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Gift books: For the human who likes animals more than people

Feature by Alice Cary

Cats, dogs and wildlife mixed with humor, art and photographic beauty—these books offer a bit of everything. 

What I Lick Before Your Face by Jamie Coleman
The title alone is laugh-worthy: What I Lick Before Your Face and Other Haikus by Dogs. Given the brevity of the form, you’ll find yourself scarfing down nuggets like this one, called “Standing,” as if they were dog treats: “I sometimes feel bad / That I don’t get as happy / Whenever you sit.” The snark is always spot-on, such as in “Walkies”: “I have come to loathe / That singsong voice you employ / It demeans us both.” Jamie Coleman’s entertaining little volume just begs for a feline follow-up.

Why My Cat Is More Impressive Than Your Baby by Matthew Inman
There’s plenty more dog humor in Why My Cat Is More Impressive Than Your Baby. The magic of Matthew Inman’s irreverent cartoons is that he imagines what cats, dogs and babies are thinking while doting humans tend to them. Inman is a master of emotion in both his art and prose, calling a dog an “affable ball of fur” and a “lovable idiot” while a baby is an “obese, naked leprechaun” and a “relentless ScreamBall.” Ultimately, Inman is full of heart, such as when he writes, “Understand that befriending a cat is like befriending a hurricane. It’ll be violent. It’ll be devastating. But in the eye of the storm, in that calm, serene center, it’ll be beautiful.” Of course, he adds the inevitable kicker: “And then it’ll just be violent again.”

A History of Art in 21 Cats by Nia Gould
British artist Nia Gould combines her passion for art and cats in her uniquely whimsical A History of Art in 21 Cats. Each section includes one of Gould’s marvelous cat-imagined masterpieces, such as a feline Frida Kahlo-style portrait, complete with a floral headpiece and costume, paired with a succinct but informative discussion of magic realism. Few could pull off such an equally artistic and edifying feat, which includes an utterly purr-fect Pablo Picasso cat and a stately, whiskered Mona Lisa. Be forewarned: Your museum trips may never be quite the same.

Unforgettable Portraits by Rosamund Kidman Cox
Animal lovers are bound to lose themselves in the 70 memorable color photographs from the London Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitions, collected in Rosamund Kidman Cox’s Unforgettable Portraits. Cyril Ruoso’s young snub-nosed monkey looks like a stuffed toy perched in a tree in China’s Qinling Mountains. An angry queen ant photographed in the Cambodian forest by Piotr Naskrecki wears an expression eerily similar to that of an NFL linebacker waiting for the snap. Wildlife fans will relish the surprises waiting on each and every page.

Cats, dogs and wildlife mixed with humor, art and photographic beauty—these books offer a bit of everything.

NonfictionNatureFood & DrinkCookbooksAnimals

Lifestyles: February 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

Three new lifestyles books to help you vent, treat yourself and get in touch with nature.

★ Rage Baking

Indeed it is a cookbook, but Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford’s Rage Baking is also a genius idea—the very text that we, an army of citizen bakers, have been waiting for. Among more than 40 contributors to this feisty and inspiring collection of recipes, essays and interviews are luminaries Ruth Reichl, Ani DiFranco, Dorie Greenspan and Rebecca Traister. There are recipes like “Power Muffs” and “No More Sheet Cake.” The recipes, like the women behind them, represent diverse culinary traditions, from cornbread to bulgur flatbread to challah to focaccia. But they all share one ingredient: “I am anger wrapped in hopelessness wrapped in despair wrapped in more anger,” writes Tess Rafferty. “And when I can’t stand it anymore, I cook.”

$9 Therapy

I’ve seen many a self-care book, but this one struck me as fresh. First, there’s the catchy title: $9 Therapy. But the subtitle is the clincher: “Semi-Capitalist Solutions to Your Emotional Problems.” What do co-authors Megan Reid and Nick Greene mean by that? First, what it’s not: “a guide to getting your shit together.” What it is: funny at every turn and packed with small, practical hacks and crafts—DIY sheet spray! DIY makeup brush cleaner!—that will cumulatively make you a more functional human being. A book that perfectly, humorously captures a corner of the zeitgeist is always a win—even if, alas, it doesn’t retail for $9. Buy it anyway, along with a gallon of white vinegar. 

Close to Birds

Truly one of the most breathtaking titles I’ve explored in a long time, Close to Birds, first published in Sweden, achieves the delicate balance of jaw-dropping photographs and thought-provoking text. Authors Mats and Åsa Ottosson didn’t set out to create a traditional bird-watching book, a guide for seekers of the most elusive specimens. Instead, among the birds featured in stunning color against white backgrounds are an ordinary mallard, a common sandpiper, a Eurasian sparrow and a common starling. “Being receptive to birds is both much simpler and much bigger than [determining species],” the authors write. “It’s not a hobby; rather it can be seen as a loving receptivity to the larger we to which humans are lucky to belong.” You’ll learn, gasp and see birds anew.

