Happy National Reading Month!
It’s time to share my list of outdoor books again. In March 2020 I shared this list for the first time and I’ve updated it each subsequent year. Now, I’m adding thirty-eight books that I read in 2023.
What’s the origin of this list?
In January 2005, I decided to start keeping a list of every book that I read. My list is pretty simple; I just record the title, author, number of pages, and where the book came from (my person library, a public library, borrowed from someone else, etc.). I don’t record anything else about the book. With one major exception, I’ve faithfully kept that list ever since. In March 2011, we moved and in the hubbub of moving my book list was temporarily lost. Rather than starting a new list, I didn’t record anything for the next nine months… I wish I knew what I read in that time. Even with that missing interval, there are more than 1,000 books on my list.
I read little of everything – biography, history, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, and more – but this list only included books in the categories of science, nature, the outdoors (including hiking, fishing, and hunting stories), and related topics. With more than 500 books on this list, I understand that it can be a bit daunting.
The books have been grouped into rough categories. Many books could easily fit in more than one category and at some point I will probably go back and reclassify a few of them into other categories. Books that have been boldfaced are either ones that I particularly liked or thought were important.
You’ll probably notice that some authors appear multiple times on this list. These authors are either A) my favorite authors, B) extremely prolific, or C) both. Number one on this list with thirteen titles is John Gierach – all of his books are (nominally) about fishing. Bernd Heinrich comes in at number two with 10 titles – most are in the Nature/Ecology/Natural History section. Three authors (Rick Bass, John McPhee, and Craig Childs) clock in with seven books each – their books are scattered in a number of categories. Michigan author Jerry Dennis has five books on the list – in a couple different categories. Four authors (Sigurd Olson, Guy De La Valdene, Adam Shoalts, and Christopher Camuto) each have four books on the list. There are numerous authors with two or three titles listed.
Maybe you’ll find your next favorite book on this list!
-Mike LeValley (March 10, 2024)
Alaska/Canada
One Man’s Wilderness by Sam Kieth and Richard Proenneke
Alaska’s Wolf Man: The 1915-55 Wilderness Adventures of Frank Glaser by Jim Rearden
Shopping for Porcupine: A Life In Arctic Alaska by Seth Kantner
Standing Ground: Alaska Stories, Police Tales, and Things I’d Rather Not Talk About by Alan L. White
Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People by William L. Iggiaruk Hensley
Tide, Feather, Snow: A Life in Alaska by Miranda Weiss
First Wilderness: My Quest in the Territory of Alaska by Sam Keith
The Final Frontiersman: Heimo Korth and His Family Alone in Alaska’s Arctic Wilderness by James Campbell
Yukon Alone: The World’s Toughest Adventure Race by John Balzar
Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod by Gary Paulsen
Red Summer: The Danger, Madness, and Exaltation of Salmon Fishing in a Remote Alaskan Village by Bill Carter
Braving It: A Father, a Daughter, and an Unforgettable Journey into the Alaskan Wild by James Campbell
Death on the Barrens: A True Story of Courage and Tragedy in the Canadian Arctic by George James Grinnell
The Alaskan Retreater’s Notebook: One Man’s Journey into the Alaskan Wilderness by Ray Ordonica
Disappointment River: Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage by Brian Castner
Where the River Reigns: One Man’s Dream for a Log Cabin in the Wild of Alaska by Brian P. Horacek
Beyond the Trees: A Journey Alone Across Canada’s Arctic by Adam Shoalts
Running North: A Yukon Adventure by Ann Mariah Cook
Alone Against the North by Adam Shoalts
The Sun is a Compass: My 4,000-mile Journey into the Alaskan Wild by Caroline van Hemert
The Only Kayak: A Journey Into the Heart of Alaska by Kim Heacox
The Whisper on the Night Wind: The True History of a Wilderness Legend by Adam Shoalts
Where the Falcon Flies: A 3,400 Kilometer Odyssey From My Doorstep to the Arctic by Adam Shoalts
Arctic/Antarctica
Being Caribou: Five Months on Foot With an Arctic Herd by Karsten Heuer
South With the Sun: Roald Amundsen, His Polar Exploration and the Quest for Discovery by Lynn Cox
The Last Light Breaking: Living Among Alaska’s Inupiat Eskimos by Nick Jans
Roald Amundsen by Tor Bomann-Larsen
White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen’s Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic by Stephen R. Brown
The Last Imaginary Place: A Human History of the Arctic World by Robert McGhee
Boundless: Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage by Kathleen Winter
