Nature Obscura
A City's Hidden Natural World
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- USD 9.99
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- USD 9.99
Descripción editorial
With wonder and a sense of humor, Nature Obscura author Kelly Brenner aims to help us rediscover our connection to the natural world that is just outside our front door--we just need to know where to look.
Through explorations of a rich and varied urban landscape, Brenner reveals the complex micro-habitats and surprising nature found in the middle of a city. In her hometown of Seattle, which has plowed down hills, cut through the land to connect fresh- and saltwater, and paved over much of the rest, she exposes a diverse range of strange and unknown creatures. From shore to wetland, forest to neighborhood park, and graveyard to backyard, Brenner uncovers how our land alterations have impacted nature, for good and bad, through the wildlife and plants that live alongside us, often unseen. These stories meld together, in the same way our ecosystems, species, and human history are interconnected across the urban environment.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Naturalist blogger and self-proclaimed reluctant city dweller Brenner takes a deep dive into urban nature in her probing first book, which she calls a "projection of the nature found in a city onto a piece of paper." Organizing her work around the seasons, Seattleite Brenner explores a side of her city few others have seen. Winter is more active than many might believe ("a closer look reveals that nature is very much awake, but changed"), with hummingbirds, moss, and tardigrades among the flora and fauna Brenner finds, while spring brings ferns, flies, and muskrats. In summer, the species Brenner investigates include dragonflies, three-spined stickleback fish, and moon snails, with their insatiable love of clams. Autumn offers the somewhat stomach-turning plasmodial slime mold, which Brenner's quest to see leads to a trip to British Columbia. Brenner is so enthused about the natural world that she buys a bug zapper and disables its killing powers, choosing instead to study the insects that seek out its appealing ultraviolet light. Impeccably researched and written, Brenner's smart debut is ideal for those with a deep interest in nature.