Outdoor and Nature Books for All Reader Types
Whether for exercise, mental clarity, or simply some fresh air, nature is both restoring and inspiring. It is somehow physical and spiritual, mystical and scientific all at once. But it is also dangerous and unpredictable. A change in the weather or an unforgiving landscape can turn a peaceful day outdoors into a deadly situation.
This balance of peace and chaos makes the outdoors a perfect backdrop for gripping fiction, survival stories, spiritual reflections, and awe-inspiring memoirs. Nature is full of stories waiting to be told. So, find a quiet spot in the shade to read or maybe listen to an audiobook on a hike. We’ve curated a list of exciting books featuring the great outdoors.
From rugged romances to mystical forests, we have fiction that will take you to new places. Our how-to hiking guides and travel memoirs will help you travel the world. You can even learn more about the plants and animals living in your own backyard. We’ve got a book for everyone.
Outdoor and nature reads:
MODERN ROMANTIC
All Rhodes Lead Here
by Mariana Zapata
New York Times bestselling author and the Queen of Slow Burn Romance Mariana Zapata's fan favorite All Rhodes Lead Here, a story about finding love when you least expect it--now with new exclusive content!
The people we lose take a part of us with them...but they leave a part of themselves with us too.
Aurora De La Torre, or Ora to her friends, knows moving back to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, a place that was once home and is now full of bittersweet memories of her late mother, isn't going to be easy. Starting your whole life over probably isn't supposed to be.
Raiders of the Lost Heart
by Jo Segura
An Indie Next and LibraryReads Pick!
Rival archaeologists must team up on a secret Aztec expedition, or it could leave their careers--and hearts--in ruins.
Archaeologist Dr. Socorro "Corrie" Mejía has a bone to pick. Literally.
It's been Corrie's life goal to lead an expedition deep into the Mexican jungle in search of the long-lost remains of her ancestor, Chimalli, an ancient warrior of the Aztec empire. But when she is invited to join an all-expenses-paid dig to do just that, Corrie is sure it's too good to be true...and she's right.
Serial Reader
You'll Thank Me for This
by Nina Siegal
A pulse-pounding psychological thriller based on the popular Dutch tradition of blindfolding and dropping teens and pre-teens in the middle of a forest -- and what happens when it goes horribly wrong.
Twelve-year old Karin is blindfolded and dropped into the Hoge Veluwe National Forest with three other children. With nothing but a few basic supplies and emergency food, the children are tasked with working together to navigate one of the Netherlands' most beautiful and wild locations and return to where their families are anxiously waiting.
North of Nowhere: A Thriller
by Allison Brennan
New York Times bestseller Allison Brennan's North of Nowhere is an unputdownable race to the dramatic finish.
After five years in hiding from their murderous father, the day Kristen and Ryan McIntyre have been dreading has arrived: Boyd McIntyre, head of a Los Angeles crime family, has at last tracked his kids to a small Montana town and is minutes away from kidnapping them. They barely escape in a small plane, but gunfire hits the fuel line. The pilot, a man who has been raising them as his own, manages to crash land in the middle of the Montana wilderness. The siblings hike deep into the woods, searching desperately for safety--unaware of the severity of the approaching storm.
Stunt Double:
Breathless: A Thriller
by Amy McCulloch
A BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB PICK
"A vertigo-inducing page-turner by an author who brings the high-stakes world of expert mountain-climbing to life on the page." --Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid
Journalist Cecily Wong is in over her head. She's come to Manaslu, the eighth-highest peak in the world, to interview internationally famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh on the last leg of a record-breaking series of summits. She's given up everything for this story--her boyfriend, her life savings, the peace she's made with her climbing failures in the past--but it's a career-making opportunity. It could finally put her life back on track.
The Last Ranger
by Peter Heller
The best-selling author of The River returns with a vibrant, lyrical novel about an enforcement ranger in Yellowstone National Park who likes wolves better than most people. When a clandestine range war threatens his closest friend, he must shake off his own losses and act swiftly to discover the truth and stay alive.