Susannah Felts is a Nashville-based writer and co-founder of  The Porch, a literary arts organization. She enjoys anything paper-related and, increasingly, plant-related.

Three new lifestyles books to help you vent, treat yourself and get in touch with nature.

★ Rage Baking

Indeed it is a cookbook, but Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford’s Rage Baking is also a genius idea—the very text that we, an army of citizen…

NatureCrafts, Hobbies & HomeCookbooks

Lifestyles: March 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

This month’s best new lifestyles books teach you how to enjoy the simple things in life, understand a new language and cook with a song in your heart.

★ Meals, Music, and Muses

“Cooking without a song—in your heart, if nothing else—is like cooking without salt and pepper,” writes chef Alexander Smalls in Meals, Music, and Muses. Here, recipes grounded in the culinary traditions of the African American South are grouped according to the “seven styles of African American music that set the bass line for this medley of meals.” Fried sweet white corn and a salad of field greens and black-eyed peas are among the “green things” that Smalls associates with gospel music; rice, pasta and grits are the stuff of spirituals. Roast quail, pan-fried rabbit, pork loin roasts? Divas, all. There are biscuits and beans and pie to the tune of jazz, opera, jukebox music and serenades (sweet endings), with the pleasure of Smalls’ storytelling along the way to deepen the flavor.

How to Wash the Dishes

How is it that reading a book on washing the dishes could offer such pleasure? How to Wash the Dishes, by Seattle design and architectural bookstore owner Peter Miller, is a tiny, perfect book that offers just what its title proclaims, with a side dish of calm. In serene and measured prose, Miller reminds us that “washing the dishes in a sink, with clean, warm water, is a luxury” and “a task of order and of health and hygiene.” Also, to no small degree, “every time you wash the dishes is an opportunity to practice mindfulness and to reduce waste.” Great satisfaction can come from holding fast to these truths and focusing on the task at hand, not rushing, not thinking too much of other things.

The Complete Language of Flowers

Flower lovers will marvel at S. Theresa Dietz’s The Complete Language of Flowers, an A to Z of flowers and plants listing symbolic meanings, possible powers, folklore and facts. The flowers are alphabetized by Latin name, which lends this volume an air of the exotic, but the book’s handy index is probably where you’ll start when you want to find out what your snake plant might do for you (protection) or what bluebonnets represent (forgiveness, self-sacrifice and survival). This guide could be helpful for writers and artists seeking to infuse their work with floral imagery, or for designers and gardeners planning a project. But it’s also simply a gorgeous conversation piece, the perfect addition to a spring coffee table vignette.

This month’s best new lifestyles books teach you how to enjoy the simple things in life, understand a new language and cook with a song in your heart.

★ Meals, Music, and Muses

“Cooking without a song—in your heart, if nothing else—is like cooking…

NonfictionNatureCookbooksArts & Culture

Lifestyles: April 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

Whether you want to be educated, inspired or deliciously distracted, these releases can help.

★ Earth Almanac

The internet’s useful and all, but have you picked up an almanac lately? Ken Keffer’s Earth Almanac is a fine specimen, focused on phenology, the interconnection of living things through seasonal change. Each of its 365 entries explores a particular natural creature, phenomenon or feature; on the day of this writing, Keffer looks closely at the “twittering flights of the American woodcock,” aka bog sucker, mud bat or brush snipe. Beautifully illustrated, Earth Almanac makes a delightful daily read-aloud with family. Keffer’s generalist approach offers encouragement to budding naturalists, inviting us to action as field data collectors and advocates for the earth. “People are more likely to protect what they are familiar with and what they care about,” he writes.

How to Be an Artist

In 2018, Jerry Saltz, senior art critic for New York magazine, wrote a piece on how to live more creatively, featuring 33 “nodes and nubs of advice.” It proved wildly popular, so Saltz kept going, thinking more deeply about how to make art a part of one’s life—and what is art, anyway? The result is the trim, brilliant How to Be an Artist, which combines color reproductions of famous works with inspiring directives, pep talks and juicy reflections on art-making and sustainable creative practice. Whether you’re a proud amateur or a frustrated expert, these are words worth taking to heart. Saltz’s knowledge veins run deep, and his voice is crisp, frank, intimate and urgent. 

Procrastibaking

As I polish off this column a day past my deadline, you can bet that I’m loving a new cookbook with chapter headings like “Better-Late-Than-Never Brownies and Bars,” “Late-for-Everything Loaf Cakes” and “Sorry-for-the-Delayed-Response Savory Bakes.” This is Erin Gardner’s Procrastibaking, and it is giving me life. Never mind that I absolutely want to try every delicious-sounding recipe, of which there are more than 100, and most of which are making a successful appeal to my sweet tooth. I also want to nail the word search, mazes and other games that are sprinkled throughout the book like finishing sugar. But first I must finish this column . . . or must I ? After all, the majority of these treats can be turned out in under 50 minutes, I’m told.

Whether you want to be educated, inspired or deliciously distracted, these releases can help.

