September NatureKIT: Urban Nature

When we talk about wildlife and nature we often think of rainforests and oceans, vast areas out of the daily reach of most of us. However, even for those of us living in towns and cities, there is a wealth of nature all around us if we only think to look for it. So September’s challenge is to read about urban nature. All of my suggestions are non-fiction, taken from my shelves and wishlist, so I’m keen if anyone has recommendations for great fiction about urban nature then please drop them in this thread!

Books from my shelves and wishlist which relate to this topic include:

Gavin van Horn – The Way of Coyote: Shared Journeys in the Urban Wilds (based in and around Chicago)
Ben Wilson – Urban Jungle: Wilding the City
Martin Summer – Connecting with Life: Finding Nature in an Urban World
Esther Woolfson – Field Notes from a Hidden City: An Urban Nature Diary (based in Aberdeen)
Christopher Brown – A Natural History of Empty Lots
Alastair Humphries – Local: A Search for Nearby Nature and Wildness
David Lindo – The Urban Birder
Meryl Pugh – Feral Borough (based in London)
Kelly Brenner – Nature Obscura: A City’s Hidden Natural World (based in Seattle)
Bob Gilbert – Ghost Trees: Nature and People in a London Parish
Florence Wilkinson – Wild City: Encounters with Urban Wildlife
Trevor Dines – Urban Plants
Lisa Couturier – The Hopes of Snakes: And Other Tales from the Urban Landscape
Nathanael Johnson – Unseen City: The Majesty of Pigeons, the Discreet Charm of Snails & Other Wonders of the Urban Wilderness

I can’t wait to see what you read, and look forward to a lot of BBs!

Don't forget to add the books you read to the wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2025_NatureKIT#September:_Urban_Nature

So many good choices in your list! I have many of these on my potentials list, plus a few others that I’ve also been contemplating:

My Backyard Jungle: The Adventures of an Urban Wildlife Lover who Turned his Yard into Habitat and Learned to Live with It by ‪James Barilla
Understorey: A Year Among Weeds by Anna Chapman Parker
Close to Home: The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door by Thor Hanson
Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution by Menno Schilthuizen
The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

I’ll have to browse at the library to decide among the wealth of choices!

>2 Charon07: Well that's my wishlist getting bigger already :D Thank you for those suggestions!

I wasn't sure what I'd find on my TBR for this, but I've actually had Lisa Couturier's The Hopes of Snakes: And Other Tales from the Urban Landscape on my shelf for ages, so I'll go that route. I'm glad you mentioned it, >1 Jackie_K:!

I'm going to try to read Urban Forests by Jill Jonnes

I am planning to read Song of Sweetbrook which is written by an Indiana author and includes photography of her gardens and the lake behind her home. The houses are visible in her photos.

I've finished Ben Wilson's Urban Jungle: The History and Future of Nature in the City which was excellent - both inspiring and sobering. He looks at flora, fauna and habitat. The role of natural habitats in mitigating the effects of climate change are made clear, along with the incredible adaptability of the creatures who live in the urban environment. I was also amazed at the figures showing how much more biodiverse urban areas are compared with the countryside. Of course, the benefits of 'renaturing' urban areas will be unequally felt, with increasingly the wealthy having access to green spaces while the poor have to deal with the consequences of not having access to resources needed to undo the damage of centuries of expansion and urbanisation. I very much recommend this book.

October's thread has been posted here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/373837

I read The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy, which is fiction about a colony of feral cats and their interactions with the other wild, feral, and domestic creatures who share their Delhi home.

Excerpt from The 99% Invisible City

I made the decision to read only Chapter 5, Geography, which consists of 5 subheadings (delineations, configurations, designations, landscapes, and synanthropes, of which only the latter 2 were relevant to Urban Nature), each consisting of a few related short essays. This is fascinating stuff, and it certainly has opened my eyes to things I had not noticed before, or explained some things I had noticed. I especially enjoyed the bits about urban nature, since that's what I picked the book up for (this time, at least; I do hope to read the whole thing some day). There was a sense in these essays, which I sometimes find missing in the discussion of environmentalism, that I will sum up by quoting the book itself: "people need to understand that cities and nature are all part of the same ecosystem."

Full review on my thread.

I finished The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl, which was lovely but rather depressing. The artwork by Billy Renkl, though, is stunning, and I can recommend it for the art alone.

It isn’t strictly about urban nature though. But I’m also currently reading Unseen City: The Majesty of Pigeons, the Discreet Charm of Snails & Other Wonders of the Urban Wilderness by Nathanael Johnson, which is very much about urban nature. I may not finish it this month, but I’ll add it to the Wiki.

>12 Charon07: Both of those are on my wishlist - I'll be interested in your review of Unseen City when you finish it! (no pressure to finish by tomorrow, the thread will still be here :) ).

>12 Charon07: Both of those are on my wishlist - I'll be interested in your review of Unseen City when you finish it! (no pressure to finish by tomorrow, the thread will still be here :) ).

I read This is How A Robin Drinks by Joanna Brichetto 3*

This is a book of short essays based on the author's experiences in and around her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. I think these would be most enjoyed by people who are new to experiencing nature in urban areas.

I'm counting Chambre 1002 par Chrystine Brouillet for this challenge. It's a foodie book set in Montreal. One of the characters has a hive on a rooftop, another cultivates herbs on his balcony and yet another has a full vegetable patch in her city home. Montréal is one of the world's biggest agro-cities with community plots, greenhouses and greening initiatives from back alleys and rooftops - all sorts of hidden gardens all around town.

I’ve finished Unseen City: The Majesty of Pigeons, the Discreet Charm of Snails & Other Wonders of the Urban Wilderness by Nathanael Johnson, and it was a perfect fit for the urban nature theme. It was delightful, and I’m glad I read it, even if I was a little late for the September challenge!