Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2023 -

Gunter (Rollins College) takes readers along on a family trip across the US, documenting the impacts of climate change at various destinations and the mitigation and adaptation strategies communities are taking to minimize those impacts. From the frozen landscapes of Alaska to the warm coasts of the Florida peninsula, the impacts of a changing climate are apparent. In describing these experiences, Gunter addresses many key aspects of observed climate change: melting glaciers, rising seas, enhanced extreme events, declining ocean health, and biodiversity issues, among others. Importantly, he also provides recommended solutions, including greater adoption of renewable energy, reconsidering the design of cities, and, of course, adaptation. In many ways, this book is a sequel to the author's 2018 Tales of an Ecotourist (CH, Aug'18, 55-4478), which explores similar themes at the global scale but differs in stressing barriers to progress rather than offering transparency toward solutions. Both books advocate conscientious travel to enhance understanding and appreciation of the natural environment. In each book, Gunter expertly weaves together science, policy, and personal observation through storytelling in a way that communicates urgency while expressing hope and enthusiasm for the future.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

This aptly titled book begins with the premise that most people cannot swim and a promise to explain why and how that happened. Using an innovative analysis of archaeological, textual, and art-historical sources, historian Carr (Portland State Univ.) traces the shifting nature of the human love and fear of swimming. The text itself seems to ebb and flow in a mostly chronological sequence, eventually covering the entire populated globe but with a slightly greater focus on Europe and Africa. The author persuasively examines how ice ages must have impacted swimming--cold weather inhibited swimmers and certain cultures essentially forgot how to swim--and how warming weather then made the water more attractive. The text also traces how non-swimmer cultures actually developed a fear of water exported through migration and conquest. That fear made water a tool for punishment, torture, and testing. Swimming thus became a bright-line divider. For some populations, swimming became a mark of intelligence, education, and wealth. For others, swimming was a mark of low intelligence, poverty, and animalistic natures. Cultures, however, could shift from one perspective to the other in a matter of decades. This meticulously researched, carefully constructed work is dense but fascinating nevertheless and easy to read.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.