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"Beloved Beasts" is a pretty darn exhaustive book on the evolution of the conservation movement - or, really, the evolution of conservation movements. It's a very readable and accessible book that divides the above-mentioned history into individual chapters based around crucial developments to the general movement. Each chapters illustrate the evolution by telling a story focused on an individual, a specific movement, or a case study.

Central to the very idea of the book, of course, is the case the author makes for conservation itself. She does a great job of pounding this home while, at the same time, approaching the topic in different ways. In addition to the burning need at the heart, she touches on everything from the early history of the movement, motivations then and now, good practices and bad, caveats and concerns, sustainability and what that means, different socioeconomic burdens and gains, etc.

It's a very solid book.

And yet, without being able to determine the exact reason, I found myself tuning out often while reading - to the point of resorting to finish it in audiobook form, or I wouldn't have finished it at all. Again, I can't really say why this was. There's nothing wrong with the structure, the writing is fine, the topic inherently interesting... Sure, it probably could have been a tad shorter, cutting some fat off each chapter, maybe it could have been less narrative-driven, and I was fairly familiar with the topics and arguments within... But these are not generally things that hold me back or take away from my reading experience.

So while I don't really know what, something clearly made this a tougher read than it should have been for me, so I can't really give it more than three stars - even though I also kinda feel like I should have liked it more.