Happy National Reading Month 2019 (just a little late)!

March is National Reading Month!

Shara (Mrs. LeValley) and I love to read!  There are books everywhere in our home. Our goal every year is to each read a minimum of fifty-two books - one for each week of the year.  Not only do we read lots of books, but we each record them in a journal.  I don't write anything about the book; just title, author, number of pages, and where the book came from (my personal library, public library, borrowed book).  I have a record of every book I have read since January 2005, with one major exception - we moved to our current home in 2011 and I didn't record anything from we packed up and moved in March of that year until January 2012.  I'm bummed that I don't have any records from that time...  Even with that missing nine months, I have records of over eight hundred books, including thirteen so far in 2019.

What do I read?  A little of everything - biography, history, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, and more.  I especially read books about science, nature, and the outdoors (including hiking, fishing, and hunting stories).

Here is my nearly complete list of the science, nature, and outdoor books that I have read since 2005 (minus the missing months of 2011 - plus I think I may have forgotten to write down a few others).  These books have been grouped into rough categories in no particular order.  Many books could easily fit in more than one category.  Books that have been boldfaced are either ones that I particularly liked or thought were important.

Alaska/Canada

• One Man's Wilderness by Sam Kieth and Richard Proenneke
• Alaska's Wolf Man:  The 1915-55 Wilderness Adventures of Frank Glaser by Jim Rearden
• Shopping for Porcupine:  A Life In Arctic Alaska by Seth Kantner
• Standing Ground:  Alaska Stories, Police Tales, and Things I'd Rather Not Talk About by Alan L. White
• Fifty Miles from Tomorrow:  A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People by William L. Iggiaruk Hensley
• Tide, Feather, Snow:  A Life in Alaska by Miranda Weiss
• First Wilderness:  My Quest in the Territory of Alaska by Sam Keith 
• Yukon Alone:  The World's Toughest Adventure Race by John Balzar
• Winterdance:  The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod by Gary Paulsen
• Red Summer:  The Danger, Madness, and Exaltation of Salmon Fishing in a Remote Alaskan Village by Bill Carter
• Braving It:  A Father, a Daughter, and an Unforgettable Journey into the Alaskan Wild by James Campbell
• Death on the Barrens:  A True Story of Courage and Tragedy in the Canadian Arctic by George James Grinnell
• The Alaskan Retreater's Notebook:  One Man's Journey into the Alaskan Wilderness by Ray Ordonica
• Disappointment River:  Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage by Brian Castner

Arctic/Antarctica

• Being Caribou:  Five Months on Foot With an Arctic Herd by Karsten Heuer 
• South With the Sun:  Roald Amundsen, His Polar Exploration and the Quest for Discovery by Lynn Cox 
• The Last Light Breaking:  Living Among Alaska's Inupiat Eskimos by Nick Jans
• Roald Amundsen by Tor Bomann-Larsen
• White Eskimo:  Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic by Stephen R. Brown
• The Last Imaginary Place:  A Human History of the Arctic World by Robert McGhee

The North Country

• Open Horizons by Sigurd F. Olson 
• Woman of the Boundary Waters:  Canoeing, Guiding, Mushing, and Surviving by Justine Kerfoot
• The Grand Portage by Walter O'Meara
• The Long-shadowed Forest by Helen Hoover 
• We Took to the Woods by Louise Dickinson Rich
• At Home in the Woods:  Living the Life of Thoreau Today by Bradford Angier and Vera Angier 
• The Meaning of Wilderness by Sigurd F. Olson
• Chips from a Wilderness Log by Calvin Rutstrum

Birds/Birdwatching

• To See Every Bird on Earth:  A Father, A Son and a Lifelong Obsession by Dan Koeppel 
• The Ardent Birder:  On the Craft of Birdwatching by Todd Newberry and Gene Holtan
• The Ghost With Trembling Wings:  Science, Wishful Thinking, and the Search for Lost Species by Scott Weidensaul
• Out of the Woods:  A Bird Watcher's Year by Ora E. Anderson
• Of a Feather:  A Brief History of American Birding by Scott Weidensaul
• All Things Reconsidered:  My Birding Adventures by Roger Tory Peterson
• Hope is the Thing With Feathers:  A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds by Christopher Cokinos
• Wesley the Owl:  The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O'Brien
• The Verb 'To Bird': Sightings of an Avid Birder by Peter Cashwell
• A Supremely Bad Idea:  Three Mad Birders and Their Quest To See It All by Luke Dempsey
• Birdology:  Adventures With a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur by Sy Montgomery
• Crow Planet:  Essential Wisdom From the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
• Gifts of the Crow:  How Perception, Emotion and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans by John Marzluff and Tony Angell 
• Feathers:  The Evolution of a Natural Miracle by Thor Hanson
• Life Birds by George Levine
• H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald 
• Ravens in Winter by Bernd Heinrich
• Falcon Fever:  A Falconer in the Twenty-first Century by Tim Gallagher
• The Final Frontiersman:  Heimo Korth and His Family Alone in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness by James Campbell
• One Wild Bird at a Time:  Portraits of Individual Lives by Bernd Heinrich 
• The Most Perfect Thing:  Inside (and Outside) a Bird's Egg by Tim Birkhead
• Lost Among the Birds:  Accidentally Finding Myself in One Very Big Year by Neil Hayward

