I didn’t realize I was a budding naturalist until I started reading books about nature. I’ve always loved nature, have savored walking on Swarthmore College’s arboretum campus in my hometown, have relished the sound of bird song, have connected strongly to crashing waves on a beach. But it wasn’t really until I got into nonfiction a few years ago that I discovered the joys of nature and science writing. As I’m working hard to develop my own spirituality as a witch and pagan, I’m reading more nature books than ever. In this post, I share 15 of the best books for nature lovers, with a focus on new nature books from 2018 and 2019 to present.
Dark Skies: A Journey into the Wild Night by Tiffany Francis-Baker
Let’s start this list of great new nature and science books with Dark Skies: A Journey into the Wild Night. This underrated, profound meditation on nighttime is philosophically satisfying and thought provoking. Tiffany Francis goes around the world to try to understand what night—and the interplay between darkness and light in general—means both to us humans and to our fellow creatures on this planet, amidst settings as breathtaking as the Northern Lights or as blindingly extreme as the 24-hours of sunlight in the Gulf of Finland during the summer.
How to read it: Purchase Dark Skies on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
The Eight Master Lessons of Nature: What Nature Teaches Us About Living Well in the World by Gary Ferguson
If you’re looking to connect more with nature in a general sense, Gary Ferguson’s The Eight Master Lessons of Nature is the book for you. Ferguson takes a holistic approach to help people understand better how we humans can live a better life with the natural world. You’ll find Ferguson draws on psychology, spirituality, science, and more in these eight practical lessons to jumpstart your relationship with nature. The lessons include topics like: “Mystery: Wisdom Begins When We Embrace All That We Don’t Know” and “Our Animal Cousins Make Us Happier—and Smarter.”
How to read it: Purchase The Eight Master Lessons of Nature on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
The Hidden World of the Fox by Adele Brand
I actually have this one out of the library right now! I’ve always felt a deep spiritual connection to foxes. At different times in my life, they’ve shown up bearing a message. In The Hidden World of the Fox, ecologist and fox specialist Adele Brand breaks down the foxes of myth, legend, and reality. Brand praises the cunning intelligence of the fox as well as their survivor instincts. Above all, Brand explores the complicated nature of the human-fox relationship in our increasingly more fragile ecosystem.
How to read it: Purchase The Hidden World of the Fox on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals by Sy Montgomery
I adore this unique memoir by naturalist Sy Montgomery, a prolific nature writer who you might have already encountered with her previous books; Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus received great acclaim and was a National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction in 2015. In How to Be a Good Creature, Montgomery continues her entertaining, often quite poignant storytelling about her passion for animals. This memoir is organized into chapters about 13 different animals (and insects!) who taught her a lesson about being a “good creature,” one that is kind to the earth and to others, unapologetically opinionated, and joyful at the experience of living. You’ll laugh, and yes, you’ll tear up at points, but you won’t forget this lovely memoir (punctuated by whimsical illustrations by Rebecca Green).
How to read it: Purchase How to Be a Good Creature on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Horizon by Barry Lopez
Legendary National Book Award-winning nature writer Barry Lopez’s lifelong career culminates in Horizon, a collection of his essays about the world’s most extreme places. Lopez treks to from the heat of the Kenyan desert to the frigid High Arctic, all the while meditating on our human urge to explore new places. I’ve always felt a love of expedition narratives, probably formed in my earliest years when I was obsessed with Indiana Jones, and Horizon definitely recalls a similar burst of boundless, thoughtful energy in pushing past boundaries—and not always for the best.
How to read it: Purchase Horizon on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
How to Catch a Mole: Wisdom from a Life Lived in Nature by Marc Hamer
I remember seeing How to Catch a Mole featured in a display at Main Point Books, one of my favorite indie bookstores in the Philadelphia area, and felt instantly drawn to this quirky memoir. The author, Marc Hamer, spent a lifetime catching and killing moles until he had a change of heart, and in How to Catch a Mole he introduces these curious creatures in all their eccentric, wondrous glory. For anyone who wants to be transported to the rustic English countryside, and for any gardeners out there, How to Catch a Mole is for you.
How to read it: Purchase How to Catch a Mole on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch by John Zada
Richly atmospheric, John Zada’s In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch immerses you in a region steeped with legend. Zada became intrigued by the mythical creature Sasquatch and sought to track the cryptozoological being. That meant traveling to the misty, shadowy Great Bear Rainforest in the Pacific Northwest of British Columbia. It’s there where Zada meets the indigenous peoples who have made the Great Bear their home for thousands of years, living alongside wolves, cougars, and the rare kermode “spirit bear,” not to mention thousand-year old trees. In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond is a rare trip to this remote, sacred, and threatened region.
