"Rest, Nature, Books, Music ... Such is my idea of happiness."
Leo Tolstoy
bernd heinrich
At right: Heinrich reviewing his journal entries. Photo by Stacey Cramp
There are simply too many books by Heinrich to list them all, but here's a selection to get you started ...
A Year in the Maine Woods (1994)
Bumblebee Economics (1979)
Ravens in Winter (1989)
Mind of the Raven (1999)
The Trees in My Forest (1997)
Winter World (2003)
Summer World (2009)
The Homing Instinct: Meaning & Mystery in Animal Migration (2014)
Why We Run: A Natural History (2002)
david quammen
“David Quammen [is] one of that rare breed of science journalists who blend exploration with a talent for synthesis and storytelling.”
- Nathan Wolfe, Nature
Quammen has written fiction, non-fiction, and collections of essays, as well as numerous articles for Outside Magazine, National Geographic, Scientific American, and more.
A few favorites from the bookshelf ...
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction (1997)
The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life (2019)
Spillover (2012)
Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind (2004)
E. O. Wilson
Wilson is another author of way too many books to list, but here are a few classics and favorites ...
Naturalist (1994)
Biophilia (1984)
Letters to a Young Scientist (2014)
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998)
Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975)
The Theory of Island Biogeography (1967)
Robert MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson
At right, E.O. Wilson in 2019 (photo by Ken Richardson / Quanta Magazine)
global change
& the sixth extinction
Elizabeth Kolbert
Kolbert has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1999. You can read her articles there and elsewhere. She is also the author of multiple books on climate change and extinction, including these:
THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: An Unnatural History (2014)
FIELD NOTES FROM A CATASTROPHE: Man, Nature, and Climate Change (2006)
UNDER A WHITE SKY: The Nature of the Future (expected 2021)
Anthony Barnosky
TIPPING POINT FOR PLANET EARTH: How Close Are We to the Edge? (2016) by Anthony Barnosky and Elizabeth A. Hadly
DODGING EXTINCTION: Power, Food, Money, and the Future of Life on Earth (2014)
HEATSTROKE: Nature in an Age of Global Warming (2009)
These three always find their way onto the same bookshelf.
McPhee, Abbey, Berry... oh my!
John McPhee
THE PINE BARRENS
ENCOUNTERS WITH THE ARCHDRUID
THE FOUNDING FISH
and many, many more ...
Ed Abbey
DESERT SOLITAIRE: A Season in the Wilderness (1968)
THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG (1975)
and many other fiction and non-fiction books
Wendell Berry
Berry is a poet and the author of dozens of essays, fiction and non-fiction books. Click below to read more about Berry's work in this review from The New Yorker ...
Romantic Transcendentalist writings on nature and wilderness
These authors were all prolific. Here are some of the more popular places to start reading them ...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
SELF-RELIANCE, AND OTHER ESSAYS (1841)
NATURE (1836)
Read about the influence of Emerson's poetry in Dan Chiasson's article ‘Ecstasy of Influence’ (Aug-Sept 2015, The New Yorker) ...
Henry David Thoreau
WALDEN: LIFE IN THE WOODS (1854)
THE MAINE WOODS (1864)
Learn more about Thoreaus’s writings at THE THOREAU INSTITUTE at WALDEN WOODS (click below)
John Muir
OUR NATIONAL PARKS (1901)
MY FIRST SUMMER IN THE SIERRA (1911)
THE YOSEMITE (1912)
TRAVELS IN ALASKA (1915)
All the MUIR titles listed above (and more) are available via Project Gutenberg ...
Ed Abbey
As mentioned above ...
DESERT SOLITAIRE: A Season in the Wilderness (1968)
This is just the beginning ... a few classics (and soon-to-be classics). We want to keep growing our list, so let us know ...
What are you reading & LOVING?
(WildlifeReads @ gmail.com)
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