Night Magic

Leigh Ann Henion is the bestselling author of Phenomenal: A Hesitant Adventurer’s Search for Wonder in the Natural World (2015), a lyrical memoir of seeking a fulfilling life. Her second book, Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark, is just as personal and personable, this time focusing on the wisdom she has found in darkness. 

We are, unfortunately, obsessed with illuminating the night. Henion explains that 99% of people in the U.S. live under the influence of “skyglow—diffuse, artificial brightening of the night sky,” and she shares data about how light pollution causes health problems for humans and destroys ecosystems and the migratory patterns of birds. “Darkness is often presented as a void of doom rather than a force of nature that nourishes lives, including our own,” she writes.

Henion’s nocturnal investigation takes her to Appalachia for synchronous lightning bugs, Ohio for a moth festival and soggy, foggy Grandfather Mountain for glowworms. She hunts for migrating salamanders with a professor and his class, and she describes the harm that streetlights cause to owl habitats. She meets with specialists and scientists, and in her cheerful, thoughtful style, she shares all she learns about bats, bioluminescent mushrooms and more.

Readers who choose to follow Night Magic into the dark may find the courage to turn off that backyard floodlight, allow their eyes to adjust and see something spectacular.

—Cat Acree

★ The Backyard Bird Chronicles

It’s been over a decade since Amy Tan published her last novel, but there’s a good reason for that. In 2016, while hard at work on her next literary endeavor, Tan found her psyche and creative drive overwhelmed by the political turmoil consuming the country. When writing fiction failed to provide refuge, Tan sought it elsewhere: Making good on a long-held promise to learn to draw, she began taking nature journaling classes and found herself captivated by the birds she observed. Soon, the hobby turned into a full-on obsession, leading Tan to transform her backyard into an ideal sanctuary for local birds so she could document and sketch the fauna that visited her yard.

Written in her hallmark heartfelt and lively prose, The Backyard Bird Chronicles curates excerpts from Tan’s personal birding journals from 2017 to 2022, sharing anecdotes about her hunt for the perfect squirrel-proof seeds and feeders, the awe she felt sighting her first great horned owl, and the comedy of baby birds learning to feed. Each entry is complemented with Tan’s own drawings. 

Tan’s childlike wonder at the birds she observes is contagious, but the book goes beyond a compendium of avian observations: You’ll also find introspection and rumination on universal questions about mortality, empathy, racism and our connection (and responsibility) to nature. Because her journals were written without any intention of publication, there is something truly exhilarating about the candor of Tan’s thoughts; her unguarded presence on the page sparkles with cleverness and compassion. It is the rare reader who will be immune to her unbridled enthusiasm and her message that sometimes life’s sweetest pleasures are its simplest.

The Backyard Bird Chronicles showcases a master novelist in a new light. These pages will be a buoyant balm to the soul for inquisitive readers. 

—Stephenie Harrison

Read our interview with Amy Tan about The Backyard Bird Chronicles.

Atlas Obscura: Wild Life

Atlas Obscura got its start as a community-driven website about the weirdest destinations around the globe, but it has expanded into a podcast and books such as the bestselling Atlas Obscura and Gastro Obscura. The latest book, Atlas Obscura: Wild Life: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Living Wonders by Cara Giaimo and Joshua Foer, is a monumental tour through the world’s most interesting organisms, with heaping piles of facts, stories, photographs and illustrations.

Divided into chapters based on habitat, the book begins with a section on humans that emphasizes the positive aspects of our relationship with Earth. “We are of course bound to [plants, animals and organisms] with every breath of air and every bite of food. But we also learn from the species around us, using our observations of them to build new understandings of how life on Earth has been, is, and could be,” the authors write. This sets a curious and optimistic tone for the book, which is true to the overall Atlas Obscura vibe.

Wild Life is for people who say things like “Nature is metal!” when a lion kills a gazelle and are thrilled about the fact that platypuses glow under black light. Did you know that slime molds were able to replicate the Tokyo railway system? Did you know that moss balls travel as a pack in the Eurasian tundra, and no one knows why?

Along with facts about more than 500 organisms, the book also includes Q&As with such people as a grass weaver, a walrus watcher and “a crow-human conflict mediator,” suggesting that our own lives can be almost as wild as those of these incredible creatures.

—Cat Acree

Leaf, Cloud, Crow

In Margaret Renkl’s The Comfort of Crows (2023), the third book from the bestselling author, Tennessee naturalist and New York Times contributing writer, readers were invited into a weekly communion in her Nashville backyard, with 52 essays coinciding with brilliantly colorful collages by her brother, Billy Renkl. With her new guided journal, Leaf, Cloud, Crow: A Weekly Backyard Journal, Renkl extends her invitation further, drawing us into a yearlong commitment to seeing the world more clearly and, in doing so, knitting ourselves closer to it.

In her introduction to Leaf, Cloud, Crow, Renkl explains that her praxis of observation is one that she has cultivated for three decades, but even now, “It isn’t always easy to give myself over to the timeless beauty outside my window.” To help get you into the right mindset, she offers her essay “How to Pay Attention,” a clear and declarative list of things to do and be as a backyard naturalist. “Silence and stillness are your greatest tools,” she writes. “Take care not to frighten anybody. Sit quietly and let the world come to you.”

From there, Renkl puts your powers of observation and evaluation to work. Organized by seasons, the journal begins in winter, during the week of December 21-27, when the user is encouraged to go find something in the natural world—a dead leaf will do—and then make a metaphor from it. From there we learn about birding, the pain and glory of seasonal changes, the willingness to be completely perplexed by something we’ve seen, and so on, each prompt coinciding with an excerpt from The Comfort of Crows.

If you despair at the loss of ecosystems and the damage that we have done to the wild world, Renkl’s words and the lessons she imparts are a balm. For those who wish to do better, see better and (of course) write better, it’s an excellent gift.

—Cat Acree