Nature Never Stops Giving
What better way to enter springtime than through books that celebrate the vastness and the bounty of nature? We love these titles, some of which encourage taking to the wild, some of which view the outdoors as the best kind of medicine. Cook along with Gizzi; commune with wolves, like Gudrun.
And for days when too-cold weather rages back and forces you indoors, there are also titles here just to sit with by a fire: on music, on baseball, and on documents we celebrate perennially.
Wolf Spirit
A Story of Wolves and Wonder
Gudrun Pflüger
Tammi Reichel
Rocky Mountain Books
Hardcover $28.00 (256pp)
978-1-77160-127-6
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
In September of 2005, Gudrun Pflüger, an original cast member of the Rainforest Wolf Project, lay flat in the grass of a meadow on an isolated northwest Canadian island. Six adult wolves came out of the forest to sniff, nudge, provoke, and generally assess her as a curious nonthreat. The pack spent hours idling within feet of her while she whispered her good intentions. Wolves and woman just chilling—same as it ever was, according to the aboriginal Heiltsuk of Canada’s north, as well as other aboriginal wolf-respecting peoples around the world.
Wolf Spirit is a most extraordinary memoir of spiritual growth, commitment, and unmatched courage, featuring a woman who moves the cause of human existence in uncharted directions.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 29, 2016)
Gizzi’s Healthy Appetite
Food to Nourish the Body and Feed the Soul
Gizzi Erskine
Interlink Pub Group
Hardcover $30.00 (224pp)
978-1-56656-052-8
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Cookbook evolution is now epitomized by charismatic chefs who write well and draw from an international pantry of interesting vegetables, uncommon cuts of meat, and new techniques, to create bright, super flavorful, healthy yet craveworthy food. London-based chef and TV personality Gizzi Erskine stepped right out of central casting. Her latest cookbook promptly exploded onto hardcover bestseller lists when first released in the UK.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 29, 2016)
Vitamin N
The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life
Richard Louv
Algonquin Books
Softcover $15.95 (304pp)
978-1-61620-578-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
If you’re seeking a pill-less way to reduce ADHD, prevent obesity, boost immune systems, and radically improve other health conditions in your young patients, order them to sit beside a rain-swelled creek, roll in the springy moss and myrtle beneath an old oak, or just lie in a meadow of wildflowers. Indeed, these were the prescriptive recommendations given at the keynote address of the 2010 American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference. Yes, this is a radical change in allopathic care, but the developing research is conclusive. Call it Vitamin N (for nature)—prescribe it widely.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 29, 2016)
The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling
John Muir Laws
Heyday
Softcover $35.00 (312pp)
978-1-59714-315-8
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
To deepen their connection to and love of the natural world, naturalists, writers, and ordinary folk have long used journals to memorialize their observations from nature jaunts. The best definitions of such love include phrases like “sustained, compassionate attention,” implying that discipline and practice make all the difference. This beautiful art book will teach you how to be “still, quiet, and attentive … to organize your thoughts, piece together answers, and ask richer questions.” The overall goal is to stimulate your curiosity, and you won’t find a better guide.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 29, 2016)
A Woman’s Guide to the Wild
Your Complete Outdoor Handbook
Ruby McConnell
Teresa Grasseschi, illustrator
Sasquatch Books
Softcover $18.95 (304pp)
978-1-63217-005-7
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Mother Nature can’t be happy that men have co-opted the outdoorsy, wilderness-loving role to the point that many women don’t feel welcome in the natural world. To right this egregious wrong, all girls must be given hiking boots and backpacks and be introduced to mountains, forests, fields, and streams. A Woman’s Guide to the Wild addresses the falsehoods and stereotypes that reinforce the impression that women are somehow ill suited for a relationship with nature. It offers women the no-nonsense hiking and camping knowledge that they all should have received as adventurous youngsters.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 29, 2016)
Baseball’s No-Hit Wonders
More Than a Century of Pitching’s Greatest Feats
Dirk Lammers
Unbridled Books
Softcover $18.95 (496pp)
978-1-60953-125-6
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
In the twenty-five-hundred-plus Major League Baseball games played each year, only three or four games (on average) end with one team having been unable to muster even one legit hit. This majestic feat of mediocrity is, of course, celebrated to high heaven by MLB fans and media as a brilliant pitching performance, to be recorded in the annals of the game as second only to a perfect game (no hits, no walks, no errors). This delightfully written project digs through baseball’s 294 no-hitters and presents story after fascinating story about the most compelling characters and unlikely events.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 29, 2016)
100 Documents That Changed the World
From the Magna Carta to Wikileaks
Scott Christianson
Universe
Hardcover $29.95 (224pp)
978-0-7893-2936-3
Buy: Amazon
Getting it down on paper, stone, papyrus, bamboo, silk, animal skins—whatever could be etched on—became all the rage once humans invented handwriting—an invaluable aid to memory, yes, but more importantly, a way to preserve knowledge. This marvelous history book brings a hundred momentous human achievements to light by highlighting the means of their documentation. Be transported back to the moments in which Martin Luther, Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, and the creators of the Gregorian Calendar and the Edict of Worms changed everything. Illustrations and photos enhance these historical essays, providing a museum-like experience.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 29, 2016)
The Great British Recording Studios
Howard Massey
Hal Leonard
Hardcover $34.99 (357pp)
978-1-4584-2197-5
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
This is the ultimate behind-the-scenes tour of the facilities, equipment, engineers, and evolving techniques that led to much of the most important music of the 1960s and ‘70s. A perfect volume, if you revere the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, the Sex Pistols, Queen, or any of the other Brit rock bands featured. Yes, you’ll find endearing rockstar “stories from the Studios” here, but the genius of this project is its nuts-and-bolts descriptions of studios including Abbey Road, Olympic, Trident, Apple, and Advision, as well as photos galore, many never published before.
MATT SUTHERLAND (February 29, 2016)
Matt Sutherland
