Studded with intriguing insights but mostly for fellow believers.
What will be our interstellar future?
In 2021, astrophysicist Loeb, the chair of Harvard’s department of astronomy, recently shook up the astronomical world with his book Extraterrestrial, in which he argued that some kind of artifact from deep space recently passed through Earth’s solar system. In this follow-up, the author delves into our possible reactions when we encounter even more evidence of extraterrestrial civilization. Loeb believes that life exists elsewhere, looming beyond us like Oz, that it began long before Earth was born, and that other forms of life may be billions of years ahead of us—or extinct. He laments that we have not prioritized the search for extraterrestrial technology and unidentified anomalous phenomena. Here and elsewhere, politicians have failed to push for further research, as have many scientists, Loeb notes with chagrin. “The fastest way to ascend the ladder of civilizations is to reach in hopeful expectation of another civilization (even if only by way of a long-discarded artifact) extending us a hand up,” writes the author. He discusses in detail his ambitious Galileo Project, which seeks to identify UAP in space, perhaps on Earth and even under the ocean. Loeb consistently argues that “humanity, if it wants to persist, will need to leave this planet. The cosmic clock is ticking. In a few billion years, the Sun will begin to die and life as we know it on Earth will perish.” Throughout, he rambles widely across a variety of topics, including the idea of interstellar Xenia, or hospitality—we should welcome visitors even if they’re just hardware and AI. “To those concerned that AI’s arrival augurs humanity’s annihilation,” he writes, “I urge optimism.” As for dark matter, we still don’t know what it is. Loeb is an excellent motivational speaker for the importance of science, but this occasionally dry text lacks the exploratory drama of his previous book.
Studded with intriguing insights but mostly for fellow believers.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9780063250871
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Mariner Books
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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