What We Are Reading Today: Settling for Less

What We Are Reading Today: Settling for Less
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Updated 20 March 2023

What We Are Reading Today: Settling for Less

What We Are Reading Today: Settling for Less

Author: Lachlan McNamee

Over the past few centuries, vast areas of the world have been violently colonized by settlers. But why did states like Australia and the United States stop settling frontier lands during the twentieth century? At the same time, why did states loudly committed to decolonization like Indonesia and China start settling the lands of such minorities as the West Papuans and Uyghurs?
Settling for Less traces this bewildering historical reversal, explaining when and why indigenous peoples suffer displacement at the hands of settlers.


What We Are Reading Today: Running Out

What We Are Reading Today: Running Out
Updated 5 min 38 sec ago

What We Are Reading Today: Running Out

What We Are Reading Today: Running Out

Author: Lucas Bessir

The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. 

The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. “Running Out” offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force.


What We Are Reading Today: The Deep Ocean

What We Are Reading Today: The Deep Ocean
Updated 28 May 2023

What We Are Reading Today: The Deep Ocean

What We Are Reading Today: The Deep Ocean

Authors: Michael Vecchione, Louise Allcock, Imants Prede & Hans Van Haren

The deep ocean comprises more than 90 percent of our planet’s biosphere and is home to some of the world’s most dazzling creatures, which thrive amid extreme pressures, scarce food supplies, and frigid temperatures.

This beautifully illustrated book leads you down into the canyons, trenches, and cold seeps of the watery abyss, presenting the deep ocean and its inhabitants as you have never seen them before.


What We Are Reading Today: Fortune’s Bazaar

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Updated 28 May 2023

What We Are Reading Today: Fortune’s Bazaar

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Author: Vaudine England

This is a fascinating and exhaustive look at how one of the most famous cities in the world as created and how it shaped the fortunes of nations. without hong Kong history would have been very different.
A British crown colony for 155 years, Hong Kong is now ruled by the Chinese Communist party. Renowned journalist Vaudine England delves into Hong Kong’s complex history and its people—diverse, multi-cultural, cosmopolitan—who have made this one-time fishing village into the world port city it is today.
Rather than a traditional his- tory describing a town led by British governors or a mere offshoot of a collapsing Chinese empire, fortune’s bazaar is the first thorough examination of the varied peoples who made hong Kong.

 


What We Are Reading Today: Brave the Wild River by Melissa L. Sevigny

What We Are Reading Today: Brave the Wild River by Melissa L. Sevigny
Updated 26 May 2023

What We Are Reading Today: Brave the Wild River by Melissa L. Sevigny

What We Are Reading Today: Brave the Wild River by Melissa L. Sevigny

This is a story of adventure, pushing boundaries, disregarding gender norms, and setting historical precedents.

“Brave The Wild River” is the story of two women — Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter — who mapped the botany of the Grand Canyon.

The botanists’ story is exciting, interesting, and informative. It is a spellbinding adventure of two women who risked their lives to make an unprecedented botanical survey of a little-known corner of the American West at a time when human influences had begun to change it forever.

Meticulously researched and written like an adventure novel with page-turning prose, science journalist Melissa L. Sevigny’s work deftly weaves the women’s stories and discoveries that influenced botany for decades. Unlike those old-time newspaper reporters, Sevigny does not look at her subjects and see women out of place.

Clover and Jotter and their 1930s achievements remain relevant and their example does not fade with time, Sevigny insists.

Sevigny has worked as a science communicator in the fields of planetary science, western water policy, and sustainable agriculture.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Lion’ by Craig Packer

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Lion’ by Craig Packer
Updated 25 May 2023

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Lion’ by Craig Packer

What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Lion’ by Craig Packer

Lions are the only social cat. They hunt together, raise cubs together, and defend territories together against neighbors and strangers. Lions also rest atop their ecological pyramid, with profound impacts on competitors and prey alike, but their future is far from assured. Craig Packer interweaves his discoveries from more than 40 years of research—including a substantial body of new findings—to provide an unforgettable portrait of the African lion.