Books like Spineless by Juli Berwald

Hope Jahren’s memoir chronicles her journey from rural Minnesota to the world’s frontiers of plant science, blending vivid anecdotes of laboratory discovery with a heartfelt friendship that shapes her career.

Sy Montgomery explores the remarkable minds of octopuses, revealing their intelligence, curiosity and skill through vivid encounters and scientific insight.

John McPhee’s collection of essays follows four men through three distinct wildernesses—the Atlantic coastline, the Western mountain range, and the Grand Canyon’s Colorado River—examining their varied relationships with nature.

Callum Roberts charts humanity’s impact on the oceans, weaving history, science, and conservation into a compelling look at how we can reverse the rapid changes reshaping marine life.

Are trees social beings? Forester and author Peter Wohlleben makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in his woodland.

In Spineless, acclaimed photographer Susan Middleton explores the mysterious and surprising world of marine invertebrates, which represent more than 98 percent of the known animal species in the ocean. They are also astonishingly diverse in their shapes, patterns, textures, and colors--in nature's fashion show, they are the haute couture of marine life. This collection of more than 250 remarkable images is the result of seven years of painstaking fieldwork across the Pacific Ocean, using photographic techniques that Middleton developed to capture these extremely fragile creatures on camera. She also provides short essays that examine the place these invertebrates occupy on the tree of life, their vast array of forms, and their lives in the ocean. Scientist Bernadette Holthuis contributes profiles describing each species, many of them for the first time.