The Magnetic North: Notes from the Arctic Circle by Sara Wheeler
The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven: A Novel by Nathaniel Ian Miller
Extreme North: A Cultural History by Bernd Brunner
Wanderlust: An Eccentric Explorer, An Epic Journey, A Lost Age by Reid Mitenbuler
The North Country
Open Horizons by Sigurd F. Olson
Woman of the Boundary Waters: Canoeing, Guiding, Mushing, and Surviving by Justine Kerfoot
The Grand Portage by Walter O’Meara
The Long-shadowed Forest by Helen Hoover
We Took to the Woods by Louise Dickinson Rich
At Home in the Woods: Living the Life of Thoreau Today by Bradford Angier and Vera Angier
The Meaning of Wilderness by Sigurd F. Olson
Chips from a Wilderness Log by Calvin Rutstrum
Northland: A 4,000-mile Journey Along America’s Forgotten Border by Porter Fox
Lure of the Lone Trail: Writings from the North Woods by Glen Sheppard
Reflections from the North Country by Sigurd F. Olson
The Singing Wilderness by Sigurd F. Olson
Birds/Birdwatching
To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, A Son and a Lifelong Obsession by Dan Koeppel
The Ardent Birder: On the Craft of Birdwatching by Todd Newberry and Gene Holtan
The Ghost With Trembling Wings: Science, Wishful Thinking, and the Search for Lost Species by Scott Weidensaul
Out of the Woods: A Bird Watcher’s Year by Ora E. Anderson
Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding by Scott Weidensaul
All Things Reconsidered: My Birding Adventures by Roger Tory Peterson
Hope is the Thing With Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds by Christopher Cokinos
Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O’Brien
The Verb ‘To Bird’: Sightings of an Avid Birder by Peter Cashwell
A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest To See It All by Luke Dempsey
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 by Sy Montgomery
Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom From the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans by John Marzluff and Tony Angell
Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle by Thor Hanson
Life Birds by George Levine
H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald
Ravens in Winter by Bernd Heinrich
Falcon Fever: A Falconer in the Twenty-first Century by Tim Gallagher
One Wild Bird at a Time: Portraits of Individual Lives by Bernd Heinrich
The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird’s Egg by Tim Birkhead
Lost Among the Birds: Accidentally Finding Myself in One Very Big Year by Neil Hayward
The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird by Joshua Hammer
George: A Magpie Memoir by Frieda Hughes
Nature/Ecology/Natural History
Swampwalker’s Journal: A Wetlands Year by David M. Carroll
Natural Coincidence: The Trip from Kalamazoo by Bil Gilbert
Why Moths Hate Thomas Edison edited by Hampton Sides
Wintering by Diana Kappel-Smith
Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters by Annie Dillard
Return to Wild America: A Yearlong Search For the Continent’s Natural Soul by Scott Weidensaul
Northwoods Wildlife: A Watcher’s Guide to Habitats by Janine M. Benyus
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
It’s Raining Frogs and Fishes: Four Seasons of Natural Phenomena and Oddities of the Sky by Jerry Dennis
The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples by Tim Flannery
Wilderness Ethics: Preserving the Spirit of Wildness by Guy Waterman and Laura Waterman
My Story as Told by Water: Confessions, Druidic Rants, Reflections, Bird-watching, Fish-stalkings, Visions, Songs and Prayers Refracting Light, From Living Rivers, In the Age of the Industrial Dark by David James Duncan
Squirrels at My Window: Life with a Remarkable Gang of Urban Squirrels by Grace Marmor Spruch
Life Counts: Cataloguing Life on Earth by Michael Gleich, Dirk Maxeiner, et al
A Trail Through Leaves: The Journal as a Path to Place by Hannah Hinchman
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild by Craig Childs
Looking for Hickories: The Forgotten Wildness of the Rural Midwest by Tom Springer
Ecology of A Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray
Life in the Soil: A Guide for Naturalists and Gardeners by James B Nardi
The Search for a Sense of Wildness by Michael P. Ausema
Stalking the Plumed Serpent and Other Adventures in Herpetology by D. Bruce Means
Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators by William Stolzenburg
The Snake Charmer: A Life and Death in Pursuit of Knowledge by Jamie James
The Wild Places by Robert MacFarlane
Watchers at the Pond by Franklin Russell
Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey
A Year in the Maine Woods by Bernd Heinrich
One Square Inch of Silence: One Man’s Search for Natural Silence in a Noisy World by Gordon Hempton ans John Grossman
Mean and Lowly Things: Snakes, Science, and Survival in the Congo by Kate Jackson
The Book of Yaak by Rick Bass
Summer World: A Season of Bounty by Bernd Heinrich
