Nature Writing

Craig Foster narrates his lyrical meditation on our human connection with the wild in a gentle voice that reflects the limpid ocean from which life evolved. The documentary photographer and producer of many films, including MY OCTOPUS TEACHER, has written a mix of memoir and personable treatise on nature and our place in it. While he sometimes pauses unexpectedly mid-sentence,... Read More

Narrator David Pittu unpacks his full valise of vocalizations in this exceptional story of encountering one of the planet's least seen animals--the snow leopard. He narrates this all-too-brief audiobook, modulating its quiet drama, poetic riffs, and personal asides at a careful pace in a style that reveals the workings of the famous French travel writer's philosophical mind.... Read More

Narrators Eileen Stevens, Stephen Graybill, Lee Osorio, and Gina Daniels use their considerable talents for this broad array of essays and articles on science, nature, and the relationship between the two. In his introduction, narrated by Graybill, editor Bill McKibben lays out his theme for this volume: climate change and its growing impact on the natural world and humanity.... Read More

Many Native peoples in northern North America use sweetgrass in their traditions and ceremonies, often braided. In this audiobook environmental biologist Robin Wall Kimmerer uses it as a subject and a metaphor. Her own personal braid includes the traditional wisdom of her Potawatomie ancestors and her scientific training. In narrating her own audiobook, she adeptly shares the... Read More

Slow down and sink into these beautiful meditations on the natural world around us. Margaret Renkl’s syrupy Southern voice and measured rhythm are perfect for her essays and praise songs on everything from foxes to tadpoles to walking in the rainy woods. As Renkl unfolds a year exploring the environment around her Nashville home week by week, season by season, she demonstrates... Read More

This beautifully written, scientifically stunning, and deeply personal audio memoir will forever alter your understanding of forests. It's lucky for listeners that it's also a master class in read-by-the-author audio. In silky, rich vocal tones forestry ecologist Suzanne Simard describes growing up and working in the fecund forests of British Columbia. With the pacing and... Read More

Kaleo Griffith, Gabra Zackman, and Cat Gould narrate this timely collection of climate-change nonfiction from THE NEW YORKER magazine with engagement, clarity, and an admirable mix of insistence and calm. Written by many of the magazine's most well-known authors, including Elizabeth Kolbert, Bill McKibben, Burkhard Bilger, Kathryn Schulz, and Ian Frazer, the pieces focus on... Read More

Author Mary Roach does a fantastic job narrating her wonderful new foray into science-related stuff. In this instance, she tracks nature's "law-breaking" interactions with the human world. Bears, birds, elephants, macaque monkeys, lethal plants, and more take her into the field around the world. Roach is an observant and witty writer with an eye for detail and a passion for... Read More

Helen Macdonald has written a spectacular memoir full of wildness and grief, recounting her training of a goshawk in the wake of her father’s unexpected death. She is also a marvelous narrator, evoking the open spaces of her Cambridge fields, the natural violence of a goshawk’s existence, and her crippling fear of mingling with society when she is so bereft. It is all there in... Read More

Naturalist and bestselling author Sy Montgomery narrates her memoir on animals that have shaped her life and her understanding of the world. She taps the full range of experience: Her stories are engaging and touching, humorous and terribly sad. Montgomery's narration captures her deep sense of wonder and affection for the creatures she studies--from Octavia the octopus to a... Read More

Science writer Ed Yong (I CONTAIN MULTITUDES) is an enthusiastic guide through the world of animal senses--many very different from our own. Yong's British voice and his narration, warm with humor and curiosity, engage, and his interest in and excitement about the wonders of nature are infectious. You, too, will wish that you could attach a microphone to a blade of grass and... Read More

Entomologist Barrett Klein describes the importance of insects to life on Earth, as well their influence on our culture and civilization. Narrator Sean Patrick Hopkins has a tone of curiosity and wonder as he takes the listener on a comprehensive tour of the insect world, covering topics such as insects' influence on developments in science and engineering, mind-altering... Read More

