A scientific exploration of the insect world that reveals the alarming diminishment of insect life across the globe in the era of climate change.
THE INSECT APOCALYPSE
by Brooke Jarvis
Crown, March 2025
Drawn from the author’s astonishing and deeply disturbing article for the New York Times Magazine (which was downloaded over 1 million times in the first week alone), this will be a fascinating scientific exploration of the insect world that reveals, through extensive research with amateurs and entomologists in the field, the alarming diminishment of insect life across the globe in the era of climate change. The author plans to travel to different countries and environments, including Europe and Latin America, to explore the causes and urgent consequences of life on Earth without insects.
Brooke Jarvis is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, and has written for The New Yorker, Wired, The California Sunday Magazine, GQ, Harper’s, and others. She also teaches feature writing at NYU’s American Journalism Online Master’s Program and mentors young science journalists through The Open Notebook and the Northwest Science Writers Association. Jarvis’ stories have been anthologized in The Best American Science and Nature Writing (Houghton-Mifflin); The Best American Travel Writing (Mariner Books); Love and Ruin: Tales of Obsession, Danger and Heartbreak from The Atavist Magazine (Norton); and New Stories We Tell: True Tales by America’s Next Generation of Great Women Journalists (The Sager Group).
Thirteen essays are included that explore the evocative scents of trees, from the smell of a book just printed as you first open its pages, to the calming scent of Linden blossom, to the ingredients of a particularly good gin & tonic. In your hand: a highball glass, beaded with cool moisture. In your nose: the aromatic embodiment of globalized trade. The spikey, herbal odour of European juniper berries. A tang of lime juice from a tree descended from wild progenitors in the foothills of the Himalayas. Bitter quinine, from the bark of the South American cinchona tree, spritzed into your nostrils by the pop of sparkling tonic water. Take a sip, feel the aroma and taste of three continents converge.
No one is as at home among wild woodland animals as Wolfgang Schreil: he gets up close and personal with red deer and lynxes, photographs a hunting stoat at ten paces, gets within touching distance of poisonous snakes, and stands among roe deer grazing peacefully by his side. How does he manage to get so unbelievably close to them, to share moments of connectedness that count among the happiest times of his life? For Wolfgang ‘Woid Woife’ Schreil, the woods represent a safe haven and place where we can be truly free. His gripping stories, his priceless knowledge of the animal world and his close-up animal photographs have made him a very special woodland ambassador. His immense passion for life and animals, his faith in the power of love, and his belief that nature’s greatest gifts are revealed to us if we are only patient, are an inspiration for each and every one of us who yearn to be mindful of what really matters.
The ocean is the last remaining source of profound mystery and discovery on Earth with eighty percent of it still largely unexplored; thus, it is of perennial fascination. In KRAKEN, journalist Wendy Williams introduces one of the ocean’s most charismatic, monstrous, enigmatic, and curious inhabitants: the squid. More than just calamari, squid species are fascinatingly odd creatures, with much to teach us about our own species, not to mention the obsessive interest so many of us can’t help but have for the enormous beast that is the giant squid, which is quick to attack sperm whales, and even submarines and boats. Williams also examines other equally enthralling cephalopods, including the octopus and the cuttlefish, and explores their otherworldly abilities, such as camouflage and bioluminescence. Kraken takes the reader on a wild ride through the world of squid science and adventure, along the way answering some riddles about how the human brain works, what intelligence really is, and what monsters lie in the deep. Wendy Williams weaves a rich narrative tapestry around her subject, drawing powerfully on the passions and discoveries of scientists, fisherman, and squid enthusiasts around the world.