If you enjoyed DEERLAND, you may also find these other titles interesting. DEERLAND includes a brief bibliography; consider this your online annotated version. For some titles, you’ll also find links to reviews I’ve posted on my blog.
Cerulli, Tovar. The Mindful Carnivore: A Vegetarian’s Hunt for Sustenance. Pegasus Books, 2012. An intelligent, insightful, and deeply personal exploration of hunting’s meaning and morality. As an adult-onset hunter, Cerulli considers these issues from a unique vantage point. He’s a former vegan who brought those same values and sensibilities with him when he decided to pick up a rifle and head out into the woods.
Click here to read a review.
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DeNicola, Anthony J., et al. Managing White-Tailed Deer in Suburban Environments: A Technical Guide. A Publication of Cornell Cooperative Extension, The Wildlife Society, and the Northeast Wildlife Damage Research and Outreach Cooperative, 2000. A good primer on the suburban deer conundrum. Available free online from a variety of sources, including here.
Dizard, Jan. Going Wild: Hunting, Animal Rights, and the Contested Meaning of Nature. University of Massachusetts Press, 1999. A thoughtful analysis of how differing perceptions of nature—in essence, disparate views of the very “nature of nature’—shaped differing responses to a state-managed hunt of deer that had become overabundant at the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts. Going Wild is a more philosophical look at some of the same issues I explore in DEERLAND.
Frye, Bob. Deer Wars: Science, Tradition, and the Battle Over Managing Whitetails in Pennsylvania. Penn State University Press, 2006. Frye examines some of the same “consequences” issues I explore in DEERLAND, focusing on how these debates played out in Pennsylvania during the early 2000s.
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Halls, Lowell K. (ed.) White-Tailed Deer Ecology and Management. Stackpole Books, 1984. Although now rather dated, this definitive collection still contains a great deal of valuable information you won’t find elsewhere. A massive, 870-page tome, it’s quite literally “heavy reading.” Used copies of this out-of-print classic can sometimes be found online.
Click here to read a review.
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Hewitt, David G. (ed.) Biology and Management of White-Tailed Deer. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, 2011. Essentially an update of Halls, but with more of a focus on deer management issues. Another definitive resource for scholars, professionals, and obsessive amateurs, it comes in at “only” 674 pages.
Click here to read a review.
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Latham, Roger Earl, et al. Managing White-tailed Deer in Forest Habitat from an Ecosystem Perspective: A Pennsylvania Case Study. Audubon Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Habitat Alliance, 2005. A thorough analysis of how overabundant deer affect the forest ecosystem. Available free online from a variety of sources, including here.
McCaulou, Lily Raff. Call of the Mild: Learning to Hunt My Own Dinner. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2012. As an adult-onset hunter, McCaulou has crossed a cultural chasm, and the story of that crossing reveals much about our cultural landscape. Although Call of the Mild is memoir, McCaulou also uses her own story to frame a much larger story about the ethics, morality, and culture of hunting in America.
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Nelson, Richard. Heart and Blood: Living with Deer in America. Random House, 1997. An earlier look at some of the same topics I explored in DEERLAND. Since Nelson wrote Heart and Blood in the early and mid 90s, there have been many changes in how we live with deer in America. Unfortunately, however, there’s much that hasn’t changed.
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Sterba, Jim. Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into Battlegrounds. Crown Publishers, 2012. I’ve added Nature Wars to this list as a bonus title; it was published just before DEERLAND went to print. Nature Wars explores some of the same themes that I touched on in my own book’s “Invasion of the Suburban Cervids” chapter.
Sterba believes we’ve changed from “doers to viewers,” and that our confused interactions with suburban wildlife signal a fundamental disconnect from nature. We’ve become, to use his term, “denatured.” Other than suburban humans, the main characters of his story include fed birds, feral cats, wild turkeys, geese, beavers, bears, and of course… deer.
Click here to read a review.
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Willging, Robert. On the Hunt: the History of Deer Hunting in Wisconsin. Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2008. Of more than just regional interest, this book offers an insightful look at the history, culture, and future of American deer hunting.
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Finally, should you find yourself inspired by that Deer DIY passage in DEERLAND’s “Venison: the Other Red Meat” chapter, here are three helpful resources:
Burch, Monte. Field Dressing and Butchering Deer: Step-by-Step Instructions, From Field to Table. Lyons Press, 2007. An updated version of a classic that’s been around for years. A good overview for anyone who’s thinking of butchering their own deer.
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Fromm, Eric and Al Cambronne. Gut It. Cut It. Cook It.: The Deer Hunter’s Guide to Processing and Preparing Venison. Krause Publications, 2009. As you might imagine, I’m especially partial to this book. It includes hundreds of large, full-color photos and detailed, supportive instructions that walk you through every step of the process. Even if you’re a complete beginner, with this book and and a sharp knife, you’ll be ready to go.
For more on Gut It. Cut It. Cook It., click here. Or, to visit our Gut It. Cut It. Cook It. website, click here.
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Shaw, Hank. Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast. New York, NY: Rodale Books, 2011. In DEERLAND I explored the problems associated with overabundant deer. In Hunt, Gather, Cook, Shaw explores some especially delicious solutions. He’s a former chef, and one of those rare people who’s written for both Food & Wine and Field & Stream. This isn’t another one of those books about how to merely “survive” on what you find out in the wild. It’s a book about how to have fun foraging, fishing, and hunting, and then come home and turn all those wild ingredients into a gourmet feast.
Click here to read a review.
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IndieBound Powell’s