November Nature KIT: Effects of Nature

As we well know, nature can have devastating consequences on our lives. Wind, water and fire can take away what we cherish most including human life. For this KIT reading about the effects of any natural disaster would apply to the topic. There are a lot of titles on Hurricane Katrina.

Two specific titles that are well regarded are Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean and The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough.

Another area of reading can be the effects of nature on humans causing positive benefits on our mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. Books can be found by scientists or by individuals who benefited from a relationship with nature. A few authors who have written well received books of this kind include Richard Louv, Elisabeth Tova Bailey, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Annie Dillard but there are many more.

I look forward to seeing what everyone decides to read. I thought I knew what I would until I started this post, now I think it will be hard to decide!

For anyone looking for recommendations: Patricia Smith's poetry collection centered on Hurricane Katrina is absolutely incredible. It's titled Blood Dazzler, and I can't recommend it enough. On the more traditional nonfiction side, 1 Dead in Attic by Chris Rose is also centered on Katrina and absolutely worth the read.

I'm planning on reading Bird Therapy by Joe Harkness for this month's challenge.

I have a few choices:

Fox & I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven
Something in the Woods Loves You by Jarod Anderson
Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton

But I suspect I’ll find others to add to my TBR when I see what everyone else is reading.

>4 Charon07:, I absolutely fell in love with Something in the Woods Loves You when I read it earlier this year. I hope you do also if you end up choosing it!

>5 whitewavedarling: It ended up on my TBR because I took a BB from you!

>6 Charon07:, Oh, I'm glad lol!

Meanwhile, I'm still working on figuring out what I'll be reading for this one...

>4 Charon07: I have Fox & I on my shelf. I'll go with that one too.

I think I will try Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, which has been on my shelf for years.

I've finished One by One by Ruth Ware, where an avalanche strands a group of skiers in the chalet. Not only do they have to survive cut off from civilisation but they have to come to grips with a murderer among them.

My tentative choice is The Tree Collectors by Amy Stewart. I'm not sure how well it fits the topic so I could change my mind due to that.

Hi all, just an FYI that CAT voting is in progress over at the 2026 group! Polls close on Saturday, November 15, so be sure to submit your votes by then to help choose next year's CATs: https://www.librarything.com/topic/374659#8995115.

(Cross-posting this at a bunch of threads.)

December thread is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/375380

I read Barn in Winter which is a lovable book for children about how animals stay safe on the farm during a snow storm.

Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources

Overall, this was a very interesting and informative resource on the history of contact with indigenous people of California, their material culture, diet, and 'protoagricultural' intensive management of the land around them — coppicing/trimming, weeding, sowing, and especially controlled burns, used to control multiple different ecosystems around them, which plants grew therein and how they grew (ie, straight shoots of certain plants for construction, basket weaving, nets, etc.), and controlling animal behaviour (ie creating browsing spots for the deer they hunted, driving rabbits out of fields to hunt them, etc).

I shared a few concerns and warnings with my full review on my thread.

I have read The Tree Collectors by Amy Stewart and enjoyed it so much. Once Stewart became aware of the odd hobby of collecting trees, she started collecting the collectors and here she profiles fifty from throughout the world.

Stewart writes in the introduction how taking in the forest through all of one's senses changes the level of stress and pleasure hormones in the body, decreasing cortisol and increasing serotonin. Most of the people profiled here began planting trees for other reasons but many mention the health benefits they and others have received from their forest and one, a therapist in Poland, developed a horticultural therapy program for residents of a nursing home whose residents suffer from chronic mental illness. He has planted more than 8 acres of trees and shrubs for the residents to care for.

Finished HEARTWOOD by Amity Gaige about a woman lost in the Appalachian wilderness in Maine.

I finished Bird Therapy by Joe Harkness, a memoir about how birdwatching helped him in his recovery from a breakdown.

I just belatedly finished Something in the Woods Loves You by Jarod K. Anderson. Like >19 Jackie_K:’s reading, it was a memoir about how being out in nature helped the author manage his depression. It was lovely and poetic and will be useful when I’m feeling depressed myself.