Environment & Nature bestsellers

As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our... Read more »

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “thrilling” (The New York Times), “dazzling” (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world that will fill you with wonder and forever alter your perspective, by Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Ed Yong
 
“One of this year’s finest works of narrative... Read more »

A humorous and rousing set of literal and figurative sojourns as well as a mission statement about comprehending, protecting, and truly experiencing the outdoors, fueled by three journeys undertaken by actor, humorist, and New York Times bestselling author Nick Offerman

Nick Offerman has always felt a particular affection for the Land of the... Read more »

Why Fish Don't Exist

“I was absolutely riveted to this beautiful book. This story is fascinating and seamlessly threaded into the author's own struggles. It made me pause, rewind, start over, cry, laugh.....it's just one of the best memoirs I've ever read.”

Nichole, The Yankee Bookshop

Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites listeners to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses.

Robin Wall Kimmerer's book is not an identification guide,... Read more »

From legendary science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson comes a remarkable vision of climate change over the coming decades. 

The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but... Read more »

Entangled Life

“An ecological, fungi-based restructuring of your world view given to us as only a brilliant biologist could offer. Sheldrake says, 'Without this fungal web my tree would not exist. Without [...] fungal webs no plant would exist anywhere. All life on land, including my own, depends on these networks.'”

Kaya, Collected Works Bookstore

On Animals

“Listening to the audiobook was like listening to a podcast on animals, episodic and entertaining. New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean writes about animals in such a loving way. The personalities of each creature shines through. Highly recommend if you love creatures big and small.”

Sofia, Phoenix Books

“When you wake up and you see that the Earth is not just the environment, the Earth is us, you touch the nature of interbeing. And at that moment you can have real communication with the Earth… We have to wake up together. And if we wake up together, then we have a chance. Our way of living our life and planning our future has led us into this...

From the author of In the Hurricane's Eye and Valiant Ambition, the riveting and critically acclaimed bestseller and a major motion picture starring Chris Hemsworth, directed by Ron Howard.

Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson star in a film based on this National Book Award–winning account of the true events behind... Read more »

*Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and Literary Hub!*
*A 2023 Phillip D. Reed Environmental Writing Award Finalist*

From Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx, this riveting deep dive into the history of our wetlands and what their systematic destruction means for the planet “is both an enchanting work of nature writing and a rousing... Read more »

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From the world's leading forest ecologist who forever changed how people view trees and their connections to one another and to other living things in the forest—a moving, deeply personal journey of discovery

“Finding the Mother Tree reminds us that the world is a web of stories, connecting us to one another. [The... Read more »

A “profound and inspiring” collection of ancient indigenous wisdom for “anyone wanting the healing of self, society, and of our shared planet” (Peter Levine, author of Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma).

A Penobscot Indian draws on the experiences and wisdom of the First Nations to address environmental justice, water protection, generational... Read more »

Under a White Sky

“Under a White Sky is a scary book. It's about climate change, invasive species, and how Louisiana is disappearing into the ocean. It's about how humans, as a species, have screwed up the planet, and how we tend to screw it up more when we try to fix our mistakes. It's also about how we're developing a bunch of new fixes to go after our old mistakes. It's depressing at times, darkly comic at others, and absolutely fascinating throughout. This is a great book for people who want to see where we are now, how we got here, and how scientists are imagining new ways to get us out. Recommended reading for anyone who cares about the planet and wants to read about environmental topics that are perhaps not yet mainstream, but that we will come to reckon with in the near future.”

Spenser, Page 1 Books

Fathoms

“This isn't a scientists memoir about their life studying whales; it's really just a rambling of facts that held me and my friends in fascination as we listened to it on libro.fm during a road trip. WHALES ARE SO INTERESTING! Rebecca lives in Australia and became obsessed with whales when a young humpback washed up too high on her local beach and none of their efforts helped save it. The book evaluates what we know about whales and their relationship to us in really fascinating ways, throughout human history. It also offers some running commentary on how humans currently interact with whales, and how they bring hope to our uncertain future with climate change and anthropocene-caused extinction. ”

Amy, Bright Side Bookshop

The Well-Gardened Mind

“I listened to this on audio (from libro.fm/avidbookshop) and really loved it. I'm a longtime lover of being outdoors, but it wasn't until the pandemic hit that I started growing potted plants on my own in earnest. This book highlights the ways in which gardening, in all its forms, has a demonstrably positive impact on your mind, your body, your relationships, and the world. Just a lovely tome no matter if you're never planning to take care of plants or if you're a master gardener. ”

Janet, Avid Bookshop

Forget the aesthetics of mainstream minimalism and discover a life of authenticity and intention with this “warm, engaging guide” (Laura Fenton, author of The Little Book of Small Living) to living with less…your way.

