20 Environmental Literature Recommendations: Books That Celebrate Human Life, Plants, and Nature

March 11, 2025

by Emiley White

A collage tile made up of the covers to the books listed below

For those fascinated by bees, birdsong, and remembering biodiversity. For the window-watchers. For the trees. Here is a collection of environmental fiction and nonfiction titles that delve into our living world.

Fiction

Indra Sinha
Animal’s People
Simon & Schuster, 2009

Alice Elliott Dark
Fellowship Point
Marysue Rucci Books, 2023

Imbolo Mbue
How Beautiful We Were
Random House, 2021

Fernanda Trías
Pink Slime
Trans. Heather Cleary
Scribner, 2024

Rachel Heng
The Great Reclamation
Riverhead, 2024

Richard Powers
The Overstory
W. W. Norton, 2018

Nonfiction

Abby L. Goode
Agrotopias
University of North Carolina Press, 2022

Robin Wall Kimmerer
Braiding Sweetgrass
Milkweed Editions, 2015

Dr. Qing Li
Forest Bathing
Penguin Life, 2018

Sumana Roy
How I Became a Tree
Yale University Press, 2022

Hope Jahren
Lab Girl
Vintage, 2017

Andri Snær Magnason
On Time and Water
Trans. Lytton Smith
Open Letter, 2021

Kerstin Lange
Phantom Border
ibidem Press, 2024

David George Haskell
Sounds Wild and Broken
Viking, 2022

Michael Pollan
The Botany of Desire
Random House, 2002

Zoë Schlanger
The Light Eaters
HarperCollins, 2024

Sonia Shah
The Next Great Migration
Bloomsbury, 2020

Jeremy Chow
The Queerness of Water
University of Virginia Press, 2023

Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Serviceberry
Scribner, 2024

Jessica J. Lee
Two Trees Make a Forest
Hamish Hamilton, 2020

University of Oklahoma

Emiley White is an English (writing) and professional writing dual-degree senior at the University of Oklahoma, a WLT intern, and former assistant editor on the OU Daily engagement desk. When she’s not writing, you'll likely catch her burning up the local library's reading charts or training for a half-marathon.