The Earth - An Intimate History
by Richard Fortey
Harper Perennial $155
Shortlisted for the Aventis Prize for science writing - to be announced on May 12 - Richard Fortey's book tells how and why the Earth looks as it does, and how its changes affect human culture, society and economics. It's also the story of 19th-century geology and the revolutionary theories about tectonics not accepted until the 1960s. Fortey, a paleontologist at London's Natural History Museum, visits geological sites around the globe, from Mount Vesuvius to Hawaii, where molten rock spews forth to create new land only to be taken back by the ocean. His writing avoids geological terminology in its explanation of lava flows in India or the creation of Alps, but still manages considerable education about rocks. Fortey has been called 'the Raymond Chandler of science writing', and The Earth 'a thriller'. It's also 'the ultimate travel book'.