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We all love a bit of an adventure, and after the last two years, it’s certainly time to get some ‘book’-ed into our schedule! As we round out the end of what has been a year for the books, why not jump into some of these inspiring works of literature by inspiring female explorers to keep your mind busy over the winter and prepare you for your next science adventure?
Ms. Adventure
As a self-proclaimed ‘professional risk-taker,’ Jess Phoenix’s life certainly isn’t boring: her career as a volcanologist and natural hazards expert has taken her across six continents where she has organized and led over 25 research expeditions. Along the way, she has used her experience to co-found the scientific research organization Blueprint Earth, which collects a huge amount of data to understand how the entire ecosystem works together in the Mojave Desert, from minuscule microbes to high-flying clouds.
While field expeditions can, of course, be long and tiring, Jess’ career has presented her with the opportunity for plenty of adventure. In her new memoir Ms. Adventure, we follow her through burning lava fields, icy glaciers, and untouched rainforests as she works tirelessly to discover more about our natural world. It’s not always plain sailing – Jess tells us stories of chasing down narcotics traffickers in Mexico, escaping armed thieves in Peru, piloting submersibles around an underwater volcano, and trekking through the heat of Death Valley: all for the love of science.
Ms. Adventure is the ideal book for anyone who wants to learn more about our amazing planet. With its mix of humor, excitement, and education, it is guaranteed to inspire you to explore our world.
Ms. Adventure: My Wild Explorations in Science, Lava, and Life, by Jess Phoenix
Bicycling with Butterflies
For those living in North America, every year brings with it an opportunity to bear witness to one of the most incredible natural phenomena of our planet: the migration of the monarch butterfly. In 2017, biologist and outdoor educator Sara Dykman got on her bike and decided to follow them, tracking the monarchs for 10,201 miles from their overwintering grounds in Mexico all the way up to Canada – and back again.
In her new book, Bicycling with Butterflies, Sara shares her 9-month adventure, taking us through the ups and downs she faced while navigating three countries and thousands of new roads, towns, and cities while trailing the butterflies. Not only was her trip an incredible physical feat, but her dedication to education also allowed her to share the monarch’s story with thousands of people along the way, raising awareness for this threatened species and even sharing her knowledge of climate change with a few skeptics along the way.
Sara writes with clarity and curiosity, turning complex scientific issues into simple and exciting works of art. If you’re looking for a book to nurture the nature lover and adventurous woman inside of you, Bicycling with Butterflies provides just that.
Bicycling with Butterflies: My 10,201-Mile Journey Following the Monarch Migration, by Sara Dykman
The Sediments of Time
Mother-and-daughter duo Maeve and Samira Leakey are a woman’s answer to Indiana Jones: adventurous paleoanthropologists on a mission to discover the truth about human history.
In Maeve’s new memoir The Sediments of Time, she tells us of her life living and working in Kenya including her discovery of a previously unknown species of human, pioneering research into how climate change shaped evolution, and adventures in bringing up a family while nurturing her career as a leading scientist. Of course, life never runs smoothly: run-ins with armed indigenous groups, ongoing political strife in Kenya, and taking over expeditions when her husband lost both of his legs are just some of the obstacles she hit along the way.
Maeve is one of those incredible women who proves to us that we can have it all. Working in a male-dominated field in the 1970s and ’80s of course presented many challenges, but Maeve’s story is there to remind us that those with passion and perseverance will always come out on top.
The Sediments of Time: My Lifelong Search for the Past, by Maeve Leakey and Samira Leakey
Slime
You’d be forgiven for overlooking the importance of algae: for most of us, it brings to mind a slimy green substance floating in a pond. In reality, algae are one of the core building blocks of our planet and everything on it. Without algae, our plants and wildlife above and below the water would not exist – and neither would we.
Ruth Kassinger’s new book Slime takes us on a time-travelling adventure of the murky world of algae. She explores where it came from, how it evolved into the flora we know today, and how it created the planet we live on, from our oxygen-rich atmosphere to the deepest depths of the ocean. Ruth looks at how cutting-edge scientists are using algae to create sustainable biofuels, fertilizers, bioplastics, water filtration, and change our planet.
Slime will take you into a world you never knew existed and transform the way you see algae – next time you see some green slime, it will seem a lot more fascinating than before.
Slime: How Algae Created us, Plagues us, and Might Just Save us, by Ruth Kassinger
Swimming to the Top of the Tide
Despite spending most of her life living next to the largest continuous stretch of salt marsh left in New England, artist Patricia Hanlan and her husband had never explored the Great Marsh surrounding their home until their children had flown the nest. In their later years, they began to swim in a nearby estuary every day, come rain or snow, exploring and discovering an entirely new ecosystem.
