What We Are Reading Today: ‘Wildlife of the Eastern Caribbean’

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Wildlife of the Eastern Caribbean’
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Updated 9 sec ago

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Wildlife of the Eastern Caribbean’

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Wildlife of the Eastern Caribbean’

ܳٳǰ:Steve Holliday and Gill Holliday

This is the first photographic field identification guide to Eastern Caribbean birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, land crabs, dragonflies, and butterflies.

Beautiful and easy-to-use, the guide covers 17 island groups stretching from the Virgin Islands south through the Lesser Antilles, from Anguilla to Grenada, where a unique range of flora and fauna evolved in relative isolation.

Around 30 percent of all the species included are endemic to the region. 

For each island group there is a list of endemic and “don’t miss” species.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Wildlife of the Eastern Caribbean’

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Updated 4 min 53 sec ago

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Wildlife of the Eastern Caribbean’

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  • Around 30 percent of all the species included are endemic to the region

Author: STEVE HOLLIDAY AND GILL HOLLIDAY

This is the first photographic field identification guide to Eastern Caribbean birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, land crabs, dragonflies, and butterflies.

Beautiful and easy-to-use, the guide covers 17 island groups stretching from the Virgin Islands south through the Lesser Antilles, from Anguilla to Grenada, where a unique range of flora and fauna evolved in relative isolation.

Around 30 percent of all the species included are endemic to the region.

 

 

 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘African Modernism’

What We Are Reading Today: ‘African Modernism’
Updated 30 June 2025

What We Are Reading Today: ‘African Modernism’

What We Are Reading Today: ‘African Modernism’

Edited by: Manuel Herz

The late 1950s and early 1960s saw a large number of central and sub-Saharan African countries gaining independence, and one of the key ways in which they expressed their newly established national identity was through distinctive architecture.

Parliament buildings, stadiums, universities, central banks, convention halls, and other major public buildings and housing projects were built in daring, even heroic designs.

“African Modernism” takes a close look at the relationship between these cutting-edge architectural projects, according to a review on goodreads.com. The book will be of interest to historians of architecture and students alike.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘A Leaf Unturned’: Short story collection explores questions of identity, social constraint

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Updated 30 June 2025

What We Are Reading Today: ‘A Leaf Unturned’: Short story collection explores questions of identity, social constraint

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  • “Saifi is an accomplished writer with a deep understanding of the human condition, particularly when it comes to themes of desire, identity, and societal constraint

Author: Shamim Saifi

“A Leaf Unturned” is the English translation of a collection of short stories originally written in Urdu by Shamim Saifi, one of India’s leading short story writers.

The stories were originally published by Bihar Urdu Academy under the title “Ek Warq,” and have been translated by Syed Sarwar Hussain, a professor of English at Riyadh’s King Saud University who has translated several books of renowned Indian and Pakistani writers.

Shamim Saifi.

Saifi, who died in 1994 while serving as a High Court judge, demonstrates a deep understanding of the human psyche, particularly in relation to themes of identity, and the struggles of individuals living on the margins of society.

The collection contains 12 short stories, each with a different flavor of writing, but all rich in symbolism and often with a stream-of-consciousness pattern that allows readers to follow each character’s inner thought process.

The stories offer a distinctive kaleidoscope of Joycean surrealism, Kafkaesque existentialism, and Faulknerian symbolism.

Sarwar Hussain writes in his introduction: “Shamim Saifi’s work is marked by its ability to evoke strong emotional responses and its keen insight into the complex intersections between personal desire, societal expectations, and existential crises.

“Saifi is an accomplished writer with a deep understanding of the human condition, particularly when it comes to themes of desire, identity, and societal constraint. His writing is rich in symbolism and emotional resonance, making him a writer whose work invites introspection and reflection.”

The book is available on Amazon.in and Kindle.

 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Grasshoppers, Locusts, and Crickets of the World’

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Grasshoppers, Locusts, and Crickets of the World’
Updated 29 June 2025

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Grasshoppers, Locusts, and Crickets of the World’

What We Are Reading Today: ‘Grasshoppers, Locusts, and Crickets of the World’

Edited by Martin Husemann and Oliver Hawlitschek

Grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, bush crickets, and katydids make up the order of insects known as Orthoptera.

Although there about 30,000 species of Orthoptera around the world, many people pay little attention to them and even scientists know relatively little about them.

Yet the world of grasshoppers is a fascinating and diverse one.


What We Are Reading Today: The Ticos

What We Are Reading Today: The Ticos
Updated 28 June 2025

What We Are Reading Today: The Ticos

What We Are Reading Today: The Ticos

Authors: Mavis Hiltunen Biesanz, Richard Biesanz

Written with the perspective of more than half a century of first-hand observation, this unparalleled social and cultural history describes how Costa Rica’s economy, government, education and health-care systems, family structures, religion, and other institutions have evolved, and how this evolution has affected and reflected people’s daily lives, beliefs, and their values. 

The authors are particularly concerned with change since the economic crisis of the early 1980s and the structural adjustment that followed.

The book provides a comprehensive introduction to a country the writers know well, according to a review on goodreads.com.