Good Reads - Nonfiction

Back to Nature

291.447 COL
A Pelican in the Wilderness: Hermits, Solitaries and Recluses by Isabel Colegate - 2002, 284p.
Drawing on both historical and contemporary personages, Colegate attempts to classify the people that, for one reason or another, find themselves driven to solitude. She asks what it is in the unsettled mind of man that draws so many—the religious, the artistic, malcontent, or naturalist—to shrug off their social ties and responsibilities to be alone in both mind and body. Colegate uses her notable skills as a writer to persuade readers to consider a world less dominated by gadgets and technology, one where they have time to reflect and get to know themselves through extended isolation.

333.95 LAB
Woodswoman: Living Alone in the Adirondack Wilderness by Anne LaBastille - 1976, 277p.
In the early 1950s, LaBastille was in the midst of a divorce and was confronted with where and how she was going to live next. Already a bit of an outdoorswoman, having run a resort lodge with her husband, she decided take up the "Thoureau-style" life in the Adirondack woods, as had been a dream of hers since youth. Once there, she built her own log cabin, chopped her own wood, and began living a disconnected life without electricity or telephone. She eventually became a guide, while concurrently working to get a Ph.D in ecology. This memoir displays the peacefulness of self-sufficiency and serenity of communing with nature.

508.778 HUB
A Country Year: Living the Questions by Sue Hubbell - 1986, 221p.
On a 100-acre farm in the Ozark Mountains, Hubbell was a one-woman commercial beekeeper after a divorce left her with the farm. While there, she regained the composure and purpose in her life, discovering a new quietude, while tending the bees and observing the creatures and wildlife in her surrounding environment. She writes various small chapters, almost vignettes, about the nature that surrounded her and the distinctive life of bees and beekeeping. A lovely story for your inner naturalist waiting to be awakened.

591.96826 KRU
The Wilderness Family: At Home with Africa's Wildlife by Kobie Kruger - 2001, 381p.
A bestseller in South Africa, this memoir encompasses a 17-year period in the 1980s and 1990s, as Kruger, her game warden husband, and three daughters lived in varying degrees of isolation in the South African wilderness of the Kruger National Park. Hardships and events included coping with life in Africa's wilderness, raising three children in the isolated Mahlangeni (spending days alone while the children are sent to school), and also, raising an orphaned lion cub. As time passed Kruger grew more and more attached to the wildlife and eventually came to identify with animal life of the region.

599.785 SCH
The Blue Bear: A True Story of Friendship, Tragedy, and Survival in the Alaskan Wilderness by Lynn Schooler - 2002, 272p.
Schooler had always been a bit of loner, even in childhood. So, when he decided to work up on the Alaskan glacier coast as a guide of an immensely beautiful, but oftentimes dangerous stretch of wilderness, it suited him well. He befriended a noted Japanese photographer, Michio Hoshino, whom he guided to photograph the elusive Blue Bear. A deep friendship developed as the two journeyed along a 500-mile expanse searching for the bear, while sharing their experiences of loss and tragedy, something Schooler knew all too well, as he lost both the woman he loved and his father. A captivating book, sad but also cathartic, which underscores the value and memory of love and friendship.

630.9741
A Small Farm in Maine by Terry Silber - 1988, 211p.
Starting out as publishers in Boston in the 1960s, Silber and her husband grew more attached to their weekend getaway, a small farm they had purchased in 1965. They decided to give up their careers in the city and took to living full time on the Hedgehog Hill Farm in Maine. After years of renovating and learning to farm, the couple found themselves capable farmers and eventually became wholesale vegetable growers. As they gradually built their business, their entrepreneurial spirit grew also, and with it the size of their farm.

630.9743 NEA
Loving and Leaving the Good Life by Helen Nearing - 1992, 197p.
Known for the classic homesteading books co-written with her husband Scott, Living the Good Life and Continuing the Good Life, here we encounter Helen without her husband, who passed away in 1983. She provides readers with her version of living a simple life of solitude, self-sufficiency, and hard work and how she came to these ideals and principles by delving into her childhood and friendship with the Indian philosopher, Jiddu Krishnamurti. A modest memoir with a good dose of wisdom and moving reflections on life.

796.5 BEN
Just By Accident: Adventures of a Modern Vagabond by Ben Benson - 2001, 141p.
These recollections by Benson, a.k.a. "Backyard Ben," take the reader to various environs throughout the world, such as the Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska and Zimbabwe, which he traveled by way of any path or trail one can make. Through his numerous travels and jobs (ranger, photographer, hunting guide, town manager, deckhand, etc.) he accumulated numerous stories, including his own escape from a stifling job and his painful departure from his own family over 30 years ago. A quick read that highlights the urge to live and roam through nature and also considers the rewards and regrets of this chosen lifestyle.

