6 Essential Nature Reads
Like so many people, I have a bookshelf that is overflowing with familiar reads and yet-to-be-discovered favourites. Among the shelves, there are always those books that stay with me and that I return to again and again. Here is my list of essential nature reads:
A book that helped me see things differently.
Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer
This is one of those books that I recommend to everyone I know. Kimmerer uses an elegant hand to weave together Western science and Indigenous knowledge. As a white settler, this book has given me the first glimmers of true understanding around the ideas of reciprocity and living with the Land. Kimmerer’s depictions of stewardship as a constant practice are a poignant reminder of how we have a duty of care to the world around us.
A childhood favourite.
My Family and Other Animals – Gerald Durrell
Like all children, I had a poster of Gerald Durrell on my bedroom wall. I read every Durrell book I could get my hands on and most of them, multiple times. Not only were they filled with animals, but they were funny, filled with a self-deprecating humour that was as much about misadventures as it was adventures. The conservation world has changed since Durrell was collecting animals for zoos, but My Family and Other Animals, with its domestic descriptions of a boy who was obsessed with local flora and fauna, still holds up.
A book about local flora or fauna.
Old Man’s Garden – Annora Brown
Originally written in 1954, Old Man’s Garden not only describes southern Alberta plants and wildflowers, it attempts to document Indigenous knowledge and myths about the different species. This book is beautifully illustrated with Brown’s woodcut prints and reflects the author’s deep love of both plants and place.
Honourable mention: A Vascular Flora of Alberta – Linda Kershaw and Lorna Allen
A book of poetry.
New and Selected Poems – Mary Oliver
Online influencers have turned Oliver’s poetry into something of a cliche, which is a shame, because Oliver’s words aren’t solely about living one’s wild and precious life, but are unflinching reflections on nature and place and living and dying.
A book about my heart place.
Wolf Willow – Wallace Stegner
“…this is a land to mark the sparrow’s fall.” No other words so succinctly describe what it’s like to live on the prairies. Stegner is best known for his depictions of American landscapes, but Wolf Willow, about his time growing up in southern Saskatchewan, captures something essential about the rural western Canadian experience.
A book that inspires action.
Re-people Prairie – Liz Anna Kozik
This book, which is actually Dr. Kozik’s Phd dissertation, is an illustrated look at the changes and potential for rewilding of tallgrass prairie in Wisconsin. While the idea of restoring native grasslands is exciting on its own, it’s the presentation of this book that I find most inspiring. Deliberately avoiding the classic format of a scientific paper, Kozik presents her research in comic book style. This book changed my thinking about the way we communicate about science and the environment.
