7 Must-Pack Books for the Traveling Animal Lover

Acclaimed nature writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt journeys into the heart of the everyday wild, where coyotes, raccoons, chickens, hawks, and humans live in closer proximity than ever before.

A 300-year history of wild wolves in America, and our relationship with them. The earliest Americans revered them. Settlers zealously exterminated them. Now, scientists, writers, and ordinary citizens are fighting to bring them back to the wild.

Traveling along the Yukon as the salmon migrate, a four-month journey through the untrammeled landscape, Adam Weymouth traces the fundamental interconnectedness of people and fish through searing and unforgettable portraits of the individuals he encounters.

From musician and naturalist Bernie Krause comes the story of the pursuit of natural music in its purest form, and an impassioned case for the conservation of one of our most overlooked natural resources-the music of the wild. 

Applying the research of paleontologists, ornithologists, biologists, engineers, and even art historians, Hanson asks: What are feathers? How did they evolve? What do they mean to us? Engineers call feathers the most efficient insulating material ever discovered, and they are at the root of biology’s most enduring debate. 

A witty and rousing history of science, The Seeds of Life presents our greatest scientists struggling-against their perceptions, their religious beliefs, and their deep-seated prejudices-to uncover how and where we come from.

Mary Roach meets Bill Bryson in this uproarious tour of the basest instincts and biggest mysteries of the animal world, perfect for anyone who has ever suspected that virtue might be unnatural.