Books, Outdoors & Nature, Ecosystems, Deserts

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Terry Tempest Williams
Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert
by Pantheon (Hardcover) (Release Date: 2001-09-11)

Craig Childs
The Way Out: A True Story of Ruin and Survival
by Back Bay Books (Paperback)

Craig Childs is lost. In a labyrinth of canyons in the American Southwest where virtually nothing else is alive - barely any vegetation, few signs of wildlife, scant trace of any human precursors in this landscape - Childs and his friend Dirk undertake a fortnight's journey. With as much food and gear as they can carry, and little else but their wiles to help them traverse the inhospitable, unmappable terrain, the two men assume the life-or-death challenge of exploring this land - and then finding a way out. Equally gripping as their adventure in the wild is the parallel story, told in flashback, of what has propelled the two men into these extreme circumstances. In scenes that crackle with tension and suspense - recollections of barroom brawls, high-speed car chases and reckless feats of risk- taking - we discover the surprising legacy of violence that each man is escaping. As a chronicle of adventure, as emotionally-charged human drama, as confessional memoir, THE WAY OUT is a ...

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert
by University of California Press (Hardcover)

Imagine crossing a threshold not into someone s home but into another world. Imagine that world to be inhabited by creatures with names as wild as Gila monster, chuckwalla, vinagaroon, boojum and devil s claw. Close your eyes, and smell a world filled with the fragrances of night-blooming cactus flowers, sacred datura, and the aromatic oils of creosotebush released into the air after the first summer rains. Listen hard, and hear the distant calls of Cactus Wrens, cicadas, Scaled Quail, Curve-billed Thrashers and spadefoot toads. Then open your eyes again, and see that the world you ve entered into is swarming with leafcutter ants, carpenter bees, hummingbirds, and kangaroo rats. You have not entered into someone else s home, but one which for a day, a year, or an entire lifetime, may be your own: the Sonoran Desert. It is a homeland that rambles over some 120,000 square miles (320,000 km2) in two countries and five states.

Craig Childs
Soul of Nowhere
by Back Bay Books (Paperback)

Nobody writes about nature and the American landscape the way Craig Childs does. Answering the call of the fiercest of terrains, he opens up to us sites that we would otherwise never visit and, through his uncanny powers of description, makes us feel that we have experienced the very essence of these places. The death-defying and life-affirming journeys that Childs records in SOUL OF NOWHERE make up an exhilarating exploration of his own (and our collective) attraction to remote and forbidding landscapes.

Richard Shelton
Going Back to Bisbee
by University of Arizona Press (Paperback)

One of America's most distinguished poets shares his fascination with a distinctive corner of the country--Bisbee, Arizona--with a narrative that reflects the history of the area, the beauty of the landscape, and his own life. Simultaneous.

Byrd Baylor
The Desert is Theirs
by Atheneum (Paperback)

"Baylor tells us about the desert, describing selected flora and fauna, and respectfully paying tribute to the Desert People who know its secrets and would live nowhere else . . . A striking mood piece."--Booklist. Caldecott Honor Book; ALA Notable Children's Book.

William deBuys
Salt Dreams: Land and Water in Low-Down California
by University of New Mexico Press (Hardcover)

John B Sowell
Desert Ecology
by University of Utah Press (Paperback)

Lane Larson, Peggy Larson
The Deserts of the Southwest: A Sierra Club Naturalist's Guide (Sierra Club Naturalist's Guides)
by Sierra Club Books (Paperback) (Release Date: 2000-06-06)

Newly revised and updated, this comprehensive field guide describes the four deserts of the American Southwest—the Great Basin, Mojave, Chihuahuan, and Sonoran—which together stretch into nine southwestern states and Mexico. The topography, geology, and climatic conditions of these arid lands set the stage for one of the most fascinating of ecological studies: the survival and adaptation of animal and plant life in the severe, often extreme desert climate and terrain. Abundantly illustrated with line drawings, maps, charts, and diagrams, The Deserts of the Southwest offers both the outdoor adventurer and the armchair naturalist a clear and detailed portrait of this complex, beautiful, fragile wilderness.

James Macmahon
Deserts (Audubon Society Nature Guides)
by Knopf (Paperback) (Release Date: 1985-05-12)

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