words have time to shine. The content is great and I'll probably assign a few excerpts for my conservation biology class. I highly recommend this book!
review 2: The Forest Unseen is a fascinating nonfiction book that examines life on a one square meter of old growth forest owned by the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Haskell is a biology professor at the university and spent a year observing the same small meter of land in the forest, observing the changes that each season brings to the land. The book is divided into chapters that correspond to his visits to the patch. He examines everything he sees and hears. The reader learns about songbirds, mushrooms, how plants reproduce, why certain plants bloom in the spring, ticks, microscopic animals, trees, fungi and how the climate changes throughout the year structures the life available for observation. The reader will pick up tidbits of knowledge in each chapter as well as an overarching view of the entire interrelated ecosystem. For example, half of all songbirds who do not migrate will die in the winter due to the inability to find enough food to convert into heat. That is one observation that stuck with me, but every chapter will provide new insights into the world that surrounds us. The book has been recognized as one of the best in this genre. It was a Finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction. It was the Winner of the 2013 Reed Environmental Writing Award, and the Winner of the 2012 National Outdoor Book Award for National Historical Literature. Readers will find the book fascinating and a microscope into the workings of the world mostly unknown to the average person. This book is recommended for readers of nonfiction and those interested in the natural world. less
Reviews (see all)
Lena37
Beautifully written. I completely forgot I was reading a Biology text.
Sarty
This is my next book to read. Both siblings have read it and liked it.
marj
Ed Yong rave ("best science book ever")
wjoyve
Great. Would highly recommend.
Shortie
Terry Burger liked this one.
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