Six Nature Rich Reads To Send You Outside

Spring feels like an invitation to step outside, so we share six books that spark the urge to garden, wander, and notice the world again. From children’s stories full of heart to atmospheric novels soaked in scent, marsh air, and cottage gardens, we focus on reads that bring hope and a strong sense of place. 
• six spring book recommendations for nature lovers and gardeners 
• Seedfolks as a quick read about a vacant lot garden and community change 
• how shifting viewpoints reveal prejudice and the stories we invent about others 
• The Garden Spells for magical realism and sisterly bonds rooted in plants 
• Wish Tree as a hopeful children’s book told by a tree 
• The Scent Keeper for sensory storytelling and an island coming of age arc 
• Where the Crawdads Sing for marsh atmosphere and immersive setting 
• The French Gardener for French cottage garden escapism and long held secrets 
If you have any spring books that you love and you think I'd enjoy thinking of atmosphere, let me know what they are by heading to my community. You can go to novelinosh.com, click on join the community, and let us know what books that you are loving. And feel free to share with us if you ended up trying to get out in nature more and what you noticed there as well. 

Transcript

Six Books For Outdoors Mood

Seedfolks And Community Gardens

Garden Spells And Magical Plants

Wish Tree And Hopeful Kindness

The Scent Keeper And Memory

Where The Crawdads Sing Atmosphere

The French Gardener Cottage Escape

Read Outside And Share Picks

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to Novel and Nash, where books, food, travel, and the art of living fully come together. I think we can officially call it spring. The weather has changed, it is absolutely gorgeous outside, and many of us are spending way more time outside in nature or gardening. So today I wanted to share with you six books that will get you in the mood to go outside or garden. The first one is Seed Folks by Paul Fleischman. This is a children's book, but I wanted to mention it because one, it is very quick. It has such a great story. And I think whether you're, you know, if you have children, if you're a teacher or if you're just an adult who has a little bit of whimsy in them, I would recommend reading this. I'm going to read the first little page. It's from a paragraph within the book, but I think it will give you a nice feel of the story. I'm going to read this with this on. No place for a garden. An icy wind teetered trash cans and turned my cheeks to marble. In Vietnam we had no weather like that. Here in Cleveland, people call it spring. I walked half a block, then crossed the street and reached the vacant lot. I stood tall and scouted. I'd never entered the lot before or wanted to. I did so now, picking my way between tires and trash bags. I nearly stepped on two rats gnawing and froze. Then I told myself myself that I must show my bravery. I continued farther and chose a spot far from the sidewalk and hidden from view by a rusty refrigerator. I had to keep my project safe. So this is about a girl who wants to start a little garden in this vacant lot. And it is told through different neighbors' eyes. And I just thought it was really great because it touches on some of our prejudices and how we tend to create stories in our mind about certain situations, and um, how many times those stories are not accurate, and what happens when a community comes together. I thought it was a great story. I think there's huge learning opportunities for young ones. And I think in a time when the world feels upside down, sometimes it's nice to come back to books, especially simple little books, that help you see how much humanity is important and how community can help us feel more of this positive experience in life. The second book is The Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. She is a great writer of Nature type books. She is very much one of these who is very big into magical realism. And this is about the Waverly sisters. So I believe there are a couple of different books that kind of follow the Waverly sisters. So one of the sisters, Claire Waverly, she tends to bake and cook with a lot of these magical plants, and they tend to do different things. So, like some of the flowers, aid in keeping secrets, the snapdragons were intended to discourage the attentions of neighbors. If you like magical realism, this one touches a lot on nature, um, and the bonds of sisters, the sisterly bonds. Okay, so it's another one. It's another children's book. I promise I'm not, they're not all this is the last one, but this is Wish Tree by Catherine Applegate. And this is another one of those books that I just think everyone should read, especially in times like right now, where certain things just kind of feel hopeless. And reading children's books can bring back so much hope for us. Um, this is told through the eyes of a tree, and similar to seed folks, when people have certain prejudices about other people, this is where a family moves