The warmer weather and longer days this past week have had the lawnmowers humming, weed eaters whirring and power tools grinding. OK, that last one might just be me and the guys remodeling the house down the street, but the hum of outdoor activity means spring is near.

“Show me the rage.” That’s the phrase with which Noah Sax, radio pirate, challenges his listeners every time he answers one of the three cell phones in the pilothouse of Noah’s Lark, his trawler anchored just off Key West. It’s that rage that saturates this new eco-thriller from Thomas Sanchez, a rage so pronounced that it sometimes works against his book.

This new book by James McClintock, endowed professor of polar and marine biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is one readers worldwide will want to know. Its excellent scholarship and scientific research speak volumes for the 14 expeditions he’s made to Antarctica, the frozen and melting region we have heard of, but know so little about.

Perhaps the best way to weigh the credibility of the sensational allegations against the Church of Scientology in Lawrence Wright’s new book isn’t to consider his impressive credentials: He’s a Pulitzer Prize winner. He’s author of the definitive book on the rise of al-Qaeda (“The Looming Tower”). He’s a well-regarded New Yorker staff writer. He’s a journalist with a reputation for meticulous research. (According to a recent New York Times profile, when a research-assistant applicant told Wright, “I think one of my faults is that I don’t know when to stop researching.” Wright responded, “I don’t think that’s a fault.”)