★ Earth Almanac

The internet’s useful and all, but have you picked up an almanac lately? Ken Keffer’s Earth Almanac is a fine specimen, focused on phenology, the interconnection of living…

NonfictionWomen's HistoryNatureFood & DrinkAnimals

Lifestyles: May 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

Solace, refreshment (with chickens!) and a breath of fresh air await readers of these delightful books.

★ Keep Moving

A while back, during a difficult divorce, poet Maggie Smith began posting daily affirmations and directives on Facebook, ending always with two words: Keep moving. Her words have since provided solace and inspiration for countless readers, and now they’re compiled in Keep Moving, along with brief essays. In a season of unprecedented uncertainty, Smith’s book has arrived just in time. Open it to any page, and chances are you’ll find reason to reflect in a productive way. 

Drinking With Chickens

I’m having a fine time imagining the pitch meeting for Kate E. Richards’ Drinking With Chickens.

“It’s a haute cocktail book . . . but with chickens.”

“So we’ll give them luscious photographs of gorgeous cocktails . . . and chickens?”

“Yes. Garden-to-glass stuff, and herbal infusions. But with store-bought cheats, too, because after you’re done cleaning the coop, who has time for all that?”

“This isn’t, like, just for chicken owners though, is it?”

“Hardly! Like Kate says, ‘You don’t need to own them (cough, cough . . . be owned by them) to live the Drinking With Chickens life. Go forth into the world, my friends, and find chickens to drink with.’ ”

“Love it. Love it. It’s the perfect spring title. Someone mix me up an Early Strawberry Syllabub, pronto.”

Writing Wild

If you’re a fan of nature and environmental writing, you may believe it’s something of a boys’ club—a forgivable assumption, as so many dudes get the attention in this genre (we see you, Thoreau). In Writing Wild, Kathryn Aalto sets the record straight with biographical profiles and brief introductions to the work of 25 women who have worked in this literary vein. Here are Vita Sackville-­West, Mary Oliver and Gretel Ehrlich; here, too, in brief roundups at the end of each profile, are still “More Early American Voices” who have taken on some aspect of the natural world in their writing. This book is a wonderful jumping-off point for anyone who loves the outdoors and wants to know more about the many talented female writers who have made it their work’s focus.

Susannah Felts is a Nashville-based writer and co-founder of  The Porch, a literary arts organization. She enjoys anything paper- or plant-related.

Solace, refreshment (with chickens!) and a breath of fresh air await readers of these delightful books.

★ Keep Moving

A while back, during a difficult divorce, poet Maggie Smith began posting daily affirmations and directives on Facebook, ending always with two words: Keep moving.…

NonfictionNatureFood & DrinkCrafts, Hobbies & HomeCookbooks

Lifestyles: June 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

Cook with a surprise ingredient, understand modern-day manners and build an herbal arsenal with the help of these three engaging reads.

★ The Duke’s Mayonnaise Cookbook

My first thought upon discovering The Duke’s Mayonnaise Cookbook was: an entire cookbook devoted to . . . mayonnaise? Risky business. My second thought was: But . .  . it’s Duke’s, a brand with a cult following—especially in the American South, where I live. And when you’ve got a following like Duke’s, you do what you want—like show up in a recipe for peppermint fudge brownies. Ashley Strickland Freeman makes a strong case that Duke’s belongs in brownies, as well as in many other seemingly unlikely recipes, because mayo is “a beautiful emulsification of eggs and oil and a touch of vinegar for acidity, all ingredients vital to cooking and baking.” Her cookbook makes my mouth water, with crowd-pleasers such as bananas Foster bread with browned butter-rum glaze, pimento cheese grits and firecracker shrimp tacos. And of course, there’s elote—delicious Mexican street corn slathered in mayonnaise.

Minding Miss Manners

In Minding Miss Manners, Judith Martin’s arch, acid wit laces every lesson on behaving with propriety in a culture where monstrous jerks are, more than ever, on parade and in power. “A new era of freedom to be loutish, pushy, vicious, and hateful is upon us,” she writes. “That an etiquette-free society would be a joyous, or even livable, one must be the biggest social hoax since it was declared that Americans’ basic problem was sexual puritanism, and if all were acting freely on their desires, everyone would be happy, and there would be no more sex crimes. We are now forced to see how that has played out.” Ahem! This book is bracingly funny and full of pitch-perfect truth bombs for our very weird and wooly times. 

Plant Magic

For Christine Buckley, herbalism is more than just the process of using plants for their beneficial properties. It’s a way of being in the world—more in tune with the earth and mindful of one’s own interconnected mind, body and spirit. In Plant Magic, Buckley takes us deep into the practice of herbalism, showing us how to cultivate a meaningful relationship with the plant life around us. Her “herbal arsenal” details 21 of the most useful and accessible plants, such as cinnamon, thyme, lemon balm and ginger. Roost makes gorgeous books, and this one is no exception

Cook with a surprise ingredient, understand modern-day manners and build an herbal arsenal with the help of these three engaging reads.
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The Hold List: Explore the great outdoors

Feature by the editors of BookPage

Beautiful vistas. Shocking greenery. Bright, airy calm. Nature is magnificent, but sometimes the bug bites, poison ivy and boot-staining mud are not. Here are five literary landscapes you can discover from the comfort of your couch.

