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mao's holiday book review
i almost never do this, because taste in low-effort reading varies
wildly, but i just got a book that's too good to leave unmentioned.
it's called _the_flight_of_the_iguana_, by david quammen, and it's
a collection of essays on natural history. it's not a dry recitation
of facts, though; he presents nature's stranger success stories, like
meat-eating plants, worms that choose their adult sex based on who they
meet while they're young, and blind scorpions that see with their feet.
there is, of course, a flying iguana.
all of the articles were originally published as articles in the
magazine "outside." they're very readable, very interesting, and
very short.
so when an uncomfortable silence falls over the holiday table at
your house, you can ride to the rescue: "i suppose everyone here
has heard about the traumatic insemination techniques of the
european bedbug?"
absolutely worth your time.
mike