The other day, at loss for a word to describe that greatest of Canadian winter sports—kicking the snow out of your automobile’s wheel wells—I asked ChatGPT to make one up. In German, of course, since it wouldn’t be grammatically possible in English.
It offered up Schneeschlagern, which I immediately added to my vocabulary. Combining schnee (snow) + schlagen (to strike or hit), the “ern” ending brings a more verb-like feel. As in: Ich muss das Auto schnell schneeschlagern, bevor wir losfahren (I need to kick the snow out of the car’s wheel wells before we head out).
This is the kind of thing ChatGPT is good at. Reviewing books, not so much. Which is why I read them for you and post one of these non-fiction reviews every Christmas and every spring. This year’s may be a little late, but it’s just in time for post-Christmas sales.
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, Vintage 2006
Winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize and inspiration for the blockbuster 2023 movie Oppenheimer (seven Academy Awards, five Golden Globes), this monumental biography explores the life of the enigmatic physicist at the heart of the Manhattan Project, America’s secret Second World War gambit to develop the atomic bomb. Delving into Oppenheimer’s personal complexity—immensely gifted, charming, driven, deeply conflicted about his work’s consequences—his internal struggle as both “American Prometheus” and a tragic figure who unleashed a power he couldn’t control provides an unsettling emotional core captured in the portrayal of post-war life amidst the political witch hunts of the McCarthy era.
Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life, by Lulu Miller, Simon & Schuster 2020
This national bestselling blend of memoir, science and philosophical perambulation (reviewers called it “magical” and “perfect”) uses the life of David Starr Jordan—a venerated but ultimately flawed taxonomist possessed with bringing order to the natural world—to unpack not only the argument of why fish don’t actually exist as a unified biological category, but broader existential questions about the nature of life, the universe, grief and loss, and the human urge to overcome perceived chaos. The idea that “fish don’t exist” evokes the arbitrary ways we structure knowledge and rely too heavily on classification systems that can obscure complexity and richness in both the world—and ourselves.
The Great River: The Making & Unmaking of the Mississippi, by Boyce Upholt, Norton 2021
This compelling exploration of one of the world’s most iconic watercourses combines historical context, scientific insight, and on-the-ground reportage in examining how humans have reshaped the Mississippi for better and worse, and what it means for the river’s future. Created eons ago by continental forces, the great river has been additionally shaped by countless societies, from Indigenous communities to European settlers to modern-day engineers and politicians. Damming, levee-building, industrial agriculture, and urban development dramatically altered the river’s natural course and ecosystem, often with unforeseen and devastating environmental, structural and social consequences. But the question of what can be done—or undone—remains.
Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, by Ben Goldfarb, Norton 2023
Grand Prize Winner at the 2024 Banff Mountain Book Festival, Crossings offers an insightful look at the understudied effects of human infrastructure on wildlife through the emerging science of road ecology. At the intersection of infrastructure development and conservation lies the biological reality of how roads fragment natural habitats, creating barriers both genetic and physical that become death traps for wildlife of all types and sizes. Goldfarb’s wealth of factual info and engaging storytelling takes readers on a journey through various global efforts to mitigate these negative impacts.
Meet the Neighbours: Animal Minds and Life in a More-than-human World, by Brandon Keim, Norton 2024
A thoughtful and engaging exploration of human biophilia—our desire to understand and connect with the natural world through the lives of animals—Keim explores how we tend to place ourselves at the centre of the world (anthropocentrism), leading us to view animals through a lens that both diminishes their complexity and undermines our ability to empathize with their reality. Part scientific inquiry, part philosophical reflection, Keim draws on recent discoveries in animal cognition and behaviour to show how a range of animals have more sophisticated understandings of their environment and rich social interactions than we assume, challenging the received view of animals as mere creatures of instinct.
Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest, by Wade Davis, Vintage 2011
I’ll finish with the best book I read this year. Though all his works open eyes to the human condition, in this meticulously researched magnum opus 12 years in the making, anthropologist, author, and former National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, Wade Davis also proves himself a historian of note. Weaving exploration, history and war psychology, this page-turner combines the adventure of high-altitude mountaineering with the haunting legacy of the First World War. Centred on George Mallory, who famously disappeared during a 1924 attempt on Everest with climbing partner, Andrew Irvine, the mystery of whether they summitted before their deaths has captivated mountain historians for decades. The book expands the narrative by delving deep into the devastating impact of war and how the profound psychological scars visited on Mallory and contemporaries transmogrified into an urge to summit the world’s highest peak. (Postscript: the finding of Mallory’s body in 2009 and what is probably Irvine’s in 2024 only amplifies the importance of this treatise.)
Leslie Anthony is a Whistler-based author, editor, biologist and bon vivant who has never met a mountain he didn’t like.
