Books Set in or About the Outdoors

Playing Books & Bites Bingo? Here are some suggestions for the books set in or about the outdoors square!

Updated January 29, 2024
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The perfect storm
Junger, Sebastian.
Man's struggle against the sea is a theme that has created some of the world's most exciting stories. Now, in the tradition of Moby Dick comes a New York Times best-seller destined to become a modern classic. Written by journalist Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm combines an intimate portrait of...
Diary of a young naturalist
McAnulty, Dara
A BuzzFeed "Best Book of June 2021" From sixteen-year-old Dara McAnulty, a globally renowned figure in the youth climate activist movement, comes a memoir about loving the natural world and fighting to save it. Diary of a Young Naturalist chronicles the turning of a year in Dara's...
Into thin air : a personal account of the Mount Everest disaster
Krakauer, Jon.
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The epic account of the storm on the summit of Mt. Everest that claimed five lives and left countless more--including Krakauer's--in guilt-ridden disarray.  "A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse...
Eden
Lebbon, Tim
From the bestselling author of Netflix's The Silence comes a brand-new horror eco thriller. Earth's rising oceans contain enormous islands of refuse, the Amazon rainforest is all-but destroyed, and countless species edge towards extinction. Humanity's last hope to save the...
World of wonders : in praise of fireflies, whale sharks, and other astonishments
Nezhukumatathil, Aimee
"Hands-down one of the most beautiful books of the year." --NPR From beloved, award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil comes a debut work of nonfiction--a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us. As a child,...
Soil : the story of a Black mother's garden
Dungy, Camille T.
A seminal work that expands how we talk about the natural world and the environment as National Book Critics Circle Criticism finalist Camille T. Dungy diversifies her garden to reflect her heritage. In Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden, poet and...
Fieldwork : a forager's memoir
Regan, Iliana
From National Book Award-nominee Iliana Regan, a new memoir of her life and heritage as a forager, spanning her ancestry in Eastern Europe, her childhood in rural Indiana, and her new life set in the remote forests of Michigan''s Upper Peninsula. Fieldwork explores how...
The Wager : a tale of shipwreck, mutiny and murder
Grann, David
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on The Wager...
The troop
Cutter, Nick.
WINNER OF THE JAMES HERBERT AWARD FOR HORROR WRITING "The Troop scared the hell out of me, and I couldn't put it down. This is old-school horror at its best." --Stephen King Once every year, Scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for...
The history of bees
Lunde, Maja
"Imagine The Leftovers, but with honey" (Elle), and in the spirit of Station Eleven and Never Let Me Go, this "spectacular and deeply moving" (Lisa See, New York Times bestselling author) novel follows three generations of beekeepers from the past, present, and...
Wild : from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Strayed, Cheryl
NATIONAL BEST SELLER * Oprah's Book Club 2.0 selection. * A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again.   At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought...
The ruins : a novel
Smith, Scott
Eerie, terrifying, unputdownable—Scott Smith’s first novel since his best-selling A Simple Plan (“Simply the best suspense novel of this year—hell, of the 1990s”—Stephen King). The Ruins follows two American couples, just out of college, enjoying a pleasant, lazy...
The salt path
Winn, Raynor
"Polished, poignant... an inspiring story of true love."--Entertainment Weekly A BEST BOOK OF 2019, NPR's Book Concierge SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BOOK AWARD OVER 400,000 COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE The true story of a couple who lost everything and...
Seven steeples
Baume, Sara
One of Wall Street Journal's 10 Best Books of the Year * Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize * Shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize * An Irish Times Best Book of the Year "One of the most beautiful novels I have ever read." --New York Times Book Review The acclaimed...
The overstory : a novel
Powers, Richard
An Air Force loadmaster in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan. An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies, and is sent...
The lost city of Z : a tale of deadly obsession in the Amazon
Grann, David.
A grand mystery reaching back centuries. A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the...
The river at night
Ferencik, Erica
An Oprah.com Page-Turning Novels Pick A 2017 Indie Next Pick A Bustle Most Anticipated Thriller Novel of 2017 An Entertainment Weekly "Must List" Pick A high-stakes drama set against the harsh beauty of the...
Finding the mother tree : discovering the wisdom of the forest
Simard, S.
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * From the world's leading forest ecologist who forever changed how people view trees and their connections to one another and to other living things in the forest--a moving, deeply personal journey of discovery "Finding the Mother Tree...
The cold vanish : seeking the missing in North America's wildlands
Billman, Jon
FINALIST FOR THE KILLER NASHVILLE SILVER FALCHION AWARD Perfect for readers of Jon Krakauer and Douglas Preston, this "authentic and encyclopedic" book examines real-life cases of those who vanish in the wilderness without a trace (Roman Dial)--and those eccentric,...
The well-gardened mind : the restorative power of nature
Stuart-Smith, Sue
One of Garden & Gun's Favorite Books of 2020 A distinguished psychiatrist and avid gardener offers an inspiring and consoling work about the healing effects of gardening and its ability to decrease stress and foster mental well-being in our everyday lives.
Elderflora : a modern history of ancient trees
Farmer, Jared
The epic story of the planet's oldest trees and the making of the modern world   Humans have always revered long-lived trees. But as historian Jared Farmer reveals in Elderflora, our veneration took a modern turn in the eighteenth...
Into the wild
Krakauer, Jon.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. This is the unforgettable story of how Christopher Johnson...
Trail of the lost : the relentless search to bring home the missing hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail
Lankford, Andrea
** THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ** ** AN AMAZON "BEST BOOKS OF THE MONTH" FOR AUGUST 2023 (Biographies & Memoirs) ** From an award-winning former law enforcement park ranger and investigator, this female-driven...
Forest bathing : how trees can help you find health and happiness
Li, Qing
The definitive--and by far the most popular--guide to the therapeutic Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or the art and science of how trees can promote health and happiness Notice how a tree sways in the wind. Run your hands over its bark. Take in its citrusy scent. As a...
This wretched valley
Kiefer, Jenny
"A hallucinatory nightmare of a novel that blends adventure, horror and historical fiction, and isn't shy about violence or strangeness."--New York Times "If you love wilderness horror, This Wretched Valley is a must-read."--Alma Katsu,...
The night will find us : a novel
Lyons, Matthew (Short story writer)
They say never go into the woods at night... School's out for summer and that means one thing to Parker, Chloe, and their four friends: a well-deserved camping trip in the Pine Barrens, a million-acre forest deep in the heart of New Jersey. But when old grudges erupt, an...
The new wilderness : a novel
Cook, Diane
A Washington Post, NPR, and Buzzfeed Best Book of the Year * Shortlisted for the Booker Prize "More than timely, the novel feels timeless, solid, like a forgotten classic recently resurfaced -- a brutal, beguiling fairy tale about humanity. But at its core, The New Wilderness is really...
North woods : a novel
Mason, Daniel
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR A WASHINGTON POST TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR * FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told...
Greenwood : a novel
Christie, Michael
A magnificent generational saga that charts a family's rise and fall, its secrets and inherited crimes, from one of Canada's most acclaimed novelists Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize * "A rugged, riveting novel . . . This superb family saga will satisfy fans of...
Will to wild : adventures great and small to change your life
Stanger, Shelby
Embrace adventures both big and small and pursue your wild ideas with this "profoundly inspiring and laugh-out-loud funny" (Jaimal Yogis, author of The Fear Project) guidebook from seasoned adventurer and podcaster Shelby Stanger. Will to Wild is an instruction...
The electricity of every living thing : a woman's walk in the wild to find her way home
May, Katherine
The New York Times bestselling author of Wintering writes a life-affirming exploration of wild landscapes, what it means to be different and, above all, how we can all learn to make peace with our own unquiet minds . . .   In anticipation of her 38th birthday,...
Outdoor kids in an inside world : getting your family out of the house and radically engaged with nature
Rinella, Steven
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . "An imperative call to action" (Nick Offerman)to get children off their screens and into nature, with tips for bonding activities that teach the importance of outside timeand build tough, curious, competent kids-from thehost of the Netflix series and podcast...
The everybody ensemble : donkeys, essays, and other pandemoniums
Leach, Amy
In short, gloriously inventive essays, Whiting Award-winning author Amy Leach's The Everybody Ensemble invites us to see and celebrate our oddball, interconnected world Humans, please turn your guns into kazoos. Are you feeling dismay,...
The laws of the skies
Courtois, Grégoire
Winnie-the-Pooh meets The Blair Witch Project in this very grown-up tale of a camping trip gone horribly awry. Twelve six-year-olds and their three adult chaperones head into the woods on a camping trip. None of them make it out alive. The Laws of the Skies...
The Home Place Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature
Lanham, J. Drew.
From the fertile soils of love, land, identity, family, and race emerges The Home Place, a big-hearted, unforgettable memoir by ornithologist J. Drew Lanham.Dating back to slavery, Edgefield County, South Carolina-a place "easy to pass by on the way somewhere else"-has been home to generations of...

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