Books Make Perfect Stocking Stuffers: Here Are 40+ Suggestions—Ranging From Chicago Area Nature and Cultural Spots to Fiction, Music, Radio, and History

BY ANDREW MORKES, FOUNDER & AUTHOR OF THE “NATURE IN CHICAGOLAND” BLOG

UPDATED DECEMBER 2025

Need some ideas for holiday stocking stuffers? If so, this article provides some great suggestions.

Over the years at my “Nature in Chicagoland” blog, I’ve had the chance to interview several authors about nature (including tallgrass prairies and dragonflies) and amazing spots in the Midwest such as The Driftless Area, as well as conservationists. Their books are great gifts for people who love the environment and who’d like to learn about some great destinations in Chicagoland and the greater Midwest.

I love to read, and this article also spotlights non-nature books that I’ve enjoyed. Some of these books are new, while others are classics. I’ve interviewed the authors of some of these books and have provided links to these interviews.

Unsolicited advice: Please try to purchase these books directly from the authors so that they earn the most money from their sales. When a direct author sale is not possible, please purchase your books from small booksellers. Amazon has enough of our money! (I’ve spotlighted two of my favorite bookstores in my article, A Blog Post of Thanks to the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Daily Southtown, Local Bookstores, and Others Who Helped Make Nature in Chicagoland a Success.)

Anyways, regardless of how you choose to purchase these books, I hope that you enjoy them and they they serve as great holiday gifts. Happy reading and gifting!

The characters in Mouthing (ISBN-13: 978-0241617298, Hamish Hamilton), by first-time novelist Mackey, tell their stories and those of others in narrative arcs that stretch from 1963 to 2001. Each section tells the stories of several characters from each of their viewpoints over the years. Mouthing is a thought-provoking, often rip-roaringly funny, and sometimes hard-edged ode to small town life in Ireland, and I was sad to say goodbye to many of its townspeople. It was my one of favorite reads of 2025, and I highly suggest it for those who love both a laugh and are comfortable facing the occasional hard truths and messiness of life. Buy this book! You won’t be dissapointed.

Here’s a link to my full review of the book and an interview with Orla Mackey: Interview/Book Review: Orla Mackey’s Mouthing Provides a Witty and Thoughtful Look at a Rural Irish Community

Like his songs, Bruce Springsteen’s memoir (Simon & Schuster, ISBN-13: ‎978-1501141515) is packed with emotion, honesty (“About my voice. First of all, I don’t have much of one,” he says in his memoir), ideas, and a vast river of words that he uses to convey his creative journey from unknown teen musician (in the Castiles, Steel Mill, and other bands), to the formation of the E Street Band, to a musical icon, as well as the personal and family challenges he overcame. Springsteen also conveys the joy of performance—“life-giving, muscle-aching, mind-clearing, cathartic pleasure and privilege”—whether it’s for a handful of fans in his early days or to packed stadiums. His autobiography is often funny, refreshingly honest (including regarding his battles with depression and his troubled relationship with his father), and inspiring to any current or aspiring artist regardless of their creative genre.  

In this novella (which is set at Christmas 1985 in County Wexford in Ireland), a good man named Bill Furlong must make a choice that will likely negatively change the arc of his life and of his family in a small town that is ruled by tradition, conformity, and the power of the Roman Catholic Church. I won’t give away the plot, but Claire Keegan’s economical and powerful prose conveys the stifling social mores of the 1980s in Ireland and one man’s dilemma in choosing to retain his family’s respected place in local society or shine a bright light on injustice. Small Things Like These (Faber and Faber, ISBN-13: ‎978-0571368709) was shortlisted for The Booker Prize in 2022 and named one of the New York Times’ 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. In 2024, it was adapted into a film of the same name starring Cillian Murphy. Here’s an interesting interview with Keegan at the Booker Prize website.

Growing up, the Bangles were one of my favorite bands. Not the Bangles of their later synth pop years (although some of these songs are lovely), but their early garage and power pop albums (e.g., their EP and All Over the Place). As a 16-year-old, I’d play the Bangles EP—“The Real World,” ”I’m in Line,” “Want You,” “Mary Street,” “How Is the Air Up There?—as I walked down the Rock Island train tracks to my job as a clerk/casher. The EP’s short playtime matched my commute, and the Bangles’ beautiful harmonies and power pop chords made me happy as I walked. I’ll forever link their EP with my first real job and the crazy emotions associated with being a teen.

