Ah, spring, when a reader’s fancy turns to thoughts of nature and the outdoors – or at least to thoughts of reading a book outdoors. Here are 6 noteworthy new or recent books from Northwest authors that take us into the natural world.

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Nathaniel Farrell Brodie

The Portland writer uses his eight years on the Grand Canyon National Park Service trail crew as fodder for the elegantly written "Steel on Stone: Living and Working in the Grand Canyon" (Trinity University Press, 312 pages, $18.95). Grouped by season, Brodie's recollections and reflections take the reader on a meandering but ultimately satisfying trek alongside a man searching for a place where he can belong: "The Canyon never completely reconciled my mutually exclusive longings to roam the world and to settle deeply into place … (b)ut in many ways my relationship with the Canyon was the best of both worlds."

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Robert J. Carson

One could argue that the Blue Mountains are the Rodney Dangerfield of Oregon mountain ranges – compared to the other ranges, they get no respect. Carson's new book, "The Blues: Natural History of the Blue Mountains of Northeastern Oregon and Southeastern Washington" (Keokee Books, 208 pages, $38) remedies that and then some. Carson digs with contagious enthusiasm into the Blues' geology, communities, climate, ecology, flora, fauna and future with plenty of photos, a number of maps and charts – and even several contributed poems. See you out there.

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Peter Laufer

The James Wallace Chair Professor in Journalism at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication takes a deep dive into the world of turtles in "Dreaming in Turtle: A Journey Through the Passion, Profit, and Peril of Our Most Coveted Prehistoric Creatures" (St. Martin's Press, 336 pages, $28.99). Laufer roams the globe to catalog the numerous ways in which turtles intersect, often to their detriment, with humans: as menu items, as virility enhancers, as ritualistic objects, as impediments to development and, of course, as pets. "Everyone has a turtle story," Laufer asserts. His turtle story, ultimately, is a plea to save these fascinating reptiles before it's too late.

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Rebecca Lawton

The director of the artist and scientist residency program at Playa, in Lake County, issues a powerful call for smarter water policy in her essay collection "The Oasis This Time: Living and Dying With Water in the West" (Torrey House Press, 180 pages, $18.95). Her perspectives as an Oregon native, a geologist, a birder and a river guide culminate in "a constant grief about climate and water" as she confronts the short- and long-term effects of human behavior on desert, river, coastal, forest and other landscapes. Closing an essay on the 2017 wildfires in Northern California, she offers an observation that applies just as well to humans' only oasis in this universe: "We're all hunkered down in the same refuge."

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Rosanne Parry

The Portland author's new middle-grade novel, "A Wolf Called Wander" (Greenwillow Books, 256 pages, $16.99), draws its inspiration from the Oregon wolf known as OR-7, whose cross-state journey made headlines around the world in 2011. Parry's book starts with the birth of a wolf pup and follows him through adolescence, a pivotal encounter with a rival wolf pack and a search for a new home and mate. Parry evokes all the senses, vividly, in bringing the wolf's world to dramatic life.

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Noah Strycker

The Creswell author's recounting of his journey to see half of Earth's bird species in 12 months, "Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, A Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 352 pages, $27), was a 2019 Oregon Book Awards finalist. And deservedly so. Even if your knowledge of bird species begins and ends with the most obvious specimens – look, a robin! – Strycker's book is instantly engaging. His solid ornithology credentials, combined with his thoughtful observations on how birds are faring on 21st-century Earth, make for a compelling narrative that's likely to have you seeing our feathered friends with fresh eyes.

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