Recommended Reading

In making this list, we tried to include only books that are a joy to read. We figure that most people don’t want to read a textbook or a doomsday environmental tale. These are our top picks about wolves, the environment, and other related topics. We hope you find the books as inspiring, entertaining, and thought-provoking as we do.

Environmental Philosophy and Ethics

Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey (1968)
The Only Kayak, Kim Heacox (2006)
Walden, Henry David Thoreau (1854)
The Abstract Wild, Jack Turner (1996)

Environmental Policy

Let The Mountains Talk, Let The Rivers Run, David Brower (1990)
Encounters With the Archdruid, John McPhee (1971)
Mountains Without Handrails, Joseph Sax (1980)
Crossing the Next Meridian, Charles Wilkinson (1993)

Wolves

Of Wolves and Men, Barry Lopez (1979)
The Wolves of Isle Royale: A Broken Balance, Rolf Peterson (1995)
Wolves at Our Door, Jamie and Jim Dutcher (2003)
Predatory Bureaucracy, Michael Robinson (2005)
The Wolf Almanac, Robert Busch (2007)
Decade of the Wolf, Douglas Smith and Gary Ferguson (2006)
Wolf Land, Carter Niemeyer (2016)
Journey: The Amazing Story of OR-7, the Oregon Wolf that Made History, Beckie Elgin (2016)
American Wolf: a True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West, Nate Blakeslee (2017)
Wolf Nation, Brenda Peterson (2017)

Outdoor Education

Sharing Nature with Children, Joseph Cornell (1978)
Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv (2008)
Earth in Mind, David Orr (1994)

Food

The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, Sandor Elix Katz (2006)
Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore Lappe (1971)
The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan (2006)
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)

Animal Behavior

Playing by Heart, O. Fred Donaldson (1993)
Dancing with Horses, Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling (2001)
The Tao of Equus, Linda Kohanov (2007)
A Walk in Connection, Tracy Ane Brooks (2014)

Ecology

A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold (1949)
Silent Spring, Rachel Carson (1962)
Arctic Dreams, Barry Lopez (1982)
Playing God in Yellowstone, Alston Chase (1987)
An Entirely Synthetic Fish, Anders Halverson (2010)

Sustainability and Technology

Better Off, Eric Brende (2007)
Collapse, Jared Diamond (2005)
Blessed Unrest, Paul Hawken (2007)
Deep Economy, Bill McKibben (2007)
Garbage Land, Elizabeth Royte (2006)
Eaarth, Bill McKibben (2010)

Water

The Secret Knowledge of Water, Craig Childs (2001)
The Big Thirst, Charles Fishman (2011)
Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner (1986)
Water Wars, Diane Raines Ward (2002)

Outdoor Adventure

A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson (1998)
Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer (1997)
The Endurance, Alfred Lansing (1959)
The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen (1978)
Coming into the Country, John McPhee (1976)
Wind, Sand and Stars, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1939)
Touching the Void, Joe Simpson (1988)

For Younger Audiences

Call of the Wild, Jack London (1902)
Julie of the Wolves, Jean Craighead George (1972)
My Side of the Mountain, Jean Craighead George (1972)
Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O’Dell (1960)
Hatchet, Gary Paulson (1987)
Woodsong, Gary Paulson (1990)
Tracker, Gary Paulson (1995)