An Island Called California: An Ecological Introduction to Its Natural Communities

I did not know what to expect when I was assigned this book to read. Considering myself as someone with a scientific background, I did expect the book to be dry reading because of its subject. As is it turns out, I was pleased to be wrong about that expectation. The author seems to understand the various types of readers. She is enticing enough to keep the non-scientific reader's attention as well as including enough information to satisfy the needs of scientists. What I like about this book is that since I live in an area that borders various ecological communities, I have used this book as my own private, nature guide when I am exploring the beauty that is California.

As a naturalist often bored by nature writing, I am stunned by An Island Called California. I first read it two decades ago, and I've just rediscovered it. Bakker's survey of the ecosystems of this massive and diverse state is lyrical, lively, and full of ecological anecdotes. This is the minimum reading to learn what it is we mean when we say "California". Read it. Your eyes will be opened up. Your view of the state will never be the same. Wish I had the money to send a copy to each member of the California state house and senate.

I've nearly worn out my copy of this book which is a guide to nearly every kind of major natural environment to be found in the Golden State. Bakker describes -- in readable prose -- the animals and plants which make up California wildlands. Her subjects are sometimes as broad as the chaparral-covered hills and sometimes as narrow as a single Joshua Tree. She celebrates life in all its diversity. No reader or traveler to natural California should be without this book.