Nature/Ecology/Natural History

• Swampwalker's Journal:  A Wetlands Year by David M. Carroll
• Natural Coincidence:  The Trip from Kalamazoo by Bil Gilbert
• Why Moths Hate Thomas Edison edited by Hampton Sides
• Wintering by Diana Kappel-Smith
• Teaching a Stone to Talk:  Expeditions and Encounters by Annie Dillard
• Return to Wild America:  A Yearlong Search For the Continent's Natural Soul by Scott Weidensaul
• Northwoods Wildlife:  A Watcher's Guide to Habitats by Janine M. Benyus
• Last Child in the Woods:  Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
• It's Raining Frogs and Fishes:  Four Seasons of Natural Phenomena and Oddities of the Sky by Jerry Dennis
• The Eternal Frontier:  An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples by Tim Flannery
• Wilderness Ethics:  Preserving the Spirit of Wildness by Guy Waterman and Laura Waterman
• My Story as Told by Water:  Confessions, Druidic Rants, Reflections, Bird-watching, Fish-stalkings, Visions, Songs and Prayers Refracting Light, From Living Rivers, In the Age of the Industrial Dark by David James Duncan
• Squirrels at My Window:  Life with a Remarkable Gange of Urban Squirrels by Grace Marmor Spruch
• Life Counts:  Cataloguing Life on Earth by Michael Gleich, Dirk Maxeiner, et al
• A Trail Through Leaves:  The Journal as a Path to Place by Hannah Hinchman
• The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
• The Animal Dialogues:  Uncommon Encounters in the Wild by Craig Childs
• Looking for Hickories:  The Forgotten Wildness of the Rural Midwest by Tom Springer
• Ecology of A Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray 
• Life in the Soil:  A Guide for Naturalists and Gardeners by James B Nardi
• The Search for a Sense of Wildness by Michael P. Ausema
• Stalking the Plumed Serpent and Other Adventures in Herpetology by D. Bruce Means
• Where the Wild Things Were:  Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators by William Stolzenburg
• The Snake Charmer:  A Life and Death in Pursuit of Knowledge by Jamie James
• The Wild Places by Robert MacFarlane
• Watchers at the Pond by Franklin Russell
• Dry Storeroom No. 1:  The Secret life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey
• A Year in the Maine Woods by Bernd Heinrich
• One Square Inch of Silence:  One Man's Search for Natural Silence in a Noisy World by Gordon Hempton ans John Grossman
• Mean and Lowly Things:  Snakes, Science, and Survival in the Congo by Kate Jackson
• The Book of Yaak by Rick Bass
• Summer World:  A Season of Bounty by Bernd Heinrich
• Every Creeping Thing:  True Tales of Faintly Repulsive Wildlife by Richard Conniff
• The Founding Fish by John McPhee
• A Reenchanted World:  The Quest for a New Kinship With Nature by James William Gibson
• Wilderness Warrior:  Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley
• Footnotes on Nature by John Kieran
• Why We Run:  A Natural History by Bernd Heinrich
• The Path:  A One-mile Walk Through the Universe by Chet Raymo
• The Wild Marsh:  Four Seasons at Home in Montana by Rick Bass
• Water:  A Natural History by Alice Outwater
• The Forgotten Pollinators by Stephen L. Buchmann and Gary Paul
• The Mountains Next Door by Janice Emily Bowers
• Still Life:  Adventures in Taxidermy by Melissa Milgram
• The Snoring Bird:  My Family's Journey Through A Century of Biology by Bernd Heinrich
• Why I Came West by Rick Bass
• Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat:  Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals by Hal Herzog
• The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova Bailey
• Kingdom Under Glass:  A Tale of Obsession, Adventure, and One Man's Quest to Preserve the World's Great Animals by Jay Kirk
• Wading For Bugs:  Exploring Streams With the Experts edited by Judith L. Li and Michael T. Barbour
• The Big Swamp:  A Wildlife Biologist's Lifetime of Adventures by Raymond D. Schofield
• Life Everlasting:  The Animal Way of Death by Bernd Heinrich
• Time and Tide in Acadia:  Seasons on Mount Desert Island by Christopher Camuto
• Rambunctious Garden:  Saving Nature in a Post-wild World by Emma Marris
• The Forest Unseen:  A Year's Watch in Nature by David George Haskell
• Dirt Work:  An Education in the Woods by Christine Byl
• Eating Dirt:  Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe by Charlotte Gill
• The Endangered Species Road Trip:  A Summer's Worth of Dingy Motels, Poison Oak, Ravenous Insects, and the Rarest Species in North America by Cameron MacDonald
• Fire Season:  Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors
• A Sand County Almanac:  With Essays on Conservation from Round River by Aldo Leopold
• Beyond Walden:  The Hidden History of America's Kettle Lakes and Ponds by Robert M. Thorson
• Keith County Journal by John Janovy Jr.
• Island Year by Hazel Heckman
• A Sting in the Tale:  My Adventures with Bumblebees by Dave Goulson
• A Buzz in the Meadow:  The Natural History of a French Farm by Dave Goulson
•  The Prophet of Dry Hill:  Lessons From a Life in Nature by David Gessner
•  Theodore Roosevelt in the Field by Michael R. Canfield
• The Urban Bestiary:  Encountering the Everyday Wild by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
• Once They Were Hats:  In Search of the Mighty Beaver by Frances Backhouse
• Under the Stars:  How America Fell in Love with Camping by Dan White
• The Carry Home:  Lessons From the American Wilderness by Gary Ferguson
• Bog tender:  Coming Home to Nature and Memory by George Szanto
• The Eternal Frontier:  An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples by Tim Flannery
• The Home Place:  Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham
• Hawk's Rest:  A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone by Gary Ferguson
• Gathering Moss:  A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• The Pine Barrens by John McPhee
• Becoming Teddy Roosevelt:  How a Maine Guide Inspired America's 26th President by Andrew Vietze
• The Lost Species:  Great Expeditions in the Collection of Natural History Museums by Christopher Kemp
• The Snow Tourist:  A Search for the World's Purest, Deepest Snowfall by Charles English
• Citizen Scientist:  Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction by Mary Ellen Hannibal
• Hiking Naked:  A Quaker Woman's Search for Balance by Iris Graville
• Saving Tarboo Creek:  One Family's Quest to Heal the Land by Scott Freeman
• The Nature Fix:  Why Nature Makes Us Happier Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams
• The Power of a Plant:  A Teacher's Odyssey to grow Healthy Minds and Schools by Stephen Ritz
• The Naturalist at Large by Bernd Heinrich
• The Art of Naming by Michael Ohl
• Buzz:  The Nature and Necessity of Bees by Thor Hanson
• The Feather Thief:  Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson
• Apocalyptic Planet:  Field Guide to the Everending Earth by Craig Childs
• The Ninemile Wolves by Rick Bass
• Nature Wars:  The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards Into Battlegrounds by Jim Sterba

