Coming soon to a screen near you!

                                
Now is the time to read books that will soon be available on small and large screens. 

Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X by Randy Roberts, Johnny Smith
   (This is basis of the recently released Netflix documentary Blood Brothers.)
   In 1962, boxing writers and fans considered Cassius Clay an obnoxious self-promoter, and few believed that he would become the heavyweight champion of the world. But Malcolm X, the most famous minister in the Nation of Islam, saw the potential in Clay, not just for boxing greatness, but as a means of spreading the Nation’s message. The two became fast friends, keeping their interactions secret from the press for fear of jeopardizing Clay’s career. Clay began living a double life—a patriotic “good negro” in public, and a radical reformer behind the scenes. Soon, however, their friendship would sour, with disastrous and far-reaching consequences.
   Based on previously untapped sources, from Malcolm’s personal papers to FBI records, Blood Brothers is the first book to offer an in-depth portrait of this complex bond. An extraordinary narrative of love and deep affection, as well as deceit, betrayal, and violence, this story is a window into the public and private lives of two of our greatest national icons, and the tumultuous period in American history that they helped to shape. 

Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel by Val Emmich, Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul In Theaters September 24
   Broadway star Ben Platt gets to reprise his stage role as socially anxious high schooler Evan Hansen, whose life changes when a fellow classmate commits suicide. Co-starring Kaitlyn Dever (“Booksmart”), Julianne Moore (“Boogie Nights”), and Amy Adams (“Arrival”). 
   Dear Evan Hansen,
   Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why...
   When a letter that was never meant to be seen by anyone draws high school senior Evan Hansen into a family's grief over the loss of their son, he is given the chance of a lifetime: to belong. He just has to stick to a lie he never meant to tell, that the notoriously troubled Connor Murphy was his secret best friend.
   Suddenly, Evan isn't invisible anymore--even to the girl of his dreams. And Connor Murphy's parents, with their beautiful home on the other side of town, have taken him in like he was their own, desperate to know more about their enigmatic son from his closest friend. As Evan gets pulled deeper into their swirl of anger, regret, and confusion, he knows that what he's doing can't be right, but if he's helping people, how wrong can it be?
   No longer tangled in his once-incapacitating anxiety, this new Evan has a purpose. And a website. He's confident. He's a viral phenomenon. Every day is amazing. Until everything is in danger of unraveling and he comes face to face with his greatest obstacle: himself. 

Dune by Frank Herbert In theaters and on HBO Max October 22
   This coming motion picture directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Chang Chen, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem.
   Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for....
   When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.
   A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.

“Julia” Scheduled to be released November 5 by Sony Pictures Classics
   Julia is a 2021 American documentary film directed and produced by Julie Cohen and Betsy West.—the duo behind RBG. Ron Howard serves as an executive producer.
   While no one book has been used for this documentary here are several suggested readings about Julia Child.

Julia Child: The Last Interview : and Other Conversations by Julia Child, Introduction from Helen Rosner, food critic for the New Yorker
   This delightful collection of interviews with “The French Chef” Julia Child traces her life from her first stab at a writing career fresh out of college; to D.C., Sri Lanka, and Kunming where she worked for the Office of Strategic Services (now the CIA); to Paris where she and her husband Paul, then a member of the State Department, lived after World War II, and where Child attended the famous cooking school Le Cordon Bleu. From there, Child catapulted to fame—first with the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 1961 and the launch of her home cooking show, “The French Chef” in 1963. In this volume of carefully selected interviews, Child’s charm, guile, and no-nonsense advice are on full, irresistibly delicious display.
Others books to explore:
Backstage with Julia: My Years with Julia Child by Nancy Verde Barr
The French Chef in America: Julia Child's Second Act by Alex Prud'homme
Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child by Noel Riley Fitch 

The Power of the Dog: A Novel by Thomas Savage, with afterword by Annie Proulx  On Netflix December 3

   It’s been 12 years since Jane Campion (“The Piano”) last directed a feature film, so her return to the medium is a cause for celebration. This neo-noir western stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Jesse Plemons as Montana ranchers who find themselves at odds when one marries a local widow (Kirsten Dunst).
   Set in the wide-open spaces of the American West, The Power of the Dog is a stunning story of domestic tyranny, brutal masculinity, and thrilling defiance from one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in American literature. The novel tells the story of two brothers — one magnetic but cruel, the other gentle and quiet — and of the woman and young boy, mother and son, whose arrival on the brothers’ ranch shatters an already tenuous peace. From the novel’s startling first paragraph to its very last word, Thomas Savage’s voice — and the intense passion of his characters — holds readers in thrall. 