Every Creeping Thing: True Tales of Faintly Repulsive Wildlife by Richard Conniff
The Founding Fish by John McPhee
A Reenchanted World: The Quest for a New Kinship With Nature by James William Gibson
Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley
Footnotes on Nature by John Kieran
Why We Run: A Natural History by Bernd Heinrich
The Path: A One-mile Walk Through the Universe by Chet Raymo
The Wild Marsh: Four Seasons at Home in Montana by Rick Bass
Water: A Natural History by Alice Outwater
The Forgotten Pollinators by Stephen L. Buchmann and Gary Paul
The Mountains Next Door by Janice Emily Bowers
Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy by Melissa Milgram
The Snoring Bird: My Family’s Journey Through A Century of Biology by Bernd Heinrich
Why I Came West by Rick Bass
Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It’s So Hard to Think Straight About Animals by Hal Herzog
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova Bailey
Kingdom Under Glass: A Tale of Obsession, Adventure, and One Man’s Quest to Preserve the World’s Great Animals by Jay Kirk
Wading For Bugs: Exploring Streams With the Experts edited by Judith L. Li and Michael T. Barbour
The Big Swamp: A Wildlife Biologist’s Lifetime of Adventures by Raymond D. Schofield
Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death by Bernd Heinrich
Time and Tide in Acadia: Seasons on Mount Desert Island by Christopher Camuto
Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-wild World by Emma Marris
The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature by David George Haskell
Dirt Work: An Education in the Woods by Christine Byl
Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe by Charlotte Gill
The Endangered Species Road Trip: A Summer’s Worth of Dingy Motels, Poison Oak, Ravenous Insects, and the Rarest Species in North America by Cameron MacDonald
Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors
A Sand County Almanac: With Essays on Conservation from Round River by Aldo Leopold
Beyond Walden: The Hidden History of America’s Kettle Lakes and Ponds by Robert M. Thorson
Keith County Journal by John Janovy Jr.
Island Year by Hazel Heckman
A Sting in the Tale: My Adventures with Bumblebees by Dave Goulson
A Buzz in the Meadow: The Natural History of a French Farm by Dave Goulson
The Prophet of Dry Hill: Lessons From a Life in Nature by David Gessner
Theodore Roosevelt in the Field by Michael R. Canfield
The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
Once They Were Hats: In Search of the Mighty Beaver by Frances Backhouse
Under the Stars: How America Fell in Love with Camping by Dan White
The Carry Home: Lessons From the American Wilderness by Gary Ferguson
Bog tender: Coming Home to Nature and Memory by George Szanto
The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples by Tim Flannery
The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham
Hawk’s Rest: A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone by Gary Ferguson
Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Pine Barrens by John McPhee
Becoming Teddy Roosevelt: How a Maine Guide Inspired America’s 26th President by Andrew Vietze
The Lost Species: Great Expeditions in the Collection of Natural History Museums by Christopher Kemp
The Snow Tourist: A Search for the World’s Purest, Deepest Snowfall by Charles English
Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction by Mary Ellen Hannibal
Hiking Naked: A Quaker Woman’s Search for Balance by Iris Graville
Saving Tarboo Creek: One Family’s Quest to Heal the Land by Scott Freeman
The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams
The Power of a Plant: A Teacher’s Odyssey to grow Healthy Minds and Schools by Stephen Ritz
The Naturalist at Large by Bernd Heinrich
The Art of Naming by Michael Ohl
Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees by Thor Hanson
The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson
Apocalyptic Planet: Field Guide to the Everending Earth by Craig Childs
The Ninemile Wolves by Rick Bass
Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards Into Battlegrounds by Jim Sterba
Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees: The Natural History of Where We Live by Rob Dunn
The River in Winter by Stanley Crawford
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt & The Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan
Death of A Hornet and Other Cape Cod Essays by Robert Finch
Saving Arcadia: A Story of Conservation and Community in the Great Lakes by Heather Shumaker
The Geese of Beaver Bog by Bernd Heinrich
In Service of the Wild: Restoring and Reinhabiting Damaged Land by Stephie Mills
Wild and Rare: Tracking Endangered Species in the Upper Midwest by Adam Regn Arvidson
Wild at Heart: America’s Turbulent Relationship with Nature, from Exploitation to Redemption by Alice Outwater
Tamed: Ten Species That Changed Our World by Alice Roberts
