Nature-themed books on my TBR: #5OnMyTBR

#5OnMyTBR is a weekly meme hosted by E. @Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it in her announcement post. #5OnMyTBR takes place every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. You can find each week’s prompts on here or come up with your own.

Today’s prompt: Nature

Nature is a new theme that I got interested in quite recently. I read The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte and I was enamoured by the subject of natural history. This is what Wikipedia defined it as:

Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study.

It is fascinating how little we know about the other living beings that we share or used to share this planet with. Honestly, I am appalled by how little I myself know. Therefore, I have quite a few nature-themed books on my Goodreads TBR!

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1. Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA by Neil Shubin

I was not happy with knowing just about how dinosaurs evolved; I wanted to know how our modern animals came about too. Shubin, a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, does exactly that in this book of paleontology that spans the last fifty years.

2. Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson

I get creeped out by all manner of insects. I just can’t handle insects. But I really enjoyed my visit to the Insects section of the Melbourne Museum; there was this nervous thrill to being surrounded by an alarming number of insects! So, I was instantly drawn in by this cover and I am willing to give these tiny critters a chance by learning more of their story!

Sverdrup-Thygeson is a professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences near Oslo and a scientific advisor to the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research. She holds a doctorate in conservation biology and teaches nature management and forest ecology.

3. Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake

I really really wanna read this book. I had a herbalism phase last year, and I was fascinated and grossed out by all the fungi. Haha! How can something be so beautiful and gross at the the same time? I don’t know! Anyway, this book is just begging for me to read it, so here we are.

Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist and a writer. He received a Ph.D. in tropical ecology from the University of Cambridge for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama, where he was a predoctoral research fellow of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. 

4. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben

This book was recommended by someone on YouTube or Instagram, I can’t remember. But the concept itself, written by a forester no less, is so unique and interesting that I can’t not read this.

5. The Unexpected Truth About Animals: A Menagerie of the Misunderstood by Lucy Cooke

I love animals. I love visiting zoos and animal reserves and safaris. So, yes, I am going to read this. More so because apparently this is supposed to be “laugh-out-loud funny” as well, and who misses out on nonfiction that funny?

Lucy Cooke is a National Geographic explorer, TED talker, New York Times best-selling author, founder of the Sloth Appreciation Society, award-winning documentary filmmaker and presenter with a Masters in zoology from Oxford university.

Do you guys have any recommendations I should try out? Let me know in the comments below! Or leave your #5OnMyTBR link for me to check out!