Kaethe

I don't normally pretend to be objective about books, but on this occasion I'm even less so: the author is an old friend and I'm married to one of the experts mentioned here in.

Cashwell writes most like Bill Bryson, if Bryson was an English teacher with the hobby of birding. The unifying theme here is lines that people draw to separate things, but how there's always ambiguity, whether between what we mean by male and female, or at the edge of extinction, or in the definition of species, or between genres. Really, he's interested in pretty much everything including driving, and art, and music. Even if, like me, you're not interested in spotting birds out in the middle of nowhere at dawn, you'll enjoy the book because it's entertaining and discursive and amusing. We've all read it at our house, or are planning to, now that a copy isn't being read by someone else.

Personal copy