Poor Richard’s Books recommends titles on history, road ecology and art

Each week as part of SunLit — The Sun’s literature section — we feature staff recommendations from book stores across Colorado. This week, the staff from Poor Richard’s Books in Colorado Springs recommends a David Grann historical work, a look at roads’ impact on wildlife and some artistic career guidance.

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From the publisher: On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were 30 emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then … six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. “The Wager” is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers.

From Jeffery Payne, assistant retail manager: David Grann continues his winning streak of superb writing with “The Wager.” Rarely is there a talent that can transport us back in time, to a windy, rainy desolate island and convey the sense of dread and the endurance of the remarkable human spirit like the survivors of the shipwrecked Wager. Gann’s meticulous research of the sailor’s personal diaries is pieced together so well that we forget we are reading about a horrific experience over 280 years ago. One can feel the desperation, the glimmers of hope and the absolute will to make it back to their beloved England…and when they do…well, that’s when the real drama begins.

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From the publisher: Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. While roads are so ubiquitous they’re practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption. In “Crossings,” environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb travels throughout the United States and around the world to investigate how roads have transformed our planet. A million animals are killed by cars each day in the U.S. alone, but as the new science of road ecology shows, the harms of highways extend far beyond roadkill.

Road ecologists are also seeking to blunt the destruction through innovative solutions. Goldfarb meets with conservationists building bridges for California’s mountain lions and tunnels for English toads, engineers deconstructing the labyrinth of logging roads that web national forests, animal rehabbers caring for Tasmania’s car-orphaned wallabies, and community organizers working to undo the havoc highways have wreaked upon American cities.

From Jeffery Payne, assistant retail manager: It astounds me the disconnect and idiocy that people have when it comes to nature and all things wild. Humankind (an oxymoron if you think about it) has been hell-bent on trying to make the animal kingdom and landscape yield and comply with our demands for centuries. “Crossings”delves into the innate connections between wildlife and their environment, and brings the need for “ecological corridors” front and center.

Mr. Goldfarb’s wit and passion for finding a balance between the destruction of natural pathways and the building of more and more roads — so we can get to where we want to be quickly, without inconvenience — comes without moralizing. He simply shows just how intertwined we are with nature, and the ramifications of ignoring that relationship. May we (especially the road engineers) all have the good sense to pay attention.

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From the publisher: Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable.

Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn’t, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, it’s about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone’s life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.

From Jeffery Payne, assistant retail manager: Being a creative type is truly a blessing, and a curse. Rick Rubin’s “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” gives us insight and keen observation into the processes of creativity and imaginative thinking. At times it feels more like reading a Buddhist text with his simple, approachable sense of understanding, perspectives and plops of enlightenment. The book is a mix of career guidance, self-help instruction, and inspirational devotional. Stuck on a project or piece? Just open the book randomly and find some direction. What I truly appreciate about the book is the permission he gives artists to do their craft without guilt or shame. Just experience the art, and enjoy the process.

Type of Story: Review

An assessment or critique of a service, product, or creative endeavor such as art, literature or a performance.