Want to know what books Nick Pyenson recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Nick Pyenson's favorite book recommendations of all time.
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With one of the planet's most alluring birds as his guide, America's foremost chronicler of marine life captures the embattled ocean world.
On a wingspan of up to eleven feet, the albatross can travel as far as five thousand miles without stopping. But until recently, little was known about the albatross's far-flung flights. Now, award-winning author Carl Safina takes us to the higher latitudes to explain what marine animals like the albatross can tell us about the health of our oceans.
Eye of the Albatross takes us soaring to locales where whales, sea turtles,... more With one of the planet's most alluring birds as his guide, America's foremost chronicler of marine life captures the embattled ocean world.
On a wingspan of up to eleven feet, the albatross can travel as far as five thousand miles without stopping. But until recently, little was known about the albatross's far-flung flights. Now, award-winning author Carl Safina takes us to the higher latitudes to explain what marine animals like the albatross can tell us about the health of our oceans.
Eye of the Albatross takes us soaring to locales where whales, sea turtles, penguins, and shearwaters flourish in their own quotidian rhythms. Safina's guide and inspiration is a bird he calls Amelia, whose life he portrays in fascinating detail. Interwoven with recollections of whalers and famous explorers, Eye of the Albatross probes the unmistakable environmental impact of the encounters between man and marine life. Though no place remains untouched by us, fishing restrictions and habitat protection have signaled positive gains for albatrosses and several other marine animals. Safina's portrait combines the authority and drama of Rachel Carson with Peter Matthiessen's perceptive skill. The result is a transforming ride to the ends of the Earth and an urgent appeal to preserve the wild oceans while there is still time.
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Nick PyensonSafina is both a storyteller and a scientist, but his work really pulls at the heart of conservation: what do we know about what we want to protect? And why should we do so? (Source)
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In the tradition of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, Robert Sapolsky, a foremost science writer and recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant, tells the mesmerizing story of his twenty-one years in remote Kenya with a troop of Savannah baboons.
“I had never planned to become a savanna baboon when I grew up; instead, I had always assumed I would become a mountain gorilla,” writes Robert Sapolsky in this witty and riveting chronicle of a scientist’s coming-of-age in remote Africa.
An exhilarating account of Sapolsky’s twenty-one-year study of a troop of rambunctious baboons in... more In the tradition of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, Robert Sapolsky, a foremost science writer and recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant, tells the mesmerizing story of his twenty-one years in remote Kenya with a troop of Savannah baboons.
“I had never planned to become a savanna baboon when I grew up; instead, I had always assumed I would become a mountain gorilla,” writes Robert Sapolsky in this witty and riveting chronicle of a scientist’s coming-of-age in remote Africa.
An exhilarating account of Sapolsky’s twenty-one-year study of a troop of rambunctious baboons in Kenya, A Primate’s Memoir interweaves serious scientific observations with wry commentary about the challenges and pleasures of living in the wilds of the Serengeti — for man and beast alike. Over two decades, Sapolsky survives culinary atrocities, gunpoint encounters, and a surreal kidnapping, while witnessing the encroachment of the tourist mentality on the farthest vestiges of unspoiled Africa. As he conducts unprecedented physiological research on wild primates, he becomes evermore enamored of his subjects — unique and compelling characters in their own right — and he returns to them summer after summer, until tragedy finally prevents him.
By turns hilarious and poignant, A Primate’s Memoir is a magnum opus from one of our foremost science writers. less Nick PyensonSapolsky’s book is my favourite in the modern scientist-author canon.He places you in his shoes, and shows you how his ensemble cast of baboons (generations of them, actually) have personality, agency, and succumb to the same foibles that we do. (Source)
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When Matthiessen went to Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and, possibly, to glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard, he undertook his five-week trek as winter snows were sweeping into the high passes. This is a radiant and deeply moving account of a "true pilgrimage, a journey of the heart." more When Matthiessen went to Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and, possibly, to glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard, he undertook his five-week trek as winter snows were sweeping into the high passes. This is a radiant and deeply moving account of a "true pilgrimage, a journey of the heart." less Nick PyensonThe book stands apart and it remains fresh because of the ways that Matthiessen weaves his exploration of the outer world with his own inner one. (Source)
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Victor B. Scheffer | 4.36
A rare and timeless book that takes the reader beneath the ocean's surface to travel with a young sperm whale. With a new foreword by the author. "A writer of unusual grace and feeling ... This is a fine book". -- The New Yorker more A rare and timeless book that takes the reader beneath the ocean's surface to travel with a young sperm whale. With a new foreword by the author. "A writer of unusual grace and feeling ... This is a fine book". -- The New Yorker less Nick PyensonIt was an innovative narrative conceit: a fictional account of the year-long journey of a single sperm whale calf, but blended strongly with facts that Scheffer knew about sperm whales as a scientist, and how they navigate their world (Source)
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Winner of the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize, New York Times Bestseller, Named the Amazon Best Book of the Month for March 2015, #1 Bestseller in the UK, H IS FOR HAWK by Helen Macdonald. Magnificent, splendid memoirs woven with nature and a healing process of grief from the bereavement of her beloved father. In Korean. Annotation copyright Tsai Fong Books, Inc. Distributed by Tsai Fong Books, Inc. more Winner of the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize, New York Times Bestseller, Named the Amazon Best Book of the Month for March 2015, #1 Bestseller in the UK, H IS FOR HAWK by Helen Macdonald. Magnificent, splendid memoirs woven with nature and a healing process of grief from the bereavement of her beloved father. In Korean. Annotation copyright Tsai Fong Books, Inc. Distributed by Tsai Fong Books, Inc. less 
Barack ObamaJust like us, the president enjoys a good beach read while relaxing in the sun. In 2016, he released his list of summer vacation books:
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, William Finnegan
H Is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald
The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
Seveneves, Neal Stephenson
The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead (Source)
Nick PyensonH is for Hawk feels like the definitive statement on hawks for the modern times, and I think its success has a lot to do with how well Macdonald tied her inquiry into the life of a hawk with her own personal experience and journey. (Source)
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