Let me tell you how I became a card-carrying member of the Arbor Day Foundation and began a running list on my Notes app of cool trees I want to plant in my yard. (Juniper, yew, black locust, Jerusalem cherry, and mustard tree, in case you’re wondering.)
It’s not a traditional path. It all started with singer-songwriter Andrew Peterson’s memoir (more about it below!) quoting theologian N. T. Wright’s book Surprised by Hope, which alluded to the famous quote by even older theologian, Martin Luther: “If I believed the world were to end tomorrow, I would still plant a tree today.”
Something about the importance, ancientness, and life-giving nature of trees fascinated me. Where did I start to learn more about these integral parts of our natural world that I’d previously mostly ignored? With books, of course. One led to another and another, not unlike the small seeds themselves leading to a fully-grown tree, or even a whole forest.
These fiction and nonfiction books are representative of a growing (pun intended!) bookshelf dedicated to trees and forests, but I’d love to hear your recommendations. Please share in the comments.
11 books about trees
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The Overstory
Harry’s Trees
Go as a River
Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate
Tom Lake
The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession
The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter Who Saved Japan’s Cherry Blossoms
The God of the Garden: Thoughts on Creation, Culture, and the Kingdom
Count the Ways
The Arbornaut: A Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us
What are your favorite books about trees? Please share in the comments.
P.S. Fly away with these 9 books about birds, 14 books about nature to inspire your next outdoor adventure, and 14 books about walking and hiking.
About the author
Ginger Horton is our Book Club Community Manager here at MMD. Her go-to genres are literary fiction and classics. You can find Ginger on Instagram at @gthorton or the MMD Book Club account @MMDBookClub.
110 comments
Love this post! Oddly enough, reading about trees seems to be an unintentional theme for me at the moment 🙂 I’m currently reading Greenwood by Michael Christie and loving it!
I love hearing that this is a theme and interest for so many of us it seems. I don’t know that one by Michael Christie, so I’m going to look it up. Thanks!
Greenwood is one of my all time favorites, Amy.
Fredrik Backman’s novels are often about towns in the forest. I just looked at “The Winners” again.
Oooh, how had I not realized this but you’re right!
“Finding the Mother Tree” by Suzanne Simard is a wonderful book about trees and life as a female scientist
That sounds wonderful (and so timely for this coming Mother’s Day weekend)!
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverston was a frequent reread when my children were young. All of my children now have children of their own and they each have a copy at their houses.
I certainly almost thought of including this one as it’s a favorite of my own and formative in my own life.
Possible addition to your list: The Warbler by Sarah Beth Durst. A family curse forces a young woman to move every 10 months lest she put down roots and turn into a tree.
Ok, that sounds RIGHT up my alley—trees and a little dose of magical realism. Yes please!
I miss Elif Shahak’s beautiful book ‘The island of missing trees’!
That’s been on my TBR list for far too long.
I loved Lab Girl by Hope Janeen who is a paleontologist and has give me such joy in trees. I ran around asking, Did you know that a palm tree is a monocyte for months. She encourages anyone who wants to make the world better to plant a tree.
You are definitely not the only one who has mentioned this and I still have not read it! Maybe this is my time. And I know I already agree about planting a tree.
I came here to post this one!
No list of books about trees would be complete without one of my favorites of the past few years, Greenwood by Canadian author Michael Christie. This multigenerational family story is structured like the rings of a tree, with the most recent timeline first and last, as the author gradually moves back in time and then back forward. I absolutely loved it.
I can’t believe I’d not heard of this one until today. Thank you!
Elif Shafak’s “The Island of Missing Trees” is perfection; exceptional writing telling an extraordinary tale with a tree at the center of this story.
On my TBR, but I hadn’t read it yet so I didn’t include it on this list, but the premise (and, if I’m honest, the cover) appeal to me.
I don’t know if you like LM Montgomery, but her journals are full of tree love.
I have read some of her journals and how had I not noticed this before?? Now to pull them back off my shelf. LMM is a kindred spirit. 🙂
Greenwood by Michael Christie is a fantastic read! Can’t summarize here…google it, you won’t be disappointed.
It sounds like this is one I need to add to my TBR ASAP.
The Wild Trees by Richard Preston is an incredible work of narrative nonfiction about the explorers of the Redwood canopy. Much as I love nature, I often bog down reading about it – no chance with this book. It starts out with three scruffy college age friends exploring a Redwood forest and deciding to explore vertically. Preston brings the discovery of the ecosystem in the canopies of giant trees to life.
My other suggestion is fiction. Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer. One of the 3 braided stories in this book involves a pair of elderly people planting American Chestnut trees, which were once common the eastern North American Continent and were nearly destroyed by an introduced fungal disease.
Kingsolver studied biology in college and she integrates the natural history of the Appalachians including the American Chestnut into this story. This is my favorite Kingsolver novel.
I love Kingsolver but have not gotten to this one so something to look forward to!
Another novel incorporating the fungal disease that destroyed the American Chestnut is North Woods by Daniel Mason. I loved how he describes the changes of a woods over time.
You forgot Lab Girl!
I cannot believe I have not read this one yet.
The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring (by Richard Preston) was a fascinating book. I was a bit skeptical when a friend first recommended it, but it is such an interesting book that I’ve gifted and recommended it many times!
Gifting a book is maybe the HIGHEST recommendation.
I loved The Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard–part science, part memoir. In addition to the Feather Thief, it has kicked off a deep interest in reading about nature and the study of nature now and throughout history. It led me to The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf, which is one of the best nonfiction titles I’ve ever read. Though not about trees per se, it lays the foundation of how we view nature today by looking at the life of someone well known in his time but now mostly forgotten–Alexander Von Humboldt. On my nature TBR: The Songs of Trees, The Light Eaters, and World of Wonders.
Ok, so I’ve read and loved the Feather Thief and The Invention of Nature so I think we might be book twins, Chelsea! That means I for sure need to look up The Mother Tree since you also recommend it and I’ve not read it.
Love Harry’s Trees! Mystery, romance, and a story-within-a-story!
Isn’t it so magical??
Greenwood by Michael Christie is a good one! It’s a multi-generational story (spanning from the 1930s to the 2030s) centered around trees.
I love a good multi-generational story. Add in trees – I’m in!
This was great, and I was happily surprised to find books I never knew about. Highly requesting one for waterfalls!
Oooh, I know nothing about waterfalls, but I’d sure like to.
Great list! I would add Greenwood by Michael Christie to the top of this list. It was a five star read for me and is all about trees (logging, companies, amd a little bit of climate fiction). The author is Canadian and even built his own wood house and the book is one of the most sustainably printed books in Canada. It has a fantastic design on its edges of the rings of a tree. The timeline also follows the timeline of the life of a tree. The characters are so deeply drawn, there is a bit of action and intrigue and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
I don’t think I did the best job of selling Greenwood here (I’m a reader, not a writer 😆 but do check out others reviews on your favourite websites/app.
I love a good book design and especially to know it’s sustainably printed. What a special and important touch!
To add a middle grade novel to the list, I absolutely adore The Wishtree by Katherine Applegate.
Oh goodness I adore middle grade so that sounds like a perfect addition to my list.
Greenwood by Michael Christie was one of my favourite books of 2019 and still is one I think of when I consider forests. It’s a family saga running from 1908 to 2038 with each generation of a family having a strong attachment to trees. In the 2038 time line, most trees have succumbed to a fungal infestation which is a horrifying idea. Let’s hope it never comes to pass.
Hear hear!
Favorite read of mine several years ago was Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. Still remember her writing not to buy Bradford pear trees, get burr oak instead.
Oh my goodness that’s such good advice. We are surrounded on the cross street with ours with Bradford pears, and they’re SO pretty in the spring, but goodness me they smell just awful.
Harry’s Trees and The Overstory are both really good. Would add The Trees by Conrad Richter and At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier.
I didn’t know “ancientness” was a word until this morning.
I’ve always been meaning to read some Tracy Chevalier so one about an orchard sounds like the perfect place to start.
It’s a picture book, but my kids and I loved Redwoods by Jason Chin. The illustrations are stunning, and I learned a lot.
Picture books STRONGLY welcomed. I considered putting The Tree Lady on my list so consider this a personalized recommendation right back with my thanks.
https://amzn.to/4jO3DWA
I highly recommend The Island of Missing Trees by Elis Shafak. I loved this book in which a fig tree plays a major part.
Adding it to my TBR list!
I adored this book and thought for sure it would be on this list. The fig tree, is one of the narrators! It was a beautiful, thought provoking read.