   For those of you not familiar with Thomas Savage, this recent biography may be of interest:
   Savage West: The Life and Fiction of Thomas Savage by O. Alan Weltzien

EAT. SLEEP. READ.  

GET READY TO WATCH

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September Releases: Part Two

As promised, here is part two of new September book. The first two titles are already available with on sale dates given to the rest of the list. Enjoy! 

Beautiful World, Where Are You: A Novel by Sally Rooney
    Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.
    Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young—but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in.
   Once again Rooney manages to bring issues of the time--Trump/Brexit, religion, family and mental health into her writing.  Insights into book launches, poetry readings, warehouse jobs, and friendships are spot on!

In the Shadow of the Yali: A Novel by Suat Dervis, Translated by Maureen Freely
    Set in a changing Istanbul, this rediscovered 1940s classic from a pioneering Turkish author tells the story of a forbidden love and its consequences.
    Raised by her grandmother in one of the famed yalıs, elegant yet crumbling, that line the Bosphorus, Celile occupies a unique space between the old world of the Ottoman Empire and the new world of the Republic. She drifts through ten years of marriage, reserved even with her husband, never tempted to stray from the safe path of respectability. And then one night, intoxicated by a soulful tango, she is suddenly seized with a mad passion for another man, whose reckless pursuit of her should offend but doesn’t. Torn between two men who want to possess her, Celile attempts to live a life true to herself, always keenly aware of the limits placed on her as a woman.
    In the Shadow of the Yalı marks the highly anticipated English-language debut of feminist writer and activist Suat Derviş. Her sensitive, strikingly modern portrayal of a love affair, with its frank emphasis on the influence of money, provides a fascinating contrast to classic tales of infidelity such as Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary. 

Daughter of the Morning Star: A Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson On sale 9/21
   Tribal Police Chief Long calls on Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear to be his lethal backup when his niece Jaya begins receiving death threats. Jaya “Longshot” Long is the star of the Lame Deer Lady Stars High School basketball team and is following in the steps of her older sister, who disappeared a year previously, a victim of the scourge of missing Native Woman in Indian Country. Lolo hopes that having Longmire involved might draw some public attention to the girl’s plight, but with this maneuver she also inadvertently places the good sheriff in a one-on-one with the deadliest adversary he has ever faced in both this world and the next.
   Longmire and readers learn about the concept of the Wandering Without, a spiritual black hole that devours souls. While the book does not specify highlight The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women human-rights crisis movement, Johnson does describe the unseen and sometimes unreported abuse of Native women.   

Peril by Bob Woodward, Robert Costa On sale 9/21
   The transition from President Donald J. Trump to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. stands as one of the most dangerous periods in American history. Woodward and Costa interviewed more than 200 people at the center of the turmoil, resulting in more than 6,000 pages of transcripts—and a definitive portrait of a nation on the brink.
   This study of Washington takes readers deep inside the Trump White House, the Biden White House, the 2020 campaign, and the Pentagon and Congress, with vivid, eyewitness accounts of what really happened.
   Peril is the extraordinary story of the end of one presidency and the beginning of another, and represents the culmination of Bob Woodward’s news-making trilogy on the Trump presidency, along with Fear and Rage. And it is the beginning of a collaboration with fellow Washington Post reporter Robert Costa that will remind readers of Woodward’s coverage, with Carl Bernstein, of President Richard M. Nixon’s final days.

A Single Rose by Muriel Barbery, Translated by Alison Anderson On sale 9/28
   From the best-selling author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog comes a story about a woman's journey to discover the father she never knew and a love she never thought possible.
   Rose, a French botanist goes to Japan for the reading of her father’s will—a father she never knew. She has just turned forty when a call from a lawyer asks her to come to Kyoto. So for the first time in her life she finds herself in Japan, where Paul, her father’s assistant, is waiting to greet her.
   As Paul guides Rose along a mysterious itinerary designed by her deceased father, her bitterness and anger are soothed by the stones and the trees in the Zen gardens they move through. During their walks, Rose encounters acquaintances of her father—including a potter and poet, an old lady friend, his housekeeper and chauffeur—whose interactions help her to slowly begin to accept a part of herself that she has never before acknowledged.
   As the reading of the will gets closer, Rose’s father finally, posthumously, opens his heart to his daughter, offering her a poignant understanding of his love and a way to accept all she has lost.
   A beautifully told story of love, respect, nature and solace.

