New Adult Fiction
The House in Amalfi — Elizabeth Adler
The Tale of Briar Bank — Susan Wittig Albert
The Case of the Missing Hydrangeas — Eileen M. Berger
Hounded to Death — Rita Mae Brown
My Soul To Keep — David Bunn
The Brass Verdict — Michael Connelly
The Secret Power — Marie Corelli
Cosmopolis — Don DeLillo
The Eleventh Man — Ivan Doig
The Master Butchers Singing Club (Large Print) — Louise Erdrich
The Graveyard Book — Neil Gaiman
Whirlwind — Cathy Marie Hake
Hot Flashes and Cold Cream — Diann Hunt
Dark Side of the Moon — Sherrilyn Kenyon
The Witch of Cologne — Tobsha Learner
A Live Coal in the Sea — Madeleine L’Engle
There’s a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going To Hell — Laurie Notaro
The Happy Room — Catherine Palmer
The Letters — Luanne Rice
The Lucky One — Nicholas Sparks
Silenced Cry — Marta Stephens
Red River — Lalita Tademy
lighthousekeeping — Jeanette Winterston
The Shadow of the Wind — Carlos Ruiz Zafon
New Elementary Fiction
Things That Go BOO! — Joe Fitzpatrick
Things That Go BUMP! — Joe Fitzpatrick
Caillou, North Star Collection — Christine L’Heureux
Wall-E, A Robot’s Tale — Jillian Joy Samuels
Imagine A Night — Sarah L. Thomson
New Junior Fiction
Extreme Danger (Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers #1) — Franklin Dixon
Running on Fumes (Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers #2) — Franklin Dixon
Fire and Ice (Warriors #2)— Erin Hunter
Forest of Secrets (Warriors #3) — Erin Hunter
Into the Wild (Warriors #1)— Erin Hunter
Rising Storm (Warriors #4)— Erin Hunter
Truth or Dare — Hannah Montana
In the Realm of the Never Fairies, The Secret World of Pixie Hollow — Monica Peterson
A Dog of Flanders — Mary Louise Rame
The Witch of Blackbird Pond — Elizabeth George Speare
New Teen Fiction
Kin (The Good Neighbors, Book 1) (Graphic Novel) — Holly Black
MirrorMask (Graphic Novel) — Neil Gaiman
Invasion of the Boy Snatchers — Lissi Harrison
Twice Told, Original Stories Inspired by Original Art — Scott Hunt
The Perils of Love (Left Behind Kids #38) — Jerry B. Jenkins
Elementary Nonfiction
Betsy Ross — Wil Mara
Henry Ford — Wil Mara
Junior Nonfiction
All Saints, All Souls, and Halloween — Catherine Chambers
New Adult Nonfiction & Literature
The Asthma Sourcebook, 3rd ed. — Francis V. Adams, MD
Candyfreak — Steve Almond
Anatomy and Pathology Charts — Anatomical Chart Co.
Muscle Chow — Gregg Avedon
Promises to Keep — Joe Biden
Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle — J W Cappelens
Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips — Kris Carr
Plato and a Platypus Walk Into A Bar, Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes — Thomas Cathcart
The Christian Sky — Mark Edward Dodson
Let There Be Lights! A Beginner’s Guide to Outdoor Christmas Decorating — Christopher M. Donnells
Fertility Facts — Kim Hahn
Sarah: How A Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down — Kaylene Johnson
120 Banned Books, Censorship Histories of World Literature — Nicholas J. Karolides
Last Child In The Woods, Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder -- Richard Louv Faith of My Fathers — John McCain
We Bought A Zoo — Benjamin Mee
Men Who Knit & the Dogs Who Love Them — Annie Modesitt
The Annotated Lolita — Vladmir Nabokov
A Woman In Amber — Agate Nesaule
Ada Blackjack A True Story of Arctic Survival — Jennifer Niven
Understanding Arabs, A Guide for Modern Times — Margaret K. Nydell
Carving Wooden Santas, Elves & Gnomes — Ross Oar
Twisted Triangle — Caitlin Rother
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East — Sandy Tolan
Complete Idiots’s Guide to Understanding Iraq — Joseph Tragert
Sleep Thief, Restless Legs Syndrome — Virginia N. Wilson
2 comments:
Last Child in the Woods ––
Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,
by Richard Louv
Michael J. Vandeman, Ph.D.
November 16, 2006
In this eloquent and comprehensive work, Louv makes a convincing case for ensuring that children (and adults) maintain access to pristine natural areas, and even, when those are not available, any bit of nature that we can preserve, such as vacant lots. I agree with him 100%. Just as we never really outgrow our need for our parents (and grandparents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.), humanity has never outgrown, and can never outgrow, our need for the companionship and mutual benefits of other species.
