Earth Day is celebrated around the world on April 22nd of each year, it’s to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment.

Why don’t you celebrate this year’s Earth Day with a book? We’ve picked out a few of our favourites to do with all things nature and you never know they may inspire you to help make a difference in helping the earth!

 

 

Of Roads and Rainbows

Noel L. Smart

Of Roads and Rainbows is a treat for lovers of Australia and an excellent introduction to the country for lovers of surprises.

Think again if you thought you knew how exotic Australian wildlife can be, or how beautiful and unique its natural wonders and natural history could be.

Only Australia ranks as both one of the world's oldest and youngest countries.

Nowhere else offers the rich combination of a unique and ancient natural history that came to be revealed to the wider world through its colonial history, woven of human and humorous stories that are every bit as curious and quizzical.

When retirement beckoned, Noel and Jean Smart packed their Jeep and drove off to explore their homeland. Two years and twenty-seven thousand kilometres later, Noel is ready to share their discoveries and describe those natural wonders and wildlife, and always through the unique colour, culture and comedy provided by Australia's colonial history.

Salt Water and Spear Tips

Thor F. Jensen

A Danish filmmaker, under the apprenticeship of three Papua New Guinean master sailors, set off from Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea, on the 30th of August 2016 on a world-record circumnavigation of the island of New Guinea in a traditional sailing canoe called the Tawali Pasana. Over the course of 13 months and 21 days - and some 6300 km of high adventure - what became known as ‘the fellowship of the Tawali Pasana' created a modern-day odyssey (on a shoestring budget) battling relentless monsoon winds, dangerous seas, pirates and crocodiles. Prevailing against all the odds, the voyage generated enormous media coverage and inspired the young people of New Guinea to celebrate their extraordinary seafaring culture.

"Sailing a traditional outrigger canoe around the vast island of New Guinea is a journey through time, across myriad cultures upon the far-flung seas of Arafura, Seram, Bismarck, and the Pacific Ocean. Thor's voyage shows that, in the 21st Century, there are still great adventures!" Peter Hillary "The very first circumnavigation of New Guinea in a traditional sailing canoe again illustrates, as my father auspiciously once said, "To travel, to experience and learn ... that is to live." Norbu Tenzing Norgay "Thor's adventure is an encouragement to anyone who - dares to do." Sarah Outen

Under the Rope

Clive Venables

"A sideways look at fifty years of farming."

Seen through the cloudy and cracked mirror of retrospection, our lives are more journeying through relationships than places, through happenings not histories, more what took place on the train than the destination. More poetry than prose.

My journey through late twentieth century farming, from suburban austerity dominated Nottingham, through post-colonial Africa to present day Dartmoor and the French Pyrenees was both eggshell strewn and diamond blessed. Time widens the cracks and beneath the bravado lies a fear that the giants and dwarfs of my journey might slip away like salt through dry fingers.

To the giants go the first falling snowflakes from a black December sky, the red African sinking Kalahari sun, the husky welcoming bleat of a new-born lamb, the joy filled leap of brown river trout and the smoking winter luxury of wood warmed houses.

To the dwarfs.... mostly we passed unknowingly like boats on a dark sea.

All-in Good Time

April Meersman

Living under an orange-grey sky, a shattered few humans from the first ever recorded pole shift must learn to not only survive but to thrive. Raging forest fires, lava fields and flooding have made the earth almost completely uninhabitable. After enduring two years of prairie dust storms and drought, April and her adult children are now offered the gift of freedom. With a pole shift resetting the earth and rogue cadets resetting past timelines, April now must follow her destiny and Black Knight's rules. Written to place the reader's imagination in the driver's seat, come take a journey through time with only blind faith to guide you.