Books for International Day for Biological Diversity

By Coll Rowe | May 20 2024 | Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics

Here is a collection of titles to acknowledge International Day for Biological Diversity, which takes place on May 22nd. These books explore various ecosystems and habitats and give insight on biodiversity, the ways of life and the struggles of living creatures within them.

How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
9780593133255
A tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world that will fill you with wonder and forever alter your perspective, by Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Ed Yong.
$20.00 US
Aug 29, 2023
Paperback
480 Pages
Random House Trade Paperbacks

Adventures in Search of the World's Rarest Species
9780525436669
Carlos Magdalena is a man on a mission: to save the world’s most endangered plants. In The Plant Messiah, Magdalena takes readers from the forests of Peru to deep within the Australian outback in search of the rare and the vulnerable. Back in the lab—at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, home of the largest botanical collection in the world—we watch as he develops groundbreaking, left-field techniques for rescuing species from extinction, encouraging them to propagate and thrive once again. Passionate and absorbing, The Plant Messiah is a tribute to the diversity of life on our planet, and to the importance of preserving it.
$19.00 US
Mar 19, 2019
Paperback
288 Pages
Anchor

The Search for What It Means to Be Alive
9780593182734

Carl Zimmer masterfully shows that while we all assume we know what life is, but from zygotes and vegetables to aliens and androids, scientists can’t actually agree on what it means to be alive. After centuries of confusion, that may be about to change.

$18.00 US
Mar 08, 2022
Paperback
384 Pages
Dutton

9781635421927
In this playful yet informative manifesto, a leading plant neurobiologist presents the eight fundamental pillars on which the life of plants—and by extension, humans—rests.
$17.99 US
Apr 18, 2023
Paperback
176 Pages
Other Press

A True Story of Survival and Peril on the Edge of a Warming World
9781984826336

The heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful story of an abandoned polar bear cub named Nora and the humans working tirelessly to save her and her species, whose uncertain future in the accelerating climate crisis is closely tied to our own.

$28.00 US
Mar 23, 2021
Hardcover
288 Pages
Crown

ALA Notable Books for Adults
9780679768111
One of the world’s most important scientists, Edward O. Wilson is also an abundantly talented writer who has twice won the Pulitzer Prize. In this, his most personal and timely book to date, he assesses the precarious state of our environment, examining the mass extinctions occurring in our time and the natural treasures we are about to lose forever.
$17.00 US
Mar 11, 2003
Paperback
256 Pages
Vintage

A Year's Watch in Nature
9780143122944

Biologist and author of Sounds Wild and Broken David Haskell uses a one-square-meter patch of old-growth Tennessee forest as a window onto the entire natural world. Visiting it almost daily for one year to trace nature’s path through the seasons, he brings the forest and its inhabitants to vivid life.

$18.00 US
Mar 26, 2013
Paperback
288 Pages
Penguin Books

A Natural History
9780262548359
In praise of imperfection: how life on our planet is a catalog of imperfections, errors, alternatives, and anomalies.
$22.95 US
Feb 06, 2024
Paperback
176 Pages
The MIT Press

The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo
9780593537343
The epic story of the buffalo in America, from prehistoric times to today—a moving and beautifully illustrated work of natural history inspired by the PBS series "American Buffalo"
$40.00 US
Oct 10, 2023
Hardcover
352 Pages
Knopf

Sonic Marvels, Evolution's Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction
9781984881564

A lyrical exploration of the diverse sounds of our planet, the creative processes that produced these marvels, and the perils that sonic diversity now faces.

$18.00 US
Mar 07, 2023
Paperback
448 Pages
Penguin Books

Snail Stories for a Time of Extinctions
9780262547345
Following the trails of Hawai‘i’s snails to explore the simultaneously biological and cultural significance of extinction.
$22.95 US
Oct 17, 2023
Paperback
288 Pages
The MIT Press

Building a Future for Coral Reefs
9780593087312
The story of the urgent fight to save the coral reefs, and why it matters to us all
$18.00 US
Apr 04, 2023
Paperback
352 Pages
Riverhead Books

In a Human-Shaped World
9781984879653
A personal journey into our evolving relationships with animals, and a thought-provoking look at how those bonds are being challenged and reformed across disciplines
$27.00 US
Jul 13, 2021
Hardcover
400 Pages
Viking

A Scientist's Quest for Nature's Next Medicines
9781984879134
A leading medical ethnobotanist tells us her story in this uplifting and adventure-filled memoir that illuminates how the path forward for medical discovery may be found in nature’s oldest remedies. 
$18.00 US
Jun 14, 2022
Paperback
384 Pages
Penguin Books

What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens--and Ourselves
9781984881984
A wildly fun and scientifically sound exploration of what alien life must be like
$18.00 US
Mar 15, 2022
Paperback
368 Pages
Penguin Books