A Girl of the Limberlost

The U.S. is full of landscapes that capture the imagination, but the ones that remain are only a fraction of what once existed. Gene Stratton-Porter has preserved one of these lost natural wonders, the Limberlost Swamp of Indiana, in her bestselling 1909 book, A Girl of the Limberlost. As lonely young Elnora Comstock roams the swamp to collect moth specimens, Stratton-Porter uses her keen naturalist’s eye to bring its eerie beauty, watery dangers (quicksand!) and unique fauna to life. She hoped the book would encourage conservation of the wetlands, which were being ravaged by oil rigs and drained for agriculture. Read this classic to immerse yourself in a lost world, then console yourself with the fact that, due to recent conservation efforts, a small portion of the swamp has begun to bounce back.

—Trisha, Publisher

A Wizard of Earthsea

Practically all of the important action in Ursula K. Le Guin’s iconic fantasy novel happens outdoors on the windswept seas and craggy islands of Earthsea. Le Guin’s mages skip along the enormous ocean in small boats pushed by winds that they command, or they transform into birds to fly from island to island. As her protagonist, Ged, travels from the harsh island of Gont to a school for wizards on the island of Roke and then embarks on a quest to hunt down a shadow creature, Le Guin treats readers to one stunning vista after another. My personal favorite is the island of Pendor, which was once a stronghold for pirates and outlaws before their vast treasure attracted the attention of dragons. Once the dragons took over the island, they used the towers of Pendor as glamorous perches before flying off to terrorize unsuspecting villagers. 

—Savanna, Associate Editor

Gathering Moss

Recently I have fallen back in love with moss, that ubiquitous, unexamined miniature landscape that is, rather surprisingly, absolutely everywhere—on the driveway and in sidewalk cracks, adorning tree trunks and hiding in the garden. It’s so small that it can easily become set dressing to the larger wonders of the forest, but through naturalist Robin Wall Kimmerer’s eyes, there is nothing more exciting or life-giving than a carpet of moss. In this loving series of personal essays, she is a gracious guide to the boundary layer where mosses flourish, blending scientific detail with poetic ruminations on her life spent observing these tiny rainforests. Her love of the mossy world is as buoyant as deep peat, and she leaves her readers with a profound sense of stewardship. If you’re like me, you’ll soon find any opportunity to stop and pet the moss.

—Cat, Deputy Editor

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Who better to deliver a shock to your stay-at-home system than Annie Dillard? Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is her nature writing masterpiece, full of all the scenery and savagery, tranquility and tragedy, mystery and miracle of the great outdoors—“beauty tangled in a rapture with violence,” as Dillard put it. This work of narrative nonfiction documents a year she spent exploring the natural world around her home in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley, through which the titular Tinker Creek runs. Dillard plays the part of pious sojourner, venerating monarch butterflies, muskrats, grasshoppers and pond scum in prose that is alternatingly lilting and electric. If summer’s monotony has dulled your senses, I recommend dipping into this iconic collection for a jolt of wonder.

—Christy, Associate Editor

Prodigal Summer

I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer for the first time one summer in Boston. I’d moved into an attic bedroom in a sprawling old house in Lower Allston, a neighborhood overrun with college students like myself. It had unfinished wood floors, mice and no air conditioning, so I often stayed up into the cooler hours of the morning reading, then caught a few hours of sleep before I had to head downtown for work. Kingsolver’s tale of the intersecting lives of humans and creatures in Appalachia was intoxicating. Reading it felt like falling under an enchantment—particularly since I was in the heart of a big city. Kingsolver explores the connections between humans and nature in many of her works, but this is the one I find myself returning to every year when the trees turn green and the sun shines warm.

—Stephanie, Associate Editor

Beautiful vistas. Shocking greenery. Bright, airy calm. Nature is magnificent, but sometimes the bug bites, poison ivy and boot-staining mud are not. Here are five literary landscapes you can discover from the comfort of your couch.

A Girl of the Limberlost

The U.S.…

NonfictionReligion & SpiritualityNatureFood & DrinkCrafts, Hobbies & HomeCookbooks

Lifestyles: August 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

Investigate the power of habit, make delicious Chicano food or ponder a new approach to your lawn with this month’s trio of lifestyle reads.

★ The Power of Ritual

The “sacred” may seem conceptually distant from our increasingly secular lives, but it shouldn’t, says Casper ter Kuile in The Power of Ritual. He argues that any habit or practice can become sacred through ritual, allowing us to develop our own modern versions of spiritual life. Here he explores how reframing habits as rituals can help us build connection on four interweaving levels: with ourselves, other people, the natural world and the transcendent. “What I propose is this: by composting old rituals to meet our real-world needs, we can regrow deeper relationships and speak to our hunger for meaning and depth,” he writes. In a world that can frequently feel upside-down and precarious, this well-researched book may provide vital ballast.