Trees/Plants/Gardens

• Beautiful Madness:  One Man's Journey Through Other People's Gardens by James Dodson
• The Trees in My Forest by Bernd Heinrich
• The Wild Trees:  A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston 
• People With Dirty Hands:  The Passion for Gardening by Robert Chotzinoff
• American Chestnut:  The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree by Susan Freinkel
• The Man Who Planted Trees:  A Story of Lost Groves, the Science of Trees, and a Plan to Save the Planet by Jim Robbins 
• Wood:  Craft, Culture, History by Harvey Green 
• Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
• Unearthed:  Love, Acceptance, and Other Lessons from an Abandoned Garden by Alexandra Risen
• Nature's Temples:  The Complex World of Old-Growth Forests by Joan Maloof
• The Hidden Life of Trees:  What They Feel, How They Communicate:  Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben
• Urban Forests:  A Natural History of Trees and People in the American Cityscape by Jill Jonnes
• The Wood for the Trees:  One Man's Long View of Nature by Richard Fortey
• Witness Tree:  Seasons of Change with a Century-old Oak by Lynda V. Mapes
• The Ghost Orchard:  The Hidden History of the Apple in North America by Helen Humphreys
• The Man Who Climbs Trees by James Aldred
• The Long, Long Lif of Trees by Fiona Stafford

Geology/Geography

• On the Map:  A Mind-expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks by Simon Garfield
• Rising From the Plains by John McPhee
• Coming Into the Country by John McPhee
• Annals of the Former World by John McPhee
• The Ground Beneath Us:  From the Oldest Cities to the Last Wilderness, What Dirt tells Us About Who We Are by Paul Bogard
• Stories in Stone:  Travels Through Urban Geology by David B Williams
• The Map That Changed The World:  William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester

Farming/Rural Life

•  A Country Year:  Living the Questions by Sue Hubbell
• The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert
• See You in a Hundred Years:  Four Seasons in Forgotten America by Logan Ward 
• Clearing Land:  Legacies of the American Farm by Jane Brox
• Heirloom:  Notes From and Accidental Tomato Farmer by Tim Stark
• Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass by Gary Paulsen
• It's a Long Road to a Tomato:  Tales of an organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life by Keith Stewart
• Ripe:  The Search for the Perfect Tomato by Arthur Allen
• Claiming Ground:  A Memoir by Laura Bell
• Wisdom of the Last Farmer:  Harvesting Legacies From the Land by David Mas Masumoto 
• Mostly in Clover:  Growing Up in Rural Ontario. A Boy Now a Man Recounts His Memories by Harry J. Boyle
• Little Heathens:  Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish 
• Folks, This Ain't Normal:  A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World by Joel Salatin
• Cabin:  Two Brothers, a Dream, and Five Acres in Maine by Leo Ureneck 
• Triple Ridge Farm by Ruth Fouts Pochmann
• Battlefield:  Farming a Civil War Battleground by Peter Svenson
• The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks
• More Scenes From the Rural Life by Verlyn Klinkenborg
• Farm:  A Year in the Life of an American Farmer by Richard Rhodes
• Cabin Lessons:  A Nail-by-Nail Tale:  Building Our Dream Cottage from 2x4s, Blisters, and Love by Spike Carlsen 
• Growing A Revolution:  Bringing Our Soil Back to Life by David R. Montgomery
• Craeft:  An Inguiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts by Alexander Langlands
• The Dirty Life:  A Memoir of Farming, Foods, and Love by Kristin Kimball

