10 NEW BOOKS ON THE BEAUTY OF EDGES NOW
This week we are on edge. Winter has been pressing hard. We’re excited about our imminent launch of the first BeautifulNow app as we move closer to the finish line. (Stay tuned for updates soon!) And we long to see Spring on the horizon. It’s a perfect time to celebrate the beauty of edges. We’ve curated a collection of 10 new books that do it beautifully.
1. SZE TSUNG LEONG: HORIZONS
Sze Tsung Leong: Horizons
Leong is fascinated with the edge between land and sky, as it appears so defined, as a thin line in the distance, while in reality there is no specific hard edge. He plays with boundaries, like placing the edges of the glacial lake of Jökulsárlón in Iceland adjacent to the edges of the Indian Ocean and coupling California’s horizon lines with those of Kenya.
2. EL PASO 120: EDGE OF THE SOUTHWEST
El Paso 120: Edge of the Southwest
“El Paso is not at the edge but instead at the very center of some remarkably amazing landscape,” Paulda tells us.
He shows us with incredible insight and artistry, wIth breathtaking aerial and ground-based photos of the mountainous Hueco Tanks, the White Sands of the Tularosa Basin, the pristine rivers, delta, and lake of Elephant Butte, and within 120 mile radius of the little desert metropolis.
Paulda's photos are ripe with stunning color and dramatic composition, as they capture scenes, like secret treasures, that we might never come to see any other way.
Texas Christian University Press (2014)
3. CALIFORNIA’S WILD EDGE
California's Wild Edge
With exquisite color with dynamic composition, Killion’s works portray the coast's wild and diverse dramas -- from stormy waves crashing at Point Lobos, to moonlight at Mendocino.
Killion’s woodcuts transcend their medium, managing to elevate the fog swirls at the Golden Gate Bridge, as one example.
Poetry and prose from Gary Snyder, Robinson Jeffers, Robert Hass, and Jaime de Angulo, along with selections from Native Californian traditional stories, make this book a full and wonderful experience of one of the world’s most beautiful edges.
Heydey (2015)
4. FUTURE ARCTIC: FIELD NOTES FROM A WORLD ON THE EDGE
The Arctic is on a precipice. And therefore, so are we. What will our world look like on the other side?
Fast forward 50 to 100 years and you can see the new shape of things. Future Arctic: Field Notes from a World on the Edge
Struzik, an explorer and journalist shares his adventure as he investigates. Time travel with him as he navigates up and down the mountains, as he breaks through iced-in waterways.
What will become of the Arctic caribou, polar bears, and narwhal? What will happen to migrating birds and whales? How will rising seas and changing ocean currents affect everything? Who will control the land and the waters?
Struzik asks questions of wildlife scientists, military strategists, and indigenous peoples, and paints a complex picture with their stories.
"Few places on earth are changing as fast as the high Arctic, and few have told the story as compellingly as Ed Struzik."
— Bill McKibben author of Eaarth
"A masterful examination of the past, present, and future status of the Arctic, it is also very enjoyable reading, storytelling at its best."
— Vera Alexander Professor and Dean Emerita, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Island Press (2015)
5. THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION: TRAVELS WITH ENDURING PEOPLE IN VANISHING LANDS
While our awareness has been heightened about wildlife that face extinction as a result of habitat destruction and climate change, we need to know more about humans at similar risk.
The Edge of Extinction: Travels with Enduring People in Vanishing Lands
As the land upon which they live is on the brink, so is their way of life. Living close to the land means living close to the edge. And, while these people are relatively small in numbers, their losses will have great impact for us all, as natural and cultural diversity decline.
This book offers us a glimpse of indigenous life on the edge from the South Pacific to Siberia, from Africa to the Arctic, from the Native American southwest to the interiors of Labrador and more. Your armchair journey will not only not disappoint, it will move you.
Comstock Publishing Associates (2014)
6. THE EDGE OF THE SKY: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE ALL-THERE-IS
The Edge of the Sky: All You Need to Know About the All-There-Is
You will learn about everything from the big bang forward. And that, in itself is a big Wow!
It is modern cosmology -- with a twist -- a story told through the eyes of a fictional scientist (Student-People) who hunts for dark matter with a giant telescope (Big-Seer) to learn more about the Universe (All-There-Is).
Trotta’s language is so simple and easy, you’ll get it instantly, and joyfully.
“A simplified but by no means simplistic introduction to modern cosmology and physics – the flagship sciences of the ‘All-There-Is.’... An entertaining exercise...for those student-people who like to ponder the All-There-Is while testing the always-inadequate limits of language.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“[A] poetic primer on the universe.... The Edge of the Sky: All You Need to Know About the All-There-Is is one part children’s book for grownups, one part imaginative exercise in economical yet lyrical language, and wholly wonderful.”