But what strikes me most about this book is how Louv is able, in spite of 310 pages of text, to completely ignore the two most obvious problems with his thesis: (1) We want and need to have contact with other species, but neither we nor Louv bother to ask whether they want to have contact with us! In fact, most species of wildlife obviously do not like having humans around, and can thrive only if we leave them alone! Or they are able tolerate our presence, but only within certain limits. (2) We and Louv never ask what type of contact is appropriate! He includes fishing, hunting, building "forts", farming, ranching, and all other manner of recreation. Clearly, not all contact with nature leads to someone becoming an advocate and protector of wildlife. While one kid may see a beautiful area and decide to protect it, what's to stop another from seeing it and thinking of it as a great place to build a house or create a ski resort? Developers and industrialists must come from somewhere, and they no doubt played in the woods with the future environmentalists!
It is obvious, and not a particularly new idea, that we must experience wilderness in order to appreciate it. But it is equally true, though ("conveniently") never mentioned, that we need to stay out of nature, if the wildlife that live there are to survive. I discuss this issue thoroughly in the essay, "Wildlife Need Habitat Off-Limits to Humans!", at http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/india3.
It should also be obvious (but apparently isn't) that how we interact with nature determines how we think about it and how we learn to treat it. Remember, children don't learn so much what we tell them, but they learn very well what they see us do. Fishing, building "forts", mountain biking, and even berry-picking teach us that nature exists for us to exploit. Luckily, my fort-building career was cut short by a bee-sting! As I was about to cut down a tree to lay a third layer of logs on my little log cabin in the woods, I took one swing at the trunk with my axe, and immediately got a painful sting (there must have been a bee-hive in the tree) and ran away as fast as I could.
On page 144 Louv quotes Rasheed Salahuddin: "Nature has been taken over by thugs who care absolutely nothing about it. We need to take nature back." Then he titles his next chapter "Where Will Future Stewards of Nature Come From?" Where indeed? While fishing may bring one into contact with natural beauty, that message can be eclipsed by the more salient one that the fish exist to pleasure and feed humans (even if we release them after we catch them). (My fishing career was also short-lived, perhaps because I spent most of the time either waiting for fish that never came, or untangling fishing line.) Mountain bikers claim that they are "nature-lovers" and are "just hikers on wheels". But if you watch one of their helmet-camera videos, it is easy to see that 99.44% of their attention must be devoted to controlling their bike, or they will crash. Children initiated into mountain biking may learn to identify a plant or two, but by far the strongest message they will receive is that the rough treatment of nature is acceptable. It's not!
On page 184 Louv recommends that kids carry cell phones. First of all, cell phones transmit on essentially the same frequency as a microwave oven, and are therefore hazardous to one's health –- especially for children, whose skulls are still relatively thin. Second, there is nothing that will spoil one's experience of nature faster than something that reminds one of the city and the "civilized" world. The last thing one wants while enjoying nature is to be reminded of the world outside. Nothing will ruin a hike or a picnic faster than hearing a radio or the ring of a cell phone, or seeing a headset, cell phone, or mountain bike. I've been enjoying nature for over 60 years, and can't remember a single time when I felt a need for any of these items.
It's clear that we humans need to reduce our impacts on wildlife, if they, and hence we, are to survive. But it is repugnant and arguably inhumane to restrict human access to nature. Therefore, we need to practice minimal-impact recreation (i.e., hiking only), and leave our technology (if we need it at all!) at home. In other words, we need to decrease the quantity of contact with nature, and increase the quality.
References:
Ehrlich, Paul R. and Ehrlich, Anne H., Extinction: The Causes and Consequences of the Disappearances of Species. New York: Random House, 1981.
Errington, Paul L., A Question of Values. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1987.
Flannery, Tim, The Eternal Frontier -- An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples. New York: Grove Press, 2001.
Foreman, Dave, Confessions of an Eco-Warrior. New York: Harmony Books, 1991.
Knight, Richard L. and Kevin J. Gutzwiller, eds. Wildlife and Recreationists. Covelo, California: Island Press, 1995.
Louv, Richard, Last Child in the Woods -- Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005.
Noss, Reed F. and Allen Y. Cooperrider, Saving Nature's Legacy: Protecting and Restoring Biodiversity. Island Press, Covelo, California, 1994.
Reed, Sarah E. and Adina M. Merenlender, "Quiet, Nonconsumptive Recreation Reduces Protected Area Effectiveness". Conservation Letters, 2008, 1–9.
Stone, Christopher D., Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1973.
Vandeman, Michael J., http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande, especially http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/ecocity3, http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/india3, http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/sc8, and http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/goodall.
Ward, Peter Douglas, The End of Evolution: On Mass Extinctions and the Preservation of Biodiversity. New York: Bantam Books, 1994.
"The Wildlands Project", Wild Earth. Richmond, Vermont: The Cenozoic Society, 1994.
Wilson, Edward O., The Future of Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.
I rather liked the book. I think that it was written in the spirit of companionship and understanding nature, not in conquering it. As for the species survival, the human species is not long for the world if we are confined to the interiors of sealed buildings. There is nothing wrong with humans doing what the human species does naturally. We are a part of nature, too.
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