Remembrances of an inspiring father spark a charming reflection on the majesty and the intricacies of trees.
Japanese author Kōda (1904-1990) was like the Lorax, speaking for the trees, with affection and appreciation of both their beauty and their usefulness.
Kōda’s father, Rohan Kōda (1867-1947), was also a well-known author and loved trees, especially those that flower and produce fruit. He passed on that fondness to his three children, giving each four trees: a mandarin orange, persimmon, camellia, and, of course, cherry blossom. The children could take the flowers and fruit from those trees and, in return for that gift, were expected to nurture their trees. Kōda writes, “My father also played an active role, making sure that he passed his passion on to us so that we would grow up to love seeing trees flower and bear fruit.” The author lived up to her father’s expectations in this collection of 15 essays about trees, published in Japan decades ago and now translated into English decades after her death. She tells stories of her visits, in her 80s, to view forest preserves across Japan, as well as her hometown strolls with a grandchild to admire spring cherry blossoms. One journey is to the oldest sugi cedars of Yakushima island; they’re called Yakusugi, a term of respect reserved for sugi trees that are more than a thousand years old. One of the trees in the preserve, “the legendary Jomon Sugi,” is estimated to be 7,200 years old. The bark of any ancient tree—she calls bark the “kimono”—can tell interesting stories, Kōda says. For example, the kimono worn by pines is heavy and protective, while the ginkgo’s kimono is thin and creased. The oriental plane tree has a “dyed” kimono, and the striped crape myrtle is a “snappy dresser” with its “pleasant mottled patterns.” This is not a book to be read quickly from cover to cover. Rather, one can keep it on a bedside table or near a favorite reading chair, with each essay savored on its own.
Remembrances of an inspiring father spark a charming reflection on the majesty and the intricacies of trees.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9780063443464
Page Count: 192
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
Are rivers alive? Macfarlane delivers a lucid, memorable argument in the affirmative.
The accomplished British nature writer turns to issues of environmental ethics in his latest exploration of the world.
In 1971, a law instructor asked a musing-out-loud question: Do trees have legal standing? His answer was widely mocked at the time, but it has gained in force: As Macfarlane chronicles here, Indigenous groups around the world are pressing “an idea that changes the world—the idea that a river is alive.” In the first major section of the book, Macfarlane travels to the Ecuadorian rainforest, where a river flows straight through a belt of gold and other mineral deposits that are, of course, much desired; his company on a long slog through the woods is a brilliant mycologist whose research projects have led not just to the discovery of a mushroom species that “would have first flourished on the supercontinent [of Gondwana] that formed over half a billion years ago,” but also to her proposing that fungi be considered a kingdom on a footing with flora and fauna. Other formidable activists figure in his next travels, to the great rivers of northern India, where, against the odds, some courts have lately been given to “shift Indian law away from anthropocentrism and towards something like ecological jurisprudence, underpinned by social justice.” The best part of the book, for those who enjoy outdoor thrills and spills, is Macfarlane’s third campaign, this one following a river in eastern Canada that, as has already happened to so many waterways there, is threatened to be impounded for hydroelectric power and other extractive uses. In delightfully eccentric company, and guided by the wisdom of an Indigenous woman who advises him to ask the river just one question, Macfarlane travels through territory so rugged that “even the trout have portage trails,” returning with hard-won wisdom about our evanescence and, one hopes, a river’s permanence and power to shape our lives for the better.
Are rivers alive? Macfarlane delivers a lucid, memorable argument in the affirmative.Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780393242133
Page Count: 374
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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
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