796.522 BOU
The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest by Anatoli Boukreev - 1997, 255p.
The tragedy made famous by John Krakauer's Into Thin Air is reopened and examined by the climbing guide who was second in command on the fateful day. Boukreev's interpretation of what happened on the day that saw eight climbers perish on their climb up Mt. Everest is both a rebuttal and a defense against Krakauer's accusations of unpreparedness and foolhardy risk-taking by the Mountain Madness team. Boukreev gives a lucid and meticulous account that suggests that not only was he not responsible for the tragedy, but that he was a key component in rescuing four of the climbers, evidenced by the heroism reward he received from the American Alpine Club.

917.11 FRE
The Silence of the North by Olive A. Fredrickson - 1972, 209p.
Fredrickson married a trapper with whom she moved to the Arctic wilderness to live. After her husband's death she attempted to support her family by herself in the barren tundra. In one instance, in order to obtain food she walked 40 miles to a nearby village to feed her family. Truly, this is a story of a woman fighting desperately to survive in a harsh environment, against all odds.

917.98 KRA - Also in Paperback
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer - 1997, 207p.
Upon graduating from Emory College, Chris McCandless, an adventurous young man with an ascetic ideal, gave his savings to charity and took off for the Alaskan wilderness to experience the holiness of solitude and the outdoors. Four months later he was found dead, starved and frozen. Krakauer retraced McCandless' boyhood experiences, his broken relationship with his aerospace engineer father, and speculates about his untimely death in this fascinating adventure tale steeped in mystery.

917.98 MAC
Coming into the Country by John A. McPhee - 1977, 438p.
In the mid-70s, McPhee traveled through Alaska studying the land and its peoples. Only 20 years since it had become a state, it was largely a land up-for-grabs. The people still exhibited many of the characteristics needed to survive in an underdeveloped and harsh environment: self-sufficiency, hard work and an acceptance (some may call it love) of solitude. Many still caught and grew most of their food, making clothes and working exhaustive hours to make a living. McPhee took river trips, accompanied prospectors on flights, talked with settlers and discussed various issues with politicians and businessmen whose interests in the future of Alaska often ran counter to the people.

917.984 PRO
One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey by Sam Keith and Richard Proenneke - 1999, 223p.
This book was very successful when it was published in 1973. Based on the journals and photography of Richard Proenneke, who, after accumulating years of 50-hour work weeks, did what many of us only fantasize about: he chucked it all and went to live in the woods. Written in his 80s, Proenneke still lived in the log cabin that he had built with his own hands, becoming an icon for naturalists and homesteaders everywhere. Though few will follow Proenneke's lead, his story is an inspiring read.

957.5 PES
Lost in the Taiga: One Russian Family's Fifty-Year Struggle for Survival and Religious Freedom in the Siberian Wilderness by V. Peskov - 1994, 254p.
Russian journalist Peskov investigated a small religious fundamentalist sect living in Siberia who broke from the Orthodox Church in response to the Great Schism in the 17th century. There he discovered the Lykovs who have lived for generations in the Abakan River Valley, miles away from any contact with secular society. The 37-year-old Agafia and her 81-year-old father, Karp, were the only surviving members and Peskov's narrative focuses on these two, their history, and how they have provided for themselves in one of the world's harshest environments.

983.622 RED
The Last Cowboys at the End of the World by Nick Reding - 2001, 291p.
Reding lived with the cowboys (gauchos) in Patagonia for over a year as they herded cattle through the Andes Mountains. The families he lived amongst were almost completely isolated until the construction of the Pan-Pacific Highway. With the highway built, the great divide between their lifestyle and the industrialized society they border is a glaring reminder of the economic differences. The familial struggles are keenly observed, particularly between the couple Duck and Edith, in whose home Reding lived, as the community attempts to become reconciled to their arduous, impoverished lives.

Biography KATZ, J.
Running to the Mountain: A Journey of Faith and Change by Jon Katz - 1999, 242p.
A spiritual memoir by mystery novelist and writer Katz, who bought a cabin in up-state New York to live in solitude for six months in order to discover new meaning at middle-age. Finding life in our over-stimulated society too confusing and restrictive to find peace and renewal, he left his wife and daughter for hard work around the cabin and spiritual ruminations over Thomas Merton. A man with a very understanding wife, Katz provides an entertaining and thoughtful look at rediscovery at middle-age.

Prepared by Keith Barlog, July 2008