Chicago Botanic Garden

Education — Lenhardt Library

Current Books & Book Reviews

PHOTO: bookcover

John Alcock.
When the Rains Come: A Naturalist's Year in the Sonoran Desert.
Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2009.
paper, 334 pp., ISBN 9780-81652-762-5, $21.95.

Naturalist John Alcock leads the reader into the Sonoran Desert, pointing out the changes in the environment that take place over the seasons and decades. Although the landscape appears to remain the same at a casual view, this is not the case. His detailed observations and accompanying color photographs provide startling evidence that this is not a wilderness but a habitat containing plants and creatures anxiously awaiting rain. In his engaging discursive style, he reports on his treks over a year, providing his intimate view of this challenging realm of the saguaro cactus.

— Marilyn K. Alaimo, garden writer and volunteer, Chicago Botanic Garden.