Chicano Eats

Esteban Castillo grew up near Los Angeles, making frequent trips to his parents’ homeland of Colima, Mexico. When he later moved to Northern California, he found Humboldt County seriously lacking in the cuisine of his family, so he started a blog to celebrate that food culture. Chicano Eats brings his work to print in festive color, highlighting the ingredients, kitchen tools and playful hybridity of Chicano cooking—Mexican cuisine shaped by immigrants to America over generations, reflecting a community “who’s neither from there or here.” The perfect pot of beans, arroz rojo and salsa molcajete will get you started, and then it’s off to botanas (snacks) such as carnitas poutine, lots of tacos, several versions of pozole (a stew made with hominy and pork) and much more.

Lawns Into Meadows

Americans love lush, green lawns. But the truth is, all those manicured yards are hard on the environment. They guzzle water, chemicals and fossil fuels and do nothing to encourage a biodiverse ecosystem of pollinators, wildlife and microbe-rich soil. In Lawns Into Meadows, Owen Wormser shows us how to forgo grass in favor of native plant meadows, a more climate-friendly option for your green space. Wormser suggests 21 hardy, easy-to-grow perennials that will fill out in no time, like black-eyed Susan, golden­rod and purple coneflower, along with meadow-­making designs to suit a variety of yard sizes. If this is a topic that interests you, there are many more guides in the nifty Citizen Gardening series from Stone Pier Press.

Investigate the power of habit, make delicious Chicano food or ponder a new approach to your lawn with this month’s trio of lifestyle reads.

★ The Power of Ritual

The “sacred” may seem conceptually distant from our increasingly secular lives, but it shouldn’t, says Casper ter…

NonfictionNatureFood & DrinkCrafts, Hobbies & HomeArt

Lifestyles: September 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

From fashion to flowers to foodie comforts, this month's best lifestyles books are here to inform, delight and soothe.

★ Mend!

I am not a big sewer (OK, I am not a sewer at all), but I can’t stop poring over Kate Sekules’ Mend! A Refashioning Manual and Manifesto. A seasoned travel editor and writer, Sekules brings a refreshingly fierce voice to an assemblage of topics: the wastefulness and exploitative practices of the fashion industry, the sustainability of slow fashion, the history of clothing, stars of the mending scene and more. Visible mending, or VM, is her chief cause. “To stitch or sport a VM is to declare independence from consumer culture with a beautiful scar and badge of honor,” she writes. A prim sewing guide this is not, and I am here for it. If you want sewing basics, Sekules does offer them, but along the way she will school you on where fashion has been and where it’s going (to the grave?).

Floriography

For some time now I have been a big admirer of Jessica Roux’s illustrations, which feel rooted in a time that’s decidedly not the present. So I was thrilled to discover her new book, Floriography, an A to Z of flowers and the meanings they were given by flower-mad Victorians. Back then, people weren’t so quick to emote socially; rather, they let petals do the talking for them. Roux provides a brief but fascinating history of this coded discourse and then shows us the flowers, in her distinct style, from amaryllis (pride) to zinnia (everlasting friendship). A final section illustrates bouquets—for new beginnings, bitter ends, warnings and more—and an index lists the flowers by meaning.

The Art of Cake

Alice Oehr’s The Art of Cake is not a cake cookbook—just a whimsically illustrated book about cake, with precise physical descriptions of and historical and cultural context for 50 cakes, such as Pavlova, linzertorte, charlotte and pound cake. “I am not a professional baker by any stretch of the imagination,” Oehr writes in a note about the final section of the book, in which she provides recipes (the only ones in the book) for six cakes. I’m intrigued by Oehr’s inclusion of banoffee pie, a dessert that she describes as “pie” twice in addition to its name. But particularly in these times, such quibbles are minor, and we could all use a bit more cake.

From fashion to flowers to foodie comforts, this month's best lifestyles books are here to inform, delight and soothe.

★ Mend!

I am not a big sewer (OK, I am not a sewer at all), but I can’t stop poring over Kate Sekules’ Mend! A Refashioning…

NonfictionNatureBiography

Book Clubs: October 2020

Feature by Julie Hale

For the spookiest month of the year, reading groups will love this quartet of slightly unsettling titles.

Sorcery abounds in Pam Grossman’s Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power. Grossman goes deep into the subject of witchery, digging into imagery, symbolism and—through evaluations of Salem, Massachusetts, and other storied locales—the significance of witches in history. She also looks at depictions of witches in books, movies and television shows. Grossman, a popular podcaster and active witch, writes with authority and wit, spinning a magical narrative that book clubs will find both instructive and playful. This book is a provocative study of an endlessly fascinating figure and a treat for mere mortals in search of a rewarding seasonal read.

The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini by Joe Posnanski unpacks America’s fascination with the extraordinary escape artist and magician. Posnanski gives a captivating account of the elusive Houdini (1874–1926), whose real name was Ehrich Weiss and who grew up in an immigrant family in Wisconsin. There are many rich ideas at play in this book, including the power of the media and the ways pop culture icons come into being. A whimsical selection for reading groups, it’s a captivating look at one of magic’s greatest practitioners and how his influence still lingers today.

