Feeling overwhelmed by the idea of wading through more than 500 e-books available for $7.99? Let the Island Press staff help you pick a great book from the hundreds available during this week-long deal.
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Scorched Earth, by Rocky Barker
Lauren Koshere, Staff Writer: "After spending several years living and studying in the West, I especially appreciate Barker’s savvy to Western environmental issues. As an environmental reporter for the Idaho Statesman, Barker understands the context and complexities of environmental topics in the West, especially when it comes to fire. This perspective, as nuanced as it is valuable, might be lost on an author who lacks Barker’s history of working, living, and writing in the West." Read Lauren's full post.
Local Climate Action Planning, by Michael Boswell, Adrienne Greve, and Tammy Seale
Livia Kent, Managing Editor of CAKE: "Every day more devastating news emerges about the impacts of climate change, particularly during this summer of extreme weather events and the subsequent media frenzy around new floods, wildfires, infrastructure damages, biodiversity loss, sea level rise—the list goes on. As the managing editor of the Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE) this kind of stuff spackles my screen constantly. It would get extraordinarily depressing if it wasn’t for the innovative work being done across disciplines and sectors in the nascent but fast-growing field of climate change adaptation." Read Livia's full post.
Saving a Million Species by Lee Hannah
Meghan Bartels, Marketing Assistant: "When it comes to the effects of climate change, biodiversity is difficult to model because we don’t have a firm head count of how many species we started with and the breadth of effects is difficult to encompass, even with computer programs. But in 2004, a study in Nature made headlines, claiming that by 2050 we would lose around a million species to climate change." Read Meghan's full post.
The Remarkable Life of William Beebe: Explorer and Naturalist, by Carol Grant Gould
Erin Johnson, Assistant Editor: "It’s not one of our more recent books, but at the time I read it (actually, I proofread it), I had not heard of Beebe and was astounded by his story. He was one of our great American naturalists of the early twentieth century. From early on, he possessed an intense, curious scientific mind, and over the course of his lifetime advanced knowledge in not just one but numerous fields of sciences: ornithology, marine biology, tropical ecology, entomology, and ichthyology, traveling the world to study organisms and ecosystems directly in their natural settings in a way that no one (or few) had done before." Read Erin's full post.
Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities, by Timothy Beatley
Angela Osborn, Promotions and Fulfillment Manager: "I started working at Island Press in 2004, and one of the first books that caught my attention was Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities by Timothy Beatley. I was so pleasantly surprised to find Freiburg, Germany featured prominently in the book; I had a fantastic study abroad experience in Freiburg while in college, and still hold the city very dear to my heart. Soon I realized that some of the things that made my time there so enjoyable are the very things that make this city a preeminent example of livability and sustainability." Read Angela's full post.
Design with Microclimate, by Robert Brown
Heather Boyer, Senior Editor: "Design with Microclimate is one of my favorite recent Island Press books because it shows the power of the natural world and the critical need to understand it to successfully design and plan spaces for human use. While few people go into a design project expressing a need for a positive microclimate, only the hardiest souls will use a space without one." Read Heather's full post.
The Unnatural History of the Sea, by Callum Robert
Jaime Jennings, Publicity Manager: "In my almost six years at Island Press, I’ve had the opportunity to work on more than 90 titles ranging from conservation to the built environment. Of those titles, my favorite has been The Unnatural History of the Sea by Callum Roberts. I enjoyed it for many reasons but chief among them was the writing and the story. I’ve always been most drawn and inspired by stories about our oceans and Callum’s vast narrative illuminates a history of how we’ve destroyed them with centuries of disregard and overfishing." Read Jaime's full post.
