Add These Bird and Environmental Books to Your Holiday Reading List
No matter what you’re in the mood for, these great reads from 2021 have you covered.
Even the most outdoorsy of us can relish indoor time when the holidays roll around. Whilethis yearmay have had its ups and downs, there was no shortage of excellent books—both fiction and non-fiction—about birds, nature, and the environmentto curl up with. Here are a few of our favorites.
I’m in the moodto be awed by birds.Becomingenthralled withanotherspecies can teach us lots about the world and ourselves. In(Knopf, $30, 384 pages), indie rock musician Jonathanѱܰ’sdebut book, the author’s decades-long fascination with Striated Caracaras finds him chasing the birds through remote areas of South America. The enigmatic and intelligent raptors, whose presence on the remoteFalklands Islandsmystified Charles Darwin in the 1830s, captivatedMeiburgas a college graduate nearly two centuries later. His search to uncover the evolutionary mystery of caracaras is part travelogue,part natural history, and fully anode totheseresilientbirds.
Also try:, by Sy Montgomery(Atria, $20, 96 pages), a true account ofthe author’sexperience helping a friend to raise baby hummingbirds.
I’m in the moodto have hope for our future.Reading about climate change doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. The thought-provoking premise of PulitzerPrize-winning journalist Elizabeth Kolbert’s(Crown, $28, 256 pages)acknowledges that humans haveseriouslyinterfered with Earth’s natural processes, butalsodelves into new technologies and methods of tinkeringthat canmitigatedamage w’vcaused, whether by genetically altering destructive invasive species or shooting reflective particles into the stratosphere. The author’s in-depth reporting and curiosity about new innovations offers no prescription but is sure to get readers thinking.
Alsotry:(One World, $29, 448 pages),edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkienson, an anthology of essays, poetry, and art by women about the climate movement.
I’m in the mood to bond with kiddos.If you’re ready to skip adult reading,try(Knopf, $18,32 pages), by Matthew Burgess, which tells afamiliar new-kid-at-school tale with an aviantwist. Nicoignores whispering kids on the playground and spends his time watching the birds, instead. Soon, kids fondly nickname him “Bird Boy,” and Nico makes friends who are excited to discover the joy of birds, too.
Alsotry:(Kokila, $18, 40 pages), by Ambreen Tariq, a story about healing, identity, and belonging on a family camping trip; and(Roaring Brook Press, $18, 40 pages), by Carole Lindstrom, the winner of the 2021 Caldecott Medalanda stirring call to defendaprecious resource.
I’m in the mood to get lost in speculative futures. No ecological thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat like ,the latest by sci-fi maestro Jeff VanderMeer. "Jane Smith," a security consultant living in a not-too-distant dystopian future, promises to show the reader "how the world ends." She follows a note that directs her to a taxidermiedhummingbirdthat should be extinct, which turnsout to be an invitation to action from a mysterious South American heiress (who may also be an ecoterrorist). Jane chases a trail of clues through a world shakenby ecological destruction,climate change, and a pandemic.
Alsotry:(Hogarth, $28, 368 pages), by AlexandraKleeman, about a novelist whotravels toHollywood to save his career as drought-wracked California burns around him.
This story originally ran in the Winter 2021issue.To receive our print magazine, become a member by.