Rebecca Joines Schinsky is the Chief of Staff for Riot New Media Group and a co-host of the Book Riot Podcast. She can be reached at rebecca@riotnewmedia.com.

Raise your hand if you’re a book nerd who grew up thinking you were unquestionably an “indoor kid.” Me too. Then in my early twenties, I moved from the midwestern suburbs of my youth to an east coast city with countless parks and riverside hiking trails, located within a short drive of gorgeous beaches and some of the oldest mountains in the world. I fell in love with hiking (who knew walking uphill could be fun?), became a little bit obsessed with getting stamps for my US National Parks passport, and turned into a person who plans travel around seeing natural wonders. Experiencing the magic of nature firsthand made me want to read and learn more about it, which only increased my awe and my appetite for devotion to caring for our planet.

Deepening our relationship to and understanding of nature is good for us both individually and collectively in myriad ways, which is why task #13 of the 2025 Read Harder Challenge is “Read a nonfiction book about nature or the environment.” Whether you’re in it to learn about science, fire up your sense of wonder, or fuel your activism, there’s something for you in the recommendations below.

Reminder: today is the last day to fill out the Read Harder Halfway Check-In Survey! We’d love to hear from you!

The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams Going outside is good for you. If you somehow still need to be convinced, longtime science journalist Florence Williams has all kinds of data for you here. But what makes this book really compelling are the fascinating facts about how and why our brains react to nature the way they do. Tree branches, snowflakes, and pine cones all contain similar patterns that mimic the geography of our circulatory systems. Specific shades of green activate evolutionary pleasure centers. Birdsong, wind, and the sound of flowing water can help calm our perpetually fried nervous systems. When you understand how and why spending time outside improves your mood, creativity, and overall health, you’ll be more motivated to do it. Plus, you’ll be stocked up on fun tidbits to share the next time you invite a friend out for a silly little mental health walk.

The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham Oh, there’s nothing like a poet writing about their relationship to the natural world! J. Drew Lanham’s family has lived in Edgefield County, South Carolina for generations dating back to slavery. As he explores how his family’s history and connection to the land shaped him—he is also an ornithologist and ecology professor—he complicates common narratives about Black identity in the American south. Lanham invites us to consider what it means to find beauty in a place that was once the site of incredible pain, and as he allows himself to become deeply rooted in his family’s history, he develops an understanding of what it means to be rooted to the earth as well. This is a potent, singular blend of memoir, history, and nature writing.