Our Biggest Experiment: An Epic History of the Climate Crisis by Alice Bell On sale 9/21
    In 1856, American scientist and women's rights activist Eunice Newton Foote first warned the world that an atmosphere heavy with carbon dioxide could send temperatures here on Earth soaring. No one paid much attention.
    Alice Bell takes us back to climate change science’s earliest steps in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, through the point when concern started to rise in the 1950s and right up to today, where the “debate” is over and the world is finally starting to face up to the reality that things are going to get a lot hotter, a lot drier (in some places), and a lot wetter (in others), with catastrophic consequences for most of Earth’s biomes.
    Our Biggest Experiment recounts how the world became addicted to fossil fuels, how we discovered that electricity could be a savior, and how renewable energy is far from a twentieth-century discovery. Bell cuts through complicated jargon and jumbles of numbers to show how we’re getting to grips with what is now the defining issue of our time. The message she relays is ultimately hopeful; harnessing the ingenuity and intelligence that has driven the history of climate change research can result in a more sustainable and bearable future for humanity.

Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel by Anthony Doerr On sale 9/28
   Thirteen-year-old Anna, an orphan, lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople in a house of women who make their living embroidering the robes of priests. Restless, insatiably curious, Anna learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds a book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. This she reads to her ailing sister as the walls of the only place she has known are bombarded in the great siege of Constantinople. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, miles from home, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the invading army. His path and Anna’s will cross.
   Five hundred years later, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno, who learned Greek as a prisoner of war, rehearses five children in a play adaptation of Aethon’s story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege. And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of sacking the story of Aethon, told to her by her father. She has never set foot on our planet.
   Anna, Omeir, Seymour, Zeno, and Konstance are dreamers and outsiders who find resourcefulness and hope in the midst of gravest danger. Their lives are gloriously intertwined.. Dedicated to “the librarians then, now, and in the years to come,” Cloud Cuckoo Land is a beautiful and redemptive novel about stewardship—of the book, of the Earth, of the human heart.  Don't let the 600 pages deter you, Doerr is a master storyteller!

SO MANY BOOKS.  SO LITTLE TIME!

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Montana is my home

After I retired from bookselling, it was fun to reflect on the many events and authors that Fact & Fiction hosted. I still marvel at the talented writers that call Montana home. This Spring and Summer many new books of interest to Montanans were released, but fortunately people from all states can read them. Here are some books you might have missed: 

Home Waters: A Chronicle of Family and a River by John N. Maclean
   Home Waters is about a family and a river. A place that many have become familiar with because of a book and a film called A River Runs Through It. Perhaps this can be called the rest of the story, as John Maclean recalls time spent at a Seeley Lake cabin in his memoir of fathers and sons, the lore of fly-fishing, and importance of nature. Woodcuts by Wesley W Bates, maps and photographs make this a beautiful book and rightful tribute.
   In nine chapters, the reader learns more about Reverend Maclean, Paul’s mysterious death, Norman’s achievements and frustrations as an author. Montanans will recognize the names of family friends including: Jack Boehme, George Croonenberghs, K Ross Toole, Theodore Geisel, Paul Dornblaser, Elers Koch, AJ and Maud Gibson and Don Mackey. Neighborhoods, rivers, local history, fishing flies, larch trees and fire are revisited as the author takes his place in the generations that are haunted by water.
   From the epilogue: “I do not fish alone on the Blackfoot, ever, even though now I mostly fish it by myself. When I’m on the water, and especially when no one else is around, I feel the presence of generations of my family whose stories run through it.” 

Aviary by Deirdre McNamer
   Welcome to Pheasant Run, a senior residence center in Montana, where many of the residents feel lost and forgotten. Cassie McMackin is counting pills and contemplating suicide; Viola Six is worried about paying the rent after losing her savings in a scam; Leo Umberti, formerly an insurance agent, now spends his days painting abstract landscapes as he mourns a long-ago loss; and Rydell Clovis desperately to stay fit enough to restart a career in academia.
   Herbie Bonebright is the new manager of the building is trying to oust tenants in a scheme to convert Pheasant Run into a more profitable venture. When a fire breaks out in Herbie’s apartment, the city’s chief fire inspector, Lander Maki finds the fire highly suspicious. Viola has disappeared. So has Herbie. And a troubled teen, Clayton Spooner, was glimpsed fleeing the scene.
   People of all ages want to feel secure, loved, and needed. The issues of assisted living companies converting portions of their facilities into high-cost memory care units; maintaining a home on a limited income; and elder abuse make this more than a mystery. It is a look into the vulnerable transitional lives of both teens and the elderly.

