New & Novel: The Natural World

There are quite a few recent and delightful-looking additions to our library catalog dealing with the natural world - from an "arrestingly unconventional" study of nature (featuring an original typeface created for the book called Qaneq LR, after the Inuktitut word for “falling snow”) to a book detailing the adventures of a man who lived among badgers and other animals to better understand them; another by an author who has "led expeditions on five continents, climbed mountains in three, and is the only living person to have both flown and sailed solo across the Atlantic;" one featuring stunning watercolors by the author of  Le Road Trip; and more! If you are interested in learning more about the world around you, the books listed below offer a bounty of information about various aspects of the nature, some with a more scientific bent, some not so much. We hope you learn something new and have fun doing so!

Being a Beast: Adventures Across the Species Divide by Charles Foster
To test the limits of our ability to inhabit lives that are not our own, Charles Foster set out to know the ultimate other: the nonhumans, the beasts. And to do that, he tried to be like them, choosing a badger, an otter, a fox, a deer, and a swift.  A lyrical, intimate, and completely radical look at the life of animals--human and other--Being a Beast mingles neuroscience and psychology, nature writing and memoir, to cross the boundaries separating the species. It is an extraordinary journey full of thrills and surprises, humor and joy.

An Ocean of Air: Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere by Gabrielle Walker 
We don’t just live in the air; we live because of it. It’s the most miraculous substance on earth, responsible for our food, our weather, our water, and our ability to hear. In this exuberant book, gifted science writer Gabrielle Walker peels back the layers of our atmosphere with the stories of the people who uncovered its secrets. [Amazon]

The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs: Use Outdoor Clues to Find Your Way, Predict the Weather, Locate Water, Track Animals--And Other Forgotten Skills by Tristan Gooley  
Now, in The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs, Gooley has compiled more than 850 outdoor tips—many not found in any other book in the world—that will open readers’ eyes to nature’s hidden logic. He shares techniques for forecasting and tracking, and for walking in the country or city, along the coast, and by night. This is the ultimate resource on what the land, sun, moon, stars, plants, animals, and clouds can reveal—if you only know how to look! [Amazon]

Gardens of Awe and Folly: A Traveler's Journal of the Meaning of Life and Gardening by Vivian Swift
An illustrated, round-the-world tour of idiosyncratic gardens from beloved traveler/writer/watercolorist Vivian Swift. 

Thunder & Lightning : Weather Past, Present, Future by Lauren Redniss
From the National Book Award finalist Lauren Redniss, author of Radioactive, comes a dazzling fusion of storytelling, visual art, and reportage that grapples with weather in all its dimensions: its danger and its beauty, why it happens and what it means. 

The Hidden Life of Trees What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben
In The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben shares his deep love of woods and forests and explains the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in the woodland and the amazing scientific processes behind the wonders of which we are blissfully unaware... Drawing on groundbreaking new discoveries, Wohlleben presents the science behind the secret and previously unknown life of trees and their communication abilities; he describes how these discoveries have informed his own practices in the forest around him. 

*all descriptions taken from the library catalog unless otherwise noted