... from these difficulties emerges the fascinating core insight of his new collection, A Salad Only the Devil Would Eat: that what appears to be ugly or awful can, with the right knowledge and context, be seen instead as unique, even gorgeous.

Hood’s own writing is a tonic, full of specific, weird details. If find yourself consulting a dictionary as you read, it’s because Hood is a widely published poet, and brings a poet’s magpie vocabulary to his prose.

In essays at once wry and hilarious, Charles Hood shares his delight in the overlooked, obscure, and downright ugly parts of nature.

Hood has written more than a dozen bewitching essays that, with his wry wit and eagle-eyed observation skills, translate nature into compelling stories with subjects that will transfix the reader.

The collection ends up being more about the nature of Hood than a deep dive into the natural world itself: it’s full of his ruminations on his relationship with the wild, especially how, during lonely periods, he finds solace there. Still, green-minded readers will appreciate the author’s ability to find meaning in nature’s quirky side..