The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2019

by Sy Montgomery (Editor), Jaime Green (Editor)

Overview

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Sy Montgomery, New York Times best-selling author and recipient of numerous awards, edits this year’s volume of the finest science and nature writing.

“Science is important because this is how we seek to discover the truth about the world. And this is what makes excellent science and nature writing essential,” observes New York Times best-selling author Sy Montgomery. “Science and nature writing are how we share the truth about the universe with the people of the world.” And collected here are truths about nearly every corner of the universe. From meditations on extinction, to the search for alien life, to the prejudice that infects our medical system, the pieces in this year’s Best American Science and Nature Writing seek to bring to the people stories of some of the most pressing issues facing our planet, as well as moments of wonder reflecting the immense beauty our natural world offers.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781328519009
Publisher:	HMH Books
Publication date:	10/01/2019
Series:	Best American Science and Nature Writing Series
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	70,754
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

SY MONTGOMERY, guest editor, a National Book Award finalist, is the best-selling author of How to Be a Good Creature, The Soul of an Octopus, and numerous other titles.

JAIME GREEN, series editor, is the romance book review columnist for the New York Times and a contributing editor for Catapult.

Hometown:

Hancock, New Hampshire

Date of Birth:

February 7, 1958

Place of Birth:

Frankfurt, Germany

Education:

Syracuse University: B.A., Newhouse School of Public Communications, 1979; B.A., College of Arts and Sciences, 1979

Table of Contents

SY MONTGOMERY: Introduction
PHILIP BALL: A Compassionate Substance
REBECCA BOYLE: The Search for Alien Life Begins in Earth’s Oldest Desert
PETER BRANNEN: Glimpses of a Mass Extinction in Modern-Day Western New York
CHRIS COLIN: This Sand Is Your Sand
DOUGLAS FOX: The Brain, Reimagined
CONNOR GEARIN: Little Golden Flower-Room: On Wild Places and Intimacy
BEN GOLDFARB: The Endling: Watching a Species Vanish in Real Time
GARY GREENBERG: What If the Placebo Effect Is Not a Trick?
JEREMY HANCE: The Great Rhino U-Turn
HOLLY HAWORTH: The Fading Stars: A Constellation
EVA HOLLAND: Saving Baby Boy Green
APRICOT IRVING: The Fire at Eagle Creek
ROWAN JACOBSEN: Deleting a Species
BROOKE JARVIS: The Insect Apocalypse Is Here
MATT JONES: No Heart, No Moon
KEVIN KRAJICK: The Scientific Detectives Probing the Secrets of Ancient Oracles
J. B. MACKINNON: You Really Don’t Want to Know What It’s Like to Be a Right Whale These Days
BILL MCKIBBEN: How Extreme Weather Is Shrinking the Planet
REBECCA MEAD: The Story of a Face
MOLLY OSBERG: How to Not Die in America
JOSHUA ROTHMAN: Why Paper Jams Persist
JORDAN MICHAEL SMITH: The Professor of Horrible Deeds
SHANNON STIRONE: Welcome to the Center of the Universe
LINDA VILLAROSA: The Hidden Toll: Why Are Black Mothers and Babies in the United States Dying at More Than Double the Rate of White Mothers and Babies? The Answer Has Everything to Do with the Lived Experience of Being a Black Woman in America
ED YONG: When the Next Plague Hits
ILANA YURKIEWICZ: Paper Trails: Living and Dying with Fragmented Medical Records
 

Editorial Reviews

08/26/2019

Naturalist Montgomery (How to Be a Good Creature) emphasizes a sense of wide-eyed wonder in this enjoyable anthology. Included are topical pieces such as Linda Villarosa’s investigation into African-American infant mortality rates and Rebecca Mead’s report on a transgender woman undergoing facial surgery. But overall, this collection of 26 essays—from such publications as the Atlantic, Atlas Obscura, the New Yorker, and Pacific Standard—is less concerned with the hot-button issues, such as the rise of artificial intelligence, much discussed in contemporary science writing. There are stories about catching insects in Denmark, tracing hydrocarbon gasses at ancient oracle sites in and near Greece, and hunting down the elusive forms of life in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Often the writing strikes a personal, emotional note: Conor Gearin muses about his upcoming marriage while walking in Iowa’s Hitchcock Nature Center, and Molly Osberg tells of her near-fatal experience with a rare form of strep. Endangered animals (vaquita porpoises in the Gulf of California, right whales in Cape Cod Bay, and rhinos in Cincinnati Zoo) also claim much of the contributors’ attention. Readers in need of some substantive escapism will appreciate this offering of the previous year’s finest science and nature writing. Agent: Sarah Jane Freymann, Sarah Jane Freyman Literary (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"The works in this annual anthology are lyrical, emotional, moving, and insightful—proof that long-form science journalism boasts some of our best writers...These pieces challenge us to look deeper and to understand better, to see the beating human heart in the soul of science."—Booklist, starred review 

"Naturalist Montgomery emphasizes a sense of wide-eyed wonder in this enjoyable anthology. Readers in need of some substantive escapism will appreciate this offering of the previous year’s finest science and nature writing."—Publishers Weekly 

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