Logging

• Hard Maple, Hard Work by John Gagnon 
• McTaggart's Red Keg:  Logging From A-Z on the Tittabawassee in Michigan by Irene M. Hargreaves and Harold M. Foehl
• "Daylight in the Swamp":  Lumberjacking in the Late 19th Century by Robert W. Wells
• Timber!  The Bygone Life of the Northwoods Lumberjacks by John C. Frohlicher

Food

• In Defense of Food:  An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
• The Earth Knows My Name:  Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans by Patricia Klindienst
• Empires of Food:  Feast Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations by Evand D.G. Fraser and Andrew Rimas
• The Omnivore's Dilemma:  A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle:  A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Third Plate:  Field Notes on the Future of Food by Dan Barber
• The Mushroom Hunters:  On the Trail of an Underground America by Langdon Cook
• A Really Big Lunch:  The Roving Gourmand on Food and Life by Jim Harrison
• 100 Million Years of Food:  What Our Ancestors Ate and Why it Matters Today by Stephen Le
• American Terroir:  Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields by Rowan Jacobsen
• The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine by Steven Rinella
• The Traveling Feast:  On the Road and at the Table With My Heros by Rick Bass

Mountaineering/Adventure

• Tracks:  A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback by Robyn Davidson
• Foot by Foot Through the USA by Winfield H. Line and Francis R. Line 
• Seaworthy:  Adrift with William Willis in the Golden Age of Rafting by T.R. Pearson
• A Sense of the World:  How A Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler by Jason Roberts
• Touching My Father's Soul:  A Sherpa's Journey to the Top of Everest by Jamling Tenzing Norgay w/ Broughton Coburn
• Halfway to Heaven:  My White-knuckled - And Knuckleheaded - Quest for the Rocky Mountain High by Mark Obmascik
• A Splendid Savage:  The Restless Life of Fredrick Russell Burnham by Steve Kemper
• Breaking Trail:  A Climbing Life by Arlene Blum

Paddling/Canoeing/Rafting

• Canyon Solitude:  A Woman's Solo River Journey Through Grand Canyon by Patricia C. McCairen 
• From a Wooden Canoe:  Reflections on Canoeing, Camping, and Classic Equipment by Jerry Dennis
• An Adirondack Passage:  The Cruise of the Canoe Sairy Gamp by Christine Jerome
• Canoeing With the Cree by Eric Severeid 
• One Incredible Journey by Clayton Klein and Verlen Kruger
• The Survival of the Bark Canoe by John McPhee
• Cold Summer Wind by Clayton Klein
• Portage Into the Past:  By Canoe Along the Minnesota-Ontario Boundary Waters by J. Arnold Bolz 
• The Last Voyageurs:  Retracing LaSalle's Journey Across America:  Sixteen Teenagers on the Adventure of a Lifetime by Lorraine Boissoneault
• Waterwalk:  A Passage of Ghosts by Steven Faulkner
• Hidden Nature:  A Voyage of Discovery by Alys Fowler

Hiking/Walking

• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson 
• A Season on the Appalachian Trail by Lynn Setzer 
• Walking My Dog, Jane:  From Valdez to Prudhoe Bay Along the Trans Alaska Pipeline by Ned Rozell
• The Marches:  A Borderland Journey Between England and Scotland by Rory Stewart
• AWOL on the Appalachian Trail by David Miller
• Alone Together:  My Adventure on the Appalachian Trail by Wally Miars

Paleontology/Archaeology

• Before the Dawn:  Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade
• Atlas of a Lost World:  Travels in Ice Age America by Craig Childs
• Finders Keepers:  A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession by Craig Childs
• My European Family:  The First 54,000 Years by Karin Bojs
• The Lost World of the Old Ones:  Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest by David Roberts

Michigan/Great Lakes

• Walking to Mackinac by David E. Bonior
• The Superior Peninsula:  Seasons in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by Lon L. Emerick
• The Living Great Lakes:  Searching For the Heart of the Inland Seas by Jerry Dennis
• The Fourth Coast:  Exploring the Great lakes Coastline From the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota by Mary Blocksma
• Graced by the Seasons:  Fall and Winter in the Northwoods by John Bates
• Great Lakes Nature:  An Outdoor Year by Mary Blocksma 
• River of Iron by David Lee
• The Wolves of Isle Royale:  A Broken Balance by Rolf O. Peterson
• Lake Country:  A Series of Journeys by Kathleen Stocking
• An Uncrowded Place:  The Delights and Dilemmas of Life Up North and a Young Man's Search for Home by Bob Butz
• Great Lakes Country by Russell McKee
• The Turn in the Trail:  Northwoods Tales of the Upper Great Lakes by Walt Sandburg

