THE CALL OF THE HONEYGUIDE

This one comes from Rob Dunn, beloved Basic house author of books including NEVER HOME ALONE and A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FUTURE and is a brilliant look at how rethinking our relationships with other species can help us reimagine the future of humankind.

In the woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa, sometime deep in our species' past, something strange happened: a bird called out, not to warn others of human presence, but to call attention to herself. Having found a beehive, that birda honeyguidesought human aid to break in to the hive in order to feed. The behavior can seem almost miraculous: How would a bird come to think that people could help her? Isn't life simply bloodier than that?

As Rob Dunn argues in The Call of the Honeyguide, it isn't. Nature is red in tooth and claw, but in equal measure, life works together. Cells host even smaller life, wrapped in a web of mutual interdependence. Ants might go to war, but they also tend to fungi, aphids, and even trees. And we humans work not just with honeyguides but with yeast, crops, and pets. Ecologists call these beneficial relationships mutualisms. And they might be the most important forces in the evolution of life.

We humans often act as though we are all alone, independent from the rest of life. As The Call of the Honeyguide shows, we are not. This book is a call to action for a more beneficent, less lonely future.

Rob Dunn is senior vice provost for university interdisciplinary programs at North Carolina State University and professor of applied ecology at the same as well as a member of the Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics at the University of Copenhagen. He is also the author of six books and the co-author of a seventh.