31. The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley. This book captures the heart and soul of a lengthy and still inconclusive debate about why some organisms have bothered to have sex in order to reproduce, while many others have not. As revealed in this book, the easy answers do not hold under close scrutiny; it’s the highly thought provoking answers that are more likely.

32. Tears of the Cheetah and Other Tales from the Genetic Frontier by Stephen O'Brien. This book is irritating to read, yet I am obliged to include it here because of the excellent nature it reveals by looking on the inside—the genes themselves. Amazing stories of pumas and cheetahs and whales and panda bears are told here, known to us only through the process of looking very carefully at their genes.

33. Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner. Wow! Mr. Weiner can deal. He is a very good writer. The story here outlines one of the best scientific tales of the twentieth century: trying to figure out how genes express themselves in an organism, and rule not only physical characteristics, but also behavior and emotions. The amazing thing is he based his data on lifelong, dedicated experiments with flies. It is also part biography of the famous geneticist Seymour Benzer. Dr. Benzer is a very interesting dude who used to have even Richard Feynman stopping by the old fly room!

34. Atmosphere, Climate, and Change by Thomas E. Graedel and Paul J. Crutzen. The writing style is nothing special, but this work more than makes up for it by laying down some basics about our planetary and climate history. The book is measured and careful in its descriptions of the nature: What are the greenhouse gases and where do they come from? How much CO2 is currently in the atmosphere now, and how is this contrasted with past climates? Ozone, smog, glaciations, atmospheric chemistry, sea level changes, solar fluxes, pollen studies, ultraviolet radiation are reviewed with an eye toward predicting the next 100 years of climate. I cannot stress enough how important it is to take notice of the serious changes in the climate.

35. What is Life? With mind and matter by Erwin Schrodinger. Schrodinger or as I like to refer to the master as Big Eddie, is, of course, the heavy hitter physicist of Quantum Mechanics. So this book is a physicist’s look at biology and in particular how life and chromosomes are organized from first principles. Mind you, this is in 1945 before we knew anything about the DNA double helix molecule. Fascinating take from a fresh perspective by a razor sharp mind. In the second half of the book Schrodinger, like so many other bright people just has to try his hand at philosophy, and of course everything turns to chaos as soon as you do that. I couldn't make it to the end.

36. Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick. This is the story of a nearly mythic, legendary and inspirational character and great physicist of the 20th century. I have pored over this book and I admit my bias for one who is without exception my favorite. For entertainment, simple truth and curiosity, there's no one like this dude.

37. Isaac Newton by James Gleick. I worked all his stuff in physics but hadn't a clue about who Newton was and what his creative efforts were. There were a lot of surprises, not only in the extreme detail and wide extent of his work but also in the portrait of his strange childhood and reclusive personality. Fascinating how he changed everything working alone and with the barest of tools.

38. Lichens of North America by Irwin M. Brodo, Sylvia Duran Sharnoff, and Stephen Sharnoff. Superb natural history book—a huge tome of 769 pages with 939 photos. The lichens are a fungus growth, imbedded with another organism, that can capture sunlight like an algae or cyanobacteria, for example. These guys with their bright colors and near ubiquitous distribution are way too fun and interesting to pass up.

39. The Character of Physical Law by Richard P. Feynman. He's loose again! Richard gives a series of lectures to Cornell talking about nature and man's attempts to describe it. I can never say enough about how he can so clearly describe a complicated subject. Here he gives a remarkable view of the world, letting us peek behind the curtain as if he were lining up a series of golf shots. You will come away stunned at the depth of his talent and insight into the nature of things.

40. Crab Wars: A Tale of Horseshoe Crabs, Bioterrorism, and Human Health by William Sargent. Not a bad little book. The horseshoe crab has been around for 300 million years. It turns out that its copper-based blue blood provides a reliable test for gram negative bacteria, and so it has become a highly prized scientific player. This book illustrates how badly we can manage our resource base. We should really be showing this great organism more respect.

41. A Certain Curve of Horn: The Hundred Year Quest for the Giant Sable Antelope of Angola by John Frederick Walker. This book again makes clear that we are the strangest animal on the planet. A rare and inaccessible large antelope, the brutal Angola civil war, the trophy hunting culture, with conservationists trying to hold it together, are all laid out in this deft and well written book. With our ability to move everything around by burning hydrocarbons, we can turn everything upside down and this makes for an interesting story of nature in Angola.

