Why am I passionate about this?
I learned to love nature early, from the tadpoles in the swamps of āmyā New York woods to the scarlet tanagers that came through in the spring and the old tilted oak where I sometimes slept. In college in California, I became acquainted with the myriad ways in which we humans are still degrading the natural environment that is the prime source of our worldly and spiritual subsistence. Ever since, Iāve worked to protect the natural world, first as an activist, then a government official, then as a diplomat, and now as I write fictional intrigues set in the world we all need to conserve. I hope youāll enjoy this latest effort.
Brooks' book list on environmental and cli-fi adventures
Why did Brooks love this book?
A Parrot Without a Name is the tale of a quest as primitive and compelling as any grail search from medieval legend. Itās the story of John OāNeill and Theodore Parker, two of the 20th centuryās most accomplished birders and ornithologists, and their pursuit of the least known and most elusive birds in the whole of South America. Parker, whose death in a small plane crash in the Ecuadorian mountains cut off one of the most famous and unique escapades in birding ā he ended up knowing and recording the calls of more than 4000 bird species ā shows up as a colorful character with all the quirks of other great scientific iconoclasts such as Alan Turing and Robert Oppenheimer.
1 author picked A Parrot Without a Name as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Describes the work of two ornithologists, John O'Neill and Ted Parker, searching for unidentified species of birds in the rain forests of Peru
- Coming soon!