Grinnell: America’s Environmental Pioneer and His Restless Drive to Save The West by John Taliaferro
Wilding: Returning Nature to Our Farm by Isabella Tree
Rewild Yourself: Making Nature More Visible in Our Lives by Simon Barnes
Virga & Bone: Essays from Dry Places by Craig Childs
The Wild Remedy: How Nature Mends Us – A Diary by Emma Mitchell
Outpost: A Journey to the Wild Ends of the Earth by Dan Richards
Coming of Age at the End of Nature: A Generation Faces Living on a Changed Planet edited by Julie Dunlap and Susan A Cohen
Dancing with Bees: A Journey Back to Nature by Brigit Strawbridge Howard
An Unspoken Hunger: Stories From the Field by Terry Tempest Williams
Grass Roots: The Universe of Home by Paul Gruchow
Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life by George Monbiot
Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World by M.R. O’Connor
Trout Reflections: A Natural History of the Trout and Its World by David M. Carroll
Reading the Mountains of Home by John Elder
Sky Time in Gray’s River: Living for Keeps in a Forgotten Place by Robert Michael Pyle
Another Country: Journeying Toward the Cherokee Mountains by Christopher Camuto
Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert MacFarlane
Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie
The Nature of Nature: Why We Need the Wild by Enric Sala
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Future by Merlin Sheldrake
Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park by Conor Knighton
The 2084 Report: An Oral History of the Great Warming by James Lawrence Powell
My Wilderness: The Pacific West by William O. Douglas
Whatever You Do, Don’t Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison
The Future of Conservation in America by Gary E. Malchis and Jonathan B. Jarvis
The Hermit’s Story by Rick Bass
The Patch by John McPhee
Fox & I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven
Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss by Margaret Renkl
The Way Home: Tales From a Life Without Technology by Mark Boyle
Into the Tangled Bank: In Which Our Author Ventures Outdoors to Consider the British in Nature by Lev Parikian
Seasons on Harris: A Year in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides by David Yeadon
Young Men and Fire: A True Story of the Mann Gulch Fire by Norman Maclean
The Last Wilderness: A Journey Into Silence by Neil Ansell
Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside by Nick Offerman
Consolations of the Forest: Alone in a Cabin in the Middle Taiga by Sylvain Tesson
Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey by Florence Williams
Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World by Barry Lopez
The Circling Sky: On Nature and Belonging in an Ancient Forest by Neil Ansell
Lookout: Love, Solitude, and Searching for Wildfire in the Boreal Forest by Trina Moyles
Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America by Jon Mooallem
The Secret Knowledge of Water by Craig Childs
At Home on an Unruly Planet: Finding Refuge on a Changed Earth by Madeline Ostrander
Awe: The Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life by Dacher Keltner
Wild Card Quilt: The Ecology of Home by Janisse Ray
Burn: A Story of Fire, Woods and Healing by Ben Short
Through the Woods: The English Woodland – April to April by H.E. Bates
Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country by Pam Houston
Light Rain Sometimes Falls: A British Year Through Japan’s 72 Seasons by Lev Parikian
Nightwalk: A Journey the the Heart of Nature by Chris Yates
The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here by Hope Jahren
Trees/Plants/Gardens
Beautiful Madness: One Man’s Journey Through Other People’s Gardens by James Dodson
The Trees in My Forest by Bernd Heinrich
The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston
People With Dirty Hands: The Passion for Gardening by Robert Chotzinoff
American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree by Susan Freinkel
The Man Who Planted Trees: A Story of Lost Groves, the Science of Trees, and a Plan to Save the Planet by Jim Robbins
Wood: Craft, Culture, History by Harvey Green
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
Unearthed: Love, Acceptance, and Other Lessons from an Abandoned Garden by Alexandra Risen
Nature’s Temples: The Complex World of Old-Growth Forests by Joan Maloof
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben
Urban Forests: A Natural History of Trees and People in the American Cityscape by Jill Jonnes
The Wood for the Trees: One Man’s Long View of Nature by Richard Fortey
Witness Tree: Seasons of Change with a Century-old Oak by Lynda V. Mapes
The Ghost Orchard: The Hidden History of the Apple in North America by Helen Humphreys
The Man Who Climbs Trees by James Aldred
The Long, Long Life of Trees by Fiona Stafford
The Flavor of Wood: In Search of the Wild Taste of Trees From Smoke and Sap to Root and Bark by Artur Cesar-Erlach
Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees by William Bryant Logan
The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter Who Saved Japan’s Cherry Blossoms by Naoka Abe
To Speak for the Trees: My Life’s Journey From Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest by Diana Beresford-Kroeger
Seed to Dust: Life, Nature, and a Country Garden by Marc Hamer
Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard
A Woods of One’s Own by Ruth Pavey
Old Growth: The Best Writing About Trees From Orion Magazine
The Arbornaut: A Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us by Meg Lowman
The Oak Papers by James Canton
The Journey of Trees: A Story About Forests, People, and the Future by Zach St. George
Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America’s Woods by Lyndsie Bourgon
Spring Rain: A Life Lived in Gardens by Marc Hamer
The Garden Jungle (or Gardening to Save the Planet) by Dave Goulson
In Search of the Old Ones: An Odyssey Among Ancient Trees by Anthony D. Fredericks
Geology/Geography/Other Sciences
On the Map: A Mind-expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks by Simon Garfield
Rising From the Plains by John McPhee
Coming Into the Country by John McPhee
Annals of the Former World by John McPhee
The Ground Beneath Us: From the Oldest Cities to the Last Wilderness, What Dirt tells Us About Who We Are by Paul Bogard
Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology by David B Williams
The Map That Changed The World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester
Reading the Rocks: How Victorian Geologists Discovered the Secret of Life by Brenda Maddox
The Book of Unconformities: Speculations on Lost Time by Hugh Raffles
Farming/Rural Life
A Country Year: Living the Questions by Sue Hubbell
The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert
See You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten America by Logan Ward
Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm by Jane Brox
Heirloom: Notes From and Accidental Tomato Farmer by Tim Stark
Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass by Gary Paulsen
It’s a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life by Keith Stewart
Ripe: The Search for the Perfect Tomato by Arthur Allen
Claiming Ground: A Memoir by Laura Bell
Wisdom of the Last Farmer: Harvesting Legacies From the Land by David Mas Masumoto
Mostly in Clover: Growing Up in Rural Ontario. A Boy Now a Man Recounts His Memories by Harry J. Boyle
Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish
Folks, This Ain’t Normal: A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World by Joel Salatin
Cabin: Two Brothers, a Dream, and Five Acres in Maine by Leo Ureneck
Triple Ridge Farm by Ruth Fouts Pochmann
Battlefield: Farming a Civil War Battleground by Peter Svenson
The Shepherd’s Life by James Rebanks
More Scenes From the Rural Life by Verlyn Klinkenborg
Farm: A Year in the Life of an American Farmer by Richard Rhodes
Cabin Lessons: A Nail-by-Nail Tale: Building Our Dream Cottage from 2x4s, Blisters, and Love by Spike Carlsen
Growing A Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life by David R. Montgomery
Craeft: An Inguiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts by Alexander Langlands
The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Foods, and Love by Kristin Kimball
Letter to a Young Farmer: How to Live Without Wealth on the New Garden Farm by Gene Logsdon
The Farmer’s Son: Calving Season on a Family Farm by John Connell
The Rural Life by Verlyn Klinkenborg
Pastoral Song by James Rebanks
Galloway: Life in a Vanishing Landscape by Patrick Laurie
The Smell of Summer Grass: Pursuing Happiness, Perch Hill, 1994 – 2011 by Adam Nicholson
Red Sky at Night by John Barrington
Woodsqueer: Crafting a Sustainable Rural Life by Gretchen Legler
Living a Country Year: Wit and Wisdom From the Good Old Days by Jerry Apps
Stone Work: Reflections on Serious Play and Other Aspects of Country Life by John Jerome
Little Britches: Father and I were Ranchers by Ralph Moody
Sylvia’s Farm: The Journal of an Improbably Shepherd by Sylvia JorrÃn
Wild Idea: Buffalo & Family in a Difficult Land by Dan O’Brien
Logging
Hard Maple, Hard Work by John Gagnon
McTaggart’s Red Keg: Logging From A-Z on the Tittabawassee in Michigan by Irene M. Hargreaves and Harold M. Foehl
“Daylight in the Swamp”: Lumberjacking in the Late 19th Century by Robert W. Wells
Timber! The Bygone Life of the Northwoods Lumberjacks by John C. Frohlicher
Food
In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan
The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans by Patricia Klindienst
Empires of Food: Feast Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations by Evand D.G. Fraser and Andrew Rimas
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food by Dan Barber
The Mushroom Hunters: On the Trail of an Underground America by Langdon Cook
