Book 'em, Danno
Reviews and Author Interviews and Literary Events in the D.C. Area
Washington Independent Review of Books
From the WIRB review of Slither:
Observing the way people cuddle dogs and cats but recoil from snakes — despite all three animals being kept as pets — I’ve often thought that familiarity breeds comfort rather than contempt. It’s not uncommon to hear people opine that reptiles have no personality, no warmth, no sense of companionship, but is that true, or are they simply more alien (and therefore more frightening) than their furry, domesticated counterparts?
In Slither: How Nature’s Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World, Stephen S. Hall makes a compelling case for the individuality, social nature, and fascinating biology of our scalier friends. He explores everything from the mind-bending physics of the sidewinder (“nocturnal denizens of the desert Southwest [who] have a unique form of locomotion that defies logic and compass”) to the complex mechanics of snake reproduction and the explosive phenomenon of the Florida Burmese python.