Last year saw the start of our monthly Book Club feature, where we highlight a recent read from the nature and adventure space and tell you a little about why we love it. So far, there have been nine books in the Book Club series. They’ve ranged from globetrotting cycles and ice-axe epics to those more focused on stories of rewilding and appreciating the nature that’s closest to you each day. There’s plenty more to come from Book Club in 2022, but before that, we thought we’d round up the nine books we’ve spotlighted so far.
We've also included a link to each book on Bookshop.org - a great site where you can shop online while still supporting independent bookshops.
Fifty Words for Snow by Nancy Campbell
Fifty Words for Snow is a collection of 50 short essays, each of which looks at a local word for snow (or something very closely connected to snow). Each word, sourced from a different language, is a magical little window into a different culture and perspective. Romantic, poetic and fascinating throughout.
Read our full review | Or buy the book now from Bookshop.org.
365 Days Wild by Lucy McRobert
This book is a great showcase of how nature is accessible to everyone. It’s a fantastic resource for getting kids engaged in nature, and a fun way to re-build your own connection with the outdoors through your local green space. Time to learn what's really happening in that park you walk past everyday.
Read our full review | Or buy the book now from Bookshop.org.
Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? by Lev Parikian
Author Lev Parikian sets himself the challenge of spotting 200 species of our feathered friends in a year. More than the list of 200, Parikian’s book is a fascinating journey of discovery and exploration - with all the clumsiness, laughter and mixed success that entails.
Read our full review | Or buy the book now from Bookshop.org.
Bringing Back The Beaver by Derek Gow
The story of the quest to bring back a species which we hunted to extinction in Britain around 200 years ago, and chronicles the bizarre barriers that stand in the path of a fully fledged return for the beaver in the modern day, complete with some suitably cute and cuddle detours along the way.
Read our full review | Or buy the book now from Bookshop.org.
Sustainable Travel by Holly Tuppen
Tuppen asks - and spends the rest of its pages answering - the question: “is it morally acceptable to travel the world for fun while it burns around us?” Often philosophical, and more often pragmatic, Sustainable Travel provides a lay-of-the-land look at "responsible travel", warts and all through snappy, concise and easily-digestible insights.
Read our full review | Or buy the book now from Bookshop.org.
Restoring the Wild by Roy Dennis
What this isn't is a book full of vague optimisms on how we can restore the dwindling biodiversity of our world, but rather a step by step, start-to-finish guide to the practise of doing just that. And Conservationist Roy Dennis is a man who has done it more than any other, in the United Kingdom at least.
Read our full review | Or buy the book now from Bookshop.org.
To Live by Élisabeth Revol
‘To Live’ provides a gripping account of French Mountaineer Revol’s ascent of Nanga Parbat (8,125m), in ‘alpine style’ (self-sufficient, without fixed ropes, porters or supplementary oxygen) in winter. Revol’s climb became global news after her climbing partner, the polish mountaineer Tomasz “Tomek” Mackiewicz, was blinded by snow on the summit. This led to a harrowing, ultimately tragic next few days in which Tomek would lose his life, but Revol - thanks to astonishing mental and physical strength, plus a good dose of luck - would survive.
Read our full review | Or buy the book now from Bookshop.org.
Signs of Life by Stephen Fabes
Round-the-world cycling stories can lend themselves to cliché and repetition. What sets Fabes’ book - and his six-year, 53,568-mile pedal around the globe - apart is his medical background, and the topics and specific places that he chooses to visit as a result.
Read our full review | Or buy the book now from Bookshop.org.
Ice Rivers by Jemma Wadham
The full title of the book reads: ‘Ice Rivers: A story of glaciers, wilderness and people, histories entwined, at a moment when their relationship is about to change forever.’ And as much Ice Rivers is very much all of those things, it’s also Wadham’s (one of the world’s leading glaciologists) personal story - a tale of a life spent travelling to the extremes of the world in the name of science.
Read our full review | Or buy the book now from Bookshop.org.
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