A Really Big Lunch: The Roving Gourmand on Food and Life by Jim Harrison
100 Million Years of Food: What Our Ancestors Ate and Why it Matters Today by Stephen Le
American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields by Rowan Jacobsen
The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine by Steven Rinella
The Traveling Feast: On the Road and at the Table With My Heroes by Rick Bass
Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl
Uncultivated: Wild Apples, Real Cider, and the Complicated Art of Making a Living by Andy Brennan
Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love, and Food by Ann Hood
Feasting Wild: In Search of the Last Untamed Food by Gina Rae La Cerva
We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto by Alice Waters
Pig Years by Ellyn Gaydos
Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy by Frances Mayes
Fieldwork: A Forager’s Memoir by Iliana Regan
In Winter’s Kitchen: Growing Roots and Breaking Bread in the Northern Heartland by Beth Dooley
National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home by Anya Von Bremzen
The Secret History of Food: Strange But True Stories About the Origins of Everything We Eat by Matt Siegel
Mountaineering/Adventure
Tracks: A Woman’s Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback by Robyn Davidson
Foot by Foot Through the USA by Winfield H. Line and Francis R. Line
Seaworthy: Adrift with William Willis in the Golden Age of Rafting by T.R. Pearson
A Sense of the World: How A Blind Man Became History’s Greatest Traveler by Jason Roberts
Touching My Father’s Soul: A Sherpa’s Journey to the Top of Everest by Jamling Tenzing Norgay w/ Broughton Coburn
Halfway to Heaven: My White-knuckled – And Knuckleheaded – Quest for the Rocky Mountain High by Mark Obmascik
A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Fredrick Russell Burnham by Steve Kemper
Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life by Arlene Blum
Way Out There: Adventures of a Wilderness Trekker by J. Robert Harris
Out and Back: A Runner’s Story of Survival Against All Odds by Hillary Allen
Fifty Shades of the USA: One Woman’s 11,000 Mile Cycling Adventure Through Every State of America by Anna McNuff
Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Wilderness Idiot: Lessons from an Accidental Adventurer by Ted Alvarez
The Impossible Climb: Alex Honnold, El Capitan, and the Climbing Life by Mark Synnott
Classic Krakauer: Essays on Wilderness and Risk by John Krakauer
Small Game: A Novel by Blair Braverman
The Backyard Adventurer by Beau Miles
Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering by Maurice Isserman
Paddling/Canoeing/Rafting
Canyon Solitude: A Woman’s Solo River Journey Through Grand Canyon by Patricia C. McCairen
From a Wooden Canoe: Reflections on Canoeing, Camping, and Classic Equipment by Jerry Dennis
An Adirondack Passage: The Cruise of the Canoe Sairy Gamp by Christine Jerome
Canoeing With the Cree by Eric Severeid
One Incredible Journey by Clayton Klein and Verlen Kruger
The Survival of the Bark Canoe by John McPhee
Cold Summer Wind by Clayton Klein
Portage Into the Past: By Canoe Along the Minnesota-Ontario Boundary Waters by J. Arnold Bolz
The Last Voyageurs: Retracing LaSalle’s Journey Across America: Sixteen Teenagers on the Adventure of a Lifetime by Lorraine Boissoneault
Waterwalk: A Passage of Ghosts by Steven Faulkner
Hidden Nature: A Voyage of Discovery by Alys Fowler
Kings of the Yukon: One Summer Paddling Across the Far North by Adam Weymouth
Freshwater Saga: Memoirs of a Lifetime of Wilderness Canoeing in Canada by Eric W. Morse
Hudson bay Bound: Two Women, One Dog, Two Thousand Miles to the Arctic by Natalie Warren
Amazon Woman: Facing Fears, Chasing Dreams, and a Quest to Kayak the World’s Largest River from Source to Sea by Darcy Gaechter
Adventure North: 2,200 Miles by Canoe, 49 Days in the Wild by Sean Bloomfield
Riverman: An American Odyssey by Ben McGrath
Kayaking Alone: Nine Hundred Miles from Idaho’s Mountains to the Pacific Ocean by Mike Barenti
Hiking/Walking
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
A Season on the Appalachian Trail by Lynn Setzer
Walking My Dog, Jane: From Valdez to Prudhoe Bay Along the Trans Alaska Pipeline by Ned Rozell
The Marches: A Borderland Journey Between England and Scotland by Rory Stewart
AWOL on the Appalachian Trail by David Miller
Alone Together: My Adventure on the Appalachian Trail by Wally Miars
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor
A Walk Across Michigan by Will Swartz
In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration by Shane O’Mara
In Praise of Paths: Walking Through Time and Nature by Torbjorn Ekelund
Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home by Heather “Anish” Anderson
The Unlikely Thru-Hiker: An Appalachian Trail Journey by Derick Lugo
The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert MacFarlane
