Bruce Barcott

Summer Reading with a Vengeance

Three new essential summer reads examine justice and payback in the wilderness.

The new Interior Secretary has an impressive résumé. Oil geologist, banker, president of REI. But today's Washington is a landscape without maps, and in this age of climate change and keystone, the major battles are taking place over at the EPA and State. Is greatness still possible at Interior?

Thrills on Everest, and a botanical romance

Two literary lions deliver long-awaited epics about espionage and globalization

Kick back and indulge in the season’s best beach books

Jon Mooallem's examination of the ideal animal

Take a page out of new books from Pollan, William McDonough, and Michael Braungart

What can we learn from traditional societies?

Death at Yosemite

The outbreak, which killed three, didn’t only attack the lungs of its victims. It messed with the psyche of the rest of us, too.

Gone Viral

David Quammen's gripping new book on nightmare viruses

The Devil on Paradise Road

It started as a bluebird New Year's Day in Mount Rainier National Park. But when a gunman murdered a ranger and then fled back into the park's frozen backcountry, every climber, skier, and camper became a suspect—and a potential victim.

Peter Heller's terrific, apocalyptic first novel

E. O. Wilson has a surprising take on how humans conquered the planet

Alec Wilkinson revisits a failed polar attempt from the heroic age of Arctic exploration

Quakenami! Why the Pacific Northwest Is Doomed

Monster earthquakes are going off all around the Pacific Ocean’s Ring of Fire. Is the West Coast of North America next?* And can you surf a tsunami?** Join us on a footnoted foray into the terrifying world of megaquakes, tidal waves, and the fine art of being your own Jesus. *YES **NO