Book (and other) blurbs, listed most recent to oldest—or one could say, “from Jonathan Franzen to Gary Snyder.”

Links to movie clips follow separately.

A Salad Only the Devil Would Eat: the Joys of Ugly Nature

“Among nature writers now working, Charles Hood may be my favorite. He never stops telling stories, and his perspective is fundamentally comic, even when he’s recounting a tragedy.”—Jonathan Franzen

“Once you’ve had a taste of the world of Charles Hood, you’ll want to follow him wherever he goes. He’s brilliantly entertaining and this is his best book yet."—Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen

“Hood is the love child of Rebecca Solnit and Ed Abbey, assuming such a child had been raised in an art colony by demented garden gnomes.”—Michael Guista, author of Brain Work

“Where another naturalist might come off as a showy mansplainer, Hood feels like a cool older friend, sunburned and binocular-strapped.” —Los Angeles Times, which also said “Read this book. It’s a true delight.” (Other favorable reviews ran in The Millions and Publisher’s Weekly.)

“This collection should become a classic. The lyrical writing will enchant the reader. Five out of five stars.”—Seattle Review of Books.

“Charles Hood is an impossible writer. No one could possibly have been to as many places, seen as many species of birds and mammals, remember so much of what he has learned, and then be able to pass it back to us with a humor that encompasses and then levels irony back down to where it belongs. His essay about James Audubon’s work should be required for anyone who possesses a pair of eyes, whether or not they use them for birdwatching or perusing art.”—William Fox, Peter E. Pool Director, Center for Art + Environment at Nevada Museum of Art

“His essays will charm, delight, and bring attention into high gear, so that even a walk through an empty city lot will reveal treasures for the mind and heart.”—starred review, Foreword

A Californian’s Guide to the Birds Among Us

“I've never read a nature guide so luscious and exuberant in language, and so thoughtful in visual execution”—from a review on Amazon

“I never thought I would find a field guide you could read cover to cover. This is my sixth copy; I give them as Christmas presents.”—Audubon member in line at a signing.

A Californian’s Guide to the Mammals Among Us

“Fun, highly readable and informative, with terrific photos! A great place to learn about the secret world of mammals.”—Fiona Reid, author-illustrator of Peterson Field Guide to Mammals of North America

“Makes California's world-class mammal spotting more accessible than ever.”—Jon Hall, founder of MammalWatching.com

“A zesty how-to-and-where book.”—from a review on Amazon.

Wild LA (147 reviews on Amazon; 4.9 rating)

“I read hundreds of books every year and few have impressed as much as Wild LA. Beautifully presented, informative, friendly, interesting, and never talking down to the audience. The authors have done stellar work in all aspects of this nature guide and there is so much in here that I didn't even know/realize, despite having grown up around so many of these nature areas in L.A.”—from a review on Amazon

​ "You would be hard-pressed to find a group of people whose enthusiasm for nature is as infectious as the four authors of Wild LA.” —Los Angeles Times

"Whether you’re new to nature or an experienced hiker, just visiting or a lifelong Angeleno, I can almost guarantee you’ll learn something new and fascinating about the world around you after thumbing through Wild LA. And you’ll never look at the city the same way again."—Casey Schreiner, Modern Hiker

“This travel companion will shed new light on all that flourishes and flowers, or creeps and crawls in the vast urban-yet-still-wild sprawl of the city and surrounding area.”—Publishers Weekly

“Unbelievable…with ideas for day trips, field trips… LA is often called a concrete jungle, but it’s teeming with wild animals, insects, and plants.” —Press Play with Madeleine Brand

“Engagingly written and beautifully photographed… Ideal for introducing Angelenos and tourists to the remarkable nature often overlooked when considering our city and region. . . the wonder and diversity of wild Los Angeles awaits you.” —LA Parent

“It does a great job telling the story of nature in and around Los Angeles in a way that is interesting and easy to understand… Not only is the text reader-friendly, the book is also visually stunning… I highly recommend Wild LA to anyone interested in learning more about nature in Los Angeles.” —Clement Lau, UrbDeZine

Mouth (winner of the Kenneth Patchen Award for Experimental Fiction)

“In these pages, literature holds up the people of the world.”—Gary Soto

“Mouth is a beautiful, moving, and sharp piece of work. The narrative kept me reading, but the insight and grace of the language kept me going back to certain pages long after I had finished. I love writing that defies easy classification but that also feels sincere and not overly calculated. Charles Hood's work has the perfect balance of head and heart.”—from a review on Amazon

Partially Excited States (winner of the Felix Pollak Poetry Prize)

“Simultaneously dazzling, playful, witty, hilarious, and profound”—Susan Mitchel 

“These poems give us reality entire, ablaze with fires at once heavenly and infernal. This is a poet whose ecstasy and despair present two sides of the same blade, sharpened on a grim and gorgeous world.” ―Katharine Coles

“Darkly offbeat and witty verse.”―Library Journal

South x South (Hollis Summers Poetry Prize)

Jordan Davis, poetry editor of The Nation magazine: “When so much of the imagination has been domesticated, it’s refreshing to be reminded that even when all the frontiers are gone there will still be places that remain strange, difficult, and mostly empty. And when we get there, we’ll still be our uneasily astonished, lovable, ridiculous selves. I like to think the poems and prose in Charles Hood’s account of his residency at McMurdo Station are a sneak preview of the first literature we’ll actually make in outer space.”

LAtitudes: An Angeleno’s Atlas has 4.9 out of 5 stars on Amazon; my essay on urban trees was singled out often in reviews as well as in person, when the authors collectively signed books after readings. During initial in-house rankings of the proposed chapters, I heard that my tree pitch was ranked first out of 180 entries. (I later curated an art exhibit centered on maps that included the plates from this book.)

For a photograph that won Best of Show at the 25th All Media show at Lancaster Art Museum, Dr. M. Zakian, Director of the Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University, said, “Hood’s Petra, 6 am reveals the collision of cultures when the modern world encroaches on ancient lands.  In a timeless canyon in historic Jordan, a stall of tourist souvenirs strikes a discordant and thought-provoking note. The strangeness of a foreign land and the impact of modern commerce are captured with thoughtful sensitivity.”

Daily Variety praised my work for the slam-based poetry movie Verses (the only poem from the movie cited by name in their review).

Los Angeles Magazine listed Río de Dios as a buzz book in their “Shelf Life” column.

Half-Life of Salt achieved “amazing intensity” according to one member of the screening committee; it is name-checked in the title and end notes of The Half Life of History by photographer Mark Klett.

Paul Fussell called Bombing Ploesti “engaging and finely conceived.”

Of my second book, Xopilote Cantos, David Rains Wallace said he read it “with wonder at its fertility of imagination and vigor of expression.” In Chiron Review, Robert Peters called it “complex, superb, beautifully written.” Charles Wright praised its “rhythms, images . . . and fine lyricism,” while Robert Hass said “it balances complexity with beauty.”

My first book was Red Sky, Red Water: Powell on the Colorado (SUN/gemini in Tucson, 1990). Gary Snyder said that it displays “imagination and scholarship” and brings “clarity to the language.” That book started out as my MFA thesis at UC Irvine; Nobel Prize-winner Louise Gluck was one of my advisers.

links to movie clips