By Nathab Staff

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A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See It All
Luke Dempsey; Bloomsbury Press, 2008
A Supremely Bad Idea is one man’s account of an epic journey around America, all in search of the rarest and most beautiful birds the country has to offer. But the birds are only part of it. There are also his crazy companions, Don and Donna Graffiti, who obsess over Dempsey’s culinary limitations and watch in horror as an innocent comment in a store in Arizona almost turns into an international incident; as a trip through wild Florida turns into a series of (sometimes poetic) fisticuffs; and as he teeters at the summit of the Rocky Mountains, a displaced Brit falling in love all over again, this time with his adopted country.

Letters from Eden
Julie Zickefoose; Houghton Mifflin, 2006
A frequent commentator on NPR's All Things Considered, Julie Zickefoose has painted nature virtually all her life. At the age of seven she knew that she wanted to paint birds for a living, and her lifelong dedication shows in her paintings, which are meticulously accurate as well as beautiful. The paintings used here, of scenes from her beloved home in southern Ohio, illuminate well-crafted essays based on her daily walks and observations. Wild turkeys, coyotes, box turtles, and a bird-eating bullfrog flap, lope, and leap through her prose. She excels at describing and exploring interactions between people and animals, bringing her subjects to life in just a few lines. Her husband and young children make appearances, presenting their own challenges and pleasures. The essays are arranged by season, starting with winter, providing a sense of movement through the year.

How to be a Better Birder: Travel Stories
Michael Ketover; Authorhouse, 2000
With his first book, How to Be a Better Birder, Michael Ketover emerges as an exciting voice in travel writing. Ketover blends the power of observation with global personal experience into an entertaining and provocative mixture of powerful tales.Ketover focuses on the birds and the joy in their songs amidst disrespect, lunacy, and violence. Maybe the extra attention to birds in his world will make you feel a bit more connected to the simple beauty of birds in your own.

The Ferocious Summer: Adelie Penguins and the Warming of Antarctica
Meredith Hooper; Greystone Books, 2008
Although it may seem barren, Antarctica is a vital — and increasingly threatened — part of the Earth's ecosystem. The Ferocious Summer is writer Meredith Hooper's firsthand account of the effects of climate change on this frozen continent. For one summer, Hooper lived and worked with scientists observing the summer population of Adélie penguins nesting at Palmer Station, the smallest of America's three Antarctic research bases. For Hooper, Palmer's penguins offered a way to understand the complex business of the Earth's changing climate. The Antarctic Peninsula was warming fast. Why? What were scientists doing to understand it? The daily lives of Palmer's few thousand Adélie penguins were becoming key evidence, and pieces of the climate change jigsaw began falling into place. Based on daily diaries, acute personal observations, and interviews with Antarctica's international community of researchers, this book is a fascinating and alarming report from the frontlines of global warming.