42. One Man's Owl by Bernd Heinrich. Maybe I should just include all of Heinrich’s books in this list. Bernd finds a baby Great Horned Owl and in this book tells the story of his three year relationship with the creature. It was pretty interesting. This species lives around my house and even though I am somewhat familiar with its habits and reputation, there was a lot to be surprised about.

43. Bumble Bee Economics by Bernd Heinrich. Out of print. I had to pay through the nose for a copy of this great book. You have to marvel at the intricate and detailed decisions the bees are making, as documented in this volume. They have no brain to speak of and yet the programming imbedded into their nervous system allows sophisticated behaviors. This book changed how I look at the nature of flowers and the insect world.

44. Mr. Bloomfield’s Orchard: The Mysterious World of Mushrooms, Molds, and Mycologists by Nicholas P. Money. Engaging, funny, interesting. This is great way to crack into the confusing and murky world of the fungi. Fungi are a big deal. They are an old, old group, some of which intertwine themselves with the plants in bizarre ways, while others act like animals, still others shoot cannons and exploding blobs, or drill into granite, reproduce in unbelievably convoluted pathways and in general act as if they own the place—as well they might.

45. Hummingbirds—Their Life and Behavior: A Photographic Study of the North American Species by Esther Quesada Tyrrell. One of the engineering marvels of the world is the hummingbird, with such a high metabolism packed into a such a small package (weighing about a dime), it is intriguing to explore the distribution, physiology, and speciation of this very remarkable family. When you sit and think about it a bit, the hummingbird has to be right on the edge of what it’s possible to make.

46. Where the Sea Breaks Its Back by Corey Ford. This is the story of the famous naturalist Georg Steller. This is the guy of Stellers Sea Cow, Stellers Jay, Stellers Sea Monkey and Stellers Sea Lion. Steller was the first person trained in the western world to visit Alaska and the Aleutians on a Russian expedition launched from Siberia. It was a very surprising tale for me to read. I had always heard of Steller, but had never investigated what he was about. A brilliant mind struggling to get anything done in the face of stunning adversity. He died believing he was a total failure, drunk in a dog sled in the bitter cold at the age of 37.

47. Feynman’s Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life by Leonard Mlodinow. Slight cultural bias, but it is still a good book for getting started on string theory. (Or maybe I’m just obsessed with Richard Feynman’s work, which is the main subject of this book.) Written by a new professor who had an office near Feynman’s, whose counsel he sought for his own career during the last six years of Feynman’s life. Humorous at times and written in a simple and flowing style which provides a view into an unusual world.

48. Nature’s Building Blocks: An A to Z Guide to the Elements by John Emsley. A very fun and interesting book. Each atom has its own unbelievable story—its history in the universe, its interactions with people, its chemistry, the weird places different atoms show up in the earth system. The atoms are alphabetized and there’s a story about each one. Emsley’s descriptions of nature . . . well, they weren’t always as tight as they could have been, but his undertaking was so broad, it would be impossible to get it all right. (In other words, he’s a good researcher but he sometimes got snookered.) I don’t fault him, and fully recommend this work.

49. The Mojave: A Portrait of the Definitive American Desert by David Darlington. This book casts a spell. It lays out a landscape, a special storied place of the American west, now known as Mojave National Monument. Edward Abbey was right—there is something about the desert and this book brings it to life. It’s an incredible wilderness with sparkling washes and jagged mountains; few places on earth are as desolate or as beautiful. Whether the American desert attracts lunatics or turns people into lunatics once they get there is open to debate, but this book also shows us plenty of eccentric desert characters.

50. The Devil in the Mountains: A Search for the Origin of the Andes by Simon Lamb. Nothing spectacular but nonetheless a solid and interesting book. Basically it weaves together stories of a professional geologist’s work and travel in the Andes, and what we know about the formation history of this massive mountain range. It is interesting to sit at his side, so to speak, as the author drives across an immense landscape of exposed rock and to tell us about formation history. Fascinating.

51. No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman by Christopher Sykes. Great fun, this book. Full of Feynman quotes, photos, stories and people who spent time with him, telling Feynman stories. I cannot get enough of this guy. If you like Feynman, this is a must read.

52. The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. and Thomas M. Campbell. Not beautifully written, but nonetheless powerfully stated. Think that heart disease, diabetes, cancer, dementia, arthritis, and immobility are just a normal part of aging? Think again. This is a book by the project director of the most extensive study ever conducted on diet and fitness. It compares, among other things, cultures that consume a plant-based diet versus cultures wolfing down lots of animal protein. This study was so compelling that I cut animal protein from my diet, with excellent results. Don’t miss this astonishing read about the nature of food and our bodies.

53. Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire by Rafe Esquire. This book is about a fifth grade teacher in urban Los Angeles who, through hard work and a great deal of imagination, beat the system—the unacknowledged system that keeps kids down. This is a story of how he created an extraordinary environment in his classroom, his kids achieving things I wouldn’t have believed possible. Although the subject matter seems far afield from the rest of the books listed here, in actuality it shares much in common. It tells the truth, it has passion, and it delved deeply into a complicated subject—the nature of learning in a group setting. Rafe dares to take an independent view, and cast off the leg irons of rigid orthodoxy.

54. A Natural History of Ferns by Robbin C. Moran. This book is a collection of 33 essays originally published in the journal of the American Fern Society. The author is the curator of ferns for the New York Botanical Garden. The style is a bit dry and scientific, but the chapters are short. This book was an eye opener into the world of ferns. I learned for example that ferns are less diverse than flowering plants because spores from originating plants can travel farther than seeds. Oceans are no barrier. Ferns often disperse from continent to continent. North American even has ferns native to New Zealand.

55. The Geese of Beaver Bog by Bernd Heinrich. Classic Heinrich: relentless, careful, curious—telling it like it is. This time Heinrich studies wild Canadian geese nesting near his house. Although their story isn’t as rich as some of his previous subjects (say, the ravens), it is remarkable how much is known about the complex decision-making of this ancient animal. A great read..

56. The Story of Manuel Cordova-Rios: The Wizard of the Upper Amazon by F. Bruce Lamb. The story is about a fifteen-year-old boy who is kidnapped and raised to adulthood by a tribe of Amahuaca Indians (Peruvian Amazon) at the turn of the century. It’s a good read offering many insights into tribal life—hunting, social dynamics, and the strange plants and animals of the forest. There are stories of jaguars, marriage, and apprenticeship. The heightened senses needed to read the forest, and the amount of patience to hunt successfully, were particularly impressive. By the end I wanted to know more. We are lucky this book is back in print.

57. Winter World by Bernd Heinrich. Not the best of Heinrich, but nonetheless solid insight into life’s adaptations to cold environments. The central character in this book is the Golden Crowned Kinglet, a diminutive bird that lives at the very edge of survival. In winter it must forage every second of daylight in order to survive. So tightly balanced is its energy budget that it appears impossible for it to survive the night in winter. No one is even sure where or how it seeks shelter at night, which it appears it must do. Of course many insect, plant, mammal, and bird stories are also told.

58. Life in the Cold: An introduction to Winter Ecology by Peter J. Marchand. In Heinrich’s Winter World, winter is seen through the eyes of a curious explorer who captures insects, watches birds, sticks his head into holes in trees; Heinrich tended to stay on the outside looking in. But Marchand’s book takes you deep into the nature of winter cold, using the world of physics to fashion broad insights. Make no mistake about it, Professor Marchand has his chops. Strap on the seat belt for this one—it packs a wallop, rock-sledding you through a lifetime of learning in only a small volume.

59. Winterdance by Gary Paulsen. This book is about the author’s obsession with dog sledding, and his decision to train for and enter the annual 1,100 mile Iditarod Dog Sled race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. Mr. Paulson is a real writer, a very fine author with the power to send you flying over hills, throw you headlong through the world, even make you laugh out loud, the rarest of all skills in the trade. Although Paulsen doesn’t do a deep nature analysis or dig down through the layers, it’s so rare to find this mixture of humor and incredible passion that I’ve included the book here. Refreshingly free from cultural bias, the author immerses himself in dogs and the landscape with ferocity, yet maintains a rapier wit and self-deprecating humor. It’s a great story, an intense and fast read.

60. The Natural History of Alcoholism: Causes, Patterns, and Paths to Recovery by George E. Vaillant. Alcohol is a near mythical food for homo sapiens, the source of many social and behavioral problems. Despite the great destructive power of this substance, few know anything beyond what they hear from others, closed to the big picture of its varied effect on our lives. The book covers a large study that followed individuals with alcohol problems for over 40 years, one of the longest of its kind. Readers will be challenged by the notion that alcohol abuse is as diverse of the populations that consume this toxic and intoxicating fluid.