VCE Staff Picks 2017: Books for Nature Nerds

Nothing feels better on a cold winter night than curling up with a good book. Whether you are a nature nerd yourself, or are looking for a good gift this holiday season for the nature nerd in your life, here is a list of our favorite nature books here at VCE. Our staff field guide picks can be useful anytime of year, whether you are studying up or are out in the field. We hope you enjoy this list and that you keep exploring the natural world outside and on the page.

Natural History Books

• The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
• The Outside Story: Local Writers Explore the Nature of New Hampshire and Vermont Vol 1 and Vol 2
• After the Ice Age: Return of Life to Glaciated North America by E.C. Pielou
• Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
• A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
• Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
• A Year in the Maine Woods by Bernd Heinrich
• The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen
• Forests in Time: The Environmental Consequences of 1,000 Year of Change in New England Edited by David Foster and John Aber.
• Downcanyon by Ann Zwinger
• Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England by Tom Wessels
• The Nature of Vermont: Introduction and Guide to a New England Environment by Charles Johnson
• Liquid Land: A Journey Through the Florida Everglades by Ted Levin
• Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion by Alan Burdick
• Naturally Curious: A Photographic Field Guide and Month-by-Month Journey through the Fields, Woods, and Marshes of New England by Mary Holland

FIELD GUIDES

• Field Guide to the New England Alpine Summits 3rd Edition by Nancy Slack and Allison Bell
• Swift Guide to Butterflies of North America 2nd Edition by Jeffrey Glassberg
• The Warbler Guide by Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle
• Mosses, Liverworts, and Hornworts: A Field Guide to Common Bryophytes of the Northeast by Ralph Pope
• Metamorphosis: Ontario’s Amphibians at all Stages of Development by Peter B. Mills
• Eastern Alpine Guide: Natural History and Conservation of Mountain Tundra East of the Rockies by Michael T. Jones and Lisabeth Willey
• Fern Finder by Barbara and Anne Hallowell
• Beetles of Eastern North America by Arthur Evans
• Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David Wagner
• Wetland Woodland Wildland by E. Thompson et al.
• The Insects of New England and New York by Tom Murray
• The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley
• Field Guide to the Jewel Beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) of Northeast North America by Steven Paiero and others. Out of print, but full color PDF available from authors
• Tracks & Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates by Charley Eiseman and Noah Charney

• Birds of North America: A Guide To Field Identification by Chandler S. Robbins, Bertel Bruun, and Herbert S. Zim

FICTION and Young ADULT

• The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
• Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
• Who Really Killed Cock Robin? by Jean Craighead George
• The Case of the Missing Cutthroats by Jean Craighead George
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
• The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
• That Quail, Robert by Margaret Stanger