into a community, and some people don't like that this family moved into the community, and the story is told through the tree's eyes and what the tree sees with the people in the community and how they treat one another and how they treat the tree, and it is so beautiful, it is such a heartwarming story. Um, it'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry, and I just feel like sometimes when the world is going sideways, we need these sweet, soft books, and therefore I think Wish Tree would be a really good one to pick up right now. The next one, this was a five-star book for me, and this is The Scent Keeper by Erica Baumeister. I will say it's been a while since I've read this, but I will say if a book can take me to a place and becomes very descriptive in the place, I usually am all in on that, much more than the plot or the characters. A lot of times, if the sense of place is very atmospheric and draws me in, um, I end up giving it a five-star, which is one of those with this book that I did. So this is about a young girl. It's like a coming-of-age story. She is living on an island with her father, and her father has basically raised her to know all about nature through scents. So much so that he has a wall of mysterious scents in these small, fragile bottles. And he has this scent machine that kind of helps him collect these scents in his cabin. And he doesn't tell her about some of these scents, but she sees him opening them and smelling from them at different times over the years, and she becomes very curious about them. Well, something occurs that requires her to leave the island, and it is about that kind of like learning about her past and understanding what her father was doing, and it is just so good. And if you like a book with a great sense of place, I think you will enjoy it. And if you're like me, who also loves the sensory experience, um, this is that this is that for you. Again, another coming of age story where the Crawdod sings by Delia Owens. And this is another one of those sense of place books where it is gonna drop you in the middle of this marshy land. So when I was a little girl, I grew up going to Charleston, South Carolina a lot. My mother was born and raised there, and um, we went up every summer, and as soon as you'd go across a certain bridge um into town, you you could smell the marshes um and the pluff mud. If you're from the area, you know what I'm talking about. But that was such a feeling for me, and this book was that feeling exactly. This is about a young girl who grows up, she's not really going to school that much. She lives in this cabin right by the marshy lands, and she grows up in nature. She knows the land, she knows the shells, she knows the birds, she knows the bugs, she is very involved in this land. She tends to know what the land is telling her by different things that occur. And there is a mystery in this. I just don't want to say too much about this. It was very popular a few years ago, well deserved. Um, and I just think if you like a great sense of place, if you want to feel like you're in the Georgia Marshes, then you definitely should read this book. I do know that there is, I believe it was a movie, right, that was made from this as well. Definitely read the book first. Um, but it's a good movie as well. And the last one I wanted to share with you, I don't think anybody talks about this book, but I read this quite a few years ago and absolutely loved it. If you have ever thought about living in a French cottage where you could have a beautiful garden, then you must read this book. It is by Santa Montefiore. I don't know if I'm saying that right. I'm sorry. She has been compared to Maeve Vinci and Roseman Pilcher, and the book is called The French Gardener. And this is, like I mentioned, I don't remember too much about it, but I do remember that the feeling was of this cottage, this family moves into this cottage, and the garden has been hasn't been kept up. And a Frenchman comes to bring the garden back to what it used to be, and it's a story about his life and the family's life, and it's just it's beautiful. Um, there's a lot of secrets that come to be found out about through the story, and it's just one of those books that, like I mentioned, if you've ever wanted to uh have a cottage, have a garden, you would probably enjoy it. So those are six books I'm recommending to you if you want to get out in nature, and maybe the weather's not quite right, um, or you are looking for inspiration to go garden, these might be books that you would enjoy. And I'd recommend taking a blanket outside, laying it out on the ground, and picking up one of these books and reading it. If you have any spring books that you love and you think I'd enjoy thinking of atmosphere, let me know what they are by heading to my community. You can go to novelinosh.com, click on join the community, and let us know what books that you are loving. And feel free to share with us if you ended up trying to get out in nature more and what you noticed there as well. Have a wonderful day.