Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination

Basin and Range

John McPhee · 215 pages

From the blog *View From The Blue House* - "John McPhee is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. In 1978 he started a set of journeys across America with geologists that turned into a series of five books published over twenty years. Basin and Range is the first book in the series and mostly concerns the geological landscape from eastern Utah to eastern California. Rather than pr

Wild: An Elemental Journey

Jay Griffiths · 384 pages

The Sea Inside

Philip Hoare · 374 pages

In this book the author sets out to rediscover the sea and its islands, birds, and beasts. Starting at his home on the shores of Britain's Southampton Water and moving in ever widening circles, like the migration patterns of whales, he explores London, the Isle of Wight, the Azores, Sri Lanka, Tasmania, and New Zealand. As he weaves together literary and natural history, we encounter memorable peo

Sea Room

Adam Nicolson · 391 pages

Holloway

Robert Macfarlane, Dan Richards · 48 pages

To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface

Olivia Laing · 283 pages

Rain in the Mountains: Notes from the Himalayas

Ruskin Bond · 251 pages

Wildwood: A Journey through Trees

Roger Deakin · 403 pages

Accompanying famed British nature writer Deakin through the woods of Britain, Europe, Kazakhstan, and Australia in search of what lies behind man's profound and enduring connection with trees. Deakin lives in forest shacks, goes "coppicing" in Suffolk, swims beneath the walnut trees of the Haut-Languedoc, and hunts bushplums with Aboriginal women in the outback. Along the way, he ferrets out the m

The National Parks: America's Best Idea

Dayton Duncan, Ken Burns · 417 pages

In this evocative and lavishly illustrated narrative, Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan delve into the history of the park idea, from the first sighting by white men in 1851 of the valley that would become Yosemite and the creation of the world's first national park at Yellowstone in 1872, through the most recent additions to a system that now encompasses nearly four hundred sites and 84 million acres.

The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky

Ellen Meloy · 330 pages

In this invigorating mix of natural history and adventure, artist-naturalist Ellen Meloy uses turquoise--the color and the gem--to probe deeper into our profound human attachment to landscape. From the Sierra Nevada, the Mojave Desert, the Yucatan Peninsula, and the Bahamas to her home ground on the high plateaus and deep canyons of the Southwest, we journey with Meloy through vistas of both great

The Snow Geese

William Fiennes · 272 pages

"Every spring, millions of geese embark on an arduous three-thousand-mile migration from their winter quarters in the southern United States to their breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic. One year William Fiennes decided to go with them. Intrigued by what he'd read about the birds' amazing annual journey, Fiennes was also desperate to emerge from a period of illness and from the belief that, at

Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail

Ben Montgomery · 282 pages

"Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, having survived a rattlesnake strike, two hurricanes, and a run-in with gangst

This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland

Gretel Ehrlich · 400 pages

For the last decade, Gretel Ehrlich has been obsessed by an island, a terrain, a culture, and the men and women who long for and love the complex frailties and treacherous beauty of a world defined by ice. Greenland, the world's largest island, 840,000 square miles in extent, is covered by the largest continental ice sheet in the world. Her guide, her inspiration, her companion in spirit was the g

The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks

Terry Tempest Williams · 416 pages

"A personal, lyrical, and idiosyncratic ode to our national parks"-- "For years, America's national parks have provided public breathing spaces in a world in which such spaces are steadily disappearing, which is why close to 300 million people visit the parks each year. Now, to honor the centennial of the National Park Service, Terry Tempest Williams, the author of the beloved memoir When Women W

My First Summer in the Sierra

John Muir · 225 pages

Presents the journal of naturalist John Muir in which he records his thoughts and experiences in the Sierra Mountains where he went for the first time in 1869 while working as an overseer hired on to help move a band of sheep to summer pasture.

Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters

Annie Dillard · 177 pages

Here, in this compelling assembly of writings, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard explores the world of natural facts and human meanings.

The Good Rain: Across Time & Terrain in the Pacific Northwest

Timothy Egan · 254 pages

Desert Solitaire

Edward Abbey · 270 pages

An account of the author's experiences, observations, and reflections as a seasonal park ranger in southeast Utah. When Desert Solitaire was first published in 1968, it became the focus of a nationwide cult. Rude and sensitive. Thought-provoking and mystical. Angry and loving. Both Abbey and this book are all of these and more. Here, the legendary author of The Monkey Wrench Gang, Abbey's Road an

The Living Mountain

Nan Shepherd · 114 pages

The finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain: said a newspaper of this when it was first published. The manuscript was completed in 1944, Nan Shepherd showed it to a friend, who thought it would be tough to find a publisher. Shepherd recevied one rejection and then left the MS in a drawer. In 1977, Aberdeen University Press printed a small edition. Later, Robert Macfarlane w

Wanderlust: A History of Walking

Rebecca Solnit · 326 pages

"In Wanderlust: A History of Walking, Rebecca Solnit draws together many histories -- of anatomical evolution and city design, of treadmills and labyrinths, of walking clubs and sexual mores -- to create a portrait of the range of possibilities for this most basic act. Arguing that walking as history signifies walking for pleasure and for political, aesthetic, and social meaning, Solnit hones in o

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey

Candice Millard · 440 pages

At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt's harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.The River of Doubt--it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Cheryl Strayed · 315 pages

A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again. At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she'd lost everything when her mother died young of cancer. Her family scattered in their grief, her marriage was soon destroyed, and slowly her life spun out of control. Four years after her mot

Out of Africa

Isak Dinesen, Karen Blixen · 389 pages

The author relates her experience in Kenya, describing not only her own youth but also the country's traditions and people.

The Journals of Lewis and Clark

Meriwether Lewis, William Clark

At the dawn of the 19th century, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark embarked on an unprecedented journey from St. Louis, Missouri to the Pacific Ocean and back again. Their assignment was to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Territory and record the geography, flora, fauna, and people they encountered along the way. The tale of their incredible journey, meticulously recorded in their journals,