When Christine Platt set out on her journey to live with less, she never intended to become The Afrominimalist. She just wanted to... Read more »

This Is Your Mind on Plants

“This book helps illustrate ways in which the proper uses of plants that are designed to help us, are not recognized properly in our society.”

James, Bookstore1Sarasota

Matsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the world—and a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere. Through its ability to nurture trees, matsutake helps forests to grow in daunting places. It is also an edible delicacy in Japan, where it sometimes commands astronomical prices. In all its contradictions,... Read more »

A groundbreaking study that radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans in 1492.

Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbus’s landing had crossed the Bering Strait twelve thousand years ago; existed mainly in... Read more »

Late Migrations

“Margaret Renkl feels the lives and struggles of each creature that enters her yard as keenly as she feels the paths followed by her mother, grandmother, her people. Learning to accept the sometimes harsh, always lush natural world may crack open a window to acceptance of our own losses. In Late Migrations, we welcome new life, mourn its passing, and honor it along the way.”

Kat Baird, The Book Bin (Corvallis)

An Indigenous environmental scientist breaks down why western conservationism isn't working--and offers Indigenous models informed by case studies, personal stories, and family histories that center the voices of Latin American women and land protectors.

Despite the undeniable fact that Indigenous communities are among the most affected by... Read more »

An intimate and revelatory dive into the world of the beaver—the wonderfully weird rodent that has surprisingly shaped American history and may save its ecological future.

From award-winning writer Leila Philip, BEAVERLAND is a masterful work of narrative science writing, a book that highlights, though history and contemporary storytelling, how... Read more »

From one of the most original thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world, a profound exploration of the spiritual power of nature—and an urgent call to reclaim that power in everyday life.

"Much has been written on the scientific and technological aspects of climate change.... But Armstrong’s book is both more personal and... Read more »

The Feather Thief

“A fascinating true crime book, The Feather Thief recounts the theft of more than 200 bird skins from a museum in England. Along the way, Johnson also covers Darwin contemporary Alfred Russel Wallace's travels to acquire birds of paradise, the theory of evolution, and the decimation of bird species in the name of fashion. It is a book about obsession, from the fly-tying community's hunt for specific bird species to Johnson's own need for justice and closure after the case is resolved. This is a gripping, multifaceted book about our need to possess beauty in the name of historical authenticity.”

Anton Bogomazov, Politics & Prose

A shocking and unputdownable exposé of the United States meat industry, the devastating failures of the country’s food system, and the growing disappointment of alternative meat producers claiming to revolutionize the future of food. Perfect for fans of Kochland, The Meat Racket, and The Secret Life of Groceries.

Well before COVID-19 swept across... Read more »

When Desert Solitaire was first published in 1968, it became the focus of a nationwide cult. Rude and sensitive. Thought-provoking and mystical. Angry and loving. Both Abbey and this book are all of these and more. Here, the legendary author of The Monkey Wrench Gang, Abbey's Road, and many other critically acclaimed books vividly captures the... Read more »

All ancient and indigenous peoples insisted their knowledge of plant medicines came from the plants themselves and not through trial-and-error experimentation. Less well known is that many Western peoples made this same assertion. There are, in fact, two modes of cognition available to all human beings—the brain-based linear and the heart-based... Read more »

In his long-awaited memoir, Yvon Chouinard-legendary climber, businessman, environmentalist, and founder of Patagonia, Inc.-shares the persistence and courage that have gone into being head of one of the most respected and environmentally responsible companies on earth. From his youth as the son of a French Canadian blacksmith to the thrilling,... Read more »

Provocative and illuminating essays from women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward.
 
There is a renaissance blooming in the climate movement: leadership that is more characteristically feminine and more faithfully feminist, rooted in compassion, connection,... Read more »

This funny and counter-intuitive book reveals how human intelligence may actually be more of a liability than a gift—and how the animal kingdom, in all its diversity, gets by just fine without it.

At first glance, human history is full of remarkable feats of intelligence. We invented writing. Produced incredible achievements in music, the arts,...

“Immersive . . . bracingly ambitious . . . rewinds the story of life on Earth—from the mammoth steppe of the last Ice Age to the dawn of multicellular creatures over 500 million years ago.”—The Economist

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE • “One of those rare books that’s both deeply informative and daringly imaginative.”—Elizabeth Kolbert,... Read more »

The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruptions and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster. In Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise...

Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, sixty-seven-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, atop Maine's... Read more »

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “An imperative call to action” (Nick Offerman) to get children off their screens and into nature, with tips for bonding activities that teach the importance of outside time and build tough, curious, competent kids—from the New York Times bestselling author and host of the TV series and podcast MeatEater

“A revelation... Read more »

What if animals and humans could speak to one another? Tom Mustill—the nature documentarian who went viral when a thirty‑ton humpback whale breached onto his kayak—asks this question in his thrilling investigation into whale science and animal communication.

“When a whale is in the water, it is like an iceberg: you only see a fraction of it and... Read more »

#1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author Naomi Klein makes the case for a Green New Deal in this “keenly argued, well-researched, and impassioned” manifesto (The Washington Post).

An instant bestseller, On Fire shows Klein at her most prophetic and philosophical, investigating the climate crisis not only as a profound political... Read more »

The Book of Hope

“Fascinating interview of naturalist Dr Jane Goodall by biographer Douglas Adams. I listened to the Libro.fm edition which is narrated by both. Interesting to learn how she first got interested in studying animal behavior and how the field has changed. Her research at Gombe National Park has given us an in-depth understanding of chimpanzee behavior. Had the privilege of seeing her in the early 70's at a lecture at National geographic in DC.”

Pat, Village Square Booksellers

Discover the impact of the human footprint in The World Without Us. Take us off the Earth and what traces of us would linger? And which would disappear? Alan Weisman writes about which objects from today would vanish without us; how our pipes, wires, and cables would be pulverized into an unusual (but mere) line of red rock; why some museums and...

We know that plants are important. They maintain the atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. They nourish other living organisms and supply psychological benefits to humans as well, improving our moods and beautifying the landscape around us. But plants don’t just passively provide. They also take action. Beronda L.... Read more »

Cat behaviorist and star of Animal Planet's hit television show My Cat from Hell, Jackson Galaxy, a.k.a. "Cat Daddy," isn't what you might expect for a cat expert (as the New York Times noted, with his goatee and tattoos he "looks like a Hell's Angel"). Yet Galaxy's ability to connect with even the most troubled felines—not to mention the... Read more »

**This program is read by Nicholas Ralph, star of the PBS Masterpiece series All Creatures Great and Small**

"Nicholas Ralph’s readings of Herriot’s stories are as comforting an experience as the show, and even more immersive." - The Houston Chronicle

Now available in unabridged CD format for the first time, The Lord God Made Them All is the...

Called "one of the greatest men alive" by the Times of London, E. O. Wilson proposes an historic partnership between scientists and religious leaders to preserve Earth's rapidly vanishing biodiversity. Read more »

In a world filled with breathtaking beauty, we have often overlooked the elusive charm and magic of certain landscapes. A cloudy river flows into a verdant Arctic wetland where sandhill cranes and muskoxen dwell. Further south, cypress branches hang low over dismal swamps. Places like these—collectively known as swamplands or peatlands—often go... Read more »

How Americans can take action in their own communities and unite across the political spectrum in pursuit of solutions to climate change.

Andreas Karelas has a message we don’t often hear: we have all the tools we need to solve the climate crisis and doing so will improve our lives, our economy, and our society.

But to engage people in the climate... Read more »

The Outermost House is a classic of American nature literature.

In 1926, Henry Beston spent two weeks in a two-room cottage on the sand dunes of Cape Cod. He had not intended to stay longer, but, as he later wrote, "I lingered on, and as the year lengthened into autumn, the beauty and mystery of this earth and outer sea so possessed and held me...

Noam Chomsky dissects the multiple crises facing humankind and the planet and provides a road map for resistance.

In this completely original set of interviews between the legendary duo of Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian, the two confront topics such as the pandemic, the wealth gap made worse because of the pandemic, climate destruction, the...

A powerful story of spiritual awakening, reconnection with Nature, and rekindling of ancestral wisdom

• Details the author’s encounters with ancestral spirits and animal teachers, such as Coy-Wolf, and profound moments of direct connection with the natural world

• Shows how ancestral connections and intimate communications with Nature are not... Read more »

This summer holiday vintage classic exploring the mystery of a buried Cornish hotel invites us to solve the puzzle as detectives: perfect for Agatha Christie fans, with a dash of Richard Osman ...
'I am loving it!' Nigella Lawson
'Hilarious and perceptive ... Perfect.' Daily Mail
'Entertaining, beautifully written, and profound.' Tracy...

In this collection of natural-history essays, biologist Joan Maloof embarks on a series of lively, fact-filled expeditions into forests of the eastern United States. Through Maloof's engaging, conversational style, each essay offers a lesson in stewardship as it explores the interwoven connections between a tree species and the animals and... Read more »