Into the Jungle

For my Vertebrates class I just finished Into the Jungle: Great Adventures in the Search for Evolution by Sean B. Carroll. This is a collection of nonfiction essays and stories about various naturalists and their adventures. The books features Darwin, Wallace, and Andrews among other famous naturalists as they travel the globe. The later stories focus on select organisms crucial to understanding the methods of evolution as well as vertebrate anomalies. This is a really interesting collection. The naturalists all had such fascinating lives. This book made me want to travel to some remote area of the globe and classify species or locate ancient fossils.

7/10

383 points

Eaarthlings

Bill McKibben's newest book, Eaarth, wasn't as easy of a read as his last that I read. This book focused more on the harsh realities of our current situation- the state of our planet, how this has occurred over the past few decades, and what we can feasibly do about it. It was, essentially, depressing. Which is why it is so very important for people to start facing these realities, instead of continuing to pretend that they don't exist, or that they aren't effecting us.

Key points included moving away from unlimited growth as an economic ideal and learning how to turn towards local communities- which may be a bit repetitive, but at this point, absolutely necessary.

8/10

412 points