10 books for the nature lover this holiday season

If you know someone who loves the great outdoors, they might love these books! Here are 10books for the nature enthusiast on your holidaylist.

The Wild Heavensby Sarah Louise Butler

The Wild Heavensis a novel about the magic and mystery of nature and our relationship to it. Over the course of one cold winter day, a young motherSandy Langley reflects on her grandfather, who was obsessed with a mysterious creature in the woods, their relationship, motherhood and more, while finally coming to terms with the mysteries and tragedies that shaped her life and made her who she is.

• Sarah Louise Butler brings together science, magic and faith in her debut novel, The Wild Heavens

Sarah Louise Butler is a writer from British Columbia.The Wild Heavensis her first novel.

The Next Chapter3:02Sarah Louise Butler on The Wild Heavens

Sarah Louise Butler talks about how science, nature and family became major themes in her novel The Wild Heavens.

Magdalenaby Wade Davis

Wade Davis highlights theMagdalena River in Colombia in his latest book,Magdalena.He tells the story of the river and, along the way, the story of Colombia and the people who rely on the river for their livelihood through a combination of personal travel memoir, journalism and biography.

• Why Wade Davis thinks it's essential we listen to Indigenous voices

Davis is a writer,photographer and filmmaker whose work has taken him to the Amazon, Tibet, Polynesia, the Arctic and beyond.He is a professor of anthropology at the University of British Columbia anda former National Geographic explorer-in-residence.He has written several books, includingInto the SilenceandOne River.He was the CBC Massey Lecturer in 2009, giving a talk calledTheWayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World.

My TNOT: Jill Heinerth

4 years ago

Duration 4:33

Extreme diver and explorer Jill Heinerth recalls her time exploring underneath the Arctic sea ice, and wonders if the photos she took will someday be used as images of 'extinct species.' She also reflects on the time she became the first woman to swim with a wild polar bear.

Into the Planet by Jill Heinreith

Jill Heinerthis one of Canada's most renowned cave divers and is one of the few female cave divers working today. She was the first person in history to dive into an Antarctic iceberg and led the team that discovered ancient remains of Mayan civilizations. She was also a go-to expert during the rescue of the young Thai soccer team in 2018.Into the Planetis her story, but it's also an introduction to the drama and adventure of cave diving.

• Why world-renowned cave diver Jill Heinerth says it's 'important to be scared'

Heinerth is a cave diver.Into the Planetis her first book.

The Next Chapter16:50Randy Lundy on Field Notes for the Self

The Cree poet Randy Lundy on Field Notes for the Self, and drawing inspiration from what's right in his own backyard.

TreeTalkby Ariel Gordon

In the summer of 2017, Ariel Gordon spent two days on a patio in downtown Winnipeg, writing poetry she hung on a tree. She invited people who passed by to participate in her project. When the two days were over, 234 poems hung from the tree.TreeTalkbrings these poems together into a single long poem that questions our relationship to nature and explores what it means to live in a city and in nature at the same time.

• 'We're a treed city': Winnipegger explores relationship with trees in new book

Gordon is a poet from Winnipeg. She is also the author of the nonfiction bookTreedand was a co-editor on the anthologyGush.

Cry Wolfby Harold R. Johnson

In 2005, 22-year-old University of Waterloo student Kenton Carnegie was killed in a wolf attack near his work camp in northern Saskatchewan. Harold R. Johnson, an experienced hunter and trapper, hadbeen told to stay away from wolves. Johnson takes on wolves and the mythology around them inCry Wolf.He explores Carnegie's death and other wolf attacks and suggests that we should take wolves more seriously.

• Harold R. Johnson on why endings are harder to write than beginnings

Johnson is a formerCrown prosecutor who has written several works of both fiction and nonfiction. His bookFirewater: How Alcohol Is Killing My People (and Yours)was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction. His other books include the novelCorvus, the genre-bending memoirCliffordand the nonfiction workPeace and Good Order.

