We are part of the natural world, not separate from it.
– Jane Goodall
The creek near our house slips beneath a rickety old bridge that brings to mind trolls and other fairy tales, but beneath it is just a shallow creekbed and a rock that resembles, at some angles, a bowhead whale. I cross this creek several times a week, sometimes with an earbud plugged into one ear, or at other times, the best times, with a kid. If I’m accompanied by an earbud, I am usually letting a story unspool while I walk or run along the water, watching the rocky path for roots or other impediments. I have to pause at one part to clamber over a downed tree. I’ve climbed over this tree a hundred times, at least, this year, and when I’m with my kid I help him over first, and then he leads me along the path to the bridge, where we stop to toss rocks into the creek, stomp along the water’s edge, have a snack on the bottom step of the bridge, and sit on the whale rock to take in the water below and the sky above.
There are two things I love more than most things: reading a good book and wandering through the woods. I wish I had spent more time this year in other kinds of nature, but I had my fair share of outdoor adventures on trails I knew well and pockets of the natural world that were new to me in Virginia, North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Illinois. This year, I learned to pay closer attention to what I recognized and to start to recognize more trees, more flowers, the nuances that make different species special. Learning to appreciate nature is a lot like learning to write: you have to pay attention to the details without getting bogged down with too many details that distract you from what’s beautiful.
If you need to feel better about yourself, the world, your place in the universe, or this particular moment, go outside and look up into the branches of a tree. Take a deep breath, express thanks, and think about something new that’s just taking root.
This year I read 85 books, baked 100 bakes, and wrote more this year than any other since I started keeping track in 2014.
Cookbooks
Prune, Gabrielle Hamilton
Pie School, Kate Lebo
Graphic Novels
Remember Us to Life, Joanna Rubin Dranger
Redbone, Sonia Paoloni, Christian Staebler, Thibault Balahy
Tale of Sand, Jim Henson, Jerry Juhl, Ramon K. Perez
Squad, Maggie Tokuda-Hall
Ash’s Cabin, Jen Wang
They Called Us Enemy, George Takei
It Rhymes with Takei, George Takei
Something about the Sky, Nikki McClure and Rachel Carson
Isla to Island, Alexis Castellanos
The Ribbon, Skirt Cameron Mukwa
Messy Roots, Laura Gao
When Stars are Scattered, Omar Mohamed and Victoria Jamieson
Basil and Oregano, Melissa Capriglione
A Different Kind of Normal, Abigail Balfe
The War on Gaza, Joe Sacco
L’avis des autres, Léna Saurel
Toute la socio en BD: L’engagement politique
Memoir
Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
I Will Always Write Back, Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda
Meltdown: The Making and Breaking of a Field Scientist, Sarah Boon
My Chickens and I, Isabella Rossellini
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, Cary Elwes
We Are Animals, Jennifer Case
These Precious Days, Ann Patchett*
How to Share an Egg, Bonny Reichert
How to Change History, Robin Hemley
What Now, Ann Patchett (x2)
Nature Writing
Rooted, Lyanda Lynn Haupt
The Serviceberry, Robin Wall Kimmerer*
What the Chicken Knows, Sy Montgomery
Trace, Lauret Savoy
How to Read Nature, Tristan Gooley
The Nature of Oaks, Doug Tallamy
Wild Girls, Tiya Miles
Rachel Carson: Non à la destruction de nature, Isabelle Collombat
The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder: The frontier landscapes that inspired the Little House Books, Marta McDowell*
The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables, Catherine Reid
A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold*
Writing Craft
Courting the Wild Twin, Martin Shaw
Do Story, Bobette Buster
When the Reward Can Be So Great, Kwame Dawes
Nonfiction
Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto, Tricia Hersey
Cosy: The British Art of Comfort, Laura Weir
Get Good With Money, Tiffany Aliche
Women of War: The Italian Assassins, Spies, and Couriers who fought the Nazis, Suzanne Cope
Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
At Last She Stood: How Joey Guerrero Spied, Survived, and Fought for Freedom, Erin Entrada Kelly
Object Lesson: Tacos, Ignacio M. Sanchez Prado
Work
The Fearless Organization, Amy C. Edmondsen
Effective Meetings: The Complete Guide, Clyde W. Burleson
Leading Virtual Teams, Harvard Business Review Press
Emergent Strategies, adrienne maree brown
Poetry
So Far, So Good, Ursula K. Le Guin
You Are Here: Poetry of the Natural World, Ada Limon
Wade in the Water, Tracy K. Smith
Plays
Our Town, Thornton Wilder
Angels in America, Part 1, Tony Kushner
Angels in America, Part 2, Tony Kushner
Novels and novellas
The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School, Sonora Reyes
Tales from the Café, Toshikazu Kawaguchi
The Kamogawa Food Detectives, Hisashi Kashiwai
Tom Lake, Ann Patchett
Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
Sipsworth, Simon Van Booy
A Mercy, Toni Morrison
Force of Nature: A Novel of Rachel Carson, Ann E. Burg and Sophie Blackall
The River Between Us, Richard Peck
The Princess Bride, William Goldman
The Complete Brambly Hedge, Jill Barklem
The Great American Mousical: A Broadway Tale, Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton
Caddie Woodlawn, Carol Ryrie Brink
House at Pooh Corner, A. A. Milne
The Hotel Balzar, Kate DiCamillo
Lost Evangeline Kate, DiCamillo
The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest, Aubrey Hartman
How to Train Your Dragon, Cressida Cowell
Binti, Nnedi Okorafor
The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley
The Other Valley, Scott Alexander Howard
Doctor Who: The Last Voyage
Doctor Who: Pest Control
Doctor Who: The Stone Rose
Grey Sea & Sky 