Life Stories

The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworm

Amy Stewart · 240 pages

Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel

Carl Safina · 461 pages

"Weaving decades of field observations with exciting new discoveries about the brain, Carl Safina's landmark book offers an intimate view of animal behavior to challenge the fixed boundary between humans and nonhuman animals. In Beyond Words, readers travel to Amboseli National Park in the threatened landscape of Kenya and witness struggling elephant families work out how to survive poaching and d

The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History

Stephen Jay Gould · 343 pages

For better science students, this is a collection of 31 essays on natural history.

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Michael Pollan · 450 pages

What should we have for dinner?" To one degree or another this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat. Anthropologists call it the omnivore's dilemma. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn't—which mushrooms should be avoided, for example, and which berries we can enjoy. Today, as

In the Shadow of Man

Jane Goodall · 297 pages

Goodall's classic account of primate behavior combines a landmark scientific study with a fascinating adventure story of a determined young woman's struggle in remote Africa to approach primates in the wild as no one had ever done before.

Charles Darwin's Works: Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H. M. S. Beagle round the world under the command of Capt. Fitz Roy

Charles Darwin · 542 pages

The Genius of Birds

Jennifer Ackerman · 346 pages

"Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. In fact, according to revolutionary new research, some birds rival primates and even humans in their remarkable forms of intelligence. Like humans, many birds have enormous brains relative to their size. Although small, bird brains are packed with neurons that allow them to punch well above their weight. In The Genius of Birds, acclaimed author Jenni

Why We Run: A Natural History

Bernd Heinrich · 304 pages

In Why We Run, biologist, award-winning nature writer, and ultramarathoner Bernd Heinrich explores a new perspective on human evolution by examining the phenomenon of ultraendurance and makes surprising discoveries about the physical, spiritual -- and primal -- drive to win. At once lyrical and scientific, Why We Run shows Heinrich's signature blend of biology, anthropology, psychology, and philos

The Fly Trap

Fredrik Sjoberg · 278 pages

Some days I tell myself that my mission is to say something about the art and sometimes the bliss of limitation. And the legibility of landscape. Other days are more dismal. As if I were standing on queue in the rain outside confessional literature's nudist colony, mirrors everywhere, blue with cold. This book tells his own experience.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World

Peter Wohlleben, Susanne Simard · 288 pages

A visually stunning journey into the diversity and wonders of forests. In his international bestseller The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben opened readers' eyes to the amazing processes at work in forests every day. Now this new, breathtakingly illustrated edition brings those wonders to life like never before. With compelling selections from the original book and stunning, large-format photo

The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st Century Bestiary

Caspar Henderson · 437 pages

The creatures that abound in Henderson's book—from the axolotl to the zebrafish—are, with one exception, very much with us, albeit sometimes in depleted numbers. *The Book of Barely Imagined Beings* transports readers to a world of real creatures that seem as if they should be made up—that are somehow more astonishing than anything we might have imagined. The yeti crab, for example, uses its furry

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Annie Dillard · 279 pages

What is the true nature of Nature? Is it a harmonious, interconnected system, operating according to the principles of co-dependence and benevolence? Or is it red in tooth and claw, an unfeeling, unthinking force, in which the individual is overwhelmed and subsumed to serve a larger purpose, one mysterious and obscure? This is what this volume is all about: an exploration into the nature of Nature

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

Elizabeth Kolbert · 336 pages

From the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe, a powerful and important work about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a compelling account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes.

Monkeyluv: And Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals

Robert M. Sapolsky · 216 pages

A collection of original essays by a leading neurobiologist and primatologist share the author's insights into behavioral biology, including discussion of the physiology of genes and the factors that shape human social interaction.

Braiding Sweetgrass

Robin Wall Kimmerer

A botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation espouses having an understanding and appreciation of plants and animals.

The Handbook of Nature Study

Anna Botsford Comstock · 937 pages

Intelligence in Nature: An Inquiry Into Knowledge

Jeremy Narby · 277 pages

Continuing the journey begun in his acclaimed book The Cosmic Serpent, the noted anthropologist ventures firsthand into both traditional cultures and the most up-todate discoveries of contemporary science to determine nature's secret ways of knowing.Anthropologist Jeremy Narby has altered how we understand the Shamanic cultures and traditions that have undergone a worldwide revival in recent years

Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle

Thor Hanson · 336 pages

Feathers are an evolutionary marvel: aerodynamic, insulating, beguiling. They date back more than 100 million years. Yet their story has never been fully told. In Feathers, biologist Thor Hanson details a sweeping natural history, as feathers have been used to fly, protect, attract, and adorn through time and place. Applying the research of paleontologists, ornithologists, biologists, engineers,

Birdology: Adventures with a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur

Sy Montgomery · 260 pages

In the Company of Crows and Ravens

John M. Marzluff, Tony Angell · 384 pages

Last Chance to See

Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine · 222 pages

An interactive multimedia exploration of the authors' trip around the world in search of endangered species. Contains the unabridged text of the book Last chance to see, a reading of the entire book by Douglas Adams, and over 800 full-screen color photographs. Allows the user to either read or listen to the book, to choose any chapter within the book, and to explore the many sidebars that provide

Gorillas in the Mist

Dian Fossey · 326 pages

Describes four gorilla families living in the rain forests of the Virunga mountains of Rwanda during a fifteen-year case study.

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Christopher McDougall · 287 pages

Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world's greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we tho

Survivors: The Animals and Plants that Time Has left Behind

Richard Fortey · 336 pages