Fire

Annie Dillard

Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters

"A collection of meditations like polished stones -- painstakingly worded, tough-minded, yet partial to mystery, and peerless when it comes to injecting larger resonances into the natural world." -- Kirkus Reviews Here, in this compelling assembly of writings, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard explores the world of natural facts and human meanings. Veering away from the long, meditative studies of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek or Holy the Firm , Annie Dillard explores and celebrates moments of spirituality, dipping into descriptions of encounters with flora and fauna, stars, and more, from Ecuador to Miami. There is no writer quite like Dillard when it comes to the mysteries and wonder of the natural world.

John Fowles

The Tree

The classic meditation on creativity and the natural world"For years I have carried this book. . . with me on travels to reread, ponder, envy. In prose of classic gravity, precision, and delicacy, Fowles addresses matters of final importance." --W. S. Merwin, Los Angeles Times Book Review"The Tree is the fullest and finest exploration I've ever read of how the useless delights to be discovered in nature can ripen into the practice of art." --Lewis Hyde, author of The GiftFirst published a generation ago, The Tree is renowned English novelist John Fowles's provocative meditation on the connection between the natural world and human creativity, and a powerful argument against taming the wild. In it, Fowles recounts his own childhood in England and describes how he rebelled against his Edwardian father's obsession with the "quantifiable yield" of well-pruned fruit trees and came to prize instead the messy, purposeless beauty of nature left to its wildest.The Tree is an inspiring, even life-changing book, one that reaffirms our connection to nature and reminds us of the pleasure of getting lost, the merits of having no plan, and the wisdom of following one's nose wherever it may ...

Ernest, Thompson Seton

Wild Animals I Have Known

A stirring account of the lives of eight wild animals, including Lobo, the king of Currumpaw; Silverspot, the story of a crow; Raggylug, the story of a cottontail rabbit; Bingo, the story of a dog; the Springfield fox; the pacing mustang; Wully, the story of a yaller dog; and Redruff, the story of the Don valley partridge.