A Thoroughly Shameless Act Of Self-Promotion

That's what this post is. It's a brazen appeal to my teeming masses of American readers to drop whatever it is they're doing and rush out immediately to their local bookshops to pick up my book, now out in Amerikay, The Sixth Extinction: Journeys Among the Lost and Left Behind (Thomas Dunne / St. Martin's Press, NY), which can of course be ordered via Amazon at that last link as well. It's the American edition, more or less, of this book.

Here's some raves:

“A haunting reminder of the scale and breadth of what can only be described as a catastrophe of the human spirit and imagination. Glavin’s remarkable book leaves little doubt that this is indeed the central challenge of our times.”--Wade Davis, author of One River and Explorer-in-Residence, National Geographic Society

"A startling new definition of extinction that includes not only loss of animal species but also disappearing aspects of the human condition. In prose that tempts the reader to linger over each word, he turns a book of science and natural history into an elegy to the world in which we live and so casually disregard, creating nonfiction with a poet's heart and a message of the utmost importance."--Booklist

"With just a handful of representative stories—a localized effort to reestablish a vanishing macaw, an international debate over whaling, a resurgence of cougar attacks—Terry Glavin explores the complex relationship between humanity and extinction with remarkable depth and emotional appeal. Glavin’s thorough and honest look at connections between different types of diversity will appeal to skeptics of the environmental movement and
ecomaniacs alike." --Seed Magazine.

“Glavin is one of the prophets of our time. He is able to see things that others do not or will not see, and then put together these disparate pieces to make a new whole. Not only can he see them but he can spin them into stories that speak to the deepest, most primal parts of the human brain.”--The Literary Review of Canada

"Striking and original. In a fresh and eloquent synthesis of diverse phenomena, Glavin describes some of the consequences. Insightful and poignant."--Publishers Weekly

“Asks us to care, deeply, about living in the midst of the greatest extinction rates of the past 65 million years. If there’s room for hope, it can be found in a book like this.”--The Globe and Mail

“In his engaging and powerfully written work Terry Glavin takes the reader on a cook’s tour of the catacalysmic; the linked global extinction of wildlife, foods, cultures, and language. Like Rachael Carson, E. O. Wilson, and others of vision, Glavin documents the blank terror, complexity, and danger of the human enterprise’s impact on our living planet while also finding hidden springs of hope and purpose. After reading The Sixth Extinction you may find surprising cause to smile through the tears.”--David Helvarg, author of The War Against the Greens and Blue Frontier

“An urgent, necessary book. Glavin writes with both passion and authority. Do yourself and this struggling world a favor: let this book . . . break your heart. Let it stir your soul.”--Mark Abley, author of Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages

“A wise and eloquent writer whose clear-eyed intelligence explores our conflicted relationship with nature. What Glavin has to tell is urgent, important, and well said.”--Ronald Wright, author of A Short History of Progress

“I don’t have the space here to do full justice to Glavin’s poignant personal odyssey. But I will say that for all the ominous portents, he’s no apocalyptic environmental Jeremiah fired with misanthropic zeal. He’s an optimist. He has faith in humanity. He sees glimmers of hope already coalescing in the gathering storm.”--The Vancouver Sun

I see there's a wee excerpt of one of the more nuanced bits in the San Diego Union-Tribune here.

Meanwhile, tomorrow night in Vancouver I'll be on a panel to debate Canada's policy in Afghanistan with Michael Byers, an expert in war law, a senior adviser to the New Democratic Party and academic director of the Liu Centre in International Relations at UBC; Jared Ferrie, a fine and brave reporter who's just come back from his second trip to Afghanistan; and Lauryn Oates, the vice-president of Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (if ye don't have the decency to buy my book at least send W4WinA some money for Pete's sake).

At The Alibi Room, 157 Alexander Street at Main, 7:30 p.m.

Carry on.