Three new books by debt authors provide excellent reading: 

Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven
   At age 15 Catherine Raven left home to work as a National Park Service ranger. She eventually earned a college degree and a PhD in biology; built a home off the grid in Montana; taught remotely; and lead field classes in Yellowstone. “Now, six years after leaving university, having gone back to the wilderness, and back to the academy and back to the wilderness again, I met a wild thing: a fox. The fox was alluring, almost magical. But the timing was inconvenient.”
   Raven had recently been offered a permanent job with benefits, a chance for social acceptance, when the fox began to appear on her property every day at 4:15. She never had a regular visitor before, so she sat in a camping chair and read aloud to her guest every day from The Little Prince. From the fox, she learned an important thing about loneliness: we are never alone when we are connected to the natural world. Fox and I is a tale of solitude and belonging, the story of one woman whose immersion in the natural world will make all readers examine how they view their surroundings—each tree, weed, flower, stone, or fox. 

Inside Passage: A Memoir by Keema Waterfield
   To say that Keema Wakefield had a unique childhood is an understatement. She grew up on the Alaskan folk festival circuit with her young motivated mother, two siblings and cast of musicians, drunks, and several stepdads. All the while she wanted a place to call home. Wakefield wanted to know more about her father, learn her true birthdate but instead found a true bond with her mother.
   From the beginning of the Acknowledgements:
   "I handed my mother the first draft of this book several years ago, saying, “I never have to publish this.” She read it through the night, and I woke up intermittently to the sound of her laughing and crying in the room next door. In the morning she hugged me. “This is your story,” she said. “It’s beautiful. It’s hard. It’s true. You don’t need my permission to tell it. But you have it, if you want it.” I may never be able to thank my mother adequately for the freedom she has given me to tell the story of our growing-up-together years.”
   Inside Passage is the story of a heartbreaking life, beautifully told. 

Sleeping Bear: A Thriller by Connor Sullivan
   Army veteran Cassie Gale is on a solo trip from Montana to the Alaska wilderness where she has accepted a summer job with High Water Rafting Expeditions. But she never arrives. Searchers find her abandoned campsite, she has vanished. Cassie has been kidnapped. She wakes up in a Russian prison.
   As it turns out, Cassie’s not the first person to disappear without a trace in this remote Alaskan location. There are many ways to die in the wilderness. But not all disappearances can be explained. Cassie’s is one of them, along with a number of other outdoor enthusiasts who have vanished in recent years. Is there a clue at The Northern Breeze Lodge & Smoke House Bar?
   Meanwhile, her father rushes to outrun the clock, scouring thousands of acres, only to realize she’s been taken by an adversary with ties to his past life, one full of secrets. It is hard to believe that Sleeping Bear is Connor Sullivan’s first book. He has mastered all the elements of a thriller. It is dark, engrossing, suspenseful, plot-driven, a true page turner.

 

EAT. SLEEP. READ.  

DREAM ABOUT MONTANA!

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September Releases: Part One

Happy Fall. There are many books that I am excited about this month, so many that I am calling this Part One. These books will be available now through September 14. Look for Part Two in the coming weeks. 

The Secret History of Food: Strange but True Stories About the Origins of Everything We Eat by Matt Siegel Published August 31
   Is Italian olive oil really Italian, or are we dipping our bread in lamp oil? Why are we masochistically drawn to foods that can hurt us, like hot peppers? Far from being a classic American dish, is apple pie actually . . . English?
   “As a species, we’re hardwired to obsess over food,” Matt Siegel explains as he sets out “to uncover the hidden side of everything we put in our mouths.” Siegel also probes subjects ranging from the myths—and realities—of food as aphrodisiac, to how one of the rarest and most exotic spices in all the world (vanilla) became a synonym for uninspired sexual proclivities, to the role of food in fairy- and morality tales. He even makes a well-argued case for how ice cream helped defeat the Nazis.
   The Secret History of Food is an exploration of the historical, cultural, scientific, sexual, and, yes, culinary subcultures of this most essential realm. Siegel is an armchair Anthony Bourdain, armed not with a chef’s knife but with knowledge derived from medieval food-related manuscripts, ancient Chinese scrolls, and obscure culinary journals. 

