- The Last Man on the Mountain: The Death of an American Adventurer on K2, by Jennifer Jordan
Adventure Books - My favorite genre of books is by far the collection of true stories of either extreme survival or incredible and inspiring adventures.
- Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World has Never Seen, by Christopher McDougall
- Into Thin Air, by John Krakauer
- Into the Wild, by John Krakauer
- Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home, by Nando Parrado
- Touching the Void, by Joe Simpson
Environmental Literature - My undergraduate degree is in Environmental Studies. Every person who has studied, or has an interest in, environmental science, has undoubtedly read some of the typical "environmental classics" such as Silent Spring, A Sand County Almanac, and Desert Solitaire. Below is a list of my favorite environmental books.
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver
- Bargaining for Eden, by Stephen Trimble
- Blessed Unrest, by Paul Hawken
- Canaries on the Rim, by Chip Ward
- Changes in the Land, by William Cronon
- Desert Solitaire, by Ed Abbey
- Getting to Scale: Growing Your Business without Selling Out, by Jill Bamburg
- The Health of the Country, by Conevery Bolton Valencius
- Locust, by Jeffery A. Lockwood
- Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping, by Judith Levine
- The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
- Plan B 2.0, by Lester Brown
- Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson
- A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold
- An Unnatural Metropolis, by Craig E. Colten
- Wilderness and the American Mind, by Roderick Frazier Nash
Fiction Faves - Most of these reads are more recent ones, not all-time favorites. I will have to come up with a "Top 25" list or something later. But for now, all of these are excellent reads and time well-spent. Enjoy!
- The Harry Potter Series, by J.K. Rowling
- The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
- The Hunger Games Series, by Suzanne Collins
- Jesus Land, by Julia Scheeres
- North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell
- The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett
- A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley
- The Tortilla Curtain, by T.C. Boyle
Rad Random Reads - The title says it all. Here are some wonders that don't fit into my other categories.
- Chi Running: A Revolutionary Approach for Effortless, Injury-Free Running, by Danny Dreyer
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity, by David Allen
- Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris
- This one is best if you can listen to the audio book, narrated by David Sedaris himself.
- Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time, by Greg Mortensen and Oliver Relin
- There is a lot of controversy surrounding this book. I'm not sure how I feel about all of it. I will have to look more into it, but I still learned a lot from this book, however the controversy might unfold.