Journeys North: The Pacific Crest Trail by Barney “Scout” Mann
Mud, Rocks, Blazes: Letting Go On The Appalachian Trail by Heather “Anish” Anderson
The Pants of Perspective: One Woman’s 3,000 Kilometer Running Adventure Through the Wilds of New Zealand by Anna McNuff
The Appalachian Trail: A Biography by Philip D’Anieri
The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn
Alone in Wonderland by Christine Reed
The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd
I Belong Here: A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain by Anita Sethi
Happy Hiker: The Epic Journey of an Unlikely Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker by Max ‘Happy’ Mason
Six Walks: In The Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau by Ben Shattuck
Bonus Miles by Heather Anderson
Paleontology/Archaeology
Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade
Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America by Craig Childs
Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession by Craig Childs
My European Family: The First 54,000 Years by Karin Bojs
The Lost World of the Old Ones: Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest by David Roberts
Built on Bones: 15,000 years of Urban Life and Death by Brenna Hassett
House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest by Craig Childs
Mudlark: In Search of London’s Past Along the River Thames by Laura Maiklem
The Sediments of Time: My Lifelong Search for the Past by Maeve Leakey with Samira Leakey
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow
Michigan/The Great Lakes
Walking to Mackinac by David E. Bonior
The Superior Peninsula: Seasons in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by Lon L. Emerick
The Living Great Lakes: Searching For the Heart of the Inland Seas by Jerry Dennis
The Fourth Coast: Exploring the Great lakes Coastline From the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota by Mary Blocksma
Graced by the Seasons: Fall and Winter in the Northwoods by John Bates
Great Lakes Nature: An Outdoor Year by Mary Blocksma
River of Iron by David Lee
The Wolves of Isle Royale: A Broken Balance by Rolf O. Peterson
Lake Country: A Series of Journeys by Kathleen Stocking
An Uncrowded Place: The Delights and Dilemmas of Life Up North and a Young Man’s Search for Home by Bob Butz
Great Lakes Country by Russell McKee
The Turn in the Trail: Northwoods Tales of the Upper Great Lakes by Walt Sandburg
Native American
Rez Life by David Treuer
Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community by Brenda J. Child
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America by Michael A. McDonnell
Wilderness Empire by Allan W. Eckert
Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country by Louise Erdrich
American Indians and National Forests by Theodore Catton
Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land by Noe Alvarez
Walking the Trail: One Man’s Journey Along the Cherokee Trail of Tears by Jerry Ellis
Diversity and Equity in the Outdoors
Black Face, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors by Carolyn Finney
The Adventure Gap: Changing the Face of the Outdoors by James Edward Mills
Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by Lauret Savoy
Hunting/Fishing/Trapping
Ghosts of Tsavo: Stalking the Mystery Lions of East Africa by Philip Caputo
Fly-fishing the 41st: Around the World on the 41st Parallel by James Prosek
Trout Madness by John D. Voelker (Robert Traver)
On The Run: An Angler’s Journey Down The Striper Coast by David DiBenedetto
Trout Eyes: True Tales of Adventure, Travel, and Fly Fishing by William G. Tapply
Kerplunk! by Patrick F. McManus
The River Home: An Angler’s Explorations by Jerry Dennis
The Fish’s Eye: Essays About Angling and the Outdoors by Ian Frazier
A Place on the Water: An Angler’s Reflections on Home by Jerry Dennis
Hunting From Home: A Year Afield in the Blue Ridge Mountains by Christopher Camuto
American Buffalo In Search of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella
West With the Rise: Fly-fishing Across America by James Barilla
The Sporting Road: Travels Across America in An Airstream Trailer – With Fly Rod, Shotgun, and a Yellow Lab Named Sweetzer by Jim Fergus
Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had by Rick Bass
Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America by Eric Jay Dolan
Fool’s Paradise by John Gierach
The Everlasting Stream: A True Story of Rabbits, Guns, Friendship, and Family by Walt Harrington
At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman by John Gierach
Still Life With Brook Trout by John Gierach
Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders: A John Gierach Treasury by John Gierach
The Old Man and the Boy by Robert Ruark
Remembrances of Rivers Past by Ernest Schwiebert
The Fragrance of Grass by Guy de la Valdene
Meat Eater: Adventures From the Life of an American Hunter by Steven Rinella
