The Natural History Society Book Club will meet at 3:30 on Monday, September 22, to discuss Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness, by Lyanda Lynn Haupt.

There are more crows now than ever. Their abundance is both a sign of ecological imbalance and a generous opportunity to connect with the animal world. Crow Planet is a call to experience the wildlife in our midst, reminding us that we don’t have to head to faraway places to encounter “nature.” Even in the cities and suburbs where we live we are surrounded by wildlife such as crows. Through observing them we enhance our appreciation of the world’s natural order, and find our own place in it.

Haupt, a trained naturalist, uses science, scholarly research, myth, and personal observation to draw readers into the “crow stories” that unfold around us every day, culminating in book that transforms the way we experience our neighborhoods and our world.

Please RSVP to Pat at jltnatural@saveland.org for location.

The Natural History Society Book Club will meet at 3:30 on Monday, August 25, to discuss Wild Comfort: The Solace of Nature, by Kathleen Dean Moore.

In an effort to make sense of the deaths in quick succession of several loved ones, Kathleen Dean Moore turned to the comfort of the wild, making a series of solitary excursions into ancient forests, wild rivers, remote deserts, and windswept islands to learn what the environment could teach her in her time of pain.

This book is the record of her experiences. It’s a stunning collection of carefully observed accounts of her life—tracking otters on the beach, cooking breakfast in the desert, canoeing in a snow squall, wading among migrating salmon in the dark—but it is also a profound meditation on the healing power of nature.

Please RSVP to Pat at jltnatural@saveland.org for location.

The JLT Natural History Society book club will meet at 3:30 pm on Monday, July 28, to discuss Northwest Passages: A Literary Anthology of the Pacific Northwest from Coyote Tales to Roadside Attractions, by Bruce Barcott.

In this vibrant anthology about the region and its people, editor Bruce Barcott endeavors to define the literary soul of the Northwest. Spanning two hundred years, Northwest Passages brings together writing from such natives, notables, and newcomers as Chief Seattle, Rudyard Kipling, Jack Kerouac and Sherman Alexie.

Please email Pat at jltnatural@saveland.org for more information and for directions to the meeting place. We look forward to seeing you there!

The JLT Natural History Society book club will meet at 3:30 pm on Monday, June 23 to discuss The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest, by Jack Nisbet.

From 1823 to 1834, Scottish plant collector and naturalist David Douglas explored what is now Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, and the impact he had continues to be enormous today.

The Collector tracks Douglas’s fascinating history, from his humble birth in Scotland in 1799 to his botanical training under the famed William Jackson Hooker, and details his adventures in North America discovering exotic new plants for the English and European market.

The book takes readers along on Douglas’s journeys into a literal brave new world of then-obscure realms from Puget Sound to the Sandwich Islands. In telling Douglas’s story, Spokane-based naturalist Jack Nisbet evokes a lost world of early exploration, pristine nature, ambition, and cultural and class conflict with surprisingly modern resonances.

To RSVP, and for locations and directions, please contact Pat at jltnatural@saveland.org

The NHS Book Club will meet at 4:30 pm on Monday, May 26 to read, Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, by William Bryant Logan.

Logan, a columnist for The New York Times, combines science and philosophy with a quirky curiosity about why the universe works the way it does to create this beautifully written celebration of the birth, death, and regeneration of the soil and the human connection to it.

In these brief, elegant essays, the author raises the concept of dirt to new levels. Logan looks at soil formation and development. His topics range from quarries and the foundations of cathedrals to graveyards and earthworms, from husbandry in ancient Rome to composting in Florida. Logan pays tribute to the dung beetle as a symbol of renewal; he notes that dirt is the source of many drugs that work against infectious diseases (penicillin, streptomycin). He discusses the many forms of clay and the agricultural practices of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and the Iroquois. Dirt is a natural history of the soil and our connection with it. –Publishers Weekly

Whether Logan is traversing the far reaches of the cosmos or plowing through our planet’s crust, his delightful, elegant, and surprisingly soulful meditations greatly enrich our concept of “dirt,” that substance from which we all arise and to which we all must return.

To RSVP and to get location and directions, please contact Pat at jltnatural@saveland.org