I can still hear their skittering. The nocturnal German cockroaches of my Maryland childhood were motivated when my mother got up in the night and flipped on the kitchen light.
She took it as a personal insult, a slap on her pride of keeping a clean kitchen. But she couldn’t do anything about the months of warm, humid weather, or a warm house in the winter.
Thankfully it wasn’t the aggressive Madagascar hissing cockroach, which can be as long as 3 inches.
Traer Scott chose that cockroach for his book “Nocturne: Creatures of the Night” ($19.95), photographing 42 night dwellers against a black background.
Other stars in “Nocturne” are the Indian flying fox, ball python, luna moth, capybara, common vampire bat, hedgehog and tarantula.
Each has a block of text. Don’t skip the introduction.
Also on the bookshelf:
“Offshore Sea Life ID Guide: West Coast” ($14.95). In 56 pages, the authors hit the highlights of what you might see offshore, perhaps on a whale-watching trip. Focusing on marine mammals and seabirds, “Offshore” is great for the beginner.
“Social Animals: A Berkley Bestiary” ($18.95). Speaking of humor, Ryan and Lucy Berkley’s take on animal profiles and portraits elicit smiles and art appreciation. The Prominent Polar Bear is genius-in-residence for a booming ice pop enterprise. And so on.
“On a Wing and a Prayer” ($27). Sarah Woods headed into the heart of the Central American rainforest to find one of the last breeding pairs of harpy eagles. What she found was so much more than that, turning her experiences into metaphors for the journey of life.
“A Nest is Noisy” ($16.99, ages 5-8). Yes it is, but it’s also tiny (hummingbird) or enormous (dusky scrubfowl’s 15-foot-tall nest); spiky, pebbly, papery, muddy or bubbly. In addition to the story, there are two pages of nests with matching animals at the end.
“A Field Guide to Common Fishes of the Pacific Northwest” ($7.95). “Fishes” (76 saltwater swimmers) and “A Field Guide to Seaweeds of the Pacific Northwest” are larger than usual sturdy eight-fold water-resistant pamphlets.
“Of Orcas and Men: What Killer Whales Can Teach Us” ($27.95). Even if you are weary of orca-centered books, movies, documentaries and tour-boat ads, consider giving Seattle writer David Neiwert’s book a chance. He’s a master mixer of history, biology, behavior and commercialization. It also works because he’s a good storyteller.
“Ancient Places: People and Landscape in the Emerging Northwest” ($21.95). OK, dull title but don’t assume a dull text. Jack Nisbet investigate people and their relationship to the landscape while turning broad topics — Ice Age floods, fossils, tribal food gathering — into interesting nonfiction stories about the Northwest.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.
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