"A good story that's intertwined like leaves afloat in a river with the current of Heller's descriptive powers... Filled with Heller's lush writing... Powerful." -Denver Post
Officer Ren Hopper is an enforcement ranger with the National Park Service, tasked with duties both mundane and thrilling: Breaking up fights at campgrounds, saving clueless tourists from moose attacks, and attempting to broker an uneasy peace between the wealthy vacationers who tromp through the park with cameras, and the residents of hardscrabble Cooke City who want to carve out a meaningful living.
Dragon Slayer:
Demon Copperhead
by Barbara Kingsolver
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE - WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
New York Times Readers' Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.
Silver in the Wood
by Emily Tesh
Winner of the 2020 World Fantasy Award!
From Astounding Award winner and Crawford Award finalist Emily Tesh
An ALA RUSA Reading List Selection
"A true story of the woods, of the fae, and of the heart. Deep and green and wonderful."--New York Times bestselling author Naomi Novik
There is a Wild Man who lives in the deep quiet of Greenhollow, and he listens to the wood. Tobias, tethered to the forest, does not dwell on his past life, but he lives a perfectly unremarkable existence with his cottage, his cat, and his dryads.
Galactic Guru:
Last Light
by Claire Kent
It only took four years for the world to fall apart.
Now the last member of my family has died, and I'm forced to travel across what's left of three states to find the only people I know left alive. To survive, I'll have to salvage food and supplies and try to avoid violent men who've learned they can take what they want by force. The only way I'm going to make it is by trusting Travis.
The Bear
by Andrew Krivak
From National Book Award in Fiction finalist Andrew Krivak comes a gorgeous fable of Earth's last two human inhabitants, and a girl's journey home
In an Edenic future, a girl and her father live close to the land in the shadow of a lone mountain. They possess a few remnants of civilization: some books, a pane of glass, a set of flint and steel, a comb. The father teaches the girl how to fish and hunt, the secrets of the seasons and the stars. He is preparing her for an adulthood in harmony with nature, for they are the last of humankind. But when the girl finds herself alone in an unknown landscape, it is a bear that will lead her back home through a vast wilderness that offers the greatest lessons of all, if she can only learn to listen.
A cautionary tale of human fragility, of love and loss, The Bear is a stunning tribute to the beauty of nature's dominion.
Young at heart:
Things That Grow
by Meredith Goldstein
After her grandmother dies, a girl travels to different gardens to scatter her ashes, learning about life and love along the way. From Love Letters advice columnist and podcast host Meredith Goldstein, this emotionally resonant novel with a touch of humor is perfect for fans of Robin Benway and Jenna Evans Welch.
When Lori's Dorothy Parker-loving grandmother dies, Lori's world is turned upside down. Grandma Sheryl was everything to Lori--and not just because Sheryl raised Lori when Lori's mom got a job out of town. Now Lori's mom is insisting on moving her away from her beloved Boston right before senior year. Desperate to stay for as long as possible, Lori insists on honoring her grandmother's last request before she moves: to scatter Sheryl's ashes near things that grow.
Rick Riordan Presents: It Waits in the Forest
by Sarah Dass
Unlike the other residents of the small Caribbean Island of St. Virgil, Selina DaSilva does not believe in magic. With a logical mind and a knack for botany, Selina used to dream of leaving the island to study Pharmacology--until a vicious, unsolved attack left her father dead and her mother in a coma.
Endorsed by Rick Riordan, author of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, now a hit series on Disney+.
Bookworm:
The Overstory
by Richard Powers
The Overstory, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of--and paean to--the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers's twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours--vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.
Walden
by Henry David Thoreau
Henry Thoreau is considered, along with Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman and Nathaniel Hawthorne, as one of the leading figures in early American literature, and Walden is without doubt his most influential book. It recounts the author's experiences living in a small house in the woods around Walden Pond near Concord in Massachusetts. Thoreau constructed the house himself, with the help of a few friends, and one of the reasons why he moved into it was in an attempt to see if he could live independently and away from society. The result is an intriguing work which blends natural history with philosophical insights and includes many illuminating quotations from other authors.
