CANOPY BLOG

Canopy’s ultimate reading list: Narrative Books

By Canopy Team on July 7, 2022

Heading to the beach or relaxing at home for staycation? Grab one of these narrative novels and get lost in your choice of fiction, nonfiction, or historical narrative.

The Overstory by Richard Powers

An ambitious environmental fable of nine main characters that explores our relationship with nature, the psychology of why we’re so bad at acting on climate change, our perception of time, the meaning of hope, and so much more. 2019 winner of Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Buy it

The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed by John Vaillant

A tale of obsession so fierce that a man kills the thing he loves most: the only giant golden spruce on earth. As vividly as John Krakauer puts readers on Everest, John Vaillant takes us into the heart of North America’s last great forest.

Buy it

The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston

A breathtaking nonfiction novel chronicling the adventures of Steve Sillett, Marie Antoine, and their cadre of courageous biologists, the first scientists to ascend the world’s tallest trees and discover the hidden world above.

Buy it

Where to find these books:

The library: Visiting the local library is our favorite way to support a community institution and promoting reuse rather than new production of trees into paper.
Second-hand bookstore: Can’t find these at your library but want to support a local business? Find a used bookstore and help give these pre-owned paperbacks new life.
Local bookstore: Okay, okay. My library doesn’t own this book and the used bookstore doesn’t have it in stock – what now? With many of the recommendations, we’ve linked to the book on the Books Inc. website, an independently owned and operated bookseller with 10 locations in the San Francisco Bay Area and a history dating back to the Gold Rush Days of 1851.

Happy reading!

Other topics in this series: Plant wisdom, Black History Month, California edition, Earth Month, Photo Books, National Field Guides