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sbreadsfantasy's review against another edition
5.0
Kolbert's research is well-done, and her creative nonfiction approach to this pressing topic was refreshing. It was a tough read, but an absolutely eye-opening one.
msgtdameron's review
dark
informative
fast-paced
3.5
This book is in the same vain as Six Degrees, a warning of how man, Homo Sapiens, has and going forward could cause the Sixth Mass Extinction event. We and those pests we bring with us, rats, have killed off thousands of species and each year that number grows. We are NOT good stewards of our world and with some exceptions we don't show an inclination to be good stewards. I've read a lot of warming, water, dirt, extinction works and this is another one. If you have a back round, new and different examples. If not a lot of great information. Worth the time.
yrc's review against another edition
4.0
I rarely read non-fiction, but this book was suggested by a friend and I know it won the Pulitzer. Kolbert's combination of scientific terms and witty writing style made me extremely enjoy this book. I learned a lot (for example how ocean acidification can gravely impact the biodiversity) and was able to appreciate her chronological examination of life on earth. I hope our species manages to treat what's left of our planet more kindly, else all that will be left may be giant rats!
honnari_hannya's review
3.0
I'm not quite sure why I put this down the first time, but decided to give it a second chance with mixed results. While I do appreciate the very close look Kolbert took with regards to a few select species and their fate in the ongoing "Sixth Extinction" event that is happening in the Anthropocene, I do think that it ended up feeling quite myopic because she did not contextualize it in the scope of the larger event. I wish she had traced the throughline of human impact on the world a little more broadly toward the end, which she did all too briefly, as well as framed this Sixth Extinction within the history of the first five a little more thoroughly and explicitly. I walked away from this book knowing about bits and piece of the Sixth Extinction, some specific species and landscapes that it has ravaged, but not really a good idea of the "history" of extinction events as a whole.
jarka120's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
an obviously well-researched book, but parts of it were a bit drawn out while others should have been fleshed out more. while i was interested in the past mass extinctions and the history of extinction, i did go into this hoping for more on the present dangers/what is to come