Trendsetters:
The God of the Woods
by Liz Moore
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2024
Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn't just any thirteen-year-old: she's the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region's residents. And this isn't the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara's older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.
As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds.
The Life Impossible
by Matt Haig
The New York Times Bestseller
When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.
Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend's life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.
Beach reader:
Something Wilder
by Christina Lauren
Growing up the daughter of notorious treasure hunter and absentee father Duke Wilder left Lily without much patience for the profession...or much money in the bank. But Lily is resourceful, and now uses Duke's coveted hand-drawn maps to guide tourists on fake treasure hunts through the red rock canyons of Utah. It pays the bills but doesn't leave enough to fulfill her dream of buying back the beloved ranch her father sold years ago, and definitely not enough to deal with the sight of the man she once loved walking back into her life with a motley crew of friends ready to hit the trails. Frankly, Lily would like to take him out into the wilderness and leave him there.
That Summer Feeling
by Bridget Morrissey
One of Amazon's Best Romances
Garland Moore used to believe in magic, the power of optimism, and signs from the universe. Then her husband surprised her with divorce papers over Valentine's Day dinner. Now Garland isn't sure what to believe anymore, except that she's clearly never meant to love again. When new friends invite her to spend a week at their reopened sleepaway camp, she and her sister decide it's an opportunity to enjoy the kind of summer getaway they never had as kids. If Garland still believed in signs, this would sure seem like one. Summer camp is a chance to let go of her past and start fresh.
Woke up like this:
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
by Robin Wall Kimmerer - John Burgoyne
An Instant New York Times Bestseller
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.
As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry's relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude.
Been Outside: Adventures of Black Women, Nonbinary, and Gender Nonconforming People in Nature
by Shaz Zamore - Amber Wendler - Carolyn Finney
2024 Independent Publisher Book Awards Silver Medal Winner - LGBTQ+ Non-Fiction
2023 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist in LGBTQ+ Adult Nonfiction
"We're starting to see...diverse voices on the shelf, a wider variety of experiences on the page, and many different reasons for getting outside. -- Jaime Herndon, Book Riot
Encompassing identity, inspiration, ancestry, and stewardship, the essays and poems by leading Black women and nonbinary scientists in Been Outside explore how experiences in the natural world and life sciences shape the self. These writers and researchers contemplate the moments that sparked their love of nature, as well as the ways time in the field and outdoor adventures have enhanced or expanded their perspectives about what is possible.
time traveler:
Shelterwood
by Lisa Wingate
USA TODAY AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER
1990. Law enforcement ranger Valerie Boren-Odell arrives at Horsethief Trail National Park seeking a quiet place to raise her son. But no sooner has Valerie reported for duty than a teenage hiker goes missing and the long-hidden burial site of three children is discovered in a cave.
1909. Eleven-year-old Olive Radley knows that her stepfather is a threat to the two Choctaw girls boarded in their home. When the older girl disappears, Ollie flees, taking six-year-old Nessa with her.
Pearly Everlasting
by Tammy Armstrong
Set during the Great Depression, an immersive and enchantingly atmospheric novel about a girl and a bear raised as sister and brother in a remote logging camp, and the lengths to which they'll go to protect each other.
New Brunswick, 1934. When a cook in a logging camp finds an orphaned baby bear, he brings it home to his wife, who names the cub Bruno and raises him alongside her newborn daughter, Pearly. Growing up, Pearly and Bruno share a special bond and become inseparable. While life in the camp can be perilous--loggers are regularly injured or even killed--the Everlasting family form a close-knit community with the woodsmen, who accept and embrace the tame young bear.
leading lady:
Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation
by Tiya Miles
Harriet Tubman, forced to labor outdoors on a Maryland plantation, learned from the land a terrain for escape. Louisa May Alcott ran wild, eluding gendered expectations in New England. The Indigenous women's basketball team from Fort Shaw, Montana, recaptured a sense of pride in physical prowess as they trounced the white teams of the 1904 World's Fair. Celebrating women like these who acted on their confidence outdoors, Wild Girls brings new context to misunderstood icons like Sacagawea and Pocahontas, and to underappreciated figures like Native American activist writer Zitkála-Sá, also known as Gertrude Bonnin, farmworkers' champion Dolores Huerta, and labor and Civil Rights organizer Grace Lee Boggs.