A strong stomach is not required for readers to enjoy Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History, zoologist Bill Schutt’s intriguing study of a dark subject. Schutt traces cannibalism across species and eras, investigating myths and misconceptions while documenting cannibalism’s place in the evolutionary process. His narrative is lively and well organized, and it brims with concepts that are ripe for discussion, such as cultural taboos, the survival instinct and genetics.

In Witches of America, Alex Mar travels across the country to investigate the world of modern covens, mystics and pagans. Mar is an admitted disbeliever, but as she meets with members of the occult in New England and the Midwest, she finds her perspective shifting. She gives readers inside access to these arcane groups and reveals how they find a foothold in contemporary society. Book clubs will appreciate Mar’s evenhanded consideration of topics such as faith and the supernatural. Written with intelligence and an eye for eerie detail, her book is a can’t-miss Halloween pick.

For the spookiest month of the year, reading groups will love this quartet of slightly unsettling titles. Sorcery abounds in Pam Grossman’s Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power. Grossman goes deep into the subject of witchery, digging into imagery, symbolism and—through evaluations…
NonfictionNature

A walk in the woods

Feature by Alice Cary

We don’t just live on this planet; we’re part of it. These books help foster a stronger relationship with the living world around us.

In 1851, Henry David Thoreau wrote that he came to the woods “as a hungry man to a crust of bread.” More than 150 years later, many of us continue to crave the forest. These four books provide a variety of fun ways to immerse yourself in the natural world.

If you’re searching for a perfect gift book with broad appeal, 100 Things to Do in a Forest by Jennifer Davis may be the answer. Inside are 100 creative ways to spice up your woodsy wanderings, brought to life with colorful illustrations by Eleanor Taylor. Creative types will appreciate recipes for hedgerow jam and campfire bread. Kids of all ages will love making a grass whistle. Try a dice-rolling walk or (yikes!) cowpat Frisbee—although Davis assures readers that cow “poo is not smelly, dirty or harmful.” There are suggestions for woodland yoga, meditating or local gifting, such as leaving a book in a tree for someone else to find. Pair 100 Things to Do in a Forest with a local trail guide, and keep an outdoor lover busy for many happy months.

“There has always been singing in dark times—and wonder is needed now more than ever.”

America's National Historic TrailsCongress created the National Trails System in 1968, and since then it has designated 19 National Historic Trails that commemorate and protect routes of historic significance, special places that allow hikers to experience firsthand “the intersection of story and landscape,” as Karen Berger explains in America’s National Historic Trails: In the Footsteps of History. Some trails are coastal routes, while others cross the inland landscape, and they range in length from 54 to 5,000 miles. Stretching across time and weaving throughout the nation’s history, they include the East Coast’s Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, the Lewis and Clark Trail, the Oregon Trail, Alaska’s Iditarod Trail, Hawaii’s Ala Kahakai Trail and many more.

Each entry contains stunning photographs by Bart Smith and a detailed discussion of the history and geography of the route, as well as a list of specific historic sites, such as museums and visitors’ centers, along the way. Whether you’re a history buff, an outdoor enthusiast or both, America’s National Historic Trails offers a wealth of touring possibilities. I’m already making a list.

Backyard Birdwatcher's BibleWhen a great horned owl perched on my deck railing one winter afternoon, it felt like a mysterious, magical and majestic visitor had arrived. Keep a copy of The Backyard Birdwatcher’s Bible close at hand, and you’ll be more than ready to identify your own winged guests. Compiled by an impressive team of experts, the book contains a lengthy identification guide with corresponding photos. A discussion of “Birdwatching for Beginners” explains that migration pathways are inherited. Astonishingly, a common cuckoo chick raised by a foster parent can migrate months after its genetic parents have left and still find its way to Africa.

The “Birds in Art” section is especially fascinating, showcasing a variety of artists and their work. Some of their stories will astound you, such as English photographer Eric Hosking, who was struck by a tawny owl and lost sight in one eye. Undeterred from his passion, he went on to take “the first ever flash photograph—ironically, of an owl with its prey.”

There are also helpful tips on how to attract birds, with step-by-step instructions for building a nest box. Grab a pair of binoculars, and you’ll be all set.

The Lost SpellsA follow-up to the bestselling The Lost Words, The Lost Spells is a combination of Robert MacFarlane’s acrostics (poems in which each line begins with a letter to spell out a word) and Jackie Morris’ illustrations of the natural world. Suitable for adults as well as younger readers, the book celebrates a range of flora and fauna, including a red fox, goldfinch, oak tree and snow hare. Calling this “a book of spells to be spoken aloud,” nature writer MacFarlane (Underland) writes, “Loss is the tune of our age, hard to miss and hard to bear. Creatures, places and words disappear, day after day, year on year. But there has always been singing in dark times—and wonder is needed now more than ever.”

