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OUTDOOR BOOK REVIEWS HOME PAGE
NEWS & COMMENTARY
WINNERS OF THE NATIONAL OUTDOOR
BOOK AWARDS (NOBA)
NOBA WINNERS BY CATEGORY:
OUTDOOR LITERATURE
NATURAL HISTORY
LITERATURE
HISTORY/BIOGRAPHY
NATURE & ENVIRONMENT
CLASSIC AWARD
DESIGN/ARTISTIC MERIT
CHILDREN'S BOOKS
GUIDES (ADVENTURE)
GUIDES (NATURE)
INSTRUCTIONAL BOOKS
BEST BOOK LISTS:
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
ADVENTURE'S 100 BEST
ADVENTURE BOOKS
CHESSLER'S TOP 100
CLIMBING BOOKS
SIERRA MAGAZINE
READER'S FAVORITE
BOOKS
OUTSIDE'S 25 BEST
BOOKS OF THE LAST
100 YEARS
ASLE'S TOP 12
ENVIRONMENTAL BOOKS
THE REVIEWS 10 MOST
INFLUENTIAL
ENVIRONMENT BOOKS
OUTDOOR EDUCATION
SURVEY: BEST BOOKS
RECOMMENDATIONS:
TRAVEL LITERATURE BY
JEFF TUCKER
OUTDOOR LITERATURE
BY LIAM GUILAR
RIVER LITERATURE BY
LIAM GUILAR
THE OUTDOOR EXPERIENCE READING LIST:
READING LIST FOR AN
OUTDOOR LITERATURE
COURSE
OTHER SUGGESTIONS:
HUMBLE SUGGESTIONS
(A Few of Our Editor's
Own Works)
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Winners
of the Nature and the Environment Category
National
Outdoor Book Awards (NOBA)
The most important book award
program in the outdoor field is the National
Outdoor Book Awards. Past winners of the Nature and the Environment
Category are listed below:
 Winner:Sharing
the Wonder of Birds with Kids
By Laura Erickson, illustrated by Kathryn Marsaa, published by Pfeifer-Hamilton.
This is a marvelous text on how to interest children in birding.
It's also an equally marvelous text for teaching adults the basics of bird
watching. The book is full of helpful hints and the writing is lively
and entertaining. It even has jokes:
Question: Why do birds fly south?
Answer: Because it's too far to walk.
For information on availability. (By the way, this
a fun site for birders. Highly recommended.): author's
site.
 Winner:The
Columbia: Sustaining a Modern Resource
By Tim Palmer. Published by The Mountaineers.
Tim Palmer, in one of his finest works on rivers,
celebrates the beauty and natural resources of the Columbia. Taking
readers from one tributary to another across the vast and varied Pacific
Northwest landscape, he describes the river's watershed, the intricate
pattern of development, and its dwindling forests and salmon runs.
He details what is wrong but also offers hope that responsible politics
can redirect society toward a sustainable future.
Honorable
Mention: The Arctic Wolf:
Ten Years with the Pack
By David Mech. Published by Voyageur Press.
Written by one of the world's foremost authorities
on wolves, this book is about Mech's work with a pack of Arctic wolves
which he first began to study in 1986. It is as much a fascinating
personal account as it is a classic field study. Moreover, it's a
stylish and elegant book, lavishly illustrated with color photography.
<>
<> Winner:
Washington's
Mount Rainier National Park: A Centennial Celebration. By Tim McNulty. Photographs by Pat O'Hara.
Published by The Mountaineers.
Mount Rainier, published on the 100th anniversary
of the founding of the park, is an absolutely stunning book filled with
breathtaking photography. Large format books are often accompanied
by dull, inane text, but not this one. The mountain and its surrounding
environment are described in beautiful, heart-felt prose. A sensitive
and synchronous collaboration between writer, photographer and publisher,
this books succeeds wonderfully. Every sacred mountain should have
its story so handsomely told.
 Winner:Islands
of Hope: Lessons from North America's Great Wildlife Sanctuaries
By Phillip Manning. Published by John F. Blair.
Naturalist Phillip Manning visits ten wildlife preserves in four North
American countries, investigating the animals and ecosystems that the sanctuaries
protect. In a simple and understanding style, Manning helps readers
learn how refuges work, their history and the challenges facing them.
There is caution, of course, in the book's message, but mostly the message
is of abiding hope for the future.
 Winner:
Wildlife
Wars: The Life and Times of a Fish and Game Warden
By Terry Grosz. Published by Johnson Books
Wildlife Wars is the absorbing story of one man's 30-year struggle
to protect wildlife in America. This is what it's like on the front
lines. Terry Grosz, a natural and gifted story teller, brings us
face to face with a captivating cast of characters--on both sides of the
law--as he matches wits with poachers, commercial hunters, and others who
are bent on destroying America's natural heritage. If you start this
book, you won't want to put it down. It's that good.
 Winner:
Penguin
Planet: Their World, Our World
By Kevin Schafer. Published by NorthWord Press
Some of the most endearing creatures of all of nature are penguins.
They've often been photographed, but never have they been captured in such
vivid detail and in all their intimate and strutting glory as in Penguin
Planet. But Kevin Schafer not only takes sumptuous pictures, he writes
well in a engaging style, generously complementing an affectionate portrait
of the world's most popular bird.
Winner:
Wild
Solutions: How Biodiversity is Money in the Bank by Andrew Beattie
and Paul Ehrlich. Illustrated by Christine Turnbull. Published by
Yale University Press, New Haven.
