The Song Of The Dodo

Nov 14, 2024 7:08 PM

Author:David Quammen

Why have island ecosystems always suffered such high rates of extinction? In our age, with all the world's landscapes, from Tasmania to the Amazon to Yellowstone, now being carved into island-like fragments by human activity, the implications of this question are more urgent than ever. Over the past eight years, David Quammen has followed the threads of island biogeography on a globe-encircling journey of discovery.

Reviews

Not only is this book compulsively readable - a masterpiece - it is maybe the masterpiece of science journalism

—— Bill Mckibben , Audobon Magazine

A moving book... Quammen is a good writer who has taken the time to master an important subject and do it justice

—— Richard Dawkins , The Times

Not since Gerald Durrell's books 30 years ago have I encountered such writing about the natural world. The witty, pithy, modest prose and the clever interweaving of science and storytelling are of a quality unrivalled in th field

—— Matt Ridley , Sunday Telegraph

Impressive and deeply moving...blends first-rate science journalism with superb travel and nature writing

—— Financial Times

David Quammen is a brilliant young star of nature writing... His book is an important example of the genre, written in an enchanting style. His knowledge, based on years of research and adventure around the world, is truly impressive

—— Edward O. Wilson, author of 'The Diversity of Life'

The little man of 'perpetual movement' has found a fine advocate in Thomas Wright, whose highly readable Circulation combines recent scholarship with more than a touch of drama

—— Times Literary Supplement

Thomas Wright's lucid biography...deftly puts Harvey into his cultural context

—— Hermione Eyre , Prospect

As soon as I started this book, I was gripped with curiosity

—— William Leith , Spectator

Thomas Wright's lively little book on Harvey's revolutionary idea is a panegyric to the man's whirring mind, and to the excitements of thinking more generally

—— Helen Brown , Daily Telegraph

Excellent and often bloodthirsty... A highly readable account of a great Englishman

—— Tablet

A vivid biography of William Harvey, which reveals his complex character

—— Patricia Fara , BBC History Magazine

It’s a pretty gruesome story – told very well here by Thomas Wright

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

An engaging and lively account of an endlessly curious man

—— Independent

A fascinating window into the complex emergent urban future. This book is an extremely sophisticated, often devastatingly witty and ironic, interpretation of what is possible over the next two decades

—— Saskia Sassen (author of TERRITORY, AUTHORITY, RIGHTS)

Throw out your old atlas. The new version is here

—— Walter Kirn (author of UP IN THE AIR)

Kasarda ... and Lindsay convincingly put the airport at the centre of modern urban life

—— Economist

Highly recommended

—— Library Journal

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