36 Books Like Hidden Beauty

During my time in India, I met some amazing women scientists. The Brahmaputra is one of the world's largest branching rivers, with multi-branched channels that branch and merge to form a distinctive branching pattern. It is home to temporary islands, and the flow of the water exhibits rapid periodic fluctuations between seasons.

Just as the water of the Brahmaputra has to navigate many obstacles from the river's source to the sea, women scientists in India face many obstacles in their work and personal lives. This book documents and illustrates the beauty of science and the importance of involving more women in science worldwide to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and reduce the multitude of contemporary socio-environmental problems, using India as an example.

During my many years in the Emirates, I explored the flora, vegetation, and geomorphology of the coastal, mountainous, and sandy deserts and experienced their incredible beauty, which was particularly stunning during Winter sunsets.

I came to understand why the ancient Arabs loved and cared for their land, and I fell in love with it, too. This book, edited by my friends the late Peter Hellyer and the late Simon Aspinall, provides a comprehensive and beautifully illustrated documentation of the richness and diversity of the Emirates' natural ecosystems, habitats, and flora and fauna.

During my many years working for UNESCO in Arabia, Africa, East Asia, and South Asia, as well as during my early years in Europe, I had the great privilege of not only traveling to many countries and experiencing the true beauty of natural landscapes, seascapes, and coastal areas, but also meeting people of different nationalities, ethnicities, and religions, and I came to appreciate many of their cultural traditions and customs.

UNESCO has three types of designated protected areas, including UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, UNESCO World Heritage Sites and Global Geoparks. My hometown in northern Germany is located in the Terra Vita Geopark, which celebrates the 'life story of the Earth.' This book provides an excellent overview of the UNESCO Global Geoparks of the world.

I have been actively involved in the scientific research, conservation, restoration, and development of mangrove ecosystems since 1989. Mangroves are an important part of the natural systems of our plant world and are of enormous importance to wildlife and humans both ecologically and for a whole range of socio-economic reasons. Mangroves are world champions in carbon sequestration. Mangroves can grow in salt water, and 97% of the water on Earth is salty.

This ATLAS provides comprehensive information on the importance and biogeography of mangroves, although an updated and web-based new version is urgently needed. At the moment, this is the best ATLAS we have, and I highly recommend it as a 'must have' for anyone serious about science-based professional conservation and restoration of mangrove ecosystems.

This book is full of surprises, taking on the thorny issue of where different species come from, where people think they belong, and what people are doing about it. Written in an entertaining way, Ken Thompson takes on those who hate and try to kill species simply because they perceive them to be in the wrong place. First, he establishes the science, pointing out that many species evolved in places that you wouldn't guess…. Camels did not evolve in western Asia or North Africa originally, but I won’t spoil the story. 

Most species evolved somewhere but today survive somewhere else.  This is obvious to someone like Thompson, whose career has been based in Sheffield in England, which was at the edge of an ice sheet a mere 20,000 years ago. Virtually all of the species that live in and around Sheffield today only colonised the area in the last 10,000… show more.

Fred Pearce, veteran editor of New Scientist, takes on an exploration of what invasive species really are. In doing so, he reveals that many of our engrained opinions regarding these 'exotics' is based on flawed ecology, ecological xenophobia, and ill-founded conservatism. Sure, some invasive species should be fought to save cherished native species from extinction, but Pearce shows us that this should never be the knee-jerk reaction to any immigrant species.

The first two books on my list are, in many ways, positive. Dan Egan’s book is not.

Egan tackles the ongoing ecological threats to the Great Lakes from a realist’s telling of its past environmental changes and future problems. Readers learn how a bombardment of human-induced invasive species have wracked the Great Lakes ecology in the recent past (think sea lampreys, alewives, and zebra and quagga mussels) and threaten to do so yet again in the near future, in the form of Asian carp entering the Chicago River.

Even welcomed biological introductions from the human perspective, such as the proliferation of Pacific salmon, have altered the Lakes’ environments. At the end, we’re left with the uneasy reality that the Lakes are a fragile set of freshwater ecosystems that remain at the mercy of humans, who can either protect or destroy them through future actions, or inaction.

When I was younger, I stayed overnight in a haunted house, or at least a house that felt haunted. I was in a big, creepy room by myself, and sleep was impossible. Instead, I sat up through the night, feeling very alone. During that long wait for dawn, this book was there for me.

It’s a satire that’s now more famous than many of the grim rural novels that inspired it; more important to me then, it’s the very funny story of Flora Poste, a modern young woman who goes to stay at a remote country farm with her relatives, the dramatic Starkadders, ruled over by Aunt Ada Doom, who once saw something nasty in the woodshed. Flora’s story is a glorious triumph of common sense over an ominous atmosphere.

If you only grow from the last frost to the first frost, your gardening season is extremely short. But a few simple season-extension techniques can mean you harvest fresh food nearly every day of the year. I've used Eliot Coleman's crop suggestions and his quick hoops and can say from experience that they make all the difference during the cold season.

Plants feel things. Cleve Backster, an American detective who used lie detectors when interviewing suspects, discovered that plants made his detector needle swing wildly in response to thoughts he was having. Especially bad ones like that he might put boiling water on their leaves. He ran many experiments and found that plants also have memory, and react if people are lying about something in their presence!

Plants grow better for us when we treat them with love and respect. In return, they grow a warm and healthy look to their leaves which looks pleasing. We then appreciate each other in a loop of positive feedback. This book opened my eyes to what is possible when working with clients, and the fun we can have in helping them to express themselves.