July’s Natural History Society Book Club selection is Lyanda Lynn Haupt’s The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild.  We will meet on Monday, July 25, from 3:30-5:00.  For further information contact Jean at jltnature@saveland.org.

Haupt’s book examines the everyday wild in our urban neighborhoods.  It is a blend of myth, memoir, science, and stories.  Beautifully illustrated and with practical sidebars on such subjects as animal tracks  and opossum removal.

This book reminds us that we don’t have to travel to a national park or a wilderness area to encounter wild animals.  The live among us, although we often don’t pay attention to them.

The Jefferson Land Trust Natural History Society book club will discuss Jack Nisbet’s latest book, Ancient Places: People and Landscape in the Emerging Northwest on Monday, June 27. We will meet at the Ilahee Preserve shelter from 3:30-5:00. For directions to the Ilahee Preserve, contact Jean at jltnature@saveland.org.

This is the second title by Jack Nisbet the book club has read.  We previously read his biography of David Douglas, The Collector.

Jack Nisbet has proven himself to be an astute interpreter of Pacific Northwest history, an insightful naturalist, and an excellent storyteller.  His newest book of essays engages both the past and the present of the Inland Northwest.  He combines historic research with field work, personal interviews, and local knowledge gained through decades of living in a place.  He relates stories told by longtime residents and tribal people, as well as geologists, paleontologists, anthropologists, and university researchers.

The Natural History Society Book Club’s choice for the month of May is The Triumph of Seeds by Thor Hanson. We will meet on Monday, May 23, 3:30 – 5:00 at the Ilahee Preserve shelter.  E-mail Jean at jltnatural@saveland.org if you need directions.

We live in a world of seeds. From our morning coffee to the cotton in our clothes, seeds support diets, economies, lifestyles, and civilizations around the globe. In The Triumph of Seeds, award-winning author and biologist Thor Hanson explores both the natural and cultural history of seeds – why they are so dominant in nature, and why we are so utterly dependent upon them. Spanning locations ranging from the Raccoon Shack—Hanson’s backyard writing hideout-cum-laboratory—to the rainforests of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, from our flower patches and backyard gardens to the spice routes of Kerala, The Triumph of the Seeds is a book of knowledge, adventure, and wonder. Essential reading for anyone who loves who loves plants, or who may have wondered how the chili got its spice, what puts the buzz in coffee, or how seeds have influenced everything from the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Industrial Revolution to the shape of the human face.