This beautiful, meditative work of history puts girls of all races--and the landscapes they loved--at center stage and reveals the impact of the outdoors on women's independence, resourcefulness, and vision. For these trailblazing women of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, navigating the woods, following the stars, playing sports, and taking to the streets in peaceful protest were not only joyful pursuits, but also techniques to resist assimilation, racism, and sexism. Lyrically written and full of archival discoveries, Wild Girls evokes landscapes as richly as the girls who roamed in them--and argues for equal access to outdoor spaces for young women of every race and class today.
Wild Life: Finding My Purpose in an Untamed World
by Rae Wynn-Grant
"As sensitive and touching as it is urgent . . . [Wild Life is] a poignant exploration of the natural world." -O, The Oprah Magazine
In this vulnerable and urgent memoir, Rae Wynn-Grant explores the ever-shifting relationship between humans, animals, and the earth through her personal journey to becoming a wildlife ecologist.
Growing up in the diverse and bustling California Bay Area, renowned wildlife ecologist Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant always felt worlds away from the white male adventurers she watched explore the wilderness on TV. She dreamed of a future where she could spend sleepless nights under the crowded canopies of the Amazon and the starry skies of the savanna. But as Rae set off on her own expeditions in the wild, she saw nature's delicate balance in a new light.
world traveler:
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
by Kevin Fedarko
A New York Times Bestseller * Winner of the 2024 National Outdoor Book Award in Outdoor Literature * Winner of the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction
From the author of the beloved bestseller The Emerald Mile, a rollicking and poignant account of an epic 750-mile odyssey, on foot, through the heart of America's most magnificent national park and the grandest wilderness on earth.
Two friends, zero preparation, one dream. A few years after quitting his job to follow an ill-advised dream of becoming a guide on the Colorado River, Kevin Fedarko was approached by his best friend, National Geographic photographer Pete McBride, with a vision as bold as it was harebrained. Together, they would embark on an end-to-end traverse of the Grand Canyon, a journey that, McBride promised, would be "a walk in the park." Against his better judgment, Fedarko agreed, unaware that the small cluster of experts who had completed the crossing billed it as “the toughest hike in the world.”
Wanderess: The Unearth Women Guide to Traveling Smart, Safe, and Solo
by Nikki Vargas - Elise Fitzsimmons
Feminism meets travel in this interactive resource for women who love to travel the world, near and far--from the co-founders of Unearth Women, a print and digital women's travel magazine that's been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, and Good Morning America.
Wanderess features expert tips from leading women in the travel industry. You'll find everything you need to experience life-changing adventures, both near and far. And because travel is not a one-size-fits-all experience, our experts offer helpful advice for specific travelers, whether you're a woman of color, a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, or an expecting or new mom.
Spiritual seeker:
Nature Unveiled: 40 Reflections on Experiencing God's Creation
by Jill Smith - Stacey Barr
Rediscover the wonder and tranquility of God's Creation in Nature Unveiled, a 40-day devotional from author and former forester Jill Smith that explores the beauty and mystery of the natural world and how it points us to the Creator.
Nature Unveiled: 40 Reflections on Experiencing God's Creation is a thought-provoking and spiritually enriching 40-day devotional that seamlessly blends nature with scripture. Through insightful reflections and captivating illustrations, readers will gain a deeper understanding of God's creation and their place within it. Each day's writing reminds us that the beauty of the natural world is a reflection of God's love and how we are called to be stewards of the Earth.
