Lakeland Public Library discussion

In this section of the Adult and Teen Summer Reading Challenge, we've asked you to imagine your story in the woods. The forest symbolizes many things in literature, but most often the unconscious and its mysteries: an unexplored realm full of the unknown. Here are some titles that use the woods as a vital setting. We've included fiction, non-fiction and YA fiction. If we missed a title you really enjoyed, and the woods or nature is a major element, let us and other readers know in the comments sections.


FICTION:

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Celine by Peter Heller

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Above the Waterfall by Ron Rash

Lone Wolf by Jodi Piccoult

The Forest by Edward Rutherfurd

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

The Joe Pickett Series by C.J. Box

The Bees by Laline Paull

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddy Ratner

Doll Funeral by Kate Hamer

In a Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

The Ritual by Adam Neville

Through the Woods graphic novel by Emily Carroll

The Woods graphic novel series by James Tynion

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien

Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare


NON-FICTION:

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How the Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben

The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams

Into the Wild by  Jon Krakauer

Walden, Or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan

Never Home Alone by Rob Dunn

The Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv


YA FICTION:

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

The Woods by R.L. Toalson

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall

Skink No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen

The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling