New England Roadside Ecology—Do you like traveling locally? Do you yearn for easy hikes? What about learning about the plants, animals, and fungi you may come across? This book is perfect. I’ve enjoyed leafing through its pages, and plan to embark on some of its detailed journeys to see the marvels for myself. The true gems to mine within this book are its descriptions of the interrelated ecology. While many books can identify species, few point out the underlying relationships that enrich our New England landscape. 

Finding the Mother Tree—And speaking of underlying relationships, this book focuses on the fascinating underground networks by which trees communicate. Simard’s findings are vivid and inspiring. While it may be a hefty book to some, the writing is engrossing, and it makes a perfect summer read as a riveting, nonfiction page-turner. 

Flight Behavior—This book is the enchanting story of a restless wife and her newfound purpose in life—studying monarchs who journey across her holler in Appalachia. The story is as much about climate change and biodiversity loss as it is about one person’s struggle to break out from within the cultural framework that hems her in. Faced with opposing worldviews, Dellarobia Turnbow finds her life turned upside down, and discovers her own opportunity for flight and survival.