Nature Books & rEADINGS

  Old Rag Master Naturalists
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Chapter Administration
    • Sponsoring Agencies & Partners
    • In Memory Of
  • Events & News
    • Calendar
    • Upcoming Events
    • Chapter Awards & Recognition
    • Spotlight on Members and Presenters
    • Newsletters
  • Training & Education
    • Become a VMN >
      • Class XII Updates
    • Continuing Education >
      • Continuing Education Programs
      • CE Resources >
        • Field Guides
        • Nature Books & Readings
  • Volunteer Projects
    • Approved Volunteer Project
    • Project Accessibility Information
    • Activities by Interest >
      • Activities From Home
      • Animals
      • Birds
      • Habitats & Trails
      • Plants & Trees
      • Pollinators
    • New Project Proposal Request
  • Nature Blog
  • Contact Us

V is for Vesper

9/14/2020

 
Picture
Animals don’t exist in order to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves.

In Vesper Flights Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep.

Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk’s poplar forests. She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds’ nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife.

By one of this century’s most important and insightful nature writers, Vesper Flights is a captivating and foundational book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make sense of the world around us.

World of Wonders

9/14/2020

 
Picture
​From beloved, award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil comes a debut work of nonfiction―a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us.

As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted―no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape―she was able to turn to our world’s fierce and funny creatures for guidance.

“What the peacock can do,” she tells us, “is remind you of a home you will run away from and run back to all your life.” The axolotl teaches us to smile, even in the face of unkindness; the touch-me-not plant shows us how to shake off unwanted advances; the narwhal demonstrates how to survive in hostile environments. Even in the strange and the unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship. For it is this way with wonder: it requires that we are curious enough to look past the distractions in order to fully appreciate the world’s gifts.
​

Warm, lyrical, and gorgeously illustrated by Fumi Nakamura, World of Wonders is a book of sustenance and joy.

Nature of Nature

9/14/2020

 
Picture
​Enric Sala wants to change the world--and in this compelling book, he shows us how. Once we appreciate how nature works, he asserts, we will understand why conservation is economically wise and essential to our survival.

Here Sala, director of National Geographic's Pristine Seas project (which has succeeded in protecting more than 5 million sq km of ocean), tells the story of his scientific awakening and his transition from academia to activism--as he puts it, he was tired of writing the obituary of the ocean. His revelations are surprising, sometimes counterintuitive: More sharks signal a healthier ocean; crop diversity, not intensive monoculture farming, is the key to feeding the planet.
​

Using fascinating examples from his expeditions and those of other scientists, Sala shows the economic wisdom of making room for nature, even as the population becomes more urbanized. In a sober epilogue, he shows how saving nature can save us all, by reversing conditions that led to the coronavirus pandemic and preventing other global catastrophes. With a foreword from Prince Charles and an introduction from E. O. Wilson, this powerful book will change the way you think about our world--and our future.

The Literature of Solitude

9/14/2020

 
Picture


​Seven quarantine reads that connect time alone with the natural world.  Read more here.

    ​Reading Corner

    ​​Please send your book ideas to the Reading Corner. ​
    Also,  the Clifton Institute has recently established a nature book club. Check it out here.  ​

    Picture
    Check out a great website covering naturalist books -
    ​ 
    The Well-Read Naturalist  ​

    Categories

    All
    Birds
    Climate Change
    Ecology
    General
    Insects
    Microbial Ecosystems
    Pollinators
    Trees

    Archives

    February 2023
    February 2022
    August 2021
    June 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Chapter Administration
    • Sponsoring Agencies & Partners
    • In Memory Of
  • Events & News
    • Calendar
    • Upcoming Events
    • Chapter Awards & Recognition
    • Spotlight on Members and Presenters
    • Newsletters
  • Training & Education
    • Become a VMN >
      • Class XII Updates
    • Continuing Education >
      • Continuing Education Programs
      • CE Resources >
        • Field Guides
        • Nature Books & Readings
  • Volunteer Projects
    • Approved Volunteer Project
    • Project Accessibility Information
    • Activities by Interest >
      • Activities From Home
      • Animals
      • Birds
      • Habitats & Trails
      • Plants & Trees
      • Pollinators
    • New Project Proposal Request
  • Nature Blog
  • Contact Us