In Swimming to the Top of the Tide Patricia documents this new world she encounters and the changes that she sees throughout the years. As she starts to watch the world around her, she gains an understanding of the importance of this unique ecosystem, and by sharing it with us she awakens readers to the fragility of our changing coastlines.
Patricia’s story brings together the importance of family and nature and, with the help of her poetic words, we see the watershed through her eyes as she discovers the incredible place where saltwater and freshwater mix, merge, and create new life.
Swimming to the Top of the Tide: Finding Life Where Land and Water Meet, by Patricia Hanlon
Braiding Sweetgrass
Nature is one of our oldest teachers; long before the days of European scientific discoveries and technology, North American indigenous tribes were using native plants for medicines, relying on animals for food, and fully incorporating the world around them into the stories and legends passed down through generations.
As a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Robin Wall Kimmerer embraces both the scientific and spiritual aspects of nature, bringing these two radically different worlds together in her new book Braiding Sweetgrass. Robin’s upbringing as an indigenous woman gave her an appreciation of the natural world that has been lost in modern society, and we travel with her as she takes us through the lessons that we can learn from listening to the world around us – from sweetgrass, to algae, to salamanders, all creatures have an important message to pass on.
Braiding Sweetgrass reminds us to listen to these messages and highlights the importance of reconnecting with nature for the safety of our planet. In order to awaken our ecological consciousness, we must first acknowledge its presence: and there is no better way to do this than to pay attention.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Writing Wild
Science communication comes in all shapes and sizes: we don’t always need to gain knowledge through facts and figures. Using the arts to evoke emotions is an incredibly powerful way of engaging people in the natural world who may not connect with science in a traditionally academic setting.
This is where books like Writing Wild come in. Kathryn Aalto brings together the work of 25 incredible women, collating their poetry, written essays, and spiritual words to bring the message of nature home in a creative and emotional way. The book includes well-known names such as Rachel Carson, Mary Austin, and Nan Shepherd, as well as some lesser-known but equally talented writers.
In a world where we are constantly bombarded with information, sometimes taking some time out to enjoy the English language is the best way to reconnect with nature. Writing Wild is the perfect book for those quiet, contemplative, afternoons.
Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks who Shape how we see the Natural World, by Kathryn Aalto
The Inside Out of Flies
Even among entomologists, flies are some of the least well-studied insects on the planet: their love of feces and festering food leaves us viewing them as dirty pests rather than an animal to be admired. However, every creature has its purpose and is fascinating in their own way – including flies.
Erica is the Curator of Diptera at the Natural History Museum and has recently released the sequel to her first successful book. In The Inside Out of Flies, Erica looks at the mechanics of how flies work on the inside, how they are a marvel of natural engineering, and how they have influenced human technology and medicine.
There is more to a fly than meets the eye, and The Inside Out of Flies tells us of their incredible story. Coupled with fascinating photographs and electron micrographs of a wide swath of specimens, Erica’s words change the way we think about Diptera and how we view them in our world.
The Inside Out of Flies, by Dr. Erica McAlister
Beasts Before Us
Those of us familiar with mass extinctions know that mammals began to dominate our megafauna after the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. However, what we don’t always realize is that their history goes back far further to their split from reptiles over 300 million years ago.
In Beasts Before Us, paleontologist Elsa Panciroli travels the world to investigate the murky history of our ancestors and how they were the pioneers of their time. She travels to Scotland where animal tracks far older than dinosaurs were uncovered, to South Africa where we discovered our furry egg-laying mammalian ancestors, and to China where fossils revealed that our ancient predecessors could glide, burrow, and swim.
Elsa rewrites the history of our mammalian class and shows them to be powerful, ingenious, and intelligent creatures, far from the timid burrowers that have often been described. If you’re looking for a book full of surprises, Beasts Before Us will have you discovering new secrets at every turn.
Beasts Before Us: The Untold Story of Mammal Origins and Evolution, by Elsa Panciroli
Kindred
Neanderthals have always been represented as hairy, animalistic, hominids with low intelligence that liked to hit things with clubs. Despite their somewhat violent reputation, recent research has shown quite the opposite: Neanderthals were incredibly successful and hardy survivalists, in no small part responsible for the success of the genus Homo and therefore ourselves.
Kindred digs ever deeper into their past and uncovers a group of curious, intelligent, humans that adapted brilliantly to a constantly changing environment for more than 300,000 years. They were masters of hunting, cooperation, altruism, technological craftmanship, and imagination, all of which is good to know since Neanderthal DNA has been found inside us.
Kindred shines a new light on Neanderthal life, revealing a deeper story leaving behind the stereotypes we know so well. Rebecca’s engaging writing brings home the similarities between us and our ‘thuggish’ ancestors, making us realize that we are, in fact, not so different, and have them to thank for many of our ‘human’ traits.
Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art, by Rebecca Wragg Sykes
