Explore June's theme of Get Outside with these books!
The transition from the relatively flat Great Plains to the craggy peaks of Colorado's Front Range is one of North America's most abrupt topographical contrasts. The epic, 1,800-million-year geologic story behind this amazing landscape is even more awe inspiring.
Álvarez dropped out of school and joined a group of Dené, Secwépemc, Gitxsan, Dakelh, Apache, Tohono O'odham, Seri, Purépecha, and Maya runners, all fleeing difficult beginnings. Telling their stories alongside his own, Álvarez writes about a four-month-long journey from Canada to Guatemala that pushed him to his limits. He writes not only of overcoming hunger, thirst, and fear--dangers included stone-throwing motorists and a mountain lion--but also of asserting Indigenous and working-class humanity in a capitalist society where oil extraction, deforestation, and substance abuse wreck communities.
It's 2034 and Jake Greenwood is a storyteller and a liar, an overqualified tour guide babysitting ultra-rich vacationers in one of the world's last remaining forests. It's 2008 and Liam Greenwood is a carpenter, fallen from a ladder and sprawled on his broken back, calling out from the concrete floor of an empty mansion. It's 1974 and Willow Greenwood is out of jail, free after being locked up for one of her endless series of environmental protests: attempts at atonement for the sins of her father's once vast and violent timber empire. It's 1934 and Everett Greenwood is alone, as usual, in his maple syrup camp squat when he hears the cries of an abandoned infant and gets tangled up in the web of a crime that will cling to his family for decades.
Christian Cooper is a self-described Blerd (Black nerd), an avid comics fan, and an expert birder who devotes every spring to gazing upon the migratory birds that stop to rest in Central Park, just a subway ride away from where he lives in New York City. When birdwatching in the park one morning in May 2020, Cooper was engaged in the ritual that had been a part of his life since he was ten years old. But when a routine encounter with a dog-walker escalates age old racial tensions, Cooper's viral video of the incident would send shockwaves through the nation.
Immersed in the hustle and bustle of the city, it is easy to lose sight of the natural world. Offering nature know-how to urban dwellers, 50 Things to Do in the Urban Wild features illustrated, step-by-step activities to do in the great outdoors, including adopting a street tree, identifying animal prints in the park, creating a watering station for bees and other important pollinators, and many more. This essential guide will encourage you to engage with (and help to protect) the biodiversity of your metropolitan surroundings every time you hit the pavement, look up at the sky, or take to the water, cultivating a patch of wildness wherever you live--garden optional.
Wynn and Jack have been best friends since freshman orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books, and fishing. When they decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of leisurely paddles and picking blueberries and nights of stargazing and reading paperback Westerns. But a wildfire making its way across the forest adds unexpected urgency to the journey. When they hear a man and woman arguing on the fog-shrouded riverbank and decide to warn them about the fire, their search for the pair turns up nothing and no one. But: The next day a man appears on the river, paddling alone. Is this the man they heard? And, if he is, where is the woman?
Colorado's diverse range of ecosystems are wonderful hosts to hundreds of species. This beautifully illustrated field guide highlights over 300 common and unique plants and animals and over 50 of the state's outstanding natural attractions. It is an indispensable single reference for amateur naturalists, students and tourists alike.
Dating back to slavery, Edgefield County, South Carolina—a place ”easy to pass by on the way somewhere else"—has been home to generations of Lanhams. In The Home Place, readers meet these extraordinary people, including Drew himself, who over the course of the 1970s falls in love with the natural world around him. As his passion takes flight, however, he begins to ask what it means to be “the rare bird, the oddity”—to find joy and freedom in the same land his ancestors were tied to by forced labor, and then to be a black man in a profoundly white field.
As a park ranger with the National Park Service's law enforcement team, Andrea Lankford led search and rescue missions in some of the most beautiful (and dangerous) landscapes across America, from Yosemite to the Grand Canyon. But though she had the support of the agency, Andrea grew frustrated with the service's bureaucratic idiosyncrasies, and left the force after twelve years. Two decades later, however, she stumbles across a mystery that pulls her right back where she left off: three young men have vanished from the Pacific Crest Trail, the 2,650-mile trek made famous by Cheryl Strayed's Wild, and no one has been able to find them. It’s bugging the hell out of her.
When it comes to birds, Kyo Maclear isn't seeking the exotic. Rather she discovers joy in the seasonal birds that find their way into view in city parks and harbors, along eaves and on wires. In a world that values big and fast, Maclear looks to the small, the steady, the slow accumulations of knowledge, and the lulls that leave room for contemplation.