Eternal Flame: The Authorized Biography of The Bangles (Da Capo Press, ISBN-13: ‎978-0306833342) tells the story of the formation of the band by Susanna Hoffs and sisters Vicki Peterson and Debbi Peterson; the addition of bassist Annette Zilinskas, who was later replaced by Michael Steele; and their gradual rise to fame, breakup, and getting back together (at least for awhile). It’s a fascinating read if you’re a Bangles fan. I loved reading the stories of how Hoffs and Vicki and Debbi Peterson met and their determination and drive to become successful, as well as their friendships and interactions with other musicians of the time, including Prince. What galled me were the challenges (e.g., sexism; questions about their musical ability; creative interference by producers, managers, and record executives; constant comparisons to The Go-Gos) that they faced on their rise to the top. Their success is a testament to their grit and determination in what was (and often is still) a man’s world in the recording industry. 

Singer, songwriter, and American treasure Michael McDermott should be a dead man based on his stories of rampant drug and alcohol abuse in his memoir, Scars From Another Life (979-8365706316, 2022). If not dead, a shadow of himself drained of creativity, vigor, and sanity. But after years of jaw-dropping abuse, he gave up drugs and alcohol on January 14, 2014. Scars From Another Life features 57 short chapters and an epilogue that trace McDermott’s life from his youth, to breaking into the music industry and becoming a star with the release of his first album “620 W. Surf” in 1991, to his slide into addiction, to his attempts to rebuild his career after becoming sober. Each chapter begins with a mini travelogue in Sweden in 2018 that features missed connections, lost luggage, cultural confusion, and other roadblocks. It’s an odd construct, but it works. Overall, Scars From Another Life is laugh-out-loud funny, disturbing, moving, and inspiring (especially in its closing chapters when he talks about his version of God, creativity, “making it,” and the powers of transcendental meditation). It’s a great read full of stories of both McDermott’s darkest and brightest days.

Here’s a link to my full review of the book: Michael McDermott’s Memoir, Scars From Another Life, Tells the Story of His Addiction and Redemption

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Steve & Garry. Kevin Matthews and Jim Shorts. Jonathon Brandmeier and Buzz Kilman.

If reading these names makes you smile and recall great radio memories in Chicagoland from the 1980s and 1990s, than you’ll want to read Rick Kaempfer’s The Loop Files: An Oral History of the Most Outrageous Radio Station Ever (Eckhartz Press, 979-8988332473, 2023). The book features more than 200 photos and interviews with 100 Loop alumni. The Loop was the radio station of my teens and 20s. As I look back, it’s a symbol of my fancy-free days before getting married, having a son, getting a real job, and moving into middle age. The Loop brought me joy as a young guy, and reading The Loop Files also brought me joy and helped me to recall many forgotten radio moments that had been hiding somewhere in my gray matter. I’m thankful to Rick Kaempfer for writing it. The Loop Files is a great read and highly recommended.

Here’s a link to my full review of the book: The Loop Files Tells the Inside Story of a Groundbreaking Chicago Radio Station

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Chicago in 50 Objects (The History Press, 978-1467146753, 2021), by Joseph Gustaitis, tells the story of Chicago through rare and everyday objects. Examples include a Potowatomi war club, Mark Beaubien’s fiddle, a Marshall Field Christmas box, skinning knives from the Chicago Stockyards, a Pullman porter cap, a Chicago bunglalow stained-glass window, a World War II ration book, Nelson Algren’s typewriter, a Harold Washington campaign button, and a Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series t-shirt. This book is packed with information about these objects, as well as their place in the history of the city. Gustaitis is also the author of Chicago’s Greatest Year, 1893: The White City and the Birth of a Modern Metropolis; Chicago Transformed: World War I and the Windy City; and Jazz Age Chicago: Crucible of Modern America.

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For 10 years on Earth Day, David Mahood—a sustainability consultant, environmental writer, poet, and the principal of Olive Designs, LLC—published an essay that focused on a particular environmental issue (such as biodiversity, habitat loss, and climate change). Kings of a Lonely Kingdom: Earth Day Essays, Poems, and Musings on Nature (978-0-9994876-2-4, 2021) collects these essays. Mahood’s essays reveal an intellectually nimble writer who cares deeply about the natural world and the grievous damage humans inflict on it daily. But Kings of a Lonely Kingdom is not a relentless litany of environmental destruction. Mahood leavens his moral outrage at this environmental damage with witty asides; stories about beloved family members and friends (and their interactions with nature); philosophical jaunts; analysis and anecdotes from environmental professionals; and a chapter that includes an appreciation of Bruce Springsteen (one of my favorite musical artists). The book also includes an Earth Day booklet that Mahood wrote in 1972 when he was nine years old. For those who may not be up to speed regarding the wide range of environmental indignities being foisted upon our beautiful and ecologically diverse Earth by corporations, many Republican politicians, and others, Kings of a Lonely Kingdom provides a history lesson and environmental primer that may turn previously milquetoast people into environmental justice warriors—if there’s any justice in the world. I also like the fact that Mahood provides solutions to our environmental woes rather than just creating a laundry list of environmental problems.

Buy this book. It will captivate and educate you, and it may possibly encourage you to take action (or more action) to protect the only place we have to live—Planet Earth.

Mahood is also the author of One Green Deed Spawns Another: Tales of Inspiration on the Quest for Sustainability, which chronicles his 20-year path to environmental activism.

Here’s a link to my full review of the book and an interview with him: Earth Day Essay Collection is a Great Read Any Time of the Year

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JERRY DENNIS is a wonderful writer, and I am jealous of his talents every time I read one of his vivid and jaw-dropping sentences. Via more than 55 essays in Up North in Michigan (University of Michigan Press, 978-0472132973, 2021), he takes readers through the glorious seasons in even more glorious northern Michigan and its Upper Peninsula (UP). His knowledge of these areas’ flora and fauna, as well as their history and culture, will bring this region to life for longtime-lovers of Michigan (me) and those who have never or rarely visited there. I bought his book while visiting the UP this summer, and sitting on my Chicago deck reading it after I returned made me want to jump in the car and head right back up there. Dennis is the author of approximately 10 other books.

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Cindy Crosby, Multiple Books

CINDY CROSBY is the author of Chasing Dragonflies: A Natural, Cultural, and Personal History, as well as Tallgrass Conversations: In Search of the Prairie Spirit and The Tallgrass Prairie: An Introduction. She also teaches natural history subjects, regularly speaks to conservation groups and other organizations, and is a steward at the 3,500-acre-plus Nachusa Grasslands in Franklin Grove, Illinois, and steward supervisor at the Schulenberg Prairie at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. Crosby is an excellent writer and a wonderful advocate for nature in the Chicago area and beyond. To learn more about her books, check out my articles, “Author Discusses the Joys of the Tallgrass Prairie” and “Author Discusses the Joys of Dragonflies and Damselflies.”

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I hope you’ll allow me to toot my own horn…

If you’re looking for some great places to hike, paddle, camp, and others enjoy nature in Chicagoland, you should check out my book, Nature in Chicagoland. It features amazing destinations in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Click on the title to learn more. The book has 306 pages and 210+ photos and is only $19.99. Here are two reviews of my book:

Chicago Sun-Times: “Andrew Morkes gets the options, information and places right on where to recreate in the natural world near Chicago and beyond in his ‘Nature in Chicagoland.’”–Dale Bowman, Outdoors Writer, Chicago Sun-Times

Daily Southtown: “More than most urban dwellers… Morkes knows the hidden wild places of Chicago and surrounding areas.” –Susan DeGrane, front-page story in the Daily Southtown

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I’ve lived in Chicago for more than 55 years; attended church and grade school in Marquette Park; spent my college years at Loyola University Chicago in Rogers Park; and have resided in Morgan Park, Beverly, Lakeview, and Jefferson Park. I think I’ve been to every ward at some point in my life. Yet I’ve never heard of 180 of the 475 locations spotlighted in The 500 Hidden Secrets of Chicago (Luster Publishing, 978-9460583483, 2023), by Lauren Viera. (The other 25 entries in the books are facts about Chicago history and its cultural institutions and traditions.) So, I have a lot of work to do as a Chicago explorer. New exploration destinations for me in the upcoming year and beyond include Fancy Pants Kitchen (a vegan restaurant in Lincoln Park), the Chipp Inn (bar) in Noble Square, Books4Free (a free, as you might have guessed, bookstore in Avondale), the Shakespeare Garden in Evanston (a few of the destinations in the book are outside the city limits), the Renaissance Society in Hyde Park, and the Insect Asylum (museum) and the Sleeping Room (bar and music room) in Avondale. Each entry features a few sentences about the spot and its contact information and Chicago neighborhood (e.g., Beverly, Lincoln Park). This guide will serve as a useful compendium of Chicago destinations for residents who want to get out more but lack ideas for new destinations, but will be most useful to tourists and other non-Chicagoans who’d like to learn more about our beautiful city. The large number of hotel entries (45) in the book suggest that tourists are one of the target audiences for the book. The 500 Hidden Secrets of Chicago is part of a 50-title series that spotlights other cities in the U.S., as well as those in other countries.

