Bogland:
The Secret World That Defies Death and Protects Life
by Merritt R. Turetsky (W.W. Norton)
This is a book about wetlands. Bogs in specific. Bogs are one of those environments that are created out of the survival strategy of one particular plant in making an area tough to live in for anything else, which then goes on to attract other life looking to exploit that self-defined niche in further unusual ways.
This is a book by a bog scientist. Her passion for the topic is clear, and her stories are pretty fun. The prose is breezy and elegant, much more like old school science writing. The book surveys bogs from many different angles, including their role in human history, particularly warfare and religion, but also digressions into fun asides like carnivorous plants. This broad look is the book’s sole weakness; it is much more a collection of essays on a theme. The exception here is that as the book progresses, the more it focuses on how bogs (or their removal) affects climate.
I appreciate when someone looks to communicate their love for a not-as-beloved thing, and this is a book in that category. You will love bogs after this, and the book helpfully includes a list of places you can visit them world-wide. It almost aches a little to read in that sort of wistfulness over how much the author wants to communicate how vital, weird, and cool this type of landform is as opposed to its reputation.
My thanks to the author, Merritt R. Turetsky, for writing the book, and to the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, for making the ARC available to me.
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