Green Mass: The Ecological Theology of St. Hildegard of Bingen
by Michael Marder
Green Mass is a meditation on--and with--twelfth-century Christian mystic and polymath Saint Hildegard of Bingen. Attending to Hildegard's vegetal vision, which greens theological tradition and imbues plant life with spirit, philosopher Michael Marder uncovers a verdant mode of thinking. The book stages a fresh encounter between present-day and premodern concerns, ecology and theology, philosophy and mysticism, the material and the spiritual, in word and sound.
the hobbyist:
Fresh Air Affairs: Entertaining with Style in the Great Outdoors
by Lela Rose
In her follow-up to Pret-a-Party, fashion designer Lela Rose takes the party outdoors, sharing tips and inspiration on hosting more than a dozen fun and festive gatherings.
Lela Rose is the ultimate party girl. In her second entertaining book, she is back with advice on giving stylish parties outside, filled with ideas for beautiful table settings, flower arrangements, and specialty cocktails and canapés.
The parties featured are inspired by places that matter to Lela--her childhood home in Texas, her favorite vacation retreat in Jackson Hole, and her home base in New York City--but their concepts easily travel, from a sundowner cocktail hour to a party celebrating local cheeses. There are stylish bird-watching excursions and a wildflower-gathering expedition under the big sky of Texas.
Fat Girls Hiking: An Inclusive Guide to Getting Outdoors at Any Size or Ability
by Summer Michaud-Skog
"An invaluable guide...Kudos to the author for changing the narrative on inclusiveness, breaking down stereotypes, and building body positivity." --Booklist
From the founder of the Fat Girls Hiking community comes an inclusive, inspiring call to the outdoors for people of all body types, sizes, and backgrounds. In a book brimming with heartfelt stories, practical advice, personal profiles of Fat Girls Hiking community members, and helpful trail reviews, Summer Michaud-Skog creates space for marginalized bodies with an insistent conviction that outdoor recreation should welcome everyone. Whether you're an experienced or aspiring hiker, you'll be empowered to hit the trails and find yourself in nature. Trails not scales!
lifelong learner:
Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures
by Katherine Rundell
NATIONAL BESTSELLER - NAMED A BEST BOOK OF FALL: WASHINGTON POST, CBS, BOSTON GLOBE, CHICAGO TRIBUNE & MORE
The world is more astonishing, more miraculous, and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In this brilliant and passionately persuasive book, Katherine Rundell takes us on a globe-spanning tour of the world's most awe-inspiring animals currently facing extinction.
Consider the seahorse: couples mate for life and meet each morning for a dance, pirouetting and changing colors before going their separate ways, to dance again the next day. The American wood frog survives winter by allowing itself to freeze solid, its heartbeat slowing until it stops altogether. Come spring, the heart kick-starts itself spontaneously back to life. As for the lemur, it lives in matriarchal troops led by an alpha female (it's not unusual for female ring-tailed lemurs to slap males across the face when they become aggressive). Whenever they are cold or frightened, they group together in what's known as a lemur ball, paws and tails intertwined, to form a furry mass as big as a bicycle wheel.
Treekeepers: The Race for a Forested Future
by Lauren E Oakes
"A frank, probing, but ultimately hopeful book" (Elizabeth Kolbert) that shows how the path from climate change to a habitable future winds through the world's forests
In recent years, planting a tree has become a catchall to represent "doing something good for the planet." Many companies commit to planting a tree with every purchase. But who plants those trees and where? Will they flourish and offer the benefits that people expect? Can all the individual efforts around the world help remedy the ever-looming climate crisis?
In Treekeepers, Lauren E. Oakes takes us on a poetic and practical journey from the Scottish Highlands to the Panamanian jungle to meet the scientists, innovators, and local citizens who each offer part of the answer. Their work isn't just about planting lots of trees, but also about understanding what it takes to grow or regrow a forest and to protect what remains. Throughout, Oakes shows the complex roles of forests in the fight against climate change, and of the people who are giving trees a chance with hope for our mutual survival.
Timely, meticulously reported, and ultimately optimistic, Treekeepers teaches us how to live with a sense of urgency in our warming world, to find beauty in the present for ourselves and our children, and to take action big or small.
