Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from March, 2014

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

Image: The Sixth Extinction cover, via Macmillan ( source ) My initial goal for a review of The Sixth Extinction was an interview with the author, Elizabeth Kolbert.  I interviewed Melissa Harrison about her book, Clay , and readers of this blog enjoyed it very much.  The questions I would have asked of Elizabeth Kolbert were: (1) How did you decide on the book's title? (2) How did you prepare for the various research trips you undertook? (3) Did you purposefully select species and places or were the trips fortuitous? (4) Did you purchase carbon offsets for your travel? (5) What inspired the structure of the book? The alternate approach was a conventional review. To prepare, I read reviews published in the New York Times (written by Al Gore!), the Boston Globe, the Seattle Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Guardian, and the Wall Street Journal. Most of these reviews were favorable and made similar observations about the book. Elizabeth Kolbert provides a fascinating o

Look inside florists' windows

One place I look to for signs of spring's arrival are the windows of florist shops.  Two of the florists on my morning walk were still sporting lots of winter flora. Image: Interior of fleursBELLA What's happening in your local florists' windows? There were a couple of bright spots on the sidewalk in front of the furniture store Nadeau. What is brightening up your neighborhood's streets?