Wild Thoughts from Wild Places

by David Quammen

Overview

In Wild Thoughts from Wild Places, award-winning journalist David Quammen reminds us why he has become one of our most beloved science and nature writers.

This collection of twenty-three of Quammen's most intriguing, most exciting, most memorable pieces introduces kayakers on the Futaleufu River of southern Chile, where Quammen describes how it feels to travel in fast company and flail for survival in the river's maw.

Readers learn of the commerce in pearls (and black-market parrots) in the Aru Islands of eastern Indonesia. Quammen even finds wildness in smog-choked Los Angeles -- embodied in an elusive population of urban coyotes, too stubborn and too clever to surrender to the sprawl of civilization.

With humor and intelligence, David Quammen's Wild Thoughts from Wild Places also reminds us that humans are just one of the many species on earth with motivations, goals, quirks, and eccentricities. Expect to be entertained and moved on this journey through the wilds of science and nature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439125274
Publisher:	Scribner
Publication date:	10/16/2012
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

David Quammen’s books include Breathless, The Tangled Tree, The Song of the Dodo, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, and Spillover. He has written for The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Outside, among other magazines, and is a three-time winner of the National Magazine Award. Quammen shares a home in Bozeman, Montana, with his wife, Betsy Gaines Quammen, author of American Zion, and with three Russian wolfhounds, a cross-eyed cat, and a rescue python. Visit him at DavidQuammen.com.

Table of Contents

Contents
Introduction
I. THE RIVER
Synecdoche and the Trout
Time and Tide on the Ocoee River
Vortex
Only Connect
Grabbing the Loop
II. THE CITY
The White Tigers of Cincinnati
To Live and Die in L.A.
Reaction Wood
Superdove on 46th Street
Before the Fall
III. THE MOUNTAINS
Pinhead Secrets
The Keys to Kingdom Come
Karl's Sense of Snow
The Trees Cry Out on Currawong Moor
The Big Turn
Eat of This Flesh
IV. THE HEART
The Swallow That Hibernates Underwater
Trinket from Aru
Bagpipes for Ed
Point of Attachment
Voice Part for a Duet
Love in the Age of Relativity
Strawberries Under Ice
Notes and Provenance
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Humanity badly needs things that are big and fearsome and homicidally wild," contends acclaimed science writer Quammen (The Song of the Dodo) in this collection of short pieces, most of which appeared originally in Outside magazine. Quammen is an eloquent and witty apologist for the forces of nature that "civilized" people often want tamed: whitewater rivers, avalanche-prone peaks, even cougars or coyotes living near suburban backyards. Despite the dangers and inconveniences such forces might pose to people, "they give us perspective," Quammen writes. "They testify that God... might not be dead after all." Though his point of view is often not especially original and his analyses are necessarily brief, Quammen brings a well-honed sense of irony to essays that range from meditations on trout habitats to an exploration of Tasmanian geography and genocide. He is at his best when he muses on the deeper meanings of such phenomena as the physical properties of vortices, the life cycles of the barnacle or the evolutionary benefits of mammalian monogamy. Some essays, however, like "You Can Run," which deals with viral outbreaks, seem datedas do the several pieces on kayaking and skiing competitions. While Quammen's sportswriting is superior to most, it isn't outstanding enough to merit inclusion here. Nevertheless, the collection as a whole is distinguished by Quammen's broad-ranging intelligence, keen wit and unabashed passion for wild things and places. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Quammen (Song of the Dodo, LJ 3/1/96), a former columnist for Outside magazine, where most of these pieces originally appeared, has compiled 28 of his essays for this book. His subjects range from kayaking to telemark skiing to cancer to urban pigeons. Quammen is an often perceptive viewer of the landscape and a persistent interviewer. Occasionally, his essays go on too long, as evidenced by his fascination with telemark skiing. Others demand greater investigation, such as his examination of emerging viruses. In these cases, Quammen offers a starting point for further study. His choice of topics is sometimes quirky and highly eclectic, but usually he manages to engage the reader. Recommended for public libraries with active natural history collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/97.]Randy Dykhuis, Michigan Lib. Consortium, Lansing

Library Journal

He has a wide range of knowledge, an agile pen and a generous heart.

NY Times Book Review

Quammen has a wide range of knowledge, an agile pen and a generous heart.” —James Gorman, The New York Times Book Review

“So thrilling to read is science writer David Quammen's essay collection that you actually experience moments of believing you have been transported to some of the ferocious or fairy-tale-like locales he reports on. . . . Quammen is no ordinary writer. He is simply astonishing, one of that rare class of writer gifted with verve, ingenuity, humor, guts, and great heart.” —Lisa Shea, Elle

From the Publisher