
Tales of Wilderness and Wonder: Books to Get Lost in Nature

To the Bright Edge of the World
Details
In the winter of 1885, Lieutenant Colonel Allen Forrester sets out with his men on an expedition into the newly acquired territory of Alaska. Their objective: to travel up the ferocious Wolverine River, mapping the interior and gathering information on the region's potentially dangerous native tribes.

Spirit Run: A 6000-Mile Marathon Through North America's Stolen Land
Details
Growing up in Yakima, Washington, Noe Álvarez worked at an apple-packing plant alongside his mother, who “slouched over a conveyor belt of fruit, shoulder to shoulder with mothers conditioned to believe this was all they could do with their lives.” A university scholarship offered escape, but as a first-generation Latino college-goer, Álvarez struggled to fit in.

The God of the Woods
Details
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.

The Quarry Girls
Details
Minnesota, 1977. For the teens of one close-knit community, summer means late-night swimming parties at the quarry, the county fair, and venturing into the tunnels beneath the city. But for two best friends, it’s not all fun and games. Heather and Brenda have a secret. Something they saw in the dark. Something they can’t forget. They’ve decided to never tell a soul.

All Rhodes Lead Here
Details
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.

Credence
Details
Tiernan de Haas doesn’t care about anything anymore. The only child of a film producer and his starlet wife, she’s grown up with wealth and privilege but not love or guidance. Shipped off to boarding schools from an early age, it was still impossible to escape the loneliness and carve out a life of her own. The shadow of her parents’ fame followed her everywhere.

Clear to Lift
Details
Navy helicopter pilot Lt. Alison Malone has been assigned to a search and rescue team based at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada, near the rugged peaks of the Sierra Nevada, and far from her former elite H-60 squadron. A rule follower by nature, Alison is exasperated and outraged every time she flies with her mission commander, "Boomer" Marks, for whom military procedures are merely a suggestion.

Clade
Details
A provocative, urgent audiobook about time, family, and how a changing planet might change our lives, from James Bradley, acclaimed author of The Resurrectionist and editor of The Penguin Book of the Ocean. Compelling, challenging, and resilient, over ten beautifully contained chapters, Clade canvasses three generations from the very near future to late this century.

Nightfall in the Garden of Deep Time
Details
Kelsey Willoughby doesn’t have time to pursue her dream of writing a novel. Imagination doesn’t pay the bills, and she’s busy saving her beautiful bookshop from online competition, hotel developers, and the sneaking suspicion that nobody reads anymore. Not to mention all those voices telling her she doesn’t have talent. But then the vacant lot of weeds next door starts to shimmer.

Walk to Beautiful: The Power of Love and a Homeless Kid Who Found the Way
Details
Walk to Beautiful is the powerfully emotive account of Jimmy’s horrendous childhood and the love shown to him by Russell and Bea Costner, the elderly couple who gave him a stable home and provided the chance to complete his education. Jimmy says of Bea, “She changed every cell in my body.”

The Way of the Hermit: My Incredible 40 Years Living in the Wilderness
Details
Seventy-four-year-old Ken Smith has spent the past four decades in the Scottish Highlands. His home is a log cabin nestled near Loch Treig, known as "the lonely loch," where he lives off the land. He fishes for his supper, chops his own wood, and even brews his own tipple. He is, in the truest sense of the word, a hermit.