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The Driftless Land: Spirit of Place in the Upper Mississippi Valley

Flat. Boring. These are two common words that come to mind when people think of much of the Midwest. But there’s a special place in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin that features limestone bluffs, rolling hills, wooded valleys, waterfalls, creeks, wetlands, rivers, caves, Native American Effigy Mounds, and rare ecosystems and plant and animal species. It’s known as the Driftless Area. I’ve been to the Driftless Area many times, and every visit continues to amaze me. But there’s someone who knows much more about the Driftless Area (which is sometimes called the Driftless Region) than me. That’s DR. KEVIN KOCH, who is a Professor of English at Loras College and the author of The Driftless Land: Spirit of Place in the Upper Mississippi Valley; Skiing At Midnight: A Nature Journal from Dubuque County, Iowa; and The Thin Places: A Celtic Landscape from Ireland to the Driftless. To learn more about The Driftless Land and his books, check out my article, “Author and Professor Discusses the Magical Driftless Area.”

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There are people who talk, and there are people who do. George Fell was a doer—in spades. There are people who do, but can’t stop talking about themselves and the credit they deserve. Not George Fell. There are people who quit when the powers that be tell them no or who simply run out of energy in their quest to make the world a better place. Not George Fell. So, who is George Fell? He was the founder of The Nature Conservancy (which, by some measures, has become the largest environmental organization in the world), the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission, and other environmental organizations. He was a tireless environmental advocate who protected the last bits of pristine land in Illinois and other places. And now ARTHUR MELVILLE PEARSON has told his story in Force of Nature: George Fell, Founder of the Natural Areas Movement. Pearson is the CEO of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, and the past-director of the Chicago Program at the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, which helps protect and restore natural lands in the Chicago region and the Lowcountry of South Carolina. To learn more about George Fell and to read my interview with Pearson, check out my article, “George Fell: A Tireless Advocate for Nature in Illinois.”

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If you live in Chicagoland and beyond, you’ve seen BARRY BUTLER’S wonderful landscape and cityscape photographs on television newscasts, on social media (including on his X, Instagram, and Facebook accounts), at his website, and in photo exhibitions. His creative vision and deft touch with the camera turns everyday sights we sometime take for granted—skyscrapers, street scenes, the Chicago River, our parks, Lake Michigan, and other landmarks—into art. Great art makes people feel intensely, think more deeply, and sometimes just entertains us and makes us forget our troubles. Barry Butler certainly makes great art, capturing wonderful human moments and public spaces in Chicagoland (and Ireland, too). In addition to offering prints, calendars, and puzzles that feature his work, Butler published Chicago-A City Above All in 2020, a book of his photographs. Click here to read my interview with Barry about this book and his work. Butler has recently published another book, Chicago-Morning, Noon & Night.

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The Chicago metropolitan area (as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau) consists of nearly 11,000 square miles. In this vast area, there are a plethora of awe-inspiring nature destinations. But people who do not have access to a car may feel that these destinations are out of reach. But this is untrue. Our area’s vast transportation system—Metra, South Shore Line, and CTA trains, as well as buses and Divvy—allow the carless to access some amazing places. Identifying nature spots that can be visited via public transportation may seem daunting, but a helpful book, Chicago Transit Hikes: A Guide to Getting Out in Nature without a Car, 2nd Edition (University of Illinois Press, 978-0-252-08891-9, 2026), by Lindsay Welbers, provides all that you need to know to enjoy Chicagoland nature via public transportation. This useful book not only spotlights nature destinations that can be reached by using public transportation, but also provides information on train and bus lines, schedules, the distance from station to trailhead, degree of hiking difficulty, family friendliness, and other details that will make your explorations easier and more rewarding. Here’s the full story about the first edition of her book and my interview with its author: New Book Shows That You Don’t Need a Car to Enjoy Chicagoland Nature.