How to read it: Purchase In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver by Jill Heinerth
Take a deep breath, hold it, and let Jill Heinerth guide you down to the watery depths. Trailblazing underwater cave diver Heinerth, one of the few women in this perilous field, takes you on an incredible journey with Into the Planet. Among Heinerth’s many accomplishments include being the first person—man or woman—to penetrate the depths of an Antarctic iceberg. Another time, she helped lead an expedition to search underwater remains of Mayan civilizations. Into the Planet tells in riveting detail of the beauty and danger in one of the final frontiers of our planet.
How to read it: Purchase Into the Planet on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves by Frans de Waal
Frans de Waal is a leading animal scientist who has helped humans better understand animal intelligence. In Mama’s Last Hug, de Waal presents a highly readable, fascinating, and moving study of the emotional lives of animals. de Waal’s book takes its title from the viral final meeting between biologist Jan van Hooff and 59-year-old chimpanzee Mama, which you can see on YouTube (warning: have tissues ready!), a good launching off point in this mesmerizing work of nature writing. You’ll learn everything about how animals experience emotions, from facial expressions to behaviors rooted in shame, and even power dynamics in animal social psychology.
How to read it: Purchase Mama’s Last Hug on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Our Wild Calling: How Connecting with Animals Can Transform Our Lives―and Save Theirs by Richard Louv
Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder brought urgent and necessary attention to the dwindling presence of nature in modern childhood. That book became a huge success and is credited with sparking a movement to connect more kids to nature. In Our Wild Calling, Louv does it again, this time showing how important our human relationship to animals is for saving our mental health, spiritual lives, and future on this planet. Louv incorporates a menagerie of animals as diverse as intelligent octopi, healing horses, and soothing snakes in this must-read work of nature writing.
How to read it: Purchase Our Wild Calling on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
A Short Philosophy of Birds by Philippe J Dubois and Elise Rousseau
Love birds? Meet your next favorite read: Philippe J. Dubois and Elise Rousseau’s A Short Philosophy of Birds. This slim yet powerful collection of 22 lessons we can learn from birds was a phenomenon in France, and now readers can experience the joy with this English translation. See what ducks can teach us about vulnerability, why we could all stand to take parenting advice from doves, and how hens live happy, joyful lives we can all emulate. This amusing, calming, and pleasant book is a gotta-have-it gift for any birder.
How to read it: Purchase A Short Philosophy of Birds on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Strange Harvests: The Hidden Histories of Seven Natural Objects by Edward Posnett
What a surprise! I saw early rave reviews for Strange Harvests: The Hidden Histories of Seven Natural Objects on Book Marks, the book review aggregator I included in my best bookish websites, and placed an insta-hold at the library. I loved this intriguing book by Edward Posnett, and it became one of the best books I read in 2019. Strange Harvests focuses on products harvested from nature that then often end up sold in luxury markets across the world. Unfortunately, the high—and often fleeting—demand for these products can stress and exploit their natural sources and economies in locations of origin. For instance, read more about some of products Posnett features: there’s the prized fiber of the vicuña, civet coffee, and eiderdown, to name a few. This book is an eye-opening read that will change the way you see luxury trends, and it is an appealing hybrid of travel, food, and nature writing.
How to read it: Purchase Strange Harvests on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
The Way Through the Woods: On Mushrooms and Mourning by Litt Woon Long
If you loved H is for Hawk, try this emotional, engrossing, and surprising memoir about nature and loss by Long Litt Woon. Originally from Mongolia, Woon fell in love with Eiolf as an exchange student in Norway. Soulmates, the two married and lived happily until Eiolf’s untimely death at fifty-four. Reeling from grief, Woon decided to go ahead and take an introduction to mushrooming class that they’d planned to enroll in together. To her surprise, the quest of searching for wild mushrooms helps Woon through the difficult time, sparking an interest in this new hobby. The Way Through the Woods is Woon’s memoir of how connecting with nature helped her reconnect with life, with detours to famous forests and homes of wild mushrooms.
How to read it: Purchase The Way Through the Woods on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane
Robert Macfarlane’s Underland: A Deep Time Journey proves that nature writing can get to the very nature of existence. Macfarlane’s Underland takes the acclaimed science writer deep underground to explore the world below our feet. With settings ranging from prehistoric burial sites to Parisian catacombs, Underland grapples with what lies beneath on a philosophical and anthropological level. You’ll come away having had a “mind = blown” almost spiritual reading experience.
How to read it: Purchase Underland on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Wildhood: The Astounding Connections Between Human and Animal Adolescents by Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers
Ah, the teen years… I bet mine were as emotional, sulky, and rebellious as yours…and those of lions, tigers, and bears! Yep, it turns out that animals experience a similarly turbulent time of change, as Harvard evolutionary biologist Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz proves in Wildhood: The Epic Journey from Adolescence to Adulthood in Humans and Other Animals. Dr. Natterson-Horowitz calls this universal experience “wildhood” and shows us how animals fight through these tough years between youth and adulthood, using ample examples of how adolescence affects creatures as diverse as hyenas, penguins, wolves, and, of course, the American teenager.
