Wild Life: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Living Wonders
Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes writer Cara Giaimo for a presentation on her new book Atlas Obscura: Wild Life: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Living Wonders, a dazzling, over-the-top collection of the world's most extraordinary wild species that takes you to all seven continents and beyond. It's more than a field guide, it's an adventure. For this special evening Giaimo will be joined in conversation with Emily Simpson of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
“A mind-blowing guide to nature's most enchanting and unexpected characters, every page is full of wit and wonder.” –Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of An Immense World
From the curious minds of Atlas Obscura, authors of #1 New York Times bestselling Atlas Obscura and Gastro Obscura, comes an unputdownable celebration of the world's living wonders.
- Learn how dung beetles navigate by the stars, and trees communicate through their roots.
- Meet one of the strongest animals in the world: the puny peacock mantis shrimp.
- Pay your respects to a 44,000 year old shrub, float along flying rivers, and explore a garbage dump overseen by endangered storks.
- Examine old examples of bird song notation written on sheet music.
- Also, first person interviews: hear from a honey hunter and his avian partners, a scientist working to find the world's only ocean-dwelling insects, and an offshore radio DJ who is at the heart of the local fishing community.
Featuring over 500 extraordinary plants, animals, and natural phenomena, with illustrations and photos on every page, the book takes readers around the globe—from Antarctic deserts to lush jungles, and into the deepest fathoms of the ocean and the hearts of our densest cities. Teeming with detail and wildly entertaining, Wild Life reinvigorates our sense of wonder, awe and amazement about the incredible creatures we share our planet with.
“I love this book. It makes me want to run upstairs, pack a bag, and bolt away to some far-flung corners of this astounding planet. Because now I know there are immortal jellyfish out there, and skinkmansions and peacock spiders, and I know where and how to see them! So if I can just manage to stop compulsively reading every single page here, I’ll be on my way.” –Mary Roach Bestselling author of Stiff and Packing for Mars
This event, cosponsored by Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks, will take place at the London Nelson Community Center, 301 Center Street, Santa Cruz.
CARA GIAIMO lives in Somerville, MA, with her wife, Lilia, two cats, many plants, and uncountable neighborhood rats. A former staff writer at Atlas Obscura, Cara now covers our fellow species for the New York Times, Fabrik Zeitung, Bloomberg Businessweek, and elsewhere. Her first book, Detector Dogs (with Christina Couch), was published by MIT Kids Press in 2022. She plays guitar in Sidebody.