Native American

• Rez Life by David Treuer
• Holding Our World Together:  Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community by Brenda J. Child
• Braiding Sweetgrass:  Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
•  Masters of Empire:  Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America by Michael A. McDonnell
• Wilderness Empire by Allan W. Eckert

Hunting/Fishing/Trapping

• Ghosts of Tsavo:  Stalking the Mystery Lions of East Africa by Philip Caputo
• Fly-fishing the 41st:  Around the World on the 41st Parallel by James Prosek
• Trout Madness by John D. Voelker (Robert Traver)
• On The Run:  An Angler's Journey Down The Striper Coast by David DiBenedetto
• Trout Eyes:  True Tales of Adventure, Travel, and Fly Fishing by William G. Tapply
• Kerplunk! by Patrick F. McManus
• The River Home:  An Angler's Explorations by Jerry Dennis
• The Fish's Eye:  Essays About Angling and the Outdoors by Ian Frazier
• A Place on the Water:  An Angler's Reflections on Home by Jerry Dennis
• Hunting From Home:  A Year Afield in the Blue Ridge Mountains by Christopher Camuto
• American Buffalo  In Search of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella
• West With the Rise:  Fly-fishing Across America by James Barilla
• The Sporting Road:  Travels Across America in An Airstream Trailer - With Fly Rod, Shotgun, and a Yellow Lab Named Sweetzer by Jim Fergus
• Colter:  The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had by Rick Bass
• Fur, Fortune, and Empire:  The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America by Eric Jay Dolan
• Fool's Paradise by John Gierach
  
• The Everlasting Stream:  A True Story of Rabbits, Guns, Friendship, and Family by Walt Harrington
• At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman by John Gierach
• Still Life With Brook Trout by John Gierach
• Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders:  A John Gierach Treasury by John Gierach
• The Old Man and the Boy by Robert Ruark
• Remembrances of Rivers Past by Ernest Schwiebert
• The Fragrance of Grass by Guy de la Valdene
• Meat Eater:  Adventures From the Life of an American Hunter by Steven Rinella
• Afield:  American Writers on Bird Dogs edited by Robert DeMott and Dave Smith
• Upland Autumn:  Birds, Dogs, and Shotgun Shells by William G. Tapply
• Fishing the River of Time by Tony Taylor 
• Use Enough Gun:  Ruark on Hunting Big Game by Robert Ruark
• Every Day Was Special:  A Fly Fisher's Lifelong Passion by William G. Tapply
• Charley Waterman's Tales of Fly-fishing, Wing-shooting, and the Great Outdoors by Charley Waterman
• On the Water:  A Fishing Memoir by Guy de la Valdene
• Red Stag:  A Novel by Guy de la Valdene
• Brown Feathers:  Waterfowling Tales an Upland Dreams by Steven J. Mulak
• The Longest Silence:  A Life in Fishing by Thomas McGuane 
• Outdoor Chronicles:  True Tales of a Lifetime of Hunting and Fishing by Jerry Hamza
• A Fly Fisherman's Blue Ridge by Christopher Camuto
• Midwest Meanders by Tom Huggler
• This Reckless Breed of Men:  The Trappers and Fur Traders of the Southwest by Robert Glass Cleland
• The Ghosts of Autumn:  A Season of Hunting Stories by Joel Spring
• A Fly Rod of Your Own by John Gierach
• Jill and I and the Salmon by Jack Russell
• Moose in the Water Bamboo on the Bench:  A Journal and a Journey by Kathy Scott
• What the River Knows:  An Angler in Midstream by Wayne Fields
• Salmon On A Fly:  The Essential Wisdom and Lore from a Lifetime of Salmon Fishing by Lee Wulff
• A Rough-shooting Dog:  Reflections From Thick and Uncivil Sorts of Places by Charles Fergus
• A Hunter's Fireside Book:  Tales of Dogs, Ducks, Birds & Guns by Gene Hill
• My Secret Fishing Life by Nick Lyons
• Covered Waters:  Tempests of a Nomadic Trouter by Joseph Heywood

National Library Week (April 8 - 14, 2018)

It's National Library Week!

Do you notice where the compass arrow is pointing in the picture above?

Libraries have had a huge impact on my growth as a lifelong learner.  I have probably had library cards from a dozen different library systems in my life.  Every member of my family regularly reads books, magazines, and newspapers.  My parents always made sure we went to the public library on a regular basis. 

The most influential library in my life was the Elsie Public Library in Elsie, MI.  I went to the Elsie library from 4th Grade until I graduated high school.  Even in 4th Grade, I mainly checked out books from the adult section of the library.  History was by far my favorite subject; I especially liked the Time-Life series of books that covered World War II, the Civil War, and the Old West. 

