I’ve been meaning to read a lot more popular science books outside of my field lately, in order to broaden my knowledge and just get back in the habit of reading that I fell out of during the Dark Times of 2020-2021. Fortunately, in recent months a number of my classic scicomm blogging friends (that I’ve now known for over a decade) have written books, and this has been a great opportunity and motivation to get reading again! The first one that I’ve finished is Pests (2022), by Bethany Brookshire.
Human beings are thoroughly familiar with animal pests, from the pizza rats of New York City to the raccoons of Chicago going through our garbage cans to the coyotes of, well, almost everywhere now, threatening family pets and small children. But are we really that familiar with those animals that we call “pests,” and do we really understand what a pest is?
Pests is an insightful and engrossing look at what it means to be a pest, and how that term is more a reflection of our own human biases and needs than of the animal’s nature. It looks at the stories and history of a wide variety of animals, from ubiquitous animals like rats, mice and pigeons to exotic animals like snakes and elephants and even those animals that we have taken into our home, like cats. It leaves off all the creepy crawly invertebrates like spiders and cockroaches, which would probably merit a book all on their own. (And I don’t miss them here!)
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Skulls in the Stars 