Book picks similar to
What Is a Garden? by W.S. Merwin


nature
gardening
botany-garden-nature
contemporary

Hawks Rest: A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone


Gary Ferguson - 2003
    Through his encounters with park rangers, wildlife biologists, outfitters, and intrepid visitors, Ferguson weaves a poignant story of a land under siege. Opinionated first-hand accounts illuminate the dream and the difficulty of preserving the Yellowstone wilderness - America's first national park and a touchstone of all things wild. Ferguson's previous writings on nature have been well received. Publishers Weekly wrote about The Sylvan Path: In prose as inviting and uplifting as a walk in the woods, naturalist Ferguson shares his lifelong passion...with a sense of discovery, humor, and deep reverence for his subject, [he] reclaims the natural world for himself, and for the reader as well. William Kittredge praised Walking Down the Wild as a clear-eyed vision of what's at risk in the battle over wilderness in America. This is a terrific book.

The Woman Who Lost Her Face: How Charla Nash Survived the World's Most Infamous Chimpanzee Attack


NBC News - 2012
    By her own doctors’ accounts, she never should have survived her injuries.Charla’s story is one of incredible strength, fierce determination and cutting-edge medicine. NBC News and Meredith Vieira have been covering the story since the life-altering attack, documenting Charla’s unfaltering spirit and the remarkable surgeries that not only kept her alive, but gave her a new face and, ultimately, restored her very humanity.Featuring candid and exclusive interviews with Charla, her family, her doctors and the chimpanzee’s owner, The Woman Who Lost Her Face is an intimate look at Charla’s life before and after the attack. This in-depth account takes you inside the operating rooms and hospitals where medical history was made and includes new details about the chimpanzee who mauled Charla to the brink of death and the woman who raised the animal as her son. The Woman Who Lost Her Face also features never-before-seen images of Charla and insight from the NBC News producers and reporters who covered the story.

The Soul of the Rhino: A Nepali Adventure with Kings and Elephant Drivers, Billionaires and Bureaucrats, Shamans and Scientists and the Indian Rhinoceros


Hemanta Mishra - 2008
     The Soul of the Rhino is the spirited yet humble account of Mishra’s unique personal journey. Fresh out of university in the 1970s, Mishra embarks on his conservation work with the help of an ornery but steadfast elephant driver, the Nepalese royal family, and handfuls of  like-minded scientists whose aim is to protect the animal in the foothills of the Himalayas. Yet, in spite of decades spent creating nature reserves and moving rhinos to protected areas, arm-wrestling politicians, and raising awareness for the cause, Mishra is still fearful about the future of the Indian Rhino. To this day, Nepal is overrun by armed insurgents, political violence, and poachers who could kill off this magnificent creature for good.   Filled with candor and bittersweet humor, Mishra re-creates his journey on behalf of the rhino, an ugly yet enchanting, terrifying yet delicate creature. The first book of its kind to delve into the multi-layered political labyrinths of South Asian wildlife conservation, and one man’s endurance in the face of it all, The Soul of the Rhino is sure to win over yourheart and soul.

Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants


Jane Goodall - 2013
    In her wise and elegant new book, Jane Goodall blends her experience in nature with her enthusiasm for botany to give readers a deeper understanding of the world around us.Long before her work with chimpanzees, Goodall's passion for the natural world sprouted in the backyard of her childhood home in England, where she climbed her beech tree and made elderberry wine with her grandmother. The garden her family began then, she continues to enjoy today. SEEDS OF HOPE takes us from England to Goodall's home-away-from-home in Africa, deep inside the Gombe forest, where she and the chimpanzees are enchanted by the fig and plum trees they encounter. She introduces us to botanists around the world, as well as places where hope for plants can be found, such as The Millennium Seed Bank, where one billion seeds are preserved. She shows us the secret world of plants with all their mysteries and potential for healing our bodies as well as Planet Earth.Looking at the world as an adventurer, scientist, and devotee of sustainable foods and gardening-and setting forth simple goals we can all take to protect the plants around us-Jane Goodall delivers an enlightening story of the wonders we can find in our own backyards.