Afield: American Writers on Bird Dogs edited by Robert DeMott and Dave Smith
Upland Autumn: Birds, Dogs, and Shotgun Shells by William G. Tapply
Fishing the River of Time by Tony Taylor
Use Enough Gun: Ruark on Hunting Big Game by Robert Ruark
Every Day Was Special: A Fly Fisher’s Lifelong Passion by William G. Tapply
Charley Waterman’s Tales of Fly-fishing, Wing-shooting, and the Great Outdoors by Charley Waterman
On the Water: A Fishing Memoir by Guy de la Valdene
Red Stag: A Novel by Guy de la Valdene
Brown Feathers: Waterfowling Tales an Upland Dreams by Steven J. Mulak
The Longest Silence: A Life in Fishing by Thomas McGuane
Outdoor Chronicles: True Tales of a Lifetime of Hunting and Fishing by Jerry Hamza
A Fly Fisherman’s Blue Ridge by Christopher Camuto
Midwest Meanders by Tom Huggler
This Reckless Breed of Men: The Trappers and Fur Traders of the Southwest by Robert Glass Cleland
The Ghosts of Autumn: A Season of Hunting Stories by Joel Spring
A Fly Rod of Your Own by John Gierach
Jill and I and the Salmon by Jack Russell
Moose in the Water Bamboo on the Bench: A Journal and a Journey by Kathy Scott
What the River Knows: An Angler in Midstream by Wayne Fields
Salmon On A Fly: The Essential Wisdom and Lore from a Lifetime of Salmon Fishing by Lee Wulff
A Rough-shooting Dog: Reflections From Thick and Uncivil Sorts of Places by Charles Fergus
A Hunter’s Fireside Book: Tales of Dogs, Ducks, Birds & Guns by Gene Hill
My Secret Fishing Life by Nick Lyons
Covered Waters: Tempests of a Nomadic Trouter by Joseph Heywood
One River More: A Celebration of Rivers and Flyfishing by W.D. Wetherell
A Naturalist Goes Fishing: Casting in Fragile Waters from the Gulf of Mexico to New Zealand’s South Island by Jame McClintock
Michigan Seasons: Classic Tales of Life Outdoors edited by Ted J. Rulsch
Fifty-five Years a Grouse Hunter by Frank Jezioro
Casting Into the Light: Tales of a Fishing Life by Janet Messineo
Aged in the Woods: Stories and Sketches of Fishing and Shooting by Paul Hyde Bonner
Reflections of a Fly Rod by Mark Usyk
Carp are Jerks by Mark Usyk
Fish On, Fish Off: The Misadventures and Odd Encounters of the Self-Taught Angler by Stephen Sautner
A Cast in the Woods: A Story of Fly Fishing, Fracking, and Floods in the Heart of Trout Country by Stephen Sautner
Stronghold: One Man’s Quest to Save the World’s Wild Salmon by Tucker Malarkey
Dumb Luck and the Kindness of Strangers by John Gierach
Fire in the Straw: Notes on Inventing a Life by Nick Lyons
Blood Knots: A Memoir of Fathers, Friendship, and Fishing by Luke Jennings
The Unreasonable Virtue of Flyfishing by Mark Kurlansky
Trout Water: A Year on the Au Sable by Josh Greenberg
The Optimist: A Case for the Fly Fishing Life by David Coggins
The Zen of Home Waters: True Tales of Adventure, Travel, and Fly Fishing by Jerry Hamza
Home Waters: A Chronicle of Family and a River by John N. Maclean
Fishing Through the Apocalypse: An Angler’s Adventures in the 21st Century by Matthew L. Miller
Standing in a River Waving a Stick by John Gierach
The Earth is Enough: Growing Up in a World of Flyfishing, Trout, & Old Men by Harry Middleton
The Hunter’s Road: A Journey with Gun and Dog Across the American Uplands by Jim Fergus
The Way of the Trout by M.R. Montgomery
Full Creel: A Nick Lyons Reader by Nick Lyons
Trout Bum by John Gierach
Where the Pools are Bright and Deep by Dana S. Lamb
All Fishermen are Liars by John Gierach
On the Spine of Time: A Flyfisher’s Journey Among Mountain People, Streams & Trout by Harry Middleton
A View from a Tall Hill: Robert Ruark in Africa by Terry Wieland
Goodnews River: Wild Fish, Wild Waters, and the Sories We Find There by Scott Sadil
Even Brook Trout Get the Blues by John Gierach
The Bright Country: A Fisherman’s Return to Trout, Wild Water, and Himself by Harry Middleton
Not All Trout are Geniuses by Mark Usyk
Father Water, Mother Woods: Essays on Fishing and Hunting in the North Woods by Gary Paulsen
Dances With Trout by John Gierach
Monsters of River & Rock: My Life As Iron Maiden’s Compulsive Angler by Adrian Smith
Bush Pilot Angler by Lee Wulff
The Habit of Rivers: Reflections on Trout Streams and Fly Fishing by Ted Leeson
Brook Trout Forest by Kathy Scott
Making Game: An Essay on Woodcock by Guy De La Valdene
Reading the Water: Fly Fishing, Fatherhood, and Finding Strength in Nature by Mark Hume
At Forest’s Edge: Tales of hunting, Friendship, and the Future by Joel Springer
Illuminated by Water: Fly Fishing and the Allure of the Natural World by Malachy Tallack
The Big One: An Island, an Obsession, and the Furious Pursuit of a Great Fish by David Kinney
The River You Touch: Making a Life on Moving Water by Chris Dombrowski
Silent Seasons edited by Russell Chatham
All the Time in the World by John Gierach
Whitefish Can’t Jump & Other Tales of Gamefish on the Fly by E. Donnall Thomas, Jr.
Twice Hooked by David Barr
My Moby Dick by William Humphrey
Headwaters Fall As Snow by Kathy Scott
