Gift Idea: Great Coffee Table Books

We love books. If you know us, you know this. Today we’re sharing some last minute, but golden, Christmas gift ideas: Great Coffee Table Books. I cherish a big and beautiful book, but it is one of those items that is harder for me to justify purchasing for myself. That means it’s a beloved gift when received!

A few things to ask yourself before you gift a great coffee table book:

  1. Does your recipient live in a tiny home? If so, do not get them a book. Do not get them any items, instead take them to a nice dinner or buy an experience for them.
  2. What topic or subject area does your recipient like? Start by thinking broadly by interest for instance, travel, nature, hobbies (surfing or mountainbiking?), design (interior, architectural, or graphic?) subjects (history or geology?), or artform (weaving or oil painting?) and then you can go deeper within that frame.
  3. What medium do they enjoy? Photography? Illustration or painting? Maybe they’re a big reader and would like something with a robust written narritive?
  4. To narrow down your choices even further, think about your answers to question 3 & 4 and travel a little further down those lanes. When thinking about someone who likes travel, do they love a particular destination? For instance, if I know someone is a Paris fanatic, I would ask myself if they also have a love for architecture, food, fashion, or maybe modern art? I would also think about their current artwork, interests and where they find inspiration to try to nail down if I’m seeking out a photography based book or something else. If I know they like street photography, Paris, and using pops of color in thier home, this book, Paris in Color, may be the perfect gift for them!

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Waste Less Wednesday: Read Used Books

Many Wednesdays this year we’re checking in to share how we’re reducing our environmental impact. Some of these ideas are big and require a bit of effort. Others are super small and simple, like this one. But we believe that they all make a difference.

Today I’m comin’ at ya with a simple suggestion: read used books. Whether you’re a book worm yourself or you love gifting books to others, we encourage you to purchased used books from small, local retailers.

Why buy used? Used books are EVERYWHERE! Some folks keep each book they read, but most are capable of shedding books they didn’t love or don’t need anymore. Buying used books helps to reduce waste both upstream (waste you don’t see that’s produced in the production, transportation, and packaging of books) and downstream (household waste that we throw away each year).

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Nature-Focused Poetry Books for Kids

April is National Poetry month. Admittedly, I don’t think of myself as needing a special month to wax poetic (wink wink) about the nature-inspired poetry books that we love. But apparently I AM the type of person that needs a national initiative because I hadn’t put together a post sharing this collection until now.

There’s a wide variety of subjects on our list of favorites. Insectlopedia that focus on insects to Old Elm Speaks that highlights trees. One of my absolute favorites is When Green Becomes Tomatoes. But I also get so excited when someone will read Joyful Noise with me. Every poem in that book is written for two readers making one poem. It’s just a pile of beautiful poetry.

It’s supposed to snow in Colorado this week, so let’s dream of summer.

Read with Me: Braiding Sweetgrass

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My 2020 reading has a very obvious theme: it’s all about nature and our connection to the natural world.

Braiding Sweetgrass was the first book that I finished this year. Then I read The Overstory; more on that in another post. This morning I started Nature Underfoot. And waiting in the wings is this Rachel Carson biography. It’s a theme, alright. So if you’re looking for a book about rediscovering our connection to nature, there’s no better place to start than Braiding SweetgrassContinue reading

Read with Me : The Soul of an Octopus

In 2018,  we started a series called ‘Read With Me’ where we are sharing all most of what we’ve read each month in hopes you’ll follow suit and dust off that book you’ve been meaning to devour! Here are all the previous Read With Me posts.

There’s no denying that I’m on a non-fiction kick! It started with The Beast in the Garden, continued with The Soul of an Octopus, and there’s no end in sight as the two books I’m working on now are both non-fiction.

The Soul of an Octopus takes us into the intimate relationship that the author and other employees at the Boston Aquarium develop with the resident octopuses. In researching this book, Ms. Montgomery begins to make weekly trips from her home to the aquarium to visit the octopuses.

As you learn, the specific octopuses she visits change throughout the book due to a number of different circumstances. And through her writing, we learn about the unique personalities of these octopuses and of many others as she passes along stories told to her by scientists, divers, and other octopus enthusiasts.

It becomes clear early on in the book that octopuses are amazing creatures, and that we still have a lot to learn about them.

  • We already know that octopuses are masters of disguise, but the more we study them, the more we understand that this is a learned ability and can vary greatly from one individual to the next.
  • Octopuses have the ability to taste and pick up the faintest of chemical signals with the suckers along the length of their arms. They can identify individual humans based upon how the person “tastes”, and so, it’s believed that it’s likely that they can likely taste if a person’s emotions change. The book goes into detail on these points and so many others.
  • Rather than one brain, octopuses have nine! A central brain and eight smaller brains in each of their arms. They seem to be extremely clever and can get bored in tanks with sparse environments. There are a number of stories about octopuses escaping their tanks, without bones, they’re able to squeeze through the smallest of holes. Sadly, these escapades don’t all end well.

I thought that this was a particularly great book for readers that enjoy learning about animals, but may not want the density of a typical scientific article. I think of it as the Discovery Channel version of book, and that’s definitely not a bad thing. This is non-fiction beach reading at its finest!

Sy Montgomery also has an octopus book for kids! Inky’s Amazing Escape is the true story about an octopus’ amazing escape from an aquarium in New Zealand.

Books I’m reading now :

The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs by Tristan Gooley

The Day the Earth Caved In by Joan Quigley

Winter World by Bernd Heinrich

Our Favorite Nature Books

It’s Amazon Prime Day, and we’re re-sharing a few of our favorite book lists. Last year, I shared my six favorite wilderness reads, books I would take on the trail with me or read by headlamp in a tent.

If you’ve been following along, Kate and I are hittin’ the books hard this year. Our Read With Me series is growing each month and as we close out April, earth month, we wanted to share our favorite nature reads with you. It was hard for me to pick only a handful, but these are the first ones that came to mind and they’re all quite different at that.

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Our Favorite Nature Reads :

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Nature Books Master List : Kid Edition

It’s Amazon Prime Day, so we’re re-sharing some of our favorite book posts. Below is our master list of nature-related books for kids.

We love good books. Who doesn’t?

Below you’ll find a running list of our favorite nature books for kids. Have something to recommend? Let us know in the comments!

If you’d like to learn more about some of the books on this list? Check out this post.  And we wrote about our favorite kids’ beach reads here. And a tree focused post here.

Finally, you’ll find our full archive of book-related posts here.

UP & DOWN/OVER & UNDER Series

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt

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Read With Me : The Beast in the Garden

This post was originally published in March of 2019, we’re re-sharing it today because it’s Amazon Prime Day, and you need a good thriller for the beach.

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In 2018,  we started a series called ‘Read With Me’ where we are sharing all most of what we’ve read each month in hopes you’ll follow suit and dust off that book you’ve been meaning to devour! Here are all the previous Read With Me posts.

I know, these book posts are usually Sarah’s domain, and she does a mighty good job of it. But as I mentioned in my 2019 resolution post, I did a bit of reading last year; I just wasn’t that good at sharing those books. I’m hoping to turn that around this year.

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So, what’s my tally? books read: 2, books shared: about to be 1!

The Beast in the Garden

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