Salad Only the Devil Would Eat

Poet and essayist Charles Hood grew up next to the Los Angeles River and has been a factory worker, ski instructor, boat salesman, and birding guide. He stopped counting birds when his list reached 5,000, but he soon replaced it with a mammal list, which now nears 1,000. Wild LA, his book in collaboration with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, was named the best nonfiction book of 2019 by the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association. Hood currently lives and teaches in the Antelope Valley and is the author of Heyday’s A Californian’s Guide to the Birds among Us and A Californian’s Guide to the Mammals among Us, as well as nine and a half books of poetry.

• I Heart Ugly NatureThe Lure of the ListNature Journals for Fun and ProfitFifty Dreams for Forty MonkeysThings You Can Do with WaterTwo Thousand Palm TreesDivorce InsuranceA Small, Humble AddictionConfessions of an AmateurToday I Will Draw a PenguinLove and Sex in Natural History DioramasCochineal and the Color RedAudubon’s Tiny HousesLandscape with Unicorns and Barnacles

"What makes this collection such a consistent joy is ultimately how hopeful the author feels, and how much he continues to enjoy moving through the world despite the twin realities of bad knees and climate change. [...] Reading Hood's work will make you feel smarter but, even more crucially in this dire age, more open to the sublime. [...] Read this book. It's a true delight." —Los Angeles Times"Among nature writers now working, Charles Hood may be my favorite. He never stops telling stories, and his perspective is fundamentally comic, even when he's recounting a tragedy." —Jonathan Franzen"Once you’ve had a taste of the world of Charles Hood, you’ll want to follow him wherever he goes. He’s brilliantly entertaining and this is his best book yet." —Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen"Hood is the love child of Rebecca Solnit and Edward Abbey, assuming such a child had been raised in an art colony by demented garden gnomes." —Michael Guista, author of Brain Work, winner of the Bakeless Prize for Literature"Charles Hood’s essay about James Audubon’s work should be required for anyone who possesses a pair of eyes, whether or not they use them for birdwatching or perusing art." —William Fox, Director of The Center for Land + Environment, Nevada Museum of Art