Reviews for The Urban Naturalist

The average rating for The Urban Naturalist based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-05-31 00:00:00 Harold Skidds I debated the stars on this. It'd be four, but it's old, which makes it harder to recommend, but it's good, so should it be dinged for age? But it doesn't have color images, which would be helpful--and is again probably because of it's age. So this *would* be 3.5 stars, if I could! Of course, some of this is moot, because Garber is working on an update and is curious about people's thoughts on the subject. Anyway, about the current edition: Garber describes the kinds of plants, animals, and insects that typically do well in U. S. cities, everything from mugwort to seagulls and ravens. He approaches the city as another natural environment, watching to see what lives there and in what kinds of habitats. There are brief discussions of ways that we, as humans, can make cities more hospitable to more species, and comments on ways in which, occasionally, cities are better for some animals than the country (fewer agricultural pesticides ranks high on the list). The book is an encyclopedic list of species rather than an overall study, and some entries are more interesting than others, as he varies between a more detached tone and one of personal involvement. Garber's enthusiasm for weeds is contagious, and there are touches of humor in some of the entries, such as the one on cockroaches--In Germany, German cockroaches are "called Russian cockroaches, but in the Soviet Union, they are called South European roaches. No one seems to want to accept responsibility for the origin of this invertebrate." The two big drawbacks of the book are its age--there is time for quite a bit of change between 1987 and 2010--and the absence of color photographs. Many of the weeds and several of the different animal species he describes are very similar in appearance, and the occasional black and white sketch is no help at all to the amateur weeding her yard. For a slightly fuller review plus the author's promise of an update (see the comments) and for other reviews, pictures, and general chatter, check out my blog Bookwyrme's Lair.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-01-11 00:00:00 Corey Mroz This book takes a unique approach on the amazing numbers of plants and animals that live around us in our neighborhoods. I love the manner in which he relates interesting facts and anecdotes about these neighbors of ours. Who ever knew about book lice and the terrible damage they can do or that it takes only 5-10 minutes for a bedbug to complete its meal? Or that groundhogs do not emerge from their hibernation until end of February, beginning of March! Fascinating stories.