A smiling woman—Courtney Lyons-Garcia stands on a bridge. Four book covers, the books she recommended for the Nature Book Guide as one of their Book Recommendation Panel members is superimposed on the photo

Introducing Rachel Hutchens, Executive Director of Denver’s Bluff Lake Nature Center and an inaugural member of our Book Recommendation Panel with some of her recommendations for readers!

We love a book that can nudge us into a new way of seeing or help us understand the shifts or changes or nuances of the seasons. Lev Parikian’s Light Rains Sometimes Fall gifts the readers with those nudges, so we included it in the Autumn issue of Nature Book Guide.

Funny, joyful, and full of wonder, we loved Frogs: A Day in the Life so much we couldn’t wait to visit with the author, herpetologist Dr. Itzue W. Caviedes Solis, a native of Mexico and assistant professor at Swarthmore College.

We’re excited to bring you an interview with Gary Paul Nabhan about his anthology, The Nature of Desert Nature.

We’re excited to bring you an interview with the author of Beaverland, Leila Philip.

Read a vintage National Geographic Society scientific report from 1922 about “The Valley of 10,000 Smokes."

In 2017, I moved to Alaska to work at Katmai National Park and Preserve-one of my favorite places on earth-as a Park Ranger. Today, when visitors head to the Valley of 10,000 Smokes, they see a moonlike landscape altered by the Novarupta eruption of 1912. The "smokes" were a result of water being vaporized below the superheated pyroclastic flow.”

A warm thank you to everyone who came out Friday, April 30 for our first public event for Nature Book Guide! We were hosted by the wonderful independent bookseller, Sidekick Coffee & Books, of Iowa City, Iowa, (a UNESCO City of Literature!) and Body Moves Fitness and Wellness Center, of Coralville, Iowa. A terrific crowd of 25-30 folks packed the event space of this lovely bookshop for a conversation about books on nature and climate.

Our first public event will take place in Iowa City (UNESCO City of Literature) at independent bookstore, Sidekick Coffee and Books, at 1 pm, Friday, April 28.

Congratulations to Book Recommendation Panel member, Courtney Lyons-Garcia, on being named the new Executive Director of the Mission Heritage Partners.

So many of the books in the current issue of Nature Book Guide are connected, and we hope you’ll take some time to explore them!

We were honored to interview respected naturalist, conservationist, author, and researcher, Erich Hoyt about his newest book, Planktonia: The Nightly Migration of the Ocean’s Smallest Creatures. The interview appears in our Winter 2022-2023 issue and the extended version is available as a separate download.

BOOK RECOMMENDATION PANEL update —. We're happy to share that a member of our Book Recommendation Panel, Bill Davison has started a gardening and rewilding newsletter on Substack. Take a look at billdavison.substack.com.

Winter issue of Nature Book Guide, cover image.

Milkweed Editions has created a membership program so we—you--can invest in those authors and the works they create—works that are changing the conversation about nature and culture. Works that are changing us, the reader.

Book Recommendation Panel members suggest readers enjoy podcast episodes to enhance their experience.

With this post, we start a weekly feature on our social media channels, #bookmarkmondays to celebrate independent bookstores and the connections they can make between readers.

I had no idea there was an “easter egg” waiting for me when Katie Smither, a member of our Book Recommendation Panel, suggested Hawaiki Rising for the first issue of Nature Book Guide. (See page 12 of the Autumn 2022 issue.)

The Guide became a way to include people and ideas, particularly those from underrepresented communities, rather than exclude them.