TTT Freebie: Books I Want to Read Set In or About U.S. National Parks

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I want to read which are set in or about U.S. National Parks

I am currently on a road trip attempting to visit the five U.S. National Parks in the State of Utah. So far we've visited four: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Canyonland. Tomorrow, God willing, we will visit Capitol Reef before turning our car toward home. After perusing a list of books put together by the NYC Public Library highlighting books about National Parks, I decided to create my own TBR list. (* means the book is on that list and the blurb is from the NYC library catalog.)

Nonfiction:

1. The Power of Scenery: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Origin of National Parks by Dennis Drabelle *

With nothing to put up against Europe’s cultural pearls—its cathedrals, castles, and museums—Americans in the pre-Yellowstone era came to realize that their plentitude of natural wonders might compensate for the dearth of manmade attractions. The Power of Scenery tells the fascinating story of how the national park movement arose, evolved, and has spread around the world.  

2. Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park by Conor Knighton *

A CBS Sunday Morning correspondent presents a behind-the-scenery look at his year traveling to each of America’s National Parks, which turned out to be the road trip of a lifetime that changed his views on everything from God and love to politics and technology. I am currently over half way finished with this book and have enjoyed the insights I've gained.

3. Wild Rescues: A Paramedic's Extreme Adventures in Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton by Kevin Grange *

A fast-paced, firsthand glimpse into the exciting lives of paramedics who work with the National Park Service: a unique brand of park rangers who respond to medical and traumatic emergencies in some of the most isolated and rugged parts of America.

4. Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America's National Parks by Mark Woods *

On the eve of his fiftieth birthday, a reporter from Florida embarks on a year-long trip to visit America's national parks, creating a story about family, the parks, and legacies.

5. 63 Illustrated National Parks: WIth Original Poster Art by Anderson Design Group by Joel Anderson and Nathan Anderson

I purchased this book in the Zion National Park Visitor Center. I love these old-timey-like posters of the National Parks and hope to enjoy reading about each.

6. Subpar Parks: America's Most Extraordinary National Parks and Their Least Impressed Visitors by Amber Share

This humorous and informative book combines two things that seem like they might not work together yet somehow harmonize perfectly: beautiful illustrations and informative, amusing texts celebrating each national park paired with the one-star reviews disappointed tourists have left online.

Fiction

7. The Wild Inside by Christine Carbo *

A special agent for the Department of the Interior, Ted Systead, investigates a murder in Glacier National Park where a victim was tied to a tree and mauled by a grizzly bear.

8. The Anna Pigeon Mystery Series by Nevada Barr *

Barr, a former ranger for the National Park Service, has written 19 books following park ranger Anna Pigeon as she solves mysteries set in the wilderness of the National Parks. The first in the series is Track of the Cat—Anna is looking for peace in the wilderness—and finds murder instead. 

9. Take Me With You by Catherine Ryan Hyde *

Burned-out teacher August Schroeder takes the ashes of his nineteen-year-old son on a road trip to Yellowstone and along the way meets two half-orphans who have nowhere to go.

10. Temple Grove: A Novel by Scott Elliott

Olympic National Park is the setting of this eco-fiction novel that The Seattle Times praises for the way it “layers suspense with Greek myth, native legend, and personal backstories to create an existentialist puzzle” and “offers nuanced observations of character, family and society, lightly seasoned with a Pacific Northwest brand of magical realism.” Set in my state.

Have you read any of these? What did you think?

-Anne