Poet Warrior: A Memoir by Joy Harjo On Sale Sept 7
   Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as U.S. poet laureate, invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her "poet-warrior" road.
  Harjo listens to stories of ancestors and family, the poetry and music that she first encountered as a child, and the messengers of a changing earth—owls heralding grief, resilient desert plants, and a smooth green snake curled up in surprise. She celebrates the influences that shaped her poetry, among them Audre Lorde, N. Scott Momaday, Walt Whitman, Muscogee stomp dance call-and-response, Navajo horse songs, rain, and sunrise. In absorbing, incantatory prose, Harjo grieves at the loss of her mother, reckons with the theft of her ancestral homeland, and sheds light on the rituals that nourish her as an artist, mother, wife, and community member.
   Moving between prose, song, and poetry, Harjo recounts a luminous journey of becoming, a spiritual map that will help us all find home. Poet Warrior sings with the jazz, blues, tenderness, and bravery that we know as distinctly Joy Harjo. 

The Great Glorious Goddamn of It All: A Novel by Josh Ritter On Sale Sept 7
   In the tiny timber town of Cordelia, Idaho, everyone has heard tales of the Applegates. Local legend says their family line boasts some of the greatest lumberjacks to ever roam the American West, and from the moment young Weldon stepped foot in the deep Cordelia woods as a child, he dreamed of joining the rowdy ranks of his ancestors in their epic, axe-swinging adventures. But at the beginning of the twentieth century, times are changing fast, and the jacks are dying out.
   On his deathbed nearly a century later, Weldon Applegate recounts his life in all its glory, filled with tall tales writ large with murder, mayhem, avalanches and bootlegging. It’s the story of dark pine forests brewing with ancient magic, and Weldon’s struggle as a boy to keep his father’s inherited timber claim, the Lost Lot, from the ravenous clutches of Linden Laughlin.
   Musician Josh Ritter delivers a novel filled with haunting saloon tunes and just the right dose of magic, The Great Glorious Goddamn of It All is a novel bursting with heart, humor, and an adventure that is sure to sweep you away into the beauty of the tall snowy mountain timber. 

Miss Kopp Investigates by Amy Stewart On Sale Sept 7
  Life after the war takes an unexpected turn for the Kopp sisters, but soon enough, they are putting their unique detective skills to use in new and daring ways.  Yes, the sisters are back in another fact-filled adventure!
   Winter 1919: Norma is summoned home from France, Constance is called back from Washington, and Fleurette puts her own plans on hold as the sisters rally around their recently widowed sister-in-law and her children. How are four women going to support themselves?
   A chance encounter offers Fleurette a solution: clandestine legal work for a former colleague of Constance’s. She becomes a “professional co-respondent,” posing as the “other woman” in divorce cases so that photographs can be entered as evidence to procure a divorce. While her late-night assignments are both exciting and lucrative, they put her on a collision course with her own family, who would never approve of such disreputable work. One client’s suspicious behavior leads Fleurette to uncover a much larger crime, putting her in the unlikely position of amateur detective.
   Miss Kopp Investigates sees the war years behind the sisters with all the possibilities of the 1920s ahead of them, including their own business venture—the Kopp Sisters Detective Agency. 

Harlem Shuffle: A Novel by Colson Whitehead On Sale Sept 14
   From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, a mystery of heists, shakedowns, and rip-offs set in Harlem in the 1960s.
   “Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked…” To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver’s Row don’t approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it’s still home.
   Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time.
   Money is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn’t ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn’t ask questions, either.
   Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the “Waldorf of Harlem”—and volunteers Ray’s services as the fence. The heist doesn’t go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes.
  Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs? 

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach On Sale Sept 14
   What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.
   Roach tags along with animal-attack forensics investigators, human-elephant conflict specialists, bear managers, and "danger tree" faller blasters. Intrepid as ever, she travels from leopard-terrorized hamlets in the Indian Himalaya to St. Peter’s Square in the early hours before the pope arrives for Easter Mass, when vandal gulls swoop in to destroy the elaborate floral display. She taste-tests rat bait, learns how to install a vulture effigy, and gets mugged by a macaque.
   Combining little-known forensic science and conservation genetics with a motley cast of laser scarecrows, langur impersonators, and trespassing squirrels, Roach reveals as much about humanity as about nature’s lawbreakers. When it comes to "problem" wildlife, she finds, humans are more often the problem—and the solution. 

 

SO MANY BOOKS.  SO LITTLE TIME!

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