New York is one of the greatest cities of the world. It is also an urban forest with more than 5 million trees. But if you haven’t paid much attention to your street trees, you’re not alone. The Field Guide to the Street Trees of New York City (public library) is a good place to start.

See my full review here: https://slownaturefastcity.com/2016/05/19/read-the-street-trees-of-new-york-city...

Giorgia Lupi, an Italian woman living in New York, and Stefanie Posavec, an American woman living in London, are both information designers. They began a yearlong correspondence of tracking, drawing, and sharing their personal data through postcards. "Dear Data" is the beautiful result of their correspondence. I saw the authors speak last year and was inspired to try one of their data experiments, counting the animals you see.

See my full review here: https://slownaturefastcity.com/2016/11/06/count-the-animals-you-see/

Lyanda Lynn Haupt's "The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild" is a beautiful introduction to the animals, seen and unseen, who share our urban spaces.

Here's my full review: https://slownaturefastcity.com/2017/05/07/currently-reading-the-urban-bestiary/

Alexandra Horowitz’s astounding and delightful “On Looking: Eleven Walks with Experts Eyes” will inspire you to never look at your own NYC block the same way ever again.

My full review here: https://slownaturefastcity.com/2016/06/02/on-looking-eleven-walks-with-expert-ey...

In “The Edge of the Sea,” Rachel Carson writes with a beautiful clarity about our very human attraction to the seashore and the deeper understanding we can find there.

My full review here: https://slownaturefastcity.com/2016/06/12/edge-of-the-sea/

"The Wander Society" is a delightful and instructive guide to aimlessness.

My full review here: https://slownaturefastcity.com/2016/06/20/the-wander-society/

Heather Wolf’s delightful "Birding at the Bridge: In Search of Every Bird at the Brooklyn Waterfront" begins with a quest. In order to hone her urban bird-watching skills, she set the goal of spotting 100 bird species in the Brooklyn Bridge Park. How many birds would visit the limited habitat of a new city park? No one knew the answer and Heather was determined to find out.

My full review here: https://slownaturefastcity.com/2016/07/27/currently-reading-birding-at-the-bridg...

Is it possible to live a consciously slow, self-paced, and simple life in New York City, the epicenter of adrenaline and work-life overload? William Powers tries to do just that in his thought-provoking new memoir New Slow City: Living Simply in the World’s Fastest City.

Full review here: https://slownaturefastcity.com/2016/09/05/currently-reading-new-slow-city/

A fast read on a cold winter's day.

Beautiful and thought-provoking visualizations of complex topics. But if you are planning to buy the book, I'd wait for the next edition as there are a couple of printing errors in this edition.

Excellent, inventive and disturbing. I now want to go and read "Oryx and Crake," the companion novel to "The Year of the Flood."

I did not enjoy this book, as I found both main characters pretentious and unrealistic. I'm not sure why it is a best seller.

I have mixed feelings about the book. It's written in a breezy, funny style and there were moments early on when I laughed out loud in recognition. But at other times I felt less sympathetic to the narrator's navel-gazing. In the end, I think it's escapist, travel porn - perfect to read when you're months away from vacation.

It took me a short lifetime to finish Kingsley Amis's funny and biting novel about post-war academia. There may be a direct line from the angry young man in this novel to Fight Club.

The protagonist is a lout, which makes for an interesting experience. More noir than crime fiction. I found it to be a fast read and, at times, strangely poetic.

Interesting though slow-going memoir of a New Yorker writer who becomes an apprentice to celebrity chef and real-life satyr Mario Batali and a mad Italian butcher, among others.

Why do birds sing? In this interesting account of avian bioacoustics, the author follows master birders into the field to study the how and why of birdsong.

One woman's experiment to try self-help systems. I looked forward to reading it, though it lost steam for me at the end.

Somewhat engaging, but at times the insights and emotion struck me as forced.

A love letter to Naples - truly enjoyable.

This was a truly useful resource during a recent trip to Campania.

Thought-provoking and inspiring ideas for creative/personal projects.

A review of the relationship between walking and thinking, and walking and culture. At times interesting, the topics meander between personal essay, philosophy, city design, literary criticism, and politics. The type of book you can dip into for a chapter or two.

Witty, manic and thought-provoking tour of New York by Timothy "Speed" Levitch. He offers up a funny and true meditation of life in "Black Rock City" - 'a great metropolis and its parody simultaneously.'

I love this book. It's an encyclopedia of 1200+ imaginary lands invented by storytellers from Homer to Tolkien.

Terrorists take a party hostage. It's a mesmerizing story about art, love, and freedom. Enjoyable read.