The librarian in Elsie at the time was Ms. Orpha Clement.  She would have been in her eighties at the time and was the sweetest lady.  When she finally retired, she moved into the retirement home right next door to the library.  I remember stopping to visit her there one summer when I was home from college.

After high school, I attended college at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago on an Army ROTC scholarship.  I graduated in 1997 with a degree in History.  During my senior year I spent hours not only in IIT's Paul V. Galvin Library, but in libraries across the city of Chicago doing research for my senior thesis.  Even better, this was the early age of the internet and I was able to request books from libraries across the state and even across the country!  Today we take instant access to knowledge for granted, but back then I had to wait days or even weeks for books or articles that today can be accessed in seconds.  I couldn't have survived without the library and its staff.

I don't visit the library as often as I used to.  I have so many books at home to read now - I think I am almost finished with #19 for the year, and am part way through #19 and #20.  Even though libraries don't play as an important part in my life now as they used to, it is entirely possible (probably likely) that I would not be where I am today or who I am today if I had not had access to the public library as a kid.

If you don't have a library card, go get one.  It could change your life!

Five field guides for holiday gift giving (2017 edition)

Hi, I'm Mike and I have a problem with field guides.  I simply cannot resist the pull of  a new guide.  Birds?  I have guides.  Trees?  I have guides for those too.  Flowers?  Lord, do I have guides for flowers!  Insects?  Not just general guides to insects - I have guide dedicated to bees, aquatic insects, and beetles.  (I love beetles!)  Lichens?  Who has a field guide for lichens?  Um, I do...  Actually, I know I have at least two lichen field guides.

Like I said, I have a problem.

In 2016 I wrote a series of posts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4) about some of my favorite field guides that I thought would make good Christmas gifts .  Here is an update for 2017.

1.  Amphibians and Reptiles of the Great lakes Region, Revised Edition by James H Harding and David A. Mifsud (ISBN 9780472073382)

This is not a new field guide.  The original edition came out in 1997.  Even if you own the older edition, go out and buy this field guide.  It has more photographs and updated (color) maps.  This book was published by the University of Michigan Press and costs $24.95 (paperback).  When I found out that this edition was in the works, it immediately went on my to-buy list.

2.  Mammals of the Great lakes Region, Third Edition by Allen Kurta (ISBN 9780472053452)

This is another update of a previous addition.  Like Amphibians of the Great Lakes, this book was published by the University of Michigan Press.  It retails for $24.95 (paperback).  The key updates to this edition include color photographs and updated maps.  Another nice feature that I like in this book is that origin of each species' scientific name is described in detail.  Did I need to purchase the updated version of this guide?  No, but I think it was worth the cost.  If you live in the Great Lakes region I definitely recommend this book.

3.  Mushrooms of the Upper Midwest:  A Simple Guide to Common Mushrooms by Teresa Marrone and Kathy Yerich (ISBN 9781591934172)

Mushrooms of the Upper Midwest is not a new book.  It was published in 2014 by Adventure Publications.  This book is one of an entire series of small pocket sized guides.  Some of the books that I have in this series include wildflowers, trees, reptiles and amphibians, and mammals,  Limited in scope, these are great books for beginners.

I like that this book lists many of the common edible and toxic mushrooms that can be found locally.  As always, I caution anyone against relying on a single source for information on edible mushrooms - Mistakes can be deadly!

4.  Bark:  A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast by Michael Wojtech (ISBN 9781584658528)

This another book that is not new.  Bark was published in 2011 by the University Press of New England.  I have been aware of this book for several years, but have never come across it in a store until this year.  I most tree field guides, bark is an afterthought.  There might be a short description for each species, or even a single picture of the bark of a mature tree.  In this book, bark is the star.  There are photographs of bark at various stages of a tree's life - young, mature, and old trees.  Although this book is not specific to the Midwest/Great Lakes there are enough common species to make it worth purchasing.

5.  Michigan Atlas & Gazetteer by DeLorme (ISBN 9780899334424)

Okay, this one is not a field guide.  Instead it is guide that gets you into the field.  I currently own three different editions of this guide.  Whenever we go on vacation to another state, I am likely to buy the DeLorme Atlas for that state.  I know off the top of my head that we own copies for Maine, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin (at a minimum).  These guides are so much more than road maps.  They show waterfalls, geologic sites, museums, scenic drives, lighthouses, hiking trails, and much more.  There are many places that I would never have visited if I hadn't found them in a DeLorme Atlas.

An Alphabet of Michigan Plants (N through Z)

Yesterday I posted the first half of an alphabet book that I created back at the beginning of the school year.  Here is the second half (letters N through Z). 

An Alphabet of Michigan Plants (A through M)

Back at the beginning of the school year I mentioned a project that I was working on.  I wanted to make an alphabet book of native plants to distribute to the 3rd grade classrooms that I work with on a regular basis.  A few weeks later I completed the project and began distributing copies of the pages to classrooms.  Because this alphabet book contains pictures of native plants (with the exception of the letter K) and I am attending the Wildflower Association of Michigan 30th Annual Conference, I thought now would be a good to time to share the book.