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Some more of My Personal Favorites

The problem with creating a list of my favorite books is that I would end up listing hundreds of titles. But neither of us have the time for that, so here’s a short list of some of my favorite non-nature books. I hope that you’ll love them as much as I do.

The world is on fire on Earth, but it doesn’t seem so from 250 miles above in space if you’re an astronaut. At least if you’re one of the six astronauts from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan on the space station in Samantha Harvey’s lovely and powerful book, Orbital.  I loved this novel, which barely has a plot, but briefly tells the stories of six astronauts who are orbiting the earth 16 times in a single day at 17,500 miles per hour. Orbital is a wonderful fever dream of sights, experiences, and ruminations about life, death, the challenges and rewards of being an astronaut, friendship, family, and the environment. It is a lyrical book that will make you reexamine your place in the world and your perceptions about our planet. I hope that it will also increase your desire to protect the only place that we know where humans can easily live in the universe. It’s a hopeful book in a tough and challenging time, and I highly recommended it.

Orbital (Grove Press, 224 pages, ISBN-10: ‎0802163629, ISBN-13: 978-0802163622) recently received the Booker Prize, and it was shortlisted for the 2024 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction.

Check out “Orbital” Celebrates Nature, the Earth, and the Wonders of Spaceflight and Being Human in a Tough and Challenging Time, for my full review of the book.

Patrick Radden Keefe tells a moving and maddening story that begins with the disappearance of Jean McConoville, an Irish single mother of 10, who, depending on whom you believe was an informer for the British Army in Belfast during The Troubles in 1972, or someone who was hated for helping a wounded British soldier in the street, or who knows what. But while the abduction and tragic murder of McConoville fuels the narrative, this book (Anchor, 978-0307279286, 2020) is about so much more. You will get an inside look at The Troubles; key members of the IRA such as Gerry Adams, Delours Price, Marian Price, and Brendan Hughes; bombings; hunger strikes; and much more. It also describes the effects of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and how it changed relationships and belief systems in Northern Ireland and Ireland. (Note: The book has been adapted into a streaming series, which is available on FX.)

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This collection of short stories written by Pakistani-American author Mueenuddin tells the tales of both modern (cities) and feudal (countryside) Pakistan via interconnected narratives. It’s definitely a sad book, but sometimes humorous, and often moving. (W.W. Norton & Company, 978-0393337204, 2009)

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Atkinson’s Liberation Trilogy tells the story of the U.S. military during World War II—from the early days of the war in North Africa (An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943), to later battles in Italy (The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944), to D-Day and beyond (The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945). It’s a well-written, fact-filled trilogy about how soldiers in the the U.S. Army grew from mostly civilian novices to effective soldiers and the courage and drive it took to defeat facism. The books also depict the terrible, horrendous violence and death of total war. Humans never seem to learn the lessons of war, but perhaps a deep dive into this series will reduce the bravado and nationalistic propaganda that is often attached to war.

Other recent World War II-reads that I’ve liked include Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War, by Mark Harris, and The Year of Peril: America in 1942, by Tracy Campbell. Five Came Back tells the story of legendary Hollywood directors Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens, and William Wyler and their roles in the war. Each was profoundly changed by the war or their actions during it, and the book is a wonderful read if you love history and movies. A Netflix series based on the book is also available. The Year of Peril takes a deep dive into the year 1942 and dissolves modern-day beliefs that winning the war was inevitable for the U.S. and its allies. According to the book, “The stress that was omnipresent throughout the year revealed some of the best–and worst–characteristics of the United States. Every walk of life was disrupted, and many worried that new forms of terror could come to any town or community.” This is a fascinating story of how Americans persevered through these perilous times.

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Eight Days in May: The Final Collapse of the Third Reich

By Volker Ullrich (author); Jefferson Chase (translator)

Eight Days in May (Liveright, 978-1324092889, 2020) is about the days between the suicide of Adolf Hitler on April 30, 1945, and the unconditional surrender of Germany at the end of World War II. It tells the story of how every day people reacted to the news of Hitler’s death, as well as the machinations of Hitler’s chosen successor, Admiral Karl Dönitz; other members of the German military; and the Gestapo to hold onto power and protect what was left of the German state from Soviet punishment and domination.

