Read All About It

We may be spending a lot of time at home, but it’s a big world out there. Delve into the natural world with this month’s books, which include personal journeys, overarching impacts, and suggestions for improving your own back yard.

Eerily prescient Notes from an

(2020) summarizes four years of globetrotting—Ireland to South Dakota to New Zealand to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Author Mark O’Connell, a proud socialist, interacted with a variety of people who desire to live untethered from society—whether isolationist doomsday preppers or would-be Mars colonists—to understand reasons for their drastic beliefs. Nutshell review: Fears of life falling apart are tempered by optimism that we can reconnect with each other and our natural world.

The theme of Nature's Best

Yard by Douglas W. Tallamy (2020) is theHomegrown National Park each of us can create to help nature restore itself. Imagine being part of not only stopping but possibly reversing ecological damage! Stories of habitat and species rejuvenation and an uplifting vision of private yards neighborhoods, suburbs, and even cities connecting together will arouse your “green” instincts. Nutshell review: Add this to your permanent collection for resources and ideas.

Richard Powers’ 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning book is a mash-up of short stories connecting people and trees, intertwined with a polemic about the destruction of the environment. I first read The Overstory due to its award status; my re-read, sandwiched between nonfiction nature books, was more illuminating of human impact on the earth. The author’s passion for nature is sullied by his elitism, arrogance, and onedimensional characters. Nutshell review: Though I loved the information about tree habitats, I hated the smug, almost sanctimonious presentation.

This was our first guide to North Carolina nature when we bought our home here. Native

(2014) by Dr. Larry Mellichamp, Professor of Botany/Horticulture at UNC Charlotte, shares expertise on native trees, shrubs, vines, and flowers for home landscapes. Beautiful photographs, easily-understood précis of local habitats, and a ratings system are valuable for any gardener, novice to experienced. Nutshell review: The perfect coffee-table book to repeatedly reference for creative encouragement and sheer enjoyment.