Here are letters A through M.  I'll share the rest of the alphabet tomorrow.

Holiday field guide gift guide - 16 guides for 2016 (part 2)

Field Guides to Insects

5.  Pollinators of Native Plants:  Attract, Observe and Identify Pollinators and Beneficial Insects with Native Plants by Heather Holm (ISBN 9780991356300).

If you already own a bunch of field guides to plant you probably spend a lot of time looking at plants.  If you spend a lot of time looking at plants you probably see lots of insects.  You might even wonder what the insects are and why you see different ones on different flowers.  If this describes you, then you want to own this book.

I heard the author of this book speak at the 2016 Wildflower Association of Michigan Conference and bought the book the same day.  It is the first book that I am aware of that talks specifically about the associations between native plants and their pollinators.  Although the book is limited in scope with only sixty-five plant species being featured, it includes more than 1600 photographs of flowers and insects!

This flower species in this book are arranged by habitat type.  Each species of plant is given a spread of two (or more) pages that includes a description of the plant, range map, flowering period, and habitat requirements, as well as a list of pollinator species (with photographs).  If you want to plant wildflowers as habitat for bees and butterflies, this is a must-have.  The book was published by Pollination Press LLC and retails for about $30.

6.  Butterflies of Michigan Field Guide by Jaret C. Daniels (ISBN9781591930983)

At some point you might want to know more about a specific group of insects.  Butterflies are a great place to start - there are only 147 species that are likely to be found in Michigan. 


I like this book because each species has its own two page spread.  The information provided includes detailed description, as well as a range map, a list of larval host plants, a calendar showing when it can be encountered, and a list of comparable species.  There are also pictures of both adults and larva - several entries in the book to not have larval photographs.  Another feature that I really like about this book is that the butterflies are divided by color - if a species has more than one color morph it is listed in more than one section.  This sensible approach to identification is something that you usually do not see outside of wildflower books, but it works well for butterflies.

Unlike some of the other books on this list, this is a true "field" guide.  It is small enough (about 5 inches by 7 inches) and light enough to stick in your back pocket and carry all day. The book was published by Adventure Publications in 2005.  It retails for under $20.  I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about Michigan's butterfly species as well as anyone interested in observing the relationship between insects and native plants.

7.  Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America by David Beadle and Seabrooke Leckie (ISBN 9780547238487).

If butterflies are too easy (There are only 147 Michigan species after all!), it may be time to try your hand at moth identification.  I was really excited back in 2011 when I found out that this book was in development.  I was so excited that I asked for it for Christmas in 2012 - Thanks Shara!

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the moths in this book are arranged by family.  There is a color photograph for each species, with arrows pointing to distinguishing marks.  There is also a brief description and range map for each species.  If you are not familiar with all of the different types of moths, the book can be daunting to use - there are nearly 1500 species depicted in this guide.  Even so, this guide is worth having because of the breadth of species that it covers.  At $29 it is a reasonable price for such an extensive resource.

8.  Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History by David L. Wagner (ISBN 9780691121444)

Published by the Princeton University Press in 2005, this book has all the qualities of a book you would expect from a guide published by a well-renowned university.  It is extensive (more than 700 species), well illustrated with photographs of both caterpillar and their adult forms, and well researched.  Each species description includes information information on range, season, and host plants as well as a detailed description of each species.

The book is slightly too large to carry in your pocket (5 inches by 8 inches).  It is also quite heavy - it is printed on a heavy paper and runs more than 500 pages.  It is however the best guide to caterpillars that I own, so I do frequently carry it in my backpack while out in the field.  Priced at under $25, this is a great edition to the bookshelf of any nature nut or gardener who wants to know what is eating their plants.

9.  A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America by J. Reese Voshell, Jr. (ISBN 9780939923878)

If you would rather wade in swamps and river than chase butterflies through fields, this might be the book for you.  I spend much of the spring working with students to catch and identify aquatic insects (and other macroinvertebrates).  Although I can identify most of the things that we find by sight, this is the book that I use if I want more detailed information.


Although much of the book is devoted to aquatic insects, there are also sections on mollusks (clams and mussels), gastropods (snails), annelids (worms), crustaceans (crayfish, shrimp, etc.), and more.  The book starts with a discussion of aquatic ecology and the roles, life histories, and pollution tolerance of various groups of aquatic invertebrates.  It also provides a  description of collection methods for various organisms and habitats.   There is a separate section of color illustrations which is useful for identification.  The main part of the book is devoted to detailed descriptions of the various organisms.

Published by the McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company in 2002, this book currently sells for nearly $40.  It is a valuable resource for citizen ecologists, fishermen, and anyone interested in what is going on beneath the surface of any body of freshwater.  Despite the hefty price, I highly recommend this book.

10.  Beetle of Eastern North America by Arthur V. Evans (ISBN 9780691133041)

Among other things, I am a beetle fanatic.  When I heard that this book was being published in 2014 I could hardly wait to buy it.  I was not disappointed.