Eminent ecologists Beattie and Ehrlich team up in this text for a careful
examination of the earth's biological diversity. Wild Solutions
shows how the natural systems that surround us play an important role in
protecting our basic life-support systems. Based on a solid and well-developed
premise, it's a convincing book conveying a powerful and urgent message.
Honorable Mention:For
Love of Wildness: The Journal of a U.S. Game Management Agent.
By Terry Grosz. Published by Johnson Books, Boulder.
For Love of Wildness is the eagerly awaited sequel to Terry Grosz's
first book on his life as a wildlife officer--and he certainly doesn't
disappoint. An absorbing book, written in an honest and down-home
style, Terry Grosz takes the reader along on a wild ride of chases, stakeouts,
and shoot-outs in his efforts to protect America's wildlife.
Honorable Mention:Pacific
Light: Images of the Monterey Peninsula. By Douglas Steakley.
Poetry by Ric Masten. Published by Carmel Publishing Company, Carmel, California.
This is a book of geography and of passion, communicating its story
through the interplay of images and poetry. From Douglas Steakley's
breathtaking photography emerges the face of the Monterey landscape while
Ric Masten's words provide its voice.
 Winner.
Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History.
By
Ted Steinberg. Published by Oxford University Press, New York. ISBN
0195140095.
In this fascinating and ground-breaking book, Steinberg investigates
American history from a new and unique perspective: from that of the natural
environment. He argues convincingly that events as diverse as colonization,
the industrial revolution, the civil war, the western gold rush and many
others were shaped and influenced by nature. It's an important seminal
work and one that leads toward a better understanding of the interrelationship
of man and the environment.
 Winner.
Ice Island: Expedition to Antarctica's Largest Iceberg.
By Gregory S. Stone. Published by the New England Aquarium, Boston
MA. ISBN 1593730179
In the Year 2000, a mammoth iceberg calved off Antarctica's Ross Ice
Shelf. The iceberg, known as B-15 was the world's largest, 4,500
square miles in size and holding enough fresh water to supply the United
States for five years. This is the story of the team of scientists
and divers who set off in a small research ship named Braveheart to study
a portion of the iceberg. Richly illustrated and beautifully designed,
it's a marvelous story about adventure, science and the future of humankind.
 Winner.
The Snowflake: Winter's Secret
Beauty. By Kenneth Libbrecht. Photography by Patricia Rasmussen. Voyageur Press, Stillwater,
Minnesota.
ISBN 0896586308
John Muir called them snow flowers. Thoreau described them as sweepings from the
floor of heaven. For ages, snow crystals
have captured the attention of poets and writers. In more recent times—particularly the last
couple of decades—scientists have learned much about these seemingly simple
but incredibly complex minute wonders.
Yet little of that scientific work has been available to the
layman. Until now, and it's all packaged
in an elegant and splendidly designed book.
Author and researcher Kenneth Libbrecht clearly explains the processes
by which crystals are formed and how to identify major crystal types. The highlight of the book is the exquisite
and mesmerizing photography of Patricia Rasumussen—which remind us why these
sweepings of heaven continue to astonish and amaze.
Winner. Sea Turtles: A Complete Guide to their Biology, Behavior
and Conservation. By James R.
Spotila. The John
Hopkins University
Press, Baltimore. ISBN 0801880076
It won't take long:
open this new, beautifully produced book, you'll find yourself
hopelessly caught up in the life of sea turtles. Why is this book so captivating? The photography for one. It's simply divine. And so is the accompanying text. Author James Spotila is a marine biologist
who has spent his career studying these magnificent creatures of the sea, and
he writes with authority, spirit and passion.
 Winner.
Life in
the Underground. By David
Attenborough. Princeton
University
Press, Princeton. ISBN
0691127034
Beautifully
illustrated, this book takes the reader on
a tour of the cloak-and-dagger underworld of creatures without
backbones, the
invertebrates. The tour guide is
naturalist David Attenborough, prolific author and producer of popular
nature
documentaries for television. In Life in the Underground, Attenborough
guides us past scampering scorpions, albino termites, sex-starved
slugs, blood
sucking ticks, and ravenous, lizard-eating spiders.
Well, you get the picture. It's
a scary world down there at our feet. But
it's also a wondrous world, and the
ever-curious Attenborough is clearly in his element telling us about it.
 Winner.
Illustrated Atlas of the Himalaya. By
David Zurick and Julsun Pacheco. University
of Kentucky Press, Lexington. ISBN 9780813123882
The Himalayas:
the word itself can send
our thoughts soaring to dizzy heights, and now there's a reference work
worthy
of the range's summits. The Illustrated
Atlas is the first
full-color comprehensive atlas to the entire 2,700 kilometer length of
the Himalaya. It's
attractively designed and includes 300
specially created maps, including maps of the range's national parks
and
preserves. The facts are there too, of
course. Along with a wealth of
photographs,
the book includes textual information on the natural environment,
conservation,
resources, exploration, and culture and society.
Honorable
Mention. Carving Grand
Canyon: Evidence, Theories, and Mystery.
By Wayne Ranney. Grand
Canyon Association, Grand Canyon,
AZ.
ISBN 0938216821
How and when was the Grand
Canyon
formed? For nearly a century and a half,
scientists have debated that question, but the answer remains elusive. They do, however, agree on one thing: the canyon was carved by the Colorado
River. In this stylish,
full-color book by the Grand Canyon Association, Wayne Ranney
describes
and summarizes the various geological theories of the canyon's origins.
End
of Listing
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