A cleareyed fundamentals manual that makes the wilderness feel survivable.
Knight’s practical guide instructs readers how to stay alive when things go wrong in nature.
Technological innovations of the smartphone era have made it easier than ever to wander off the beaten path. Even so, apps like Instagram and Google Maps can sometimes give hikers and campers a false sense of security, leading the unprepared and/or unlucky into potentially dangerous situations where a change in the weather—or a failure of technology—can leave them stranded. With this guide, the author, who co-founded the Alderleaf Wilderness College, offers “a tried, true, and tested approach to each of the core priorities that must be addressed in wilderness survival situations. It is a cohesive system for taking care of the most pressing survival needs both with and without modern gear.” Applicable to natural disasters in addition to wilderness misadventures, Knight’s system covers the basics—shelter, water, fire, food—readers would need to survive temporary, unplanned crises (as opposed to planned, long-term periods outdoors). Just as important, Knight helps prepare readers psychologically to meet the unexpected and to avoid panic, set priorities, assess danger, and recognize signs of exposure, dehydration, starvation, and other serious conditions. From knowing what plants are edible to boiling water with hot rocks to constructing one’s own debris tipi (with a roof angle slope of 45 degrees), Knight gives key advice for getting through the hours and days one might have to survive before being rescued. Knight writes with a practiced economy, making even the least appealing activities feel manageable: “Bullfrogs, for example, can be found all over North America and are considered an invasive species in many areas of the country. They also happen to be a reliable source of meat.” The book comes with numerous photographs and illustrations, which are especially helpful for precise tasks, like crafting a bow drill set to start a fire. It’s a slim guide—truly no more than necessary. But that only adds to the sense that these are need-to-know skills.
A cleareyed fundamentals manual that makes the wilderness feel survivable.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2022
ISBN: 9798985691801
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Alderleaf Press
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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