We share more of our favorite nature books for kids here and some favorites for adults here.
Happy Earth Day! Come along for a little glimpse at why we love this book. Continue reading
Tag Archives: 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
Books I’ve finished in 2019 :
The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen 83 1/4 Years Old by Hendrik Groen
The Beast in the Garden by David Baron
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
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
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.
So, what’s my tally? books read: 2, books shared: about to be 1!
The Beast in the Garden
Sarah’s Favorite Wilderness Reads
Happy Earth Day! I just returned from eight days in the Himalayas with no wifi and it was absolutely wonderful. During that time I spent hours each day reading. If you find yourself out in the woods or simply wanting to dream about them, here are a few of my favorite wilderness reads. I linked to the paperback versions, so pull out your headlamp and start flippin’ pages.
Mycophilia: Revalations from the Weird World of Mushrooms – This is the type of book where you read a few pages and then run into the next room to tell someone else all the cool things you just learned. Mycophilia is a beautifully written first person narrative of the fungi world. Author Eugenia Bone meets masters of the mushroom sphere as she discovers and researches all type of uses from scientific to culinary. If you have any interest in mushrooms, I highly recommend this informative read.
John Muir – any of his essays or journals – I actually recommend Muir’s writings as a way to fall asleep and here I’m recommending it as inspiration for your own nature journals and writings. Reading about Muir’s adventures will have you sitting in your cozy camp chair in admiration as he details his romps in the wilderness with nothing more than a heel of bread and an army blanket.
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail – Made famous because of the movie, Wild, is a first person account of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail completely unprepared. These types of accounts encourage me to just do it. Stop the research and prep, go for it and see what happens. I enjoyed both the movie and the book – in that order too.
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail – Bill Bryson’s account of the Appaliachian trail blends his witty walk in the woods with the history of the wilderness and suggestions for how we can conserve our wild lands. As someone who is itching to walk the AT, I love reading about others’ experiences with the trail.
Into the Wild – You probably know the story, but have you read the book? Into the Wild is one of those stories that has always stayed with me because I see so many similarities between myself and the main character, Chris McCandless. I also noticed the public’s split opinion, some feeling bad for Chris, while other’s did not and were almost angry with him because he was in the wilderness messing around. I find it interesting that any of us, even the most prepared, think that we’re capable of mastering mother nature. He did the best he could. RIP Chris.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values – This book. I need to come clean here.. by the time I finished this book, I absolutely hated it. I was treking at high altitude and ripping out pages and burning them when I was finished. I was so over it. Cut to today and I’ve realized many, many times that Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has had an enormous impact on how I view quality (a term that pops up at least 3,000 times in this book) and work. Believe it or not, I just ordered it again so I can read it with appreciation this time.
That’s that! My very favorite books to read outdoors. A perfect mix of inspiration and admiration lie within these pages. Don’t have any camping plans coming up? No problem, I’m in the habbit of turning off all my lights, opening the windows (to let the sounds of insects in) and reading by headlamp. At my little hut here in Chapel Hill, I feel like I’m in a tent in the middle of the woods 🙂
Read With Me : Deep Down Dark
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.
Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free by Héctor Tobar
Summer Books Round-up
Even with my bedside pile of books overflowing, at the start of summer I’m always on the hunt for a few good reads.
Check out these lists for a few of our favorites. We’re giving you a touch of everything from cookbooks and nature reads to actual beach reads for the kiddos.
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Find Sarah’s favorite nature reads here.
Find Katie’s favorite summer cookbooks here.
Check out some beach reads for kids here. That link includes a few of our favorite books by Chesapeake writers and illustrators. Really there’s nothing better than reading a book on vacation about the places and people you’re visiting!
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These are the books that we go back to again and again when summer arrives. But we’re always looking for more – what are your favorite summer reads?
Read With Me : You are a Badass
Want to know something neat? Each time you click through to Amazon from our website, we are kicked back a few cents from each purchase with no extra cost to you. If you ever feel like going wild on Amazon, click through from our site and you’ll be supporting us at the same time! Thanks, yo.
All hail 2018, the year of the book. You will hear me say this about every possible temperature, weather pattern, and month, but spring is the best time to pull out a book! If it’s going to be raining for a week straight, don’t get caught staring out the window, lose yourself in a book. That’s our attitude at least. I’ve finished a few this past month and I keep wanting to reach for old favorites rather than something new. I might have to read Buddha’s Brain for the fourth time. It’s nice to fall into something comfortable and familiar every once in a while.
Our Read With Me Series is going strong this year, here are all the past installments. Today I’m sharing my thoughts on hugely successful Jen Sincero and her book You are a Badass. Initially, I had some doubts about this book. I felt it was pushy and a little bit bossy or sharp in a way, but after two chapters I became accustomed to the tone and really respected her insight. I think it just took some getting used to at first. I received this book as a gift, so I didn’t really want a kick in the ass at first, but once I found myself shaking my head yes over and over again, I listened hard and took lots of notes. Continue reading
Top Road Trip Tips
Happy Thursday all! This month we’ve shone a spotlight on travel. We are sharing some new inspiration and tips and reposting some of our old favorites that didn’t get enough airtime. I looked at the calendar today in a state of panic, the month is nearly over! How will I fit in all this travel goodness? So I’m cheating a little bit by sharing a few posts at once. They have all been shared here before, but you may have missed them and that’s just not okay, so here are my favorite travel tips mostly pertaining to the perfect spring and summertime vacation: road trips!
Cultivate a Life of Travel
Always dreaming of travel, but haven’t taken the leap? Or wish you could fit it in more often? Here are my 28 tips for cultivating a life of travel. Continue reading
Read With Me : Nature’s Healing Spirit
Want to know something neat? Each time you click through to Amazon from our website, we are kicked back a few cents from each purchase with no extra cost to you. If you ever feel like going wild on Amazon, click through from our site and you’ll be supporting us at the same time! Thanks, yo.
Sup nerds? Are you Reading With Me this year? Last night, I finished two great books. Nature’s Healing Spirit being a quick, devourable read that I finished within three sessions of picking it up. The other, How Emotions Are Made : The Secret Life of the Brain took me nearly eight months to comprehend, and let me tell you, it was sad and shocking when the kindle book ended abruptly when my progress bar told me I still had 40% of the book to read – damn you Appendix A, B, C, and D! More on that read a different day, today it’s all about Nature’s Healing Spirit – Real Life Stores to Nurture the Soul by Sheri McGregor.
Nature’s Healing Spirit is a compilation of 33 accomplished writers’ experiences with the natural world. Some passages are straightforward, concise, and clear in tone, while others tiptoe into the narrative and only slightly pull back the shades on their personal lives. Some stories have a succinct ending while others leave you wanting for more. Luckily, each author’s piece is followed by a short biography where you can find other published works and their websites.