Member Reviews
**This book was given to me as an advanced reader copy by Netgalley**
I was so excited for this book. It was the first book that I got approved on Netgalley for, and I was excited about the topic. As someone who is in the environmental field, I actually enjoy reading science books. But this one, was not good.
Coastal Nature, Coastal Culture; Environmental Histories of the Georgie Coast by Paul Sutter is a book that gives both the natural history in cultural history of the Georgia coast. It covers all groups of people from Native Americans to environmental activists to missionaries. It’s and interesting story that I wouldn’t think about normally.
However, where this book failed for me was the writing. It was such an interesting topic, but the run on sentences made it go in one ear and out of the other. An example, and I quote:
The challenge for residents of the Georgia coast and those who care about it is to imagine a nature that makes a place for all interests and all histories, a nature that is itself a vital public sphere for working out differences while also recognizing that the world we inhabit is more than a human one.
That is one sentence. And especially for one that is meant to convey information it is not concise. There is good stuff in that sentence, but I can’t get to it because it is so wordy and I have to stop and think about the sentence itself. Every sentence in this book is a run-on. Also negative points for this sentence, “On the Georgia coast, ecotones set the tone.” Come on. And I don’t understand how out of all of the compiled work that is all has a similar boring style of writing.
The book also didn’t benefit from the fact that it bounced around from different topics. This made everything very hard to follow. I would say the book reads like a boring textbook, but a textbook would be more organized.
I’m so sorry Paul Sutter. I know writing a book is difficult and this is an important topic, but this was horrendously bad writing.
https://betteroffreading.wordpress.com/2018/06/28/coastal-nature-coastal-culture-environmental-histories-of-the-georgia-coast-by-paul-sutter-a-review/
Coastal Nature, Coastal Culture is a collection of essays from ten excellent Georgia authorities on the ecological ties between Georgia's Atlantic chain of islands and the marshes, bays, ponds and swamps on the mainland, and what makes that relationship unique. In no other place in our world will you find this sort of diversity and the teeming life found in this hundred miles of coastline and the accompanying Golden Isles. Many have gone to great lengths to educate us so we should all insure that nothing disturbs that balance.
I received a free electronic copy of this excellent History of the Georgia Coast from Netgalley, editor Paul Sutter, and University of Georgia Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.
Coastal Nature, Coastal Culture examines the coasts of the state of Georgia. It is packed with the history of the area as well as the current ways in which the area is being environmentally cared for. The book itself came out of a 2016 conference where many speakers brought their ideas to the table. The response at this event surprised the organizers when over 400 people came and stayed. Much of what was presented at that event has found its way into Coastal Nature, Coastal Culture.
This is a hard book for me to review. It is more geared to professional environmentalists. The history of many of the regions was interesting. The statistics – not so much. I’m thinking it is more suited to a college class.
While I enjoyed reading the book, it is certainly geared more toward a niche audience.
I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley and University of Georgia Press in exchange for my honest review. Thank you.