Did you know that bumblebees can sense the electric field of flowers, or that catfish are basically swimming tongues with taste buds all over their skins, or that dolphins using echolocation can perceive not only a human’s outer shape but also what’s inside, including skeleton and lungs? In our final book selection of the spring, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal The Hidden Realms Around Us, you will embark on a thrilling and dazzling tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world. Ed Yong, a science journalist for The Atlantic, gives us a new sense of wonder about organisms that we, with our own limited sensory bubble, may view as simple, only because we have no idea about these animals’ unknown facets of knowing about their world. Yong reminds us that we each have purchase on only a sliver of reality. Just prepare to have your perspective forever altered.
Yong’s research is prodigious and thorough. As with other science writers he embeds himself in the labs, homes, study sites and lives of dozens of researchers who have made amazing discoveries. He proceeds through the senses of the animal kingdom, every page filled with revelation, including the details of how these abilities were discovered and the science behind them. Yong also gives us a glimpse of the many mysteries that remain unsolved. To top it off, he is a beautiful writer and an exceptional storyteller.
An Immense World comes with a host of accolades and glowing reviews. It won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, was a finalist for both the Kirkus Prize and for the National Book Critics Circles Award and was long listed for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award. It was judged one of the Ten Best Books of 2022 according to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, Outside, and Mental Floss.
The Sacajawea Audubon Society Book Club will gather on April 16th at Hope Lutheran Church from 6:30 to 7:45 pm. You can find us in Room 123 laughing, reminiscing and discussing this month’s book selection as we munch on treats. This will be our last meeting before we adjourn for summer birding. If you would like to join the meeting remotely, contact Elisabeth Swanson (406-570-8325; elsswa@gmail.com) before the meeting. Thank you and please be on the lookout for an email asking for nominations for our fall reads.
