THE NATURE OF NATURE edited by...

THE NATURE OF NATURE edited by William Shore (Harcourt, Brace: $15.; 298 pp.). The personal essays in this anthology focus on the need to understand the natural world and humanity’s place in it. David Rains Wallace discovers curious animals in a Central American rain forest; Bill McKibben blends insight and whimsy as he exhorts the reader, “Look low, look carefully. And know globally--the small and the subtle refer constantly to the overarching, the huge issues of the moment are reflected in the duff and the mushroom and the sapling.” Proceeds from the sale of “The Nature of Nature” will be donated to the anti-hunger organization Share Our Strength.