Flight Paths
When Rebecca Heisman worked for the American Ornithological Society, her job involved reading “cutting-edge migration research” and publicizing it in a digestible way for the public. She sought to provide readers with the answer to...
Please see the below book and film reviews from past editions of the AWI Quarterly.
Treated Like Animals
Alick Simmons, former deputy chief veterinary officer for the United Kingdom, acknowledges that he has “actively facilitated exploitative interactions with animals.” But so have the rest of us, he writes in his intriguing book, Treated...
Animal Liberation Now
Animal Liberation Now: The Definitive Classic Renewed is the latest update to Peter Singer’s seminal 1975 book, Animal Liberation. While the facts and figures have been updated, the ultimate message has not changed significantly. Now...
Secrets of the Elephants
National Geographic’s newly released four-part docuseries, Secrets of the Elephants, streaming on Disney+, takes an in-depth look at the complex behaviors of elephants living in southern Asia and in savannas, rainforests, and the Namib Desert...
Beaverland
Part narrative, part reference source, Leila Philip’s Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America provides incredible information about beavers—from their physiology and behaviors to their entwined history with humankind in the United States and the...
Wild New World
Dan Flores’ Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America presents the story of extirpation in the United States—or more precisely, of humanity’s insatiable thirst for animals (and animal habitat).
Pests
Bethany Brookshire begins her engrossing book, Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains, with an eastern gray squirrel named “[expletive] Kevin” who is decimating her tomato plant. It is an illuminating anecdote, since Brookshire—an award-winning science...
A Warbler’s Journey
A Warbler’s Journey, written by Pennsylvania naturalist Scott Weidensaul and illustrated by Nancy Lane, is a beautiful and informative book. Through the travels of the yellow warbler, readers learn about the migratory path and the...
An Immense World
An elephant, a mouse, a robin, an owl, a bat, a rattlesnake, a spider, a mosquito, a bumblebee, and a human enter a school gym. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms...
In a Land of Awe
Dr. Chad Hanson’s In a Land of Awe: Finding Reverence in the Search for Wild Horses offers a sweeping vista of the wild horses that the author has come to know and cherish, particularly through...