America's Wild Read

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About Us

America’s Wild Read is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Library's virtual, quarterly book club where we aim to inspire you to connect with the outdoors and nature through conservation literature. We hope you will read along with us as we feature various conservation books every quarter — contemporary, traditional, new, and classic.

Our book selections may include titles about the history of conservation, climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.

Learn more about climate change , a species and the challenges it faces, or books that impart how we can be better stewards of the natural world. In the past we've featured books like Braiding Sweetgrass, The Home Place and Silent Spring. 

Our book discussions are open to anyone who likes to read, wants to learn more about conservation, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) employees and the public. Everyone is welcome! Even if you have not read or finished the book selection yet, please join us for these informal conversations about conservation literature, where we reflect on the text, answer discussion questions, and foster connections with one another.

Get Involved 

We encourage you to grow in your knowledge of conservation as you read these Wild Read titles because we all have a responsibility to nature and to steward our natural resources, plants, lands, and animals. Read along with us each season and learn from our selected titles of conservation literature. Stay up to date on Wild Read news here to see book announcements, discussion questions, and book discussion events.

Each quarter we host a book discussion, online via Zoom, open to Service employees and the public, you don't have to have read the book to participate in these discussions, everyone is welcome. It is an informal book club-like atmosphere where we reflect on the reading, answer discussion questions, and enjoy some time together through a conversation on conservation literature. We hope you join us and share your thoughts and perspectives from the reading.

If you'd like to participate in our book club and join our Wild Read Community, email catherine_blalack@fws.gov.  

What We're Reading  

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Summer 2024: An Immense World How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong

Ever wondered what life is like from wildlife’s point of view? Join the USFWS Library for this Summer's Wild Read to find out. In An Immense World, Pulitzer prize-winning science journalist, Ed Yong, takes us on a thrilling adventure full of curiosity, science, and beautiful prose that broadens the senses and reveals how animals take in the world around them.

The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is capable of only perceiving a tiny sliver of our immense world. Every animal is uniquely made, each with its own sensory world. Animals have adapted overtime and they’re senses are shaped according to their needs.  

Ed Yong introduces us to an unfamiliar word, umwelt, which refers to the perceptual world experienced by each animal, a highly specific kind of sensory environment. Even though we all inhabit the same planet, each species experiences it very differently, via taste, sight, touch, hearing, and scent.

Prepare yourselves for an awakening of wonder and discovery into the hidden realms around us from sea otter’s highly touch-sensitive, skilled paws to owls’ offset ears, to catfish covered in taste receptors. We’re in for a treat into the natural world!  

If you are an FWS employee, you can access an eBook of An Immense World. We are also offering our Wild Read selection as an audiobook. Find our Library on Libby by searching, “U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service” to borrow. For more instructions, see the Libby Library Guide. FWS employees may also email catherine_blalack@fws.gov to borrow a print copy as available. For the general public, An Immense World can be found at your local library or bookstore.

We hope you join us for the online book discussion of An Immense World on Thursday, August 15th at 3 PM ET. Please register in advance. The Wild Read book club meetings are a place where the readers reflect on the reading, answer discussion questions, and connect through a conversation on conservation literature.

Our Wild Read Picks 

At the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Library, we try to pick really engaging titles that will expand our knowledge of conservation and nature. So far in 2024, we have read Tenacious Beasts by Christopher Preston, an inspiring story of strong-willed and adaptable animals and their recoveries, we've learned all the fun facts about oak trees, from Doug Tallamy's The Nature of Oaks, and how they are champions in the plant kingdom. Click the buttons below to view the full list of our previous book selections, and more information on our book selection process. 

Previous Book Selections    Selection Process