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The writer, activist, and historian Studs Terkel was born in 1912 and lived a long life, passing away in 2008. Although he was born in New York City, there is almost no one more “Chicago” than Studs Terkel. I love his books and loved listening to him on the radio. If I was famous, the only people I’d want to interview me would be Studs and Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. He is special to me because he was a repository of Chicago and American history from the 1920s to the early 2000s and a champion of liberalism (the type that aims to help people live better lives) and of decent (and often lost) causes. His works (e.g., The Good War, Working, Coming of Age, Division Street: America) celebrated the average person and how they went about navigating and dealing with the challenges of the world and often fighting for change against stiff opposition. Studs was also a chronicler of the famous—not the reality stars of the world, but people who were born with some sort of magical abilities, who worked hard to develop them, and who made the world a better place—like Mahalia Jackson, Bertrand Russell, Simone de Beauvoir, Harry Belafonte, Ralph Ellison, and Nelson Algren. Studs had an encyclopedic mind and an insatiable curiosity for almost everything in life. He was vital into his early 90s. Watching him on video and listening to his words on audio, he literally spouted ideas faster than his mouth could get them out. Studs provided an excellent example of social conscience, curiosity, intellectualism, and good works for all of us to follow. His epitaph: “Curiosity did not kill this cat.” If you haven’t read his books, read them!

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Under the Big Black Sun: A personal history of LA punk

More Fun in the New World: The Unmaking and Legacy of L.A. Punk

In 1986, some foreign exchange students named “punk” and “alternative” came to visit 16-year-old Andy Morkes (me!), and, quite simply, my life was never the same again. This was before record companies manufactured punk and alternative bands to sell “product,” and it became OK for bands to sell the rights to their songs so that companies could sell more cars, shoes, or frozen pizzas. Raised on my older brother’s safe mainstream music—Journey, Clapton, and Styx—the music of X, the Dead Kennedys, Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, Ramones, REM, Scrawl, the Clash, the Replacements, and other DIY bands BLEW MY MIND. These bands had no rules (and received little or no radio airplay; can you imagine X’s “We’re Desperate” coming on right after Styx’s “Come Sail Away?”…I’d love to be a DJ on that radio station.). These bands’ recordings were lo-fi: a song could last 30 seconds or 10 minutes (breaking the sacred three-minute, radio-friendly format); singers lacked pitch-perfect voices; the album art was often beautiful, bizarre, and ragged; and the song themes were not just about unrequited love and yearning, but about sex (which was just a theoretical concept for me at the time), big issues (Sandinistas, death squads, workers’ rights, environmental destruction, racism, nationalism, communism and other -isms, etc.), as well as just hanging out and wasting time.

A few years ago, John Doe, one of the founders of X, was interviewed on the PBS show Overheard. He was asked, “What is punk rock?” Doe answered, “Freedom.” That’s the perfect description that also applies when one listens to X and other punk and alternative rock pioneers, as well as a teen’s efforts at that time to find his way in the world.

These books tell stories of the LA punk scene from 1977 to 1982 (in Under the Big Bolack Sun, Da Capo Press, 978-0306825330, 2017) and 1983 to 1987 (in More Fun in the New World, Hachette Books, 978-0306922138, 2021) via essays from Doe and many other musicians, producers, and music industry professionals. Contributors include Exene Cervenka (X), Jane Wiedlin (Go-Gos), Mike Watt (Minutemen), and Dave Alvin (Blasters, X).

The stories are funny, sad, disturbing, and everything in between—and a must read if you’re a fan of punk rock.

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Comedy is not the first thing one imagines when thinking of John Brown. The devout Christian abolitionist was a dour figure whose failed raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859 made him a martyr to the antislavery cause. The Good Lord Bird (Riverhead Books, 978-1594632785, 2014) reimagines the wanderings of Brown and his followers via the story of Henry Shackleford, a young slave living in the Kansas Territory in 1856. To stay alive, Henry conceals his true identity and disguises himself as a girl, whom Brown nicknames Little Onion. I’ll use the following words and phrases to describe this book: boisterous, Mark Twain-ish, brilliant, moving, and entertaining. I hope they convince you to purchase or borrow a copy.

