Current read? Over the Edge of the World (William Morrow, 2003), Laurence Bergreen鈥檚 鈥渂eautifully told鈥� story of Portuguese navigator Magellan鈥檚 circumnavigation of the globe. The Wildlife Conservation Society runs the Bronx Zoo as well as field research projects. 鈥淪cience and exploration are the stuff of the society,鈥� he says, 鈥渟o it is natural that I would be drawn to a book about intrepid explorers.鈥�
Essential reading? Monster of God is 鈥渁nother terrific book鈥� by David Quammen (W. W. Norton, 2003). It points up the importance of predators to human culture, he says. 鈥淣ot surprisingly, humans do not always acquit themselves well in the relationship.鈥� The most powerful question Quammen asks, says Sanderson, is how human society can expect the (often poor) communities living next to these animals to bear the brunt of the cost of protecting them.