English actor Leighton Pugh’s engaging midrange voice, which is both crisp and warm, is the perfect accompaniment to Adam Nicolson’s consideration of life in those intertidal rock pools particularly beloved by children—and grown-ups like Nicolson, an award-winning author, naturalist, and historian. Audibly curious and awed, Pugh’s attentive pacing and sheer friendliness channel... Read More

David Attenborough is best known for his BBC nature documentaries, with their stunning scenes of wild animals and their habitats around the globe. What this program shows, though, is that he is equally adept at painting vivid scenes with words, a skill that makes this work eminently suitable to audio. In addition, he serves as narrator, and his easy-on-the-ears,... Read More

Journalist Zoë Schlanger gives a clear, engaging, and enthusiastic narration of her fascinating audiobook all about the controversial topic of plant intelligence. Schlanger's own sense of wonder comes through clearly as she visits botanists around the world--sometimes going into the field with them--and reports on the results of their research on plants and the amazing things... Read More

The thrill of the wild mushroom hunt is audible in Kevin Free's performance of this exposé. Amateur mushroom forager Langdon Cook fearlessly delves into forest depths and follows seaside trails seeking the ideal patch of wild umami treasures: morels, chanterelles, porcini, hedgehogs, lobster, and other fungi perfecti. He connects with eccentric, uncultivated, and dedicated... Read More

Listeners will find much to learn in this audiobook. Just when dire reports--fire, flood, calving icebergs--are enough to alarm anyone, this audiobook from ecological engineer Galle arrives with a refreshingly positive and heretical assertion that nature and technology can be allied. Narrating convincingly in a youthful tone that suits the author's optimism, Eileen Stevens... Read More

Leigh Ann Henion's fascinating exploration of the natural world after dark is indeed magical. With genuine enthusiasm and a warm hint of a Southern accent, Henion invites listeners along on her adventures to seek out salamanders, fireflies, moths, glowing fungus, screech owls, night-blooming flowers, and other nighttime denizens. She spends time getting to know the nightlife in... Read More

Narrator Sean Barrett’s warm baritone is perfect for Peter Wohlleben’s fascinating final installment in his Mysteries of Nature trilogy. Following THE HIDDEN LIFE OF TREES and THE INNER LIFE OF ANIMALS, Wohlleben now considers the connection of all living things. A former German forestry official, he writes with an enthusiast’s thrill and a scientist’s precision. And if the... Read More

Author and narrator Robin Wall Kimmerer, who is Potawatomi, gently guides listeners through this thoughtful exploration of gift economies and cultures of reciprocity. Using the framing device of an outing to gather serviceberries, which are also popular with the local birds, Kimmerer traces the pathways of mutual obligation and abundance seen in nature and in many traditional... Read More

In this quiet and far-ranging blend of memoir, history, and nature writing, poet Camille T. Dungy uses her small garden in Colorado to explore topics ranging from the isolation of parenting during Covid to the history of Black nature writing. Her narration, like her writing, is both careful and warm. In her prose and with her voice, she excels at drawing vivid pictures. It's... Read More

Susan Casey's exploration of the deepest oceans is fascinating, frightening, and compelling. As a narrator, she's also quite wonderful; her clear, warm voice has touches of humility and awe, and she has excellent timing. The bottom of the ocean is teeming with life-- bioluminescence, transparent fish, weird worms, volcanoes. It's also home to shipwrecks, rubbish, and valuable... Read More

Sy Montgomery is so joyful and enthusiastic while describing her adventures with her flock of chickens that listeners will want to stroke a hen and pick up a rooster just to participate in her positive view of the world. Montgomery is keenly observant and curious. She calls her chickens "the ladies," and she recognizes each hen's individual call and personality. She also cites... Read More

American poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil's voice is gentle as she tells listeners how her love of nature developed in childhood. The poet fondly recalls her father taking the family to the Great Smoky Mountains to see the glowing fireflies. She remembers, with defiance in her voice, not being allowed to draw a peacock, India's national bird, for a class project in drawing wildlife.... Read More