— Brain Pickings
Basic Books (2014)
7. THE LITTLE EDGES
The Little Edges, by Fred Moten, is a collection of his “shaped prose,” a form of poetry that works the “little edges” of lyric and discourse. Many of these poems are in response to requests or commissions, in which Moten was asked to comment upon a work of art, a moment in time, or a particular person.
Moten’s “shaped prose” is arranged in rhythmic blocks, interrupted by shards of thought, with the “music” of words in equal importance to meaning.
“The poetic vision, or sound, of The Little Edges is remarkable in its range of reference, deep music, surprise at every turn, softness of lyric address coupled with political meditation, and undeniable beauty.”
— Maggie Nelson, author of Bluets and The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning
“Moten pays homage to jazz history, poetry history, and the illimitable future of the imagination in works organized less autonomous poems than in page-length lines, blocks of text, and short riffs.”
— Publishers Weekly
Wesleyan University Press (2014)
8. LIFE ON THE EDGE: THE COMING AGE OF QUANTUM BIOLOGY
How does life work? For all we know, we still don’t know. Yet we are hurtling forward, endeavoring to create life out of whatever we think we know.
We know how to procreate -- to create living things out of other living things. But how can we create life from things that aren’t alive? What spark have we yet to find?
In their fascinating new book, Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology
Life on the Edge explores how this quantum biology instructs everything from migrating birds to the scent of a rose to gene replication.
The explosive new field of quantum biology, comes alive for us as the authors illustrate life on the quantum edge.
"Hugely ambitious ... the skill of the writing provides the uplift to keep us aloft as we fly through the strange and spectacular terra incognita of genuinely new science."
— Tom Whipple The Times
Bantam Press (2014)
9. HEMLOCK: A FOREST GIANT ON THE EDGE
The Eastern Hemlock is a magnificent, massive, and majestic tree. Considered a, “foundation species,” it has shaped the ecosystems of forest environments in the northeastern parts of North America, from Nova Scotia, down through the Appalachian mountain range, to North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. It once was, and is again, on the edge of extinction.
Hemlock: A Forest Giant on the Edge
Steeped in science, sharing results from over 100 years of research conducted at Harvard University’s Harvard Forest, one of the most well-regarded long-term ecological research programs in North America, the book manages to also create both a beautiful portrait and landscape for us to consider.
Yale University Press (2014)
10. THE NARROW EDGE: A TINY BIRD, AN ANCIENT CRAB, AND AN EPIC JOURNEY
Why does a little bird need to travel from one end of the earth to the other? While we aren’t exactly sure why it figured out that a 9,000 mile journey from Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic Circle is the only way to live, we now have a better picture of how they do it.
The Narrow Edge: A Tiny Bird, an Ancient Crab, and an Epic Journey, by Deborah Cramer, follows flocks of thousands of tiny shorebirds, called red knots, as they migrate.
Cramer examines their life and habits along the way, from their arctic breeding grounds, to their mid-Atlantic feeding grounds at the water’s edge of Delaware Bay, to their hatching grounds at the southern tip of Argentina.
We come to see how the knots, the horseshoe-crab eggs upon which they feed, and we humans, are all intertwined biologically and ecologically. We’ve got plenty of reason to care that red knot populations have declined by 75 percent due to the decline of horseshoe crabs.
Human well-being: the unparalleled ability of horseshoe-crab blood to detect harmful bacteria in vaccines, medical devices, and intravenous drugs safeguards human health. Cramer offers unique insight into how, on an increasingly fragile and congested shore, the lives of red knots, horseshoe crabs, and humans are intertwined.
We learn, through the book about the courage of a growing number of people who get personally involved, to help the birds, the crabs, and the beaches survive, and we are beckoned to support them.
Yale University Press (2015)
Read more about Beautiful Edges, as they relate to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact.
Enter your own images and ideas about Beautiful Edges in this week’s creative Photo Competition. Open for entries now until 11:59 p.m. PT on 03.01.15. If you are reading this after that date, check out the current BN Creative Competition, and enter!
IMAGE CREDITS:
- Photo: by Sze Tsung Leong. Masai Mara Horizon.
- Photo: by Sze Tsung Leong. Horizons.
- Image: Courtesy of Texas Christian University Press. El Paso 120: Edge of the Southwest.
- Photo: by Mark Paulda. Still from El Paso 120: Edge of the Southwest.
- Image: Courtesy of Heydey. California’s Wild Edge.
- Image: Courtesy of Island Press. Future Arctic: Field Notes from a World on The Edge.
- Image: Courtesy of Comstock Publishing Associates. The Edge of Extinction.
- Image: Courtesy of Basic Books. The Edge of the Sky.
- Image: Courtesy of Wesleyan University Press. The Little Edges.
- Image: Courtesy of Bantam Press. Life on The Edge.
- Image: Courtesy of Yale University Press. Hemlock: A Forest Giant on The Edge.
- Image: Courtesy of Yale University Press. The Narrow Edge.
- Photo: by Sze Tsung Leong. Sangam II.
- Photo: by Sze Tsung Leong. Iwa Futami.
