100 Books Like Nature on the Doorstep

I first read this book when I was developing a course for undergraduates at Cornell titled Nature Rx, based on the book I had co-authored. I immediately felt like Florence Williams had written this book just for me. Her tales of traveling to various points in Asia, Europe, and the American southwest to experience firsthand the impact of nature's immersions on humans in various states of health or illness was exactly what I needed to frame the syllabus for this course.

And Williams is more than a casual observer—whether it’s hiking through a Korean forest to gain the benefits of shinrin-roku (forest bathing) or shooting rapids down the Salmon River with a group of injured female war veterans, she makes us feel every aching joint and bead of sweat, engaging the reader in her real-life experiences. While we clearly live in a time in which cynicism is rampant, this book… show more.

I’ve been fascinated by all living organisms since my early childhood on Long Island. In our suburban yard, I would sit raptured, watching the hunting techniques of praying mantises, the burrowing ability of earthworms, or the seemingly drunk behavior of cedar waxwings after feasting on over-ripe berries. But I never fully appreciated the intricacies of animal behavior until I read this book. 

What Ed Yong masterfully achieves in this 400-page text is neither a Disney-like humanizing of other species nor an overly scientific explanation of how creatures respond to their environment. Rather, he brings us to a place where we are no longer perceiving other organisms through human eyes but through their own complex senses. 

This greatly increased my fascination with the natural world and, consequently, my need to preserve every precious species on this earth.

When I go out for nearly daily walks, I’m reminded that time in nature can stimulate us in many ways–from identifying the species we encounter to considering the essential interactions between organisms to simply being awed by the status of humans in the complexity of life on earth.

It is this swirl of nature engagements that Lyanda Lynn Haupt captures so beautifully in Rooted. Part poetic reflections, part call to change our daily habits, Haupt finds wonders in urban green spaces and amazement in greater forests. Along the way, she urges us to walk barefoot, clear our minds of daily worries, engage in forest bathing (but to also get muddy on occasion), and to move beyond our human-centric perceptions. 

Haupt includes enough personal anecdotes to temper her more radical suggestions, weaving insights, excitement, and, yes, humor to grab and hold the reader throughout. After reading this book, I feel that… show more.

I’ve been studying the world of plants since first pursuing graduate degrees in the 1980’s. So, one might surmise that I know quite a lot about how plants function and respond to their environment. Reading through this book, I was fascinated to learn how much I didn’t previously know about these amazingly diverse and complex organisms. Some readers may recall an earlier tome titled The Secret Life of Plants.

In the first chapter of this book, author Schlanger dismisses that once-popular work as “a mix of real science, flimsy experiments, and unscientific projection.” She then goes on to interview various biologists, botanists, and physiologists who collectively are conducting mind-bending research on plant intelligence. While this term may make some folks squirm, the scientists she interviews employ such robust methods that all but the most cynical readers will come away understanding that there are many types of intelligence in this… show more.

Gotham Unbound tells the story of the 400 years since Europeans settled and urbanized New York City and what impact that has had on the ecosystem. Spanning from Henry Hudson’s arrival in 1609 to Hurricane Sandy in 2012, this book is crucial in understanding how New York City has physically and fundamentally changed in a relatively short amount of time, including the many men from Peter Stuyvesant to Robert Moses to Donald Trump who tried to shape and mold the city to their vision. 

If the United States had been settled west-to-east, there’s a good chance Manhattan would have been made a national park. That’s how biologically diverse this city is at its core. This book provides the broadest view of New York City history by describing the area before European settlement and the ensuing urbanization. This book uses historical maps, GPS data, and other inputs to reveal the surprisingly rich natural history of New York City, while also providing a thoughtful analysis of how dramatically things have changed, as well as a compelling framework for a more sustainable future for New York. 

This field guide is a thorough almanac of all the surprising critters that call New York City home. Each page carries with it historical context along with biological information and gorgeous illustrations of each individual species. This comprehensive catalog of New York City’s flora and fauna is a must-have for any urban wildlife devotee. 

I wanted to see what the park was planned to be in order to compare its original design with what it has become.

Brenwall gave me all of that preliminary background information in great detail, not just with her historical commentary but through the nineteenth-century maps and designs she shares. I took great pleasure in comparing Frederick Olmstead’s winning design with the many other possible layouts the park could have had.

What’s more, the book itself is beautiful. Urban planning has never looked so good.

As books by academics are apt to be, this wonderfully rich account of the history of New York’s Finger Lakes region is replete with references, quotes, and poetic stories. Tall begins with the manner in which the Iroquois Confederacy was divided and driven out during the Revolutionary War, and progresses through the influences of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, a heavily guarded military base, and struggles with blight in Geneva, New York. “Place” is explored through the lenses of the natural environment, language, religion, psychology, racism, and more. Indeed, Tall’s approach to understanding the community she adopted can be replicated on lands all over the world. 

Former NYPD detective and single mom PI Laney Bird is flawed and imperfect, yet resourceful and determined—a nuanced protagonist that makes this book as much a character study as a mystery thriller. Far from the grisly crime cases she investigated in NYC, Laney settles into a small town in upstate New York hoping to raise her teenage son in a safe environment. When Laney’s neighbor Holly disappears, the plot takes off in unexpected directions as Laney scratches the surface of her friend’s seemingly normal life. Although this is a crime novel, at its heart, it’s about the lengths women will go to to protect their families.