A sturdy outline of the future of toxic chemicals, microplastics, and endless garbage.
When it comes to waste, out of sight is definitely not out of mind, as this book makes clear.
Franklin-Wallis, features editor at British GQ, is interested in what happens to things after we throw them away, although the story inevitably becomes intertwined with his personal attempts to reduce his own output. The author chronicles his treks through sewer systems and visits to recycling plants, staggered by the size of the waste problem even while finding some reasons for optimism in changing social attitudes and practices. However, as he shows, most solutions seem to generate further problems. For example, he believed that using tote bags instead of plastic was environmentally responsible, until he learned that totes come with a sizable footprint. For decades, wealthy countries exported their waste to poorer countries, and although the practice has diminished, there is a painful legacy. Writing about his trips to India and Ghana, he shows us that they have waste problems of their own, many so massive they might be impossible to overcome. The most common ways to dispose of waste are to burn it, bury it, dump it into the ocean, or simply let it pile up. Of course, these “solutions” merely turn it into a problem for someone else. Franklin-Wallis wishes he could offer a sweeping solution, but he sees no easy fixes. He proposes legislation to require greater transparency from companies, which is a good idea but does not get to the core issue of waste being caused by overproduction, which in turn is tied to overconsumption. “The conclusion that I come to is laughably simple,” he writes. “Buy less stuff. I recognize that this is not the most original idea, but there’s something liberating in it.” Is this sort of individual action the remedy? It’s an essential part, perhaps, but it’s not a satisfying answer. Nevertheless, the author gives readers much to ponder.
A sturdy outline of the future of toxic chemicals, microplastics, and endless garbage.Pub Date: July 18, 2023
ISBN: 9780306827112
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Hachette
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
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 remarkably thorough and thoughtful case for the reconciliation between science and faith.
A duo of French mathematicians makes the scientific case for God in this nonfiction book.
Since its 2021 French-language publication in Paris, this work by Bolloré and Bonnassies has sold more than 400,000 copies. Now translated into English for the first time by West and Jones, the book offers a new introduction featuring endorsements from a range of scientists and religious leaders, including Nobel Prize-winning astronomers and Roman Catholic cardinals. This appeal to authority, both religious and scientific, distinguishes this volume from a genre of Christian apologetics that tends to reject, rather than embrace, scientific consensus. Central to the book’s argument is that contemporary scientific advancements have undone past emphases on materialist interpretations of the universe (and their parallel doubts of spirituality). According to the authors’ reasoned arguments, what now forms people’s present understanding of the universe—including quantum mechanics, relativity, and the Big Bang—puts “the question of the existence of a creator God back on the table,” given the underlying implications. Einstein’s theory of relativity, for instance, presupposes that if a cause exists behind the origin of the universe, then it must be atemporal, non-spatial, and immaterial. While the book’s contentions related to Christianity specifically, such as its belief in the “indisputable truths contained in the Bible,” may not be as convincing as its broader argument on how the idea of a creator God fits into contemporary scientific understanding, the volume nevertheless offers a refreshingly nuanced approach to the topic. From the work’s outset, the authors (academically trained in math and engineering) reject fundamentalist interpretations of creationism (such as claims that Earth is only 6,000 years old) as “fanciful beliefs” while challenging the philosophical underpinnings of a purely materialist understanding of the universe that may not fit into recent scientific paradigm shifts. Featuring over 500 pages and more than 600 research notes, this book strikes a balance between its academic foundations and an accessible writing style, complemented by dozens of photographs from various sources, diagrams, and charts.
A remarkably thorough and thoughtful case for the reconciliation between science and faith.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9789998782402
Page Count: 562
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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