March 19, 2024, 1:30pm
There may or may not be snow on the ground outside your window (that sound is upstate New Yorkers crying for sun) but meteorologically, today is the first day of spring, which is as good a reason as any to take the afternoon off to read—or at least to recommend some books. If you’re looking for something seasonal, why not pick up one of these 11 new nature books? Or if it’s already warm where you live, we can heartily recommend these 8 books that demand to be read outside.
In the Northeast, it may feel appropriate to dig into the best rain in literature—if only to prepare the ground, so to speak, for the best flowers in literature. Speaking of, it’s time to start planning your garden, especially if you want to compete with Emily Dickinson. Or Vita Sackville-West. Or, ahem, Colette. Read Tess Taylor on the real-life poetry of gardening, or Naheed Phiroze Patel on what novel-writing and garden-tending have in common. Or maybe you have a black thumb (but a great nose) and you’d rather just read Rebecca Solnit hold forth on roses.
And just like the flowers, with the spring, the birds are back—love them or hate them.
If you don’t have strong feelings about birds, perhaps you’d like to read about the etymology of the word spring (impress your friends!), or read Nina MacLaughlin on rediscovering the natural world through Ovid, or indulge in this interview with Camille T. Dungy, a superstar chronicler of the natural world.
Or maybe you just want a really great, brand-new book, in which case, please enjoy this list of 25 books that hit shelves today. (If you’re worried about the future of the planet, and/or the possible secret identities your neighbors, Téa Obreht’s The Morningside is a good place to start.)
Happy (spring) reading!