3 Science & Nature Books to Sink your Teeth into

The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson

Fast-paced, true crime, natural history.

This is such a fast-paced and thrilling read, you could devour it in a day.

You know when a book sounds good, but then you start it and it's sort of a slog to get through? This book is the opposite - it sounds odd, but you won't be able to put it down.

It's the true story of a young flautist, Edwin Rist, with an obscure obsession for Victorian salmon fly-tying that goes too far.

An example of a salmon fly. This is the "Durham Ranger". MichaelMaggs, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Edwin Rist is a fly-tying purist intent on getting the feathers of protected birds for his bright salmon fly designs. So he breaks into a Natural History Museum and steals hundreds of scientifically priceless bird skins.

An example of bird skins in a drawer of a Natural History Museum (Louisiana State University, Museum of Natural Science). Frank Schulenburg, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The skins are dissected and sold into the Victorian salmon fly-tying community, who turn a blind eye to the sudden influx of rare bird skins from protected birds.

Years go by, and nothing happens, even though the truth is common knowledge.

When the author happens to hear the story, he finds himself utterly invested in bringing Edwin Rist to justice.

Read it if: you'd appreciate a well-written book about a fascinating and unusual true crime with a scientific twist.

Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce

Outlandish & cartoonish, female-lead, natural history fiction

This is a 'goofy' novel about a mismatched pair of women heading off to New Caledonia to search for the golden beetle of New Caledonia - which has maybe been observed, but never proven, to exist.

New Caledonia. Barsamuphe, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The premise of this book is cool: its a female-centric novel which draws inspiration from women natural history collectors of the past to create an adventurous story.

After reading The Feather Thief, which is a museum-based true crime, and a biography last year about Therese von Bayern, the German Princess-cross-naturalist, it was cool to follow up with a fiction inspired by museums and natural history collecting. I would love to see more books drawing inspiration from this!

However, this book wasn't for me.

The writing felt like I'd been marketed a book intended for children by accident. It wasn't very subtle and spelled everything out. I also found the ending a little odd and out of place.

I should also mention: there are some pretty adult themes in this otherwise 'silly' novel and its larger-than-life characters: so, content warnings for miscarriage, traumatic birth, sexual assault, domestic violence, and PTSD...

Read it if: you'd appreciate a bit of an oddball adventure book with lots of female characters.

The Backyard Adventurer by Beau Miles

Essential Australian read in the 'outdoors' genre; big topics, conversational tone. Thought-provoking.

Long-time fans of Beau Miles have probably already read The Backyard Adventurer.

If you're unfamiliar with Beau, I'd wholeheartedly recommend taking a look at his YouTube channel.

Beau is renowned for making adventures out of the ordinary, and exploring his own backyard, often in a very literal sense.

Some of my favourite adventures of his are: walking (90km) to work along the highway, camping in the 100-year old gum tree in his backyard and, my all-time favourite, The Human Bean, where he eats his body weight in beans.

Beau Miles. BenMartin98, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Most of the time, I see the title, or read the premise of one of his videos and think, god no that's not going to be interesting. Every time I find that when I do watch it, I'm entirely engrossed. Beau is a natural story-teller, and I'd listen to him talk about anything.

Well, he's written a book recently where he compiles his adventures in written form and sprinkles in some more information about his formative experiences, working life, and personal ethos.

Perhaps most importantly, this books spells out the ethos of why we should learn to adventure locally and find excitement in the everyday, rather than buying a ticket to Patagonia.

It does rehash a lot of the stuff he's done on his YouTube channel, but it's well worth a read.

Read it if: you'd interested in the philosophy behind adventuring locally, or are an Aussie interested in the outdoors.