This Week, I'm Reading....

Beloved Beasts, by Michelle Nijhuis

I’m about a third of the way into Beloved Beasts, which is subtitled “Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction.” I wasn’t going to read it right away because I’m still finishing The Sixth Extinction, but then I thought, what better time to read it? The synergy between the two books is reinforcing what I’m learning from each. I do have a small quibble, though, with the title and subtitle of this book, which is really about the history of the conservation movement, warts and all. Each chapter focuses on the story of a key conservationist, their motivations, their successes and failures in their drive first to protect “charismatic animal species” from extinction and today, to undertake “a global effort to defend life on a larger scale.” But I guess titling the book “A History of the Conservation Movement” wouldn’t have been as sexy. It doesn’t matter to me—I’m interested either way—but I had to reset my expectations of what Beloved Beasts was really about. My favorite profile so far is of New York City socialite Rosalie Edge, a self-taught birder who fought so fiercely for the survival of her favorite species that she earned the well-deserved reputation of being a “hellcat.” I was also struck by the wisdom of this quotation from her compatriot, Willard Van Name: “The time to protect a species is while it is still common.”

What are you reading this week? Let us know in the comments section below!