This is a decidedly heartfelt volume, with accessible poems that somehow feel sacred. Morris’ hauntingly beautiful watercolors are perfectly matched to the spirit of the text. Should you find yourself unable to go outside, cozying up with The Lost Spells is the next best thing.

We don’t just live on this planet; we’re part of it. These books help foster a stronger relationship with the living world around us.
NonfictionAudioSocial ScienceNatureMemoirBiography

Audiobooks: Don’t know what to listen to next? We’ve got some ideas

Feature by bookpagedev

Calling all runners, crafters, road warriors and vigorous house-cleaners: If you’re in need of a new audiobook, read on for some of the best new nonfiction productions. All true stories, all extraordinary listens.

All Creatures Great and Small (15.5 hours)

It’s been more than 50 years since James Herriot’s beloved stories were published, stealing hearts with his humorous tales about the 1930s Yorkshire Dales, where he served the memorable townsfolk as a young country veterinarian. This January, fans will settle in for PBS Masterpiece’s adaptation of the series, but this tie-in, read by star Nicholas Ralph, will transport you while you wait. Is there anything better than cozy stories told in a Scottish accent? Don’t be surprised if, while walking your dog, for example, you’re stopped by a stranger across the street who asks what you’re listening to because you just look so dang happy.

Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee (7.5 hours)

Shannon Lee, daughter of kung fu master Bruce Lee, shares the stories behind her father’s guiding philosophy to “be water,” to accept oneself rather than try to go against one’s nature. As Lee explains, water is “soft yet strong, natural yet able to be directed, detached yet powerful, and above all, essential to life.” Lee’s book entertains as it inspires, and she sounds like an old pro as its narrator, confidently inviting us to join in this philosophy of self-acceptance.

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (14.5 hours)

Robin Miles narrated Isabel Wilkerson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Warmth of Other Suns, and she delivers another smooth, energetic performance for Caste, Wilkerson’s latest masterpiece. In Caste, Wilkerson spins years of research into an accessible yet profound case for an unacknowledged caste system within the United States. More than race, more than class, Wilkerson believes that the language of caste best describes the hierarchy of power in our country, and she thoroughly demonstrates this claim through insights about the similar caste systems in India and Nazi Germany and through personable anecdotes from her own personal experience. These stories, brought to life by Miles’ trademark clarity, warmth and gravitas, provide readers with a new lens on the world that, once peered through, will change the way they see things forever.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Discover more of our most highly recommended audiobooks.

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X (18 hours)

For a listener seeking a full immersion in history, we recommend you download this monumental, National Book Award-winning biography from Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Les Payne, a 30-year project completed after Payne’s death by his daughter, Tamara Payne. This book embroiders the full canvas surrounding the story of Malcolm X, providing a total sense of context, complete with corrected historical records and rewind-that-back-and-listen-again revelations. Award-winning narrator Dion Graham is one of the finest in the business, and he commands your attention, warmly but firmly demanding, Listen up—this is the story of Macolm X like you’ve never heard before.

I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are (5 hours)

Funny woman and TV genius Rachel Bloom (you know her from “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”) narrates her own memoir about awkwardness and fame, and it’s everything you could hope for. Her writing runneth over with personality, and her audiobook nearly explodes with it. She does hilarious voices, she makes audio-related asides to translate a text-only quip, and she cannonballs through her most irreverent jokes with such glee such that you have no choice but to laugh till it hurts.

Memorial Drive (5 hours)

Former U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey narrates her debut memoir, Memorial Drive, with both steady skill and heart-wrenching tenderness. As a poet, she understands the subtle power of phrasing, emphasis and a well-timed pause. Yet as she tells the story of her mother’s murder by Trethewey’s ex-stepfather when Trethewey was 19, there is an understandable rawness just below the surface. Her voice catches with deep emotion as she recounts the story of why it took her 35 years to turn this harrowing story of fear, loneliness and loss into a memoir. The content is tragic, but Trethewey’s lingering Mississippi inflection is soothing as she lays out her tale, and listeners will feel totally at ease as they tune in to hear a master at work.

Notes on a Silencing (11 hours)

How do you talk about something that you’ve been forced to stay silent about? Lacy Crawford does the seemingly impossible in her memoir: She tells the full story of her rape by two boys while at a New England boarding school, and then narrates it for the audiobook. Her clear voice provides her younger self with a level of truth that has too long been withheld and offers moments of levity amid the darkness. The younger Lacy is likable and bold as she navigates her trauma and the cruelty of her school. This memoir is a masterful depiction of how to tell a story, especially the hardest one you could ever think to write.

★ Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America (12 hours)

The history of immigration in America gets a personal and, through author Maria Hinojosa’s narration, supremely entertaining and moving treatment in this part memoir, part work of social science. Hinojosa’s family immigrated to the United States from Mexico when she was an infant, and she tangles her history with the nation’s to offer one of the finest audiobooks of the year.

Hinojosa is the anchor and executive producer of "Latino USA" on NPR, and she knows how to spin a story, boldly capturing moments of triumph and pain, and performing voices that conjure the unexpected strength of her mother, that mock the unjust or the racist and that transport the listener to each and every event she recounts here. She understands exactly what America offers and how it has failed immigrants, and she packages the story in journalistic objectivity and an arresting, honest performance.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Maria Hinojosa reveals what it was like to narrate her memoir: “I am the character, she is me!”