Another book by the Princeton University Press, it is simply the best beetle identification book available for the eastern United States and Canada.  By no stretch of the imagination is this a field guide - it measures 8 inches wide by 10 inches long and has over 550 pages.  Photographs and description of more than 1400 species are included in this book.  It is almost as much a coffee table book as it is field guide - the photographs of the individual beetles are often stunning.  I can admit to looking through this book for hours.  At $35, this book is an incredible value for its size and scope.  I cannot recommend it highly enough.  Any naturalist would be excited to receive this as a holiday gift.

The species in the book are arrange by family - all 115 families found east of the Mississippi River are represented in the book.  Each section of the book begins with a general description of the family and is followed by detailed descriptions of individual species.

That's it for field guides to insects and other invertebrates.  Look for Part 3 (field guides to other animals) later this week.

Holiday field guide gift guide - 16 guides for 2016 (Part 1)

It's no secret that I have a "problem" with field guides.  My problem is that I feel the need to have them all.  This means that they occupy a lot of shelf space (and table space and sometimes floor space) at my home.  It also means that I have a bit of experience using different field guides.  When I do programs for adults, I frequently get asked about the field guides that I would recommend for use or purchase.

With Christmas coming soon, now is the perfect time to think about purchasing field guides as gifts or about which guides you want to add to your list.  Here are a few of my recommendations.

Field Guides to Plants

1.  Wildflowers in the Field and Forest:  A Field Guide to the Northeastern United States by Steven Clements and Carol Gracie (ISBN: 9780195150056).

Published by the Oxford University Press in 2006, this book is not cheap (new copies currently cost $55), but I believe it is totally worth the price.  This is my go-to book for wildflowers.  It is simply the most comprehensive book of wildflowers to the Northeast and Great Lakes.  While I have found flowers that were not listed in this book, I can count them on one hand.  I like this book so much that I own two copies - one is my everyday user and the second copy is for when I wear out the first copy.

In addition to the fact that this book is so comprehensive, I like how his book is laid out.  Flowers are divided first by color, then by leaf arrangement, and finally by flower arrangement/number of petals.  There are good descriptions of each species as well as clear photographs of the flowers and often close-up images of details that help with identification.  There are also range maps for the region.  I wish every wildflower book was laid out this sensibly.  The book is quite large 5 inches by 8 inches and somewhat heavy, but the weight is worth carrying around in a backpack or shoulder bag if you are going to be identifying wildflowers all day.

2.  Michigan Trees: A Field Guide to the Trees of the Great Lakes Region by Burton V. Barnes and Warren Wagner, Jr. (ISBN 9780472089215). 

Published by the University of Michigan Press, this is the best available reference guide to the trees of Michigan.  It has been published in one form or another since 1913.  The current (revised and updated edition) was published in 2004.  The softcover edition of this book sells for under $20 - a great value for such a comprehensive well-organized guide.

 
Each species in this guide has its own two page spread with a detailed description and illustrations.  At the back of the book there is a smaller section that details some common shrubs found in the state.  Again this is not a pocket-sized book, but if you are spending the day looking at trees this is the book you want to carry along.

3.  Wetland Plants of Michigan: A Complete Guide to the Wetland and Aquatic Plants of the Great Lakes State by Steve W. Chadde (ISBN 9781481194945)

This author-published book is on its second edition (2012).  The book retails online and in stores for under $30.  This book is not as easy to use by a beginner as the previous two books.  It is divided by family - if you don't know the family it is best to use a different book.  However, it is still a useful guide, especially for those interested in identification of wetland plant species.  Each section of the book includes a dichotomous key that is useful for distinguishing between similar species.  Each species entry includes a good description of the plant, the plant's wetland classification, and a map showing which Michigan counties the species has been found in.  This useful feature was not included in the first edition and is a welcome addition to the book.  The book includes both line drawing and photographs (black-and-white only) of the species.

This book is not intended to be the first guide that someone owns.If you already own a few books about wildflower and trees and want to delve deeper, then I would recommend this book.    This book has more than 680 pages and is not pocket friendly, but is a valuable addition to the bookshelf.

4.  A Field Guide to the Natural Communities of Michigan by Joshua G. Cohen, Michael A. Kost, Bradford S. Slaughter, and Dennis A. Albert (ISBN 9781611861341).

Published by the Michigan State University Press in 2015, this book retails for $34.95.  This book is not a guide to individual plants, but rather is a guide to plant communities or habitat types.  Developed by scientists at the Michigan Natural Features Inventory, this book highlights more than seventy distinct natural community types found in Michigan.   The book gives a description of each community which includes a map showing where the community can be found in the state, a list of characteristic plants, and a list of locations of specific sites.  The book also includes a key that can be used to identify the class of an observed habitat.

This a great book to consult before going out into the field or after coming back from a trip.  It is less useful as a "field" guide.  That being said, this is a valuable addition to the library of anyone wanting to learn how larger plant communities work and interact.

That's it for field guides to plants.  Look for Part 2 (Insect field guides!) tomorrow.