Book cover of Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains

Book description

An engrossing and revealing study of why we deem certain animals "pests" and others not-from cats to rats, elephants to pigeons-and what this tells us about our own perceptions, beliefs, and actions, as well as our place in the natural world

A squirrel in the garden. A rat in the…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Pests as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I love animals, so I was fascinated to learn from this book that some of my favorites are considered pests by others. In this book, Bethany Brookshire talks to experts who study rats, mice, bears, pigeons, and many other animals.

It's especially interesting to see the same animals from different points of view: elephants are amazing to people who live far away from them but quite annoying to farmers who need to protect their crops from these large, destructive creatures.

In other chapters, we meet biologists who study bears, deer, or cane toads to help manage the way people and…

If you love Pests...

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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