Thank you for this list. Just thinking of a tree makes me happy. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is my favorite about a tree. I recall the tree was named Tree of Heaven.
SUCH a classic.
Harrys Trees had to be on the list!! Currently enjoying Tom Lake on audio. Will check out some of the others. Thanks for the list!
It had to be! 🙂 So magical.
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak.
Magical, sad, so good.
Thanks, Susan! Those adjectives sound up my reading alley.
Thanks for these, Ginger! One of my favorite reads this this year—maybe the best so far— is The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak. So lovely and spirit enhancing!
I must get my hands on this one. Sounds like a winner!
North Woods by Daniel Mason! Particularly the chapters about Osgood’s apple trees and elm tree beetles.
I’m finishing up North Woods by Daniel Mason. Trees play an important part I. The book.
I have that sitting on my actual coffee table right now. Thanks for this nudge to pick it up!
Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson – its been a while since I read it but I remember that redwoods figure BIG in the story.
Ok, and that’s SUCH a good title. 🙂
One more vote for The Island of Missing Trees! It’s absolutely stunning.
I’ll take all the votes. Sounds like this one is a must.
@gthorton I loved The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben! I pushed it on everyone in the family that I thought would appreciate it. I also bought The Tree Collectors on your recommendation. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I look forward to dipping in and out of it over the summer.
When I first moved into my house, we had to cut down the big tree in the front yard because it was diseased. Then, during the winter two large trees fell in the backyard. It was devastating. But now, I have six new trees in my yard, and watching them grow and flourish is fun. My sister says I am a good tree mom, and I thought that was a lovely compliment!
So lovely! I hope you enjoy dipping in and out of The Tree Collectors this summer. It’s the perfect season to do just that. Though I warn you, it might make you plant some more.
Hi Ginger
Thanks for sharing your love of trees. I especially enjoyed BANYAN MOON by Thao Thai. I believe it might MMD Book Club selection. Cheryl in Austin 💚
Oh my goodness a WONDERFUL addition to this list. I loved that novel.
I highly recommend Guardians of the Trees bu Kinari Webb, MD — it is the tale of one woman’s journey to heal the world, recognizing that is through the health of trees that we can depend on our own health and livlihood. An amazing read.
That sounds amazing.
Don’t forget Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson.
I love that title and I must look this one up! Thanks, Kathy.
I enjoyed this. I just have comments, not a book recommendation. Please be sure that any trees you plant are native to the area. With the unusual weather patterns caused by climate change, even trees and their roots can become invasive species.
Hear hear!
Lore Ferguson Wilbert’s memoir/reflections “The Understory: An Invitation to Rootedness and Resilience from the Forest Floor” is one I can’t stop thinking about.
Slipping that one onto my TBR, thanks!
Barkskins by Annie Proulx! Amazing book that did not get the attention/fanfare it deserved when it came out a few years ago. One of my all-time favorites.
I just bought my first Annie Proulx a couple weeks ago so it must be time for me to read her!
Thanks, Ginger! What a great list. My TBR just “grew” since I’ve only read a couple of these. I’ll have to check the readers’ recommendations as well. This book is not strictly about trees but it’s about plants in general and I’ve been telling everyone about it—The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger. A thought-provoking read.
You for sure win for the great pun there. I love a good pun, and a good book recommendation, so thank you, Geysah!
What a great list that I did not know I wanted.Thanks, Ginger. One forest book that I loved and have recommended is “The Forest of the Vanishing Stars” by Kristin Harmel.
A wonderful story about the resistance fighters living in the forest during WWII.
I like the sound of that. Thanks, Helene!
I’m adding a few of these to my library list. What a great theme for spring reading!
I would suggest though, that you not plant juniper in your yard. We have non-native junipers everywhere here. They’ve taken over large parcels of land, sucked the hillsides dry, and are nearly impossible to get rid of. Locals consider them weeds. They don’t burn well in a woodstove and leave lots of ash when you try.
Just my .02 LOL!
Well that’s welcome advice! Thank you for sharing.
Love this list – more for my TBR! I enjoyed “You are a Tree & Other Metaphors to Nourish Life” by Joy Clarkson. While it is not just about trees, it did point me in the direction of Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees.
Oh I’ve enjoyed Joy Clarkson’s writing and podcasts before. I’m so glad you pointed this one out to me. Thank you, Hayley!
