Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Sometimes it's nice to get outside and enjoy the fresh air... or at least get caught up in a book set in nature. This week, in honor of Earth Day, you are looking for a book that is set primarily in nature.

Mostly or Entirely Outdoors: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Rainforests and Jungles of the World: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...
Fiction Books Set on a Lake: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
Amazon Rainforest: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...
Forest Themed Romances: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...
Wilderness Thrillers: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Desert Islands: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...
Gibbs Smith Literary Naturalists (almost all non-fiction): https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Books Actually About Nature (non-fiction): https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Stories set in Antarctica: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Ships And The Sea Books with a maritime theme: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Fiction set in the Wilderness: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...
Best Books for Mountain Lovers: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...
Isolated Locations: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
A Walk in the Woods: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Walks and Rambles - Books on Walking Journeys:https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Trees, Woods, Forests: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...

ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

What are you reading for this prompt, and how does it fit?

I read The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World by this author and loved it. It entertaining as well as educational. I believe that nature will the focal point of Our Little Farm: Adventures in Sustainable Living by the same author, Peter Wohlleben, will be nature as he is a forester.

These seem to fit:
The Vaster Wilds - Lauren Groff
The Seed Keeper - Diane Wilson
The Easy Life in Kamusari - Shion Miura

I have a lot of these on my shelves. For this prompt I'm looking at The Clan of the Cave Bear, which my sister-in-law gave me last Christmas, and River of the Gods: Genius, Courage and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile, by an author my son recommended.

The Nile book sounds very interesting.

I'm reading The Wild Silence, having already read The Salt Path and Landlines.

I'm also reading Being a Beast: Adventures Across the Species Divide, which sounds weird but fascinating.

For my 2016 book, I actually read Fingers in the Sparkle Jar: A Memoir. The author, who has Asperger's, spent his boyhood involved in and obsessed with the natural world. The book is beautifully written; the poetic descriptions make it quite an intense read. The book does contain some descriptions of ill-treatment of animals and mention of suicide.

I'm going to read Small Game by Blair Braverman, it's a thriller about contestants on a reality show getting stranded in the wilderness.

Annihilation fills several prompts, but it will most likely land here as I don't read books with people almost entirely out of doors very often, and the whole novella is focused on the description of the ecological effects in Area X.

Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson is about nature so I’m assuming it’s at least partially set in nature. It’s what I’m reading for this prompt, regardless.

I am reading The Troop

I'm considering Rim to River: Looking into the Heart of Arizona by Tom Zoellner.

I really enjoyed: The Last Ride of the Pony Express: My 2,000-mile Horseback Journey into the Old West

This one has a wealth of options, including The God of the Woods by Liz Moore; however, I have this one for several prompts.

I'm also considering these for other prompts but they could end up here:
Life of Pi
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Migrations

I read Lark Ascending by Silas House, about a young man making his way through post-apocalyptic Ireland.

I read The Nature of Spring this is part of a 4 season of books. I read the "winter" book last year. They are very gentle, evocative musings of the author's interactions with nature. He appears to have an avian bent but covers all aspects

I enjoyed The Nature of Autumn in this series

I read The Last Cold Place: A Field Season Studying Penguins in Antarctica by Naira de Gracia.
3.5-4.0 stars
It also works for a group of unrelated people.

For this prompt, I read:
Beyond the Trees: A Journey Alone Across Canada's Arctic by Adam Shoalts - 4.5* - My Review

I read Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey for this prompt. I honestly wouldn't recommend it. It does have some great stuff written about Arches National Park (National Monument at the time he wrote it), but you have to stomach all the other vile ableist, racist, misogynist, arrogant bs that he writes. I do think the book is important for all the stuff he wrote about nature, but ugh. It was so disappointing. I wanted to think well of him, but he was a big jerk.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
3⭐
There are some laugh out loud moments as the author hikes the Appalachian Trail

I read GLOBETROTTING: Writers Walk the World, which is a series of excerpts from travel writers who walked in different countries all over the world.

I’m definitely into nature and environmental books this year. I read…
Wild Dark Shore
Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
Pod - set completely in the ocean
The Last Cold Place: A Field Season Studying Penguins in Antarctica
The Simple Wild
Girl in Ice
The Light Pirate

I moved Running Wild here from another prompt. Like all Michael Morpurgo's books it is quite dark in places, but as usual very well written, an exciting story, with a strong environmental message. A young boy is saved from the 2004 tsunami by an elephant he happens to be riding, and relies on her for safety. He later encounters a tiger, and finds himself acting as parent to baby orang-utans. The grim prognosis that the author gives for orang-utans in the wild has not come to pass, which is excellent, but of course, they are still massively endangered.

Being a Beast was a strange, obsessive yet fascinating book. I realised reading it that last year I'd read The Screaming Sky by the same author, which had the same characteristics. Charles Foster tries to live as an animal, in an earth den like a badger, swimming in a stream like an otter, eating food as these animals would. The most detailed and interesting chapter is on his life as a badger, and how his senses change as he tries to live in its world.

I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain for this. It seemed like an obvious pick for this topic, but after completing it, I think it might be possible to argue if it is 'mostly' set in nature.

J wrote: "I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain for this. It seemed like an obvious pick for this topic, but after completing it, I think it might be possible to a..."

It sounds fine to me. I read James this year, and I thought they spent enough time outdoors to count. I vaguely remember Huck Finn, but I remember the river. For this prompt, the book doesn’t have to be “about” nature, or have long descriptions of it.

I read:
News of the World by Paulette Jiles


REJECT: A book with a tv or film adaptation

Finished: 03/22/2023
Rating: 5 stars

From Goodreads:
In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction...that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.

Awesome book. Have not seen the movie, but hope it is good.

I read Walden, or Life in the Woods and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau

Entire point of the book is to live in and enjoy nature

I read Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams for this topic. (Read April 3rd; 4*)

NancyJ wrote: "It sounds fine to me. I read James this year, and I thought they spent enough time outdoors to count. I vaguely remember Huck Finn, but I remember the river. For this prompt, the book doesn’t have to be “about” nature, or have long descriptions of it."

I appreciate the reassurance.

The Puma Years would definitely work for this. It's a memoir written by a young English woman who travels to Bolivia to volunteer for a native animal rescue group. She is outside with the animals in the Amazon jungle throughout the book. This book made my personal Top Ten for 2024.

I read The Baron in the Trees by Italian author Italo Calvino, a bizarre and fantastical tale of a nobleman who takes to the trees at the age of twelve and never sets foot on earth again for the rest of his long life. Such a strange and often humorous tale!

My full review can be found here.

I read The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World.

I have just read Song of the Earth by Mary Hoffman and Jane Ray. it is a children's book with beautiful illustrations, a celebration of the 4 elements that give us life. It fits in extremely well with earth day and is about how people have lived in the past and now with nature and also about myths surrounding mother Earth.

I read Extinction. It was primarily set in the Colorado Rockies.

I read

This book is set in the Alaskan wilderness. It describes a messy but beautiful relationship between a mother and daughter, and this is the aspect I enjoyed the most. I highly recommend!