Recs if you like Is a River Alive?...

A collection of non-fiction books that touch upon the stories of the natural world, and all the people who live among it. (Or, as an astronomer once said: "I love stories, and the story of our universe is the grandest one we have") Always open to suggestions!

nonfiction books about rivers, their history, and the ways they’ve always connected and reflected us.

books that engage with water as a way to explore migration, multispecies kinship, race, capitalism, transatlantic slavery, and more. stories that take place in, on, or around the water. coastlines, swamps, rivers, maritime histories, and the oceanic.

Nonfiction books exploring the natural world and our “place in the family of things” (Mary Oliver, Wild Geese). 🐦‍⬛🦋🌱🪸🦊🪷🪼🍄

Books We Love from NPR began in 2013, always boasting over 200 books (almost 400 in recent years) featuring genres from memoirs, to cookbooks, to graphic novels, to children’s literature, to nonfiction, to novels. Check out NPR’s website to filter this massive list.

The list is in reverse alphabetical order directly from NPR.

Nonfiction books exploring water and the life it sustains. Oceans, lakes, fish, and more.

Non-fiction for the planet - plants and animals, ecology, biology, climate change and inspiring reads from those trying to save the beautiful world that we live on.

All about wildlife, nature, and restoring what we humans have lost. Attempting to include mostly inspirational books, but some may be harder hitting.

Nonfiction books about environmental ethics and philosophy, human/environment relations, cultural ways of knowing, and understanding wildlife. Essentially, books that will make you think about your role as a fellow creature of this earth🌱🐾🐚 (Check pinned comment for more recs!) [created Sep '25]

Nominees and winners of every category of the Good Reads Choice Awards for the year of 2025. Some books overlap so they were only entered once.

Learn more about conservation efforts, environmental science, and wildlife. Contemplate how we humans can interact with nature & help the world around us🌱☀️

All the adult Nature and Conservation books that made it to The Wainwright Prize shortlists in 2025.

One of several Non-Humans & Empathy -themed lists by @Myth.Ink (See also: Fiction, GNs/Manga+, Youth Titles, Creature Feature, & the Official @Myth.Ink Curation) | This list is the NON-FICTION edition, including real interactions and considerations of interactions between non-human beings of all types (trees, robots, animals, ai, aliens, creatures, etc) and humans, empathy and lack thereof. | Suggestions more than welcome!

i hate being on boats but i do love reading about being on boats 😆