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Lincoln in the Bardo

By George Saunders

Lincoln in the Bardo (Random House, 978-0812995343, 2017) is set in 1862 and starts with the story of President Abraham Lincoln and his visits to hold the body of his recently deceased and beloved 11-year-old son, Willie, who has been interred in a crypt in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown. The crypt is inhabited by dozens of spirits from different eras in Washinton, DC’s, history who have not yet transitioned to their final destinations for a variety of reasons. We hear their voices (in all their humor, catankerousness, wisdom, and sadness) as they narrate Lincoln’s visits to the crypt and the stories of their own lives and unfulfilled dreams. This book is at times funny, incredibly moving, sad, and thought-provoking.

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The Heartsong of Charging Elk (Anchor, 978-0385496759, 2001) is a captivating and moving novel that tells the story of Charging Elk, an Oglala Sioux who joins Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and travels from the Black Hills of South Dakota to Marseille, France, in the late 1800s. After being seriously injured, he is left behind to make a new life for himself in a a strange modern world. I won’t ruin the rest of the story by giving any more details. James Welch (1940-2003) is one of my favorite authors, and I highly recommend this book, as well as Winter in the Blood, The Death of Jim Loney, Fools Crow, The Indian Lawyer, and Killing Custer: The Battle of Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians.

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where are the female authors?

It suddenly occurred to me as I looked over my list of personal non-nature suggestions that I had missed including many female writers that I love. To address this omission, here are some of my faves. And when I have more time, I will write more about these amazing books.

The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton and A Thousand Acres (Jane Smiley)

The Voyage of the Narwahl and Servants of the Map (Andrea Barrett)

Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Ryhs)

Educated: A Memoir (Tara Westover)

The Middlemen and Other Stories (Bharati Mukherjee)

A Stricken Field (Martha Gellhorn)

Ceremony (Lesley Marmon Silko)

Almost any book by Harriet Doerr, Zora Neale Hurston, Ann Beattie, Annie Dillard, Anne Lamott, Sandra Cisneros, Kathleen Norris, Alice Walker, Louise Erdrich, Willa Cather, and Annie Proulx.

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copyright (text) Andrew Morkes, except any quoted material

Copyright (book cover photo) authors and publishers

Copyright (photos of Earth from space) NASA

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Looking for some great nature destinations in Chicagoland? If so, check out my book, Nature in Chicagoland: More Than 120 Fantastic Nature Destinations That You Must Visit. It features amazing destinations in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Click on the title to learn more. The book has 306 pages and 210+ photos and is only $19.99. Nature in Chicagoland received great reviews in the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Daily Southtown, This Week in Birding blog, and Beverly Review.

ABOUT ANDREW MORKES

I’ve been a professional wrestler of words for more than 30 years. I’m the founder of College & Career Press (2002); the author and publisher of “The Morkes Report: College and Career Planning Trends” blog; and the author and publisher of Hot Health Care Careers: 30 Occupations With Fast Growth and Many New Job Openings; Nontraditional Careers for Women and Men: More Than 30 Great Jobs for Women and Men With Apprenticeships Through PhDs; They Teach That in College!?: A Resource Guide to More Than 100 Interesting College Majors, which was selected as one of the best books of the year by the library journal Voice of Youth Advocates; and other titles. They Teach That in College!? provides more information on environmental- and sustainability-related majors such as Ecotourism, Range Management, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Built Environment, Sustainability Studies, and Sustainable Agriculture/Organic Farming. I also served as a member of the parent advisory board at my son’s school for five years.

My poetry has appeared in Cadence, Wisconsin Review, Poetry Motel, Strong Coffee, and Mid-America Review.

In addition to these publications, I’ve written more than 70 books about college planning and careers for other publishing and media companies including Infobase (such as the venerable Encyclopedia of Careers & Vocational Guidance, the Vault Career Guide to Accounting, The Vault Guide for High School Juniors and Seniors, and many volumes in the Careers in Focus, Discovering Careers, What Can I Do Now?!, and Career Skills Library series), Lerner Publishing, and Mason Crest (including Detecting Misinformation on Social Media, Detoxing from Video Games, The After Life, and Sports and STEAM: Arts).

Here’s a list of the environmental-focused titles that I’ve written:

Nature in Chicagoland: More Than 120 Fantastic Nature Destinations That You Must Visit

Wind Turbine Technicians (Great Careers Without a Bachelor’s Degree series)

Environmental Scientists (Cool Careers in Science series)

Renewable Energy Careers (Cool Careers in Science series)

Environment (Getting Started series)

Solar Power Technicians (Careers in Infrastructure series)