Vesper Flights (10.5 hours)

Helen Macdonald’s collection of nature essays offers a balance of comfort and clear-eyed concern, Some of the essays are short and sweet (a vignette on her father and a goat is laughably brief), but her pieces that connect her love of nature to the wider world are when this book really shines. She draws threads between migraines and climate change, between nostalgia for the natural world and Brexit, and between flocks of birds and our own relationship to the changing environment. With deep affection and a frank yet gentle tone, she shares her wide knowledge and unique perspective like the gifts that they are.

Where I Come From: Stories From the Deep South (7.5 hours)

For Southern listeners, to hear Rick Bragg narrate his own missives from the Deep South is to be transported to a porch on a summer evening. This collection combines some of his finest columns from Southern Living and Garden & Gun, in which he explores down-home topics such as Tupperware, trucks and the importance of a good knife. There’s nothing quite so calming as a rhythmic Southern drawl, capturing the most romantic bits of a rural life.

Calling all runners, crafters, road warriors and vigorous house-cleaners: If you’re in need of a new audiobook, read on for some of the best new nonfiction productions. All true stories, all extraordinary listens.
NonfictionNatureAnimals

Take a bird’s-eye view of Earth Day

Feature by Anna Christensen

This period of cloistering at home has made bird lovers everywhere more attentive to their backyards. Millions of us have hung bird feeders, ordered bird identification cards and glued ourselves to the windowpane to watch these tiny emissaries of the sky. Yet for all the joy that birds bring us, they face grim and unprecedented dangers as their numbers dwindle. To better appreciate the beauty, delicacy and tenacity of our aerial friends, these books will put you on the right crosswind.

★ A World on the Wing

Scott Weidensaul, a Pulitzer finalist for his book Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere With Migratory Birds, returns to the topic in A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds, though much has changed in the intervening 20 years. For one thing, tracking technology has improved, with devices shrunk to a size that even the smallest songbirds can wear. Weidensaul describes a minuscule transmitter fitted to the small of a bird’s back by two small loops around its legs, and this is charming to think about—first, of birds having a small of the back, and second, of their wearing transmitters like tiny underpants.

In 2016 the Anthropocene Working Group proposed that humanity had left the Holocene and entered the Anthropocene, an era defined by the ways humans have destabilized the natural world. Weidensaul addresses migratory birds’ changing reality and the scientists who work tirelessly to learn more about them and advocate on their behalf to the powers responsible for decimating these birds’ lives and rhythms. The plight and toughness of both birds and their human defenders will move you in lasting ways.

★ A Most Remarkable Creature

According to Jonathan Meiburg, a South American falcon called the caracara is both the most and least likely animal to survive the world to come. Personable and wickedly clever, the caracara’s greatest strengths are its adaptability, intelligence and ability to forge connections, even with humans. In his debut book, A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey, Meiburg travels across South America in pursuit of this little-known falcon that seems to either enchant or chagrin anyone who crosses its path.

So intimately does Meiburg acquaint his readers with this inquisitive, curious, sometimes playful thief of a bird that it’s startling when he adds “doomed” to that list of adjectives. Meiburg’s fondness for the caracara is plain, and he can’t help but dream up a plan to rescue this odd winged creature from its steadily shrinking habitat, encroached upon by forces both natural and human-made. What’s more, Meiburg lodges the caracara so deeply in readers’ hearts that by the end of the book, they will feel ready to participate in whatever scheme he proposes to save this peculiar dinosaur-descendant.

The Glitter in the Green

At the other end of the avian spectrum lies the hummingbird, that glamorous, sugar-high pugilist of the garden. Natural history writer, photographer and hummingbird obsessive (within the first hundred pages he crosses both a bear and a puma in pursuit of this tiny, glimmering bird) Jon Dunn has written a book that is both an ode to hummingbirds and a remarkable piece of travel literature. In The Glitter in the Green: In Search of Hummingbirds, we travel with Dunn to Alaska, Mexico and across South America as he follows in the hummingbird’s wake.

Dunn gives us the facts about hummingbirds—for example, their long tongues coil inside their skulls when not in use and split at the end to allow for rapid-fire nectar gathering—but he also explores the places where hummingbirds intersect with the world they inhabit and the people they affect. The story of hummingbirds intertwines intriguingly with Mexican witchcraft, James Bond, plane crashes, economies around the world and the lingering legacy of Aztec power. We come to realize that these familiar visitors are astonishingly mysterious: They perform impressive migrations to arctic climes for breeding, their feathers have been valued as currency, and some cultures believe they bring love and guard travelers. From the narrative of Dunn’s excursion, we learn that a backyard hummingbird sighting is actually an exotic visit from the wide, strange world.

To better appreciate the beauty, delicacy and tenacity of our aerial friends, these books will put you on the right crosswind.

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