http://www.bookbub.com/blog/uplifting-nature-books-to-read-this-spring? [go to the article online to save any of these to BookBub’s wishlist — if you do, it will notify you when they’re on sale]
15 Uplifting Nature Books to Read This Spring
By G.G. Andrew, April 04, 2024
With the weather getting warmer in many places, it’s the perfect time to get outdoors — or, at the very least, read a book about the wonders of nature! We’ve found some of the best nature books about animals, trees, and plants, including research on why animals play, thoughtful reflections on what plants can teach us, and a hilarious book about animals who break the law. Find a cozy outdoor reading spot and check out our list of uplifting nature books below.
Of Time and Turtles
This New York Times bestseller about wounded turtles and those who care for them will capture your heart. It centers on the Turtle Rescue League, a group helping the animals heal, often from profound injuries. You’ll particularly be drawn to the story of an older snapping turtle as he recovers and the deeper themes his journey evokes. Scientific American says, “Montgomery’s heart-tugging conversations with teammates and her commitment to helping an octogenarian named Fire Chief reveal turtles to be perfect conduits for meditations on aging, disability, and chosen family.”
Braiding Sweetgrass
In this beautifully written meditation, a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation reflects on how the natural world, from strawberries to salamanders, can teach us lessons if we’re willing to listen. Tender and eye-opening, it calls on us to reevaluate the relationship we have with nature. Elizabeth Gilbert says this book takes readers on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise.”
An Immense World
It’s true that animals perceive the world differently than we do — but you’ll be amazed by how different their perspectives are when you read this New York Times bestseller from a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist. You’ll learn about the abilities of animals to see, feel, hear, smell, taste, and even sense electromagnetism, from the complex hearing of birds to dogs’ incredible sense of smell to the way turtles can sense magnetic fields. Taken together, you’ll have a wondrous appreciation for just how much is going on in the world around us.
Kingdom of Play
Few nature books are as fun as this deep dive into how animals play — and what it reveals about its larger purpose for all living creatures. Here, you’ll see all sorts of examples, from mud-sliding elephants to octopuses who play ball, along with research into the role of play in cognitive development and evolution. Sy Montgomery calls it a “surprising and uplifting book” featuring “delightful examples, eye-opening studies, and revelatory insights [that] will fill you with joy and wonder.”
A Walk in the Woods
It’s always a joy to journey alongside renowned author Bill Bryson, and this book about his walk along the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail is no exception. The New York Times bestselling author and his buddy encounter beautiful landscapes, quirky characters, and occasionally their own hilarious ineptitude on their hike as they reflect on the trail’s incredible history. Kirkus Reviews says that reading this book offers “sheer comic travel entertainment” whether or not you leave your own home.
The Nature Fix
Can nature actually make us happier? Yes, according to this book that combines research and real-world examples to show how being outdoors can do wonders for our mood and creativity. Here, you’ll walk alongside park rangers in South Korea, drift down an Idaho river with Iraqi veterans living with PTSD, and climb the West Virginia mountains with a therapist who helps kids with ADHD. You’ll be awed — and perhaps even inspired — by these stories of the healing power of nature.
Finding the Mother Tree
In what the Observer calls “a scientific memoir as gripping as any HBO drama series,” this New York Times bestselling book delves into Suzanne Simard’s research showing that trees communicate with one another in forests, united by a complex web of life. Simard takes us inside this fascinating world, exploring how trees sense one another and adapt their behaviors in response — and even how they’re able to remember the past. You’ll never walk through a forest the same way again.
Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship
The Wall Street Journal calls this touching read “mysterious and magical.” When Catherine Raven built a cottage in a remote area of Montana, she expected to prepare for her next steps in finding work as a biologist — not befriend a scruffy fox that started visiting her in the afternoons. But as she began observing the animal and even reading to him, a connection was forged, leading to a wondrous friendship that broadened Raven’s understanding of the natural world. As you read it, you’ll understand why it became an instant New York Times bestseller.
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating
You probably haven’t given snails much thought. That will change after reading this book about a woman who, during an illness, connected with a wild snail living on her nightstand. As she observed the common woodland snail’s body and behaviors, she learned lessons not only about the fascinating creature but about her own life. The New York Review of Books calls it “brilliant.”
Seed to Dust: Life, Nature, and a Country Garden
If you’re a gardener, this book about one caretaker’s year tending 12 acres in the Welsh countryside is a must-read. Owned by a wealthy widow, the Welsh garden and its plants evolve as the seasons come and go, much like the lives of both the gardener and his employer. Along the way, the plants offer their wisdom. The Wall Street Journal says, “Seed to Dust is an invitation to read this world as Mr. Hamer does — with a close eye to what changes, and what does not.”
World of Wonders
Many books describe the lessons nature can teach us. But few show how the Earth’s creatures can help us survive and thrive through life’s ups and downs quite like this book that Roxane Gay calls “a truly wondrous essay collection,” written by a poet who draws wisdom from the world around her as she grows up. Discover what she’s learned, from a peacock’s complex relationship to home to the narwhal’s uncanny ability to survive hardship.
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law
If you’re looking for a laugh-out-loud book about animals, this New York Times bestseller will do the trick. In it, you’ll meet macaques who mug people, bears accused of breaking and entering, gulls who loiter on St. Peter’s Square, and even trees that kill. The Washington Post calls Mary Roach “America’s funniest science writer,” and that’s especially true in this entertaining book about the strange arena of human-wildlife conflict.
Funny Farm
If you think your house is wild, meet Laurie Zaleski, founder of Funny Farm Animal Rescue. Her mother dreamed for years of running an animal rescue, but died before Laurie could move her to the 15-acre farm in South Jersey she’d purchased to help care for abused and neglected animals. You’ll love how Laurie has carried on her mother’s dream in the decades since by caring for hundreds of creatures, and you’ll be touched and tickled by their antics.
Four Thousand Paws
Whether or not you’re familiar with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska, you’ll be riveted by this book Kirkus Reviews calls “a deeply researched, charmingly narrated, and intensely compassionate behind-the-scenes look at one of the most intense human-animals collaborations in modern history.” Written by one of the race’s veterinarians, it shows how both the dogs and their drivers face fatigue, injury, and frigid temperatures to travel a thousand miles through the Alaskan wilderness.
Sanctuary
Susy Flory and Patrick Barrett
As he grew up in Ireland, Patrick Barrett’s family ran a sanctuary for abandoned and abused donkeys, and he forged a bond with the animals, helping them and learning to understand their body language and communication. Years later, after Barrett served with the Irish Army and returned home with PTSD and addiction, it was the donkeys who helped him heal and move forward. You’ll be touched by his journey, set against the uncommon beauty of Ireland, in this moving book.
Abycats' Thoughts 