Nature Swagger presents thirty life-changing stories of self-discovery, courage, and healing in the natural world. Told through first-person narratives, essays, and poems, this uplifting collection celebrates the many ways that outdoor spaces offer Black people opportunities for personal empowerment, connection, and rejuvenation. Readers will immerse themselves in stories told from mountains, redwood forests, city parks, and far-off beaches: joining a woman on her courageous journey up Kilimanjaro, meeting a couple teaching the art of beekeeping in urban Detroit, and following a long-distance swim alongside a pod of dolphins-plus so much more.
Summer Michaud-Skog, founder of the Fat Girls Hiking community, offers a book brimming with heartfelt stories, practical advice, personal profiles of FGH community members, and trail reviews. It all serves to spread the Fat Girls Hiking message of inclusivity in the outdoors. Equal parts empowering and impassioned, personal and practical, this book adds an important voice to the conversation about diversity in the outdoors, raising visibility of hikers who have too long been marginalized. As the Fat Girls Hiking motto goes, "Trails Not Scales!"
An account of the unsolved murder of two women in Shenandoah National Park, by a journalist with unprecedented access to all key elements of the case, and a story that reveals the challenges of wilderness forensics and the failures of our justice system.
2024 Night Sky Almanac is the ideal resource for both novice and experienced sky watchers in the United States and Canada, with all the advice, information and data that enthusiasts need to understand and enjoy the wonders of the night sky. This in-depth guide first introduces readers to the objects in the sky--from stars, to comets, to globular clusters--and then takes them through the cosmic events to look out for each month in 2024, with sky maps, moon phase charts and info about the planets.
After a decade as an assistant to high-powered LA executives, Emily Pennington left behind her structured life and surrendered to the pull of the great outdoors. With a tight budget, meticulous routing, and a temperamental minivan she named Gizmo, Emily embarked on a yearlong road trip to sixty-two national parks, hell-bent on a single goal: getting through the adventure in one piece.
Living with her father in a nature preserve in Portland, Oregon, thirteen-year-old Caroline only merges with the civilized world once a week when they go into the city, but an encounter with a backcountry jogger derails their entire existence.
Imogen and Beck, two sisters who couldn't be more different, have been friends with Tilda since high school. Once inseparable, over two decades the women have grown apart. But after Imogen survives a traumatic attack, Beck suggests they all reunite to hike deep into the Grand Canyon's backcountry. A week away, secluded in nature...surely it's just what they need. But as the terrain grows tougher, tensions from their shared past bubble up. And when supplies begin to disappear, it becomes clear secrets aren't the only thing they're being stalked by.
The recipes in Dirty Gourmet Plant Power focus on vegan recipes with a global twist. In the spirit of inclusivity and accessibility, the authors have included snacks and meals that work great for play dates at the local park or picnics on the beach, as well as food-fuel for urban and day hikes and on longer wilderness outings. With details on how to do your own dehydrating--though with no shaming for buying pre-dehydrated goods--and helpful tips about equipment and basics to keep on hand, Dirty Gourmet Plant Power will have you enjoying scrumptious recipes wherever you head outside!
When Silvia's mother called her home to Peru, she knew something finally had to give. A Latinx hero in the elite macho tech world of Silicon Valley, privately, she was hanging by a thread. She was deep in the throes of alcoholism, hiding her sexuality from her family, and repressing the abuse she'd suffered as a child. Her visit to Peru would become a turning point in her life. Silvia started climbing. Something about the brute force required for the ascent-the restricted oxygen at altitude, the vast expanse of emptiness around her, the risk and spirit and sheer size of the mountains, the nearness of death-woke her up.
Encompassing identity, inspiration, ancestry, and stewardship, the essays and poems by leading Black women and nonbinary scientists in Been Outside explore how experiences in the natural world and life sciences shape the self. These writers and researchers contemplate the moments that sparked their love of nature, as well as the ways time in the field and outdoor adventures have enhanced or expanded their perspectives about what is possible.
Growing up in the diverse and bustling California Bay Area, renowned wildlife ecologist Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant always felt worlds away from the white male adventurers she watched explore the wilderness on TV. She dreamed of a future where she could spend sleepless nights under the crowded canopies of the Amazon and the starry skies of the savanna. But as Rae set off on her own expeditions in the wild, she saw nature's delicate balance in a new light.