[close] In this collection of magazine pieces, mostly from Sports Afield and Outside, hunter and outdoors writer Ted Kerasote (Bloodties) offers his well-considered thoughts on matters such as the ethics of killing wildlife for sport, the merits of catch-and-release fishing, and the necessity of habitat preservation in a time when so much wild land across the world is being threatened by development. We need, he writes, to take a more active role in protecting such places, "to participate, to plunge our hands into the consonant and sometimes poignant beauty, the authentic living and dying, that remain on the planet." Some readers will find his views on blood sports controversial, to be sure. The collection is a mixed bag, with the strongest pieces drawing on Kerasote's varied experiences in the wild--mostly in the northern Rocky Mountains, but as far afield as Chile (during the Pinochet coup) and the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. [close]