9 New Books We Recommend This Week
April 29, 2021
There are woods near my house where I sometimes head when I’m craving green shadows and stillness, a reminder that time and nature have very little to do with the human scale of things. Very little but not nothing: As Scott Weidensaul points out in his new book about migratory birds, “A World on the Wing,” humans are deeply implicated in the recent decimation of aviation species. If you love the woods as I do, this book will make you more alert to the chirrups and whistles and flashes of movement in the canopy above you and give you new respect for birds’ incredible abilities. It’s one of our recommended titles this week.
Remembering the victims of a serial killer in âLast Callâ
By Patrick Nathan Globe Correspondent,Updated March 11, 2021, 4:25 p.m.
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Paul Fleet
The bodies were disposed of in garbage bins along highways. âIt felt wrong,â Elon Green writes of one sanitation workerâs discovery. âIt didnât feel, he would testify, âlike normal trash.â Curiosity got the best of him, and he opened the bag.â A manâs head had been thrown away. Five other bags contained the rest of him. Their contents Green describes in faithful yet non-sensational detail. The man was Thomas Mulcahy, whose wife (he was closeted) had gone to file a missing person report when the police told her what theyâd found. His daughter wouldnât learn the gruesome details until the newspapers reported them.
Patrick Nathan
I’d forgotten that the rules do not apply to those they are meant to protect. “Don’t be ridiculous. What does it say, Scott? What does the sign actually say? Read it to me.”
Elaine looked up from her salad. She knew how my mother and I could be. “I’ll read it, Jeanne.” She dug through her handbag. My mother, phone in one hand and dog in the other, stared me down as we waited. “Ah,” Elaine said when she found her glasses. “Let’s see. It says, For the privacy ”
“For the privacy of our guests,” my mother hissed, “photography is not permitted in the pool area. Privacy. Taking a picture with some . . . some