Two Trees Make a Forest by Jessica J. Lee

Two Trees Make a Forestis an exploration of how geographical forces are interlaced with our family stories. A chance discovery of letters written by her immigrant grandfather leads Jessica J. Lee to her ancestral homeland, Taiwan. There, she traces his story while growing closer to the land he knew. Throughout her adventures, Lee uncovers surprising parallels between nature and human stories that shaped her family and their beloved island. In the memoir, she also turns a critical eye onto colonialist explorers who mapped the land and named plants, and both relied on and often erased the labour and knowledge of local communities.

Two Trees Make a Forestwon the 2020Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

• In Taiwan's lush landscape, Jessica J. Lee found a deeper understanding of her family's turbulent history

Lee is a British Canadian Taiwanese author, environmental historian, and winner of the RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Author Award. Her first book,Turning, was longlisted for the Frank Hegyi Award for Emerging Authors.

Quirks and Quarks14:43Ice Walker a mother polar bear's precarious existence in the changing Arctic

A naturalist channels a mother polar bear to tell the story of environmental change

Field Notes for the Self by Randy Lundy

Field Notes for the Selfis a series that takes inspiration from the poetic structuring of Patrick Lane, John Thompsonand Charles Wright, but their closest cousins may be Arvo Prt's.This collection deals with the idea of liberation from personal and inherited trauma and memories of violence inflictedon Lundy'sIndigenous ancestors which continue to haunt him. Similar to Randy Lundy'spast works, this collection is rooted in observations of the natural world.

• How Randy Lundy's latest poetry collection reveals why the dark times make life beautiful

Lundy is a Saskatchewan-based short story writer and award-winning poet. He has published three previous books,Under the Night Sun,Gift of the HawkandBlackbird Song, which won theSaskatchewan Arts Board Poetry Award in 2019.

Ice Walkerby James Raffan

InIce Walker, explorer and adventurer James Raffan asks readers to look at the Arctic through unexpected eyes: the eyes of a polar bear named Nanu and her family. As climate change changes the Arctic, where Nanu's family has lived and hunted for generations, the bear must figure out how to find food and shelter for her family, on a landscape that is warming up, where precious ice is melting rapidly and everything is changing.

• Ice Walker a mother polar bear's precarious existence in the changing Arctic

Raffan is a writer, teacher, geographer and adventurer. He has written more than 20 books, includingCircling the Midnight Sun,Emperor of the NorthandSummer North of Sixty.His work has appeared in several Canadian media outlets, including the Globe and Mail, Canadian Geographic and CBC. In 2020, Canadian Geographicnamed him one of the "90 most influential explorers in the nation's recorded history."

Imperilled Oceanby Laura Trethewey

Imperilled Oceanby Laura Tretheweyfollows several different people and their remarkable stories, but they all have one thing in common: the ocean.Imperilled Oceancombines remarkable stories such as a community living on the water battling eviction to a Ghanian teenager trying to make it to Europe on a life raft with deep research to paint a portrait of a place that takes up most of the space on this planet, yet we know so little about, in a time when climate change is rapidly changing the ocean and humanity's relationship to it.

Trethewey is a science journalist who specializes in oceans. She is a writer and editor for Vancouver Aquarium's website Ocean.org.Imperilled Oceanis her first book.

Field Notes from an Unintentional Birderby Julia Zarankin

When she was 35, Julia Zarankinwas divorced and changing careers. She decided she needed a hobby, and unexpectedly turnedto birdwatching. Her memoir,Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder,blends together ablossoming love affair with birding with her own biography she was born in the Soviet Union, grew up in Canada and spent time living in Paris.

• How birdwatching inspired CBC Short Story Prize finalist Julia Zarankin's first book

Zarankinis a writer and lecturer based in Toronto. She made the2020 CBC Short Story Prize shortlistforBlack-legged Kittiwake.Field Notes from an Unintentional Birderis her first book.