A surprisingly entertaining read about an environmental disaster.
Troubled waters.
In this case study, college professor Wensink embarks on a journey to learn how a Lake Erie algae bloom came to be—in 2014, it infamously poisoned the drinking water of Toledo, Ohio. The author is unabashedly curious, his tone is breezy, and he doles out pop culture references and factual information in equal parts. Readers can be assured they won’t be bogged down by overly detailed timelines or scholarly analysis, and yet, they will learn plenty about the complex causes and multipronged solutions related to harmful algal blooms. Northwest Ohio used to be home to the Great Black Swamp, an ecosystem the size of Connecticut with seemingly bottomless mud holes, dense, dark forests, and insufferable populations of insects. During westward expansion, settlers endeavored to conquer the swamp by draining water and clear-cutting the dense forest. These actions often relied on human ingenuity, such as an automated ditch-digging machine invented in 1893. Today’s Ohioans face an out-of-balance ecosystem—an unintended consequence of such progress. Previous generations turned uninhabitable land into farmland, thereby providing farmers a chance to achieve a middle-class lifestyle. But now, many see that the swamp’s conversion was a recipe for ecological disaster. The author weaves in bits of memoir, writing that he had no knowledge of the swamp even though he grew up nearby. He also details his present-day divorce; he doesn’t make a direct parallel between his divorce and the 2014 algal bloom, but it’s an undercurrent: “Often, it’s at these breaking points that we find the clarity or strength to try something new.” And thus, the story wends its way to interventions in Ohio and beyond, such as dam removal, wetlands restoration, and farm management. Each strategy helps a little bit, the author notes, and together, they can add up to make a difference.
A surprisingly entertaining read about an environmental disaster.Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9781540270108
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Belt Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
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