Tim, I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned yet either. This is a great read and good primer for introduction to island biogeography theory and the history of our field. Would also suggest Quammen's 'Monster of God' which deals with a specific subset of biophilia, our obsession with charismatic alpha predators.
Chris -----Original Message----- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Baker, Tim Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 12:24 PM To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] summer reading with an ecologic/environmental theme I haven't seen this suggestion yet (apologies if I missed it), so I'll propose David Quammen's 'Song of the Dodo'. His writing is very accessible and he is one of the better science writers for the general public. -Tim -----Original Message----- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kathleen Knight Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 6:12 AM To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] summer reading with an ecologic/environmental theme I'll second Christie's suggestion of Last Chance to See - there is a lot of Douglas Adams' excellent humor that the students will enjoy, but the book is also a thought-provoking look at the problem of extinction. It's a bit old (1990), but students can get on the internet and check up on the species in the book to see which have gone extinct, which are still on the verge of extinction, and which have begun to recover. -Kathleen On Feb 25 2008, Kraemer, George wrote: > Our campus theme next year will be "environment." Although it's defined > broadly enough to include all constituencies, it presents the opportunity > to reach about 500 freshmen with a back-door campaign of environmental > literacy. > > I am soliciting the ECOLOG group for suggestions for pre-college summer > reading with an environmental theme. It would have to be something that > would capture the minds of 17-18 year olds, and should lend itself to > discussions that might allow diverse discipline to have a say. > > Barbara Kingsolver's "Prodigal Summer" or Michael Pollan's books came > first to mind. But there must be other things out there that I've missed. > Since this might be of interest to others, please respond to the list. > >GPK >George P. Kraemer >Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology >Chair, Environmental Studies Program Purchase College (SUNY) > > -- ----------------------------- Kathleen S. Knight