Self-starter:
The Eight Master Lessons of Nature: What Nature Teaches Us about Living Well in the World
by Gary Ferguson
A riveting manifesto for the millions of people who long to forge a more vital, meaningful connection to the natural world to live a better, more fulfilling life
Looking around at the world today--a world of skyscrapers, super highways, melting ice caps, and rampant deforestation--it is easy to feel that humanity has actively severed its ties with nature. It's no wonder that we are starving to rediscover a connection with the natural world.
Wildpreneurs: A Practical Guide to Pursuing Your Passion as a Business
by Tamara Jacobi
Real-life "wildpreneur" Tamara Jacobi shares her insights on what it takes to successfully make the leap from a safe yet soul-crushing day job to chasing your dreams.
This book illuminates how surf guides, ski builders, yoga and wellness instructors, environmental activists, nature lovers, podcasters, artisans, and other creatives achieve an adventurous lifestyle and financial viability. Whether you're stuck in the nine-to-five grind, are an enterprising college grad, a dynamic retiree, or are just an out-of-the-box thinker, it's time to embrace your free spirit and become a Wildpreneur!
Entrepreneur and author Tamara Jacobi understands the challenge and reward of turning your passion into a business.
maverick:
Advocating for the Environment: How to Gather Your Power and Take Action
by Susan Inches
What can any one of us--as ordinary citizens--really do about climate change? A lot!
The shifts we need to achieve this vision are profound--from how we do business to how we educate, govern, and care--for all people and life on the planet. Written by environmental policy expert Susan B. Inches, Advocating for the Environment is an easy-to-understand, empowering guide to help you take action and enact environmental change.
Part I begins with how we must learn to think differently in order to achieve this vision and heal the planet. It discusses storytelling, empathy, worldviews, and how understanding and effective communication can help us collaborate with others--even those with opposing views. And it shows the important role that citizen advocates play in achieving a healthy future.
We Will Be Jaguars (Reese's Book Club Pick): A Memoir of My People
by Nemonte Nenquimo - Mitch Anderson
REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK
Named one of the Best Nonfiction Books of the Year by Library Journal
We Will Be Jaguars is an astonishing memoir by an equally astonishing woman. Nenquimo is a winner of TIME magazine's Earth Award, and MS. magazine named this book among the Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2024.
Born into the Waorani tribe of Ecuador's Amazon rainforest--one of the last to be contacted by missionaries in the 1950s--Nemonte Nenquimo had a singular upbringing.
She was taught about plant medicines, foraging, oral storytelling, and shamanism by her elders. At age fourteen, she left the forest for the first time to study with an evangelical missionary group in the city. Eventually, her ancestors began appearing in her dreams, pleading with her to return and embrace her own culture. She listened.
game day hero:
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
by Christopher McDougall
NATIONAL BESTSELLER - The astonishing and hugely entertaining story that completely changed the way we run. An epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt?
"Equal parts quest, physiology treatise, and running history.... The climactic race reads like a sprint.... It simply makes you want to run." --Outside Magazine
Isolated by Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America's best ultra-runners against the tribe. McDougall's incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.
Look for Born to Run 2, out now!
Solo: What Running Across Mountains Taught Me about Life
by Jenny Tough
The incredible story of a six-continent journey of self-discovery
Jenny Tough is an endurance athlete who's best known for running and cycling in some of world's most challenging events - achieving accolades that are an inspiration to outdoor adventurers everywhere. But SOLO tells the story of a much more personal project: Jenny's quest to come to terms with feelings and emotions that were holding her back. Like runners at any level, she knew already that running made her feel better, and like so many of us, she knew that completing goals independently was empowering, too. So she set herself an audacious objective: to run - solo, unsupported, on her own - across mountain ranges on six continents, starting with one of the most remote locations on Earth in Kyrgystan.
Whether you're looking to immerse yourself in the beauty of the natural world through breathtaking fiction, insightful nonfiction, or thought-provoking book club picks, these outdoor and nature books offer something for every kind of reader. Whether you’re curling up at home or gearing up for your next adventure, let these stories inspire your connection to the great outdoors.
Want to discover your perfect book match? Take our Reader Type Quiz and uncover your book personality today!