The first books of natural history I can recall reading were David Quammen’s “Natural Acts” and Bernd Heinrich’s “Ravens in Winter.” While I know I had read others before, these two stick in my mind due to the power each of them had to demand that I look more deeply at the world around me and ask not just “what” but “why?”
Just prior to Christmas a number of books arrived on my desk; most of which I had been expecting but one was a complete surprise – an advance reading copy from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt of Scott Sampson’s forthcoming “How to Raise a Wild Child; The Art and Science of Falling in Love with Nature.”