O Come Ye Back to Ireland: Our First Year in County Clare


Niall Williams - 1987
    A story of a young couple who abandoned their careers in New York and moved to Ireland tells of their idyllic life in a cottage, surrounded by the beauty and character of the land of their ancestors.

Lockdown with My Billionaire Boss : Second Chance Office Romance


Sloane Peterson - 2020
    But when I end up in lockdown with my insanely hot billionaire boss, I start to think maybe I can make the best of a bad situation... Heartbreak is never easy. Even breaking up with someone you were never really meant to be with can be painful.I thought Dennis and I would end up married one day.But instead he dumps me at a sushi restaurant.I try to stay positive, and appreciate the ups of being newly single. But then this whole stupid pandemic comes along, and more than anything I hate spending so much time on my own.I'm getting restless, when one day I strike up an interesting conversation with my boss.He's a hot tech industry billionaire, who I find out is recently single as well since the start of the pandemic. After a few days texting back and forth, the two of us come up with a tantalizing arrangement to help us survive through lockdown... Soon my wildest dreams have all come true. I'm making love with my boss in the lap of his luxurious penthouse, and living a life of grandeur unlike anything I've ever imagined for myself. Only I'm about to find, emotions can get in the way of even the sweetest affairs.And now I'm wondering whether these new feelings I'm experiencing can possibly survive through the end of the pandemic...

Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches?: And Other Bird Questions You Know You Want to Ask


Mike O'Connor - 2007
    Since that time he has answered thousands of questions about birds, both at his store and while walking down the aisles of the supermarket. The questions have ranged from inquiries about individual species ("Are flamingos really real?") to what and when to feed birds ("Should I bring in my feeders for the summer?") to the down-and-dirty specifics of backyard birding ("Why are the birds dropping poop in my pool?"). Answering the questions has been easy; keeping a straight face has been hard.Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches? is the solution for the beginning birder who already has a book that explains the slight variation between Common Ground-Doves and Ruddy Ground-Doves but who is really much more interested in why birds sing at 4:30 A.M. instead of 7:00 A.M., or whether it's okay to feed bread to birds, or how birds rediscover your feeders so quickly when you've just filled them after a long vacation. Or, for that matter, whether flamingos are really real.

Driving my Billionaire Boss: A Steamy Instalove Romance (The Naughty Streets of Waitesville Book 1)


Annie Ford - 2019
    

Bad Boss


Lolah Lace - 2019
     Robin MacDowell’s luck changes for the better when she lands a comfortable new job making more money. Getting to know her new boss proves to be challenging when his handsome good looks start to distract her from doing her job. Even if Robin can keep it strictly professional can her boss follow suit? Bad Boss is a BWWM office romance novella.

Beignets and Mistletoe: A BBW & Military Man Christmas Romance


Lana Love - 2020
    I'm ready to settle down and start a family.My new commission comes unexpectedly at Christmas time, but my parents are on a Caribbean cruise. Not wanting me to spend Christmas on my own, my mom contacts her best friend and makes arrangements for me to join them for their Christmas vacation New Orleans.Honestly, I'd have rather been on my own, at home, instead of travelling to yet another new city.And then I see Marian. My mom never said her friend's daughter grew up to be such a beauty, not to mention an ambitious teacher who's devoted to being the best educator she can be. Between her brains, her beauty, and her wicked curves, the only question is how fast can I get her under the mistletoe and give her the first of a lifetime of kisses?Beignets and Mistletoe is book 2 in the series A Cajun Christmas. This is a short and sizzling romance, perfect for a pick-me-up during your day or just before bed. Guaranteed HEA, no cheating, no past relationship drama -- just two people discovering their perfect match and starting a sizzling future together.A CAJUN CHRISTMAS is a series of short & steamy standalone romances! Make sure to check out all the books!Wild Jazz and Mistletoe by Beatrice BraeBeignets and Mistletoe by Lana LovePralines and Mistletoe by Kate HuntBourbon under Mistletoe by Alice May BallCaroling and Mistletoe by Lauren Milson

Dawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day


Diane Ackerman - 2009
    Diane Ackerman draws from sources as diverse as meteorology, world religion, etymology, art history, and poetry in order to celebrate that moment in which the deepest arcades of life and matter become visible. From spring in Ithaca, New York, to winter in Palm Beach, Florida, Dawn Light is an impassioned call to revel in our numbered days on a turning earth.

Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition


Robert Pogue Harrison - 2008
    Those gardens may be as far away from everyday reality as Gilgamesh’s garden of the gods or as near as our own backyard, but in their very conception and the marks they bear of human care and cultivation, gardens stand as restorative, nourishing, necessary havens.With Gardens, Robert Pogue Harrison graces readers with a thoughtful, wide-ranging examination of the many ways gardens evoke the human condition. Moving from from the gardens of ancient philosophers to the gardens of homeless people in contemporary New York, he shows how, again and again, the garden has served as a check against the destruction and losses of history. The ancients, explains Harrison, viewed gardens as both a model and a location for the laborious self-cultivation and self-improvement that are essential to serenity and enlightenment, an association that has continued throughout the ages. The Bible and Qur’an; Plato’s Academy and Epicurus’s Garden School; Zen rock and Islamic carpet gardens; Boccaccio, Rihaku, Capek, Cao Xueqin, Italo Calvino, Ariosto, Michel Tournier, and Hannah Arendt—all come into play as this work explores the ways in which the concept and reality of the garden has informed human thinking about mortality, order, and power.Alive with the echoes and arguments of Western thought, Gardens is a fitting continuation of the intellectual journeys of Harrison’s earlier classics, Forests and The Dominion of the Dead. Voltaire famously urged us to cultivate our gardens; with this compelling volume, Robert Pogue Harrison reminds us of the nature of that responsibility—and its enduring importance to humanity.

Maria Before Us


Ellie Messe - 2019
     Seven nights I’ve held my nephew as he relives the crash he survived. Six casseroles sit on the kitchen counter from neighbors who don’t actually care. Five fingers drum against the wooden grain to my right. Four bodies try to ignore the growing tension in the room. Three years since I’ve seen the man who’s almost here. Two car doors shut. One doorknob twists. This was me Before Us. **PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A NOVELLA** NOVELLA 1/6 Due to adult content this novella is 18+

Red Sky at Night: The Book of Lost Countryside Wisdom


Jane Struthers - 2009
    If you have ever gazed in awe at stars in the night's sky, tried to catch a perfect snowflake or longed for the comfort of a roaring log fire, then this is the book for you. From spotting Britain's five kinds of owl to gardening by the phases of the moon, and from curing a cold to brewing your own ale, Red Sky at Night is packed with instructions and lists, ancient customs and old wives tales, making it an indispensable guide to countryside lore.

Crow Country


Mark Cocker - 2007
    From the moment he watched the multitudes blossom as a mysterious dark flower above the night woods, these gloriously commonplace birds were unsheathed entirely from their ordinariness. They became for Cocker a fixation and a way of life. Cocker goes in search of them, journeying from the cavernous, deadened heartland of South England to the hills of Dumfriesshire, experiencing spectacular failures alongside magical successes and epiphanies. Step by step he uncovers the complexities of the birds' inner lives, the unforeseen richness hidden in the raucous crow song he calls 'our landscape made audible'. Crow Country is a prose poem in a long tradition of English pastoral writing. It is also a reminder that 'Crow Country' is not 'ours': it is a landscape which we cohabit with thousands of other species, and these richly complex fellowships cannot be valued too highly