MY BACKYARD JUNGLE
Drawing inspiration from the sight of foxes trotting down the sidewalk and the sound of raccoons rummaging around at night, My Backyard Jungle explores the increasingly common experience of humans and wildlife sharing habitat in cities around the globe. Barilla brings unique stories of urban encounters with monkeys and bears, marmosets and rooftop honeybees to the process of transforming his own backyard into wildlife habitat. His own yard becomes the centerpiece of a meditation on how we can coexist with other species. Not since Gerald Durrell penned My Family and Other Animals have readers encountered a naturalist with such a gift for storytelling and such an open heart for all things wild.
NATUREBOT: UNCONVENTIONAL VISIONS OF NATURE
Like a nature walk through a technological landscape, Naturebot offers a series of encounters with biomimetic creatures, technological creations that draw their inspiration from the natural world. What can we learn about our vision of Nature from robots that echolocate like bats, swarm like ants and burrow like the roots of plants? What does it mean to mirror the biodiversity of nature with our technology? Naturebot contemplates the future of the human relationship to the environment, and the future of nature writing in the 21st century.
WEST WITH THE RISE
The first book to follow a fly-fishing trip from coast to coast, West with the Rise is James Barilla's account of a solitary journey that begins in New England and ends in Northern California, with little more to keep him company than a secondhand pickup bought just for the trip, a pair of Nikes he cannot seem to keep dry (they're literally decomposing before his eyes), and the graphite stick and reel that the fly fisher reaches for before he has even fully awoken.