Wow, how awesome to have a category on trees! I grew up with a mother that loved her trees like children, and cried over every one lost. I want to mention three I enjoyed, even though 2 have been mentioned:
Lab Girl, by Hope Jahrens, which isn’t totally about trees, but I’ll never forget her admonition/plea that for every tree on our property that dies or is felled, that we plant ANOTHER TO REPLACE IT! I immediately started counting and we’re “even” in replacing trees lost with new ones, phew! But I see great old maples on our street dying, one by one, and not being replaced and I am so sad.
The Story Girl, by L M Montgomery, includes an orchard on Prince Edward Island started by the King family, in which each tree is a birthday tree for every person in the family, and has been added to for a hundred years as the family grows. They can look at and eat Auntie So & So’s Pears, and Grandfather King’s plums, and Rev Alsop’s apples, and so on. Each person has a tree. Even visitors sometimes planted trees. I loved the idea. And then I met a real live person who had done the same thing! She pointed out her son Daniel’s maple, and then Jeremy’s birch, and then Amanda’s cherry tree, and then the little ones still growing, for her grandchildren. I was entranced. I think I’m too old to start! (67).
Lastly, Rules for Visiting, by Jessica Francis Kane. It’s about a 40 year old gardener named May—I would say she’s on the spectrum somewhere—who lives a solitary life with her father, and decides that she needs to reconnect with friends she has let go. Her way of relating to the world is through gardens and trees, defining people by the care they take with plants and nature. Many sections begin with a drawing of a tree, with information about it (and they are mostly trees I’ve never heard of, in the UK) including a 5000 year old yew tree in Scotland, considered the oldest tree in the UK. I felt very “at one” with trees after reading this book.
And I can’t resist saying that in Maine, they have just discovered an ancient apple tree, on Verona Island near Bucksport, that traces it’s roots back to Brittany, France, from the 1600s!! They say the fruit is delicious, and they are trying to take slips from it, to preserve it’s heritage forevermore. (So exciting!)
These all sound wonderful! And I have Story Girl sitting on my very shelves though I’ve never read it, so this might be the very next tree book I pick up. Thank you for that, and for the delightful story about discovering an ancient apple tree. I’m FASCINATED.
A couple of NF tree books I’ve enjoyed are:
Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada’s Last Great Trees by Harley Rustad
The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed by John Vaillant
I’m partial to nonfiction tree books so I think you for these recommendations!
The Good Neighborhood was a book I enjoyed and centered around a tree.
I’m glad you reminded me of this one! I just looked it up and discovered it lives on my actual Kindle. 🙂 That happens more than I’d like to admit, though I admit I’m always delighted to find out that’s the case when so.
When I saw the title I immediately thought of Pillars of the Earth which I read years ago and loved. So many suggestions in the comments expand my TBR list!
Oh, I’ve still never read a Ken Follett so a book containing trees could be a wonderful entry point for me.
I really enjoyed Urban Forests: A Natural History of Trees and People in the American Cityscape by Jill Jonnes
Yes please! I do love trees, but I’m also a city lover and dweller so the merging of the two sounds right up my alley.
Two that stayed with me were Epitaph for a Peach by David Masumoto, which is a memoir by a peach farmer. The second is The Understory by Lore Wilbert, a memoir about living in a forrest, and how it relates to resilience.
I always knew you were a kindred spirit, Ginger! I read God of the Garden in 2022, and I still think about it at least weekly. Now I’m adding several of these others to my TBR.
I didn’t know I needed this list! I’ve read (and loved) Tom Lake, but all the others are going on my TBR!
I am currently reading “Our Green Heart: The Soul and Science of Forests”, which is a collection of short stories written by Diana Beresford- Kroeger. So far my favourite story has been about the Kingnut.
Freckles by Gene Stratton-Porter, set in the Limberlost Woods. The massive forest is the setting for this beautiful story.
I have been enjoying Around the World in 80 Trees by Jonathan Drori and illustrated by Lucille Clere. Lots of science and history but reads like a story.
Two more tree titles: The Man Who Planted trees by Jean Giono, is a fable of a man who planted 100 acorns a day for 30 years. It is well loved by Wendell Berry and recommended to give you hope. Also How to be More Tree: Essential Life Lessons of Perennial Happiness by Annie Davidson
Ginger where is the episode where you talk about Trees?
I love love love learning of the trees in Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver.
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