Great Books:
1. The Forest Unseen [Penguin Books - 2012] “A Year’s Watch in Nature”
Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies
University of the South
A Guggenheim Fellow
A biologist reveals the world hidden in a single square meter of forest. Haskell’s work integrates scientific, literary, and contemplative studies of the natural world.
Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies
University of the South
A Guggenheim Fellow
Haskell bring his power of observation to the biological networks that surround all species, including humans. He repeatedly visits a dozen trees, exploring connections with people, microbes, fungi, and other plants and animals. He shows how human history, ecology and well-being are intimately intertwined with the lives of trees.
3. Landmarks [Penguin Books – 2015]“Joyous Observer” By Robert Macfarlane
Author of prize-winning and bestselling books about landscape, nature, people and place.
Macfarlane explores the linguistic and literary terrain of the British archipelago, from the Shetlands to Cornwall and from Cumbria to Suffolk, offering themed glossaries of hundreds of these rare, deeply local, poetical terms, organized by such geographical terrains as flatlands, uplands, water lands, coastlands, woodlands, and under lands. Interspersed with this archive of place words are biographical essays in which Macfarlane writes of his favorite authors who have paid close attention to the natural world and who embody in their own work the huge richness of place language.
4. A Tree a Day [Chronicle Books - 2021]“365 of the World’s Most Majestic Trees” By Amy-Jane Beer
Winner of the 2023 Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing
President of the Friends of the Dales
Writer for the Guardian's "Country Diary" column
Contributed to the People's Manifesto for Wildlife coordinated by Chris Packham, writing the section for the "Ministry of Social Inclusion and Access to Nature"
With award-winning photography, works of art, and detailed illustrations on every page, A Tree a Day illuminates the timeless splendor and power of the world's trees.“Immerse yourself in the beauty and power of nature with a different tree for every day of the year.”
5. Twelve Trees [Avid Reader Press - 2024]“The Deep Roots of our Future” By Daniel Lewis
A native of Hawaii, now living and working full-time in Southern California as the Dibner Senior Curator for the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library. He’s had an engrossing career as a curator, archivist, teacher, and writer.
Introduces us to twelve tree species that epitomize the many threats faced by our planet, from climate change, poachers and parasites to fungi and even elephants.
A British writer and natural navigator who has sailed and flown solo across the Atlantic. He is known for his books on interpreting nature's signs and his "smile path" discovery.
Learn to navigate by Branches, Locate Water with a Leaf, and Unlock Secrets of Trees.
7. Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast [Washington State Big Tree Program – 1996] By Robert Van Pelt
A U. of Washington and Evergreen State College forest ecologist who started the Washington State Big Tree Program explains how trees are measured to qualify for the program, then covers paragons of 20 species of conifers from the General Sherman giant sequoia to the king Engelmann spruce.
Includes color photos, distribution maps, a glossary of terms, tree summaries, and a big tree nomination form. Published for the Global Forest Society. Annotation c. Book News
8. The Trees are Speaking By Lynda V. Mapes
A call to rethink our relationship with forests Ancient and carbon-rich, old-growth forests play an irreplaceable role in the environment. Their complex ecosystems clean the air, purify the water, cool the planet, and teem with life. In a time of climate catastrophe, old-growth and other natural forests face existential threats caused by humans--and their survival is crucial to ours. In a bicoastal journey, environmental journalist Lynda V. Mapes connects the present and future of Pacific Northwest forests to the hard-logged legacy forests of the northeastern United States.
9. The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession - 2024 By Amy Stewart
When Amy Stewart discovered a community of tree collectors, she expected to meet horticultural fanatics driven to plant every species of oak or maple. But she also discovered that the urge to collect trees springs from something deeper and more profound: a longing for community, a vision for the future, or a path to healing and reconciliation.
In this slyly humorous, informative, often poignant volume, Stewart brings us captivating stories of people who spend their lives in pursuit of rare and wonderful trees and are transformed in the process. Vivian Keh has forged a connection to her Korean elders through her persimmon orchard. The former poet laureate W. S. Merwin planted a tree almost every day for more than three decades, until he had turned a barren estate into a palm sanctuary. And Joe Hamilton cultivates pines on land passed down to him by his once-enslaved great-grandfather, building a legacy for the future.
