The Best New Outdoor Reads from Spring 2019

It's the time of year that we start to talk through the books we plan to read on our summer adventures and in between. These new book releases are worth mixing in with the classics you are still waiting to read or love reading over and over again. Maybe, just maybe, you'll find a new classic to add to the rotation, or like Wild LA, a fun guide to bring along on a road trip through California.

The Impossible Climb: Alex Honnold, El Capitan, and the Climbing Life, by Mark Synnott

The Impossible Climb, released on March 5, instantly hit the New York Times monthly bestseller list. Synnott is a professional climber and friend of Alex Honhold, providing a unique opportunity to detail Honnold's free-solo ascent of El Capitan in 2017. If you have already watched the movie and can't get enough, Synnott's book gives a deeper climbing perspective to the feat and other aspects of a life spent climbing.

Wild LA: Exploring the Amazing Nature In and Around Los Angeles, by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and Lila M. Higgins

Los Angeles, with its tangle of highways and roads, is also surrounded by and filled with nature. Wild LA, a well-designed guidebook to the flora, fauna and natural areas in LA was released on March 19 to rave reviews.

The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America, by Matt Kracht

The Field Guide to Dumb Birds is a book for birders with a sense of humor, as well as for people who can't figure out why a grown adult would get excited about the myriad little brown birds flitting around their backyard. Kracht's illustrations and commentary on these "dumb" birds is a hilarious take on the traditional field guide. It was released on April 2.

The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century, by Kirk Wallace Johnson

This book recounts the true story of a heist like none other. Bird skins, some over 150 years old, were stolen from the British Museum of Natural History to be used for tying flies to target salmon. Johnson's engaging prose retells the gripping story of the obsession of fly tying. The Feather Thief will be released on April 23 and is available now by pre-order.

How to Think Like A Fish: And Other Lessons from a Lifetime in Angling, by Jeremy Wade

Jeremy Wade is a renowned fly fisherman and host of the Animal Planet television show River Monsters. In his second book, How to Think Like a Fish, he shares his observations and lessons learned in a life spent fishing. This book releases in hardcover on May 21 and is currently available for pre-order.

Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West, by Heather Hansman

Downriver details a solo journey down the Green River, a 730-mile tributary of the Colorado, and provides Hansman an opportunity to explore the increasing challenges facing water use in the western U.S. Hansman is an award-winning author and journalist who has published articles in most of the magazines and periodicals covering issues facing the outdoors. The book was recently released on March 22.

The Sun Is a Compass: A 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds, by Caroline Van Hemert

Van Hemert isn't your everyday explorer. She is a trained ornithologist who felt confined by her laboratory work studying chickadees and opted to head out with her husband on a 4,000-mile journey by foot, ski, and human-powered boats from Pacific rainforests to the Alaskan Arctic. In The Sun Is a Compass, her recounting of the experience combines science with her personal narrative. The book was released on March 19.

North: Finding My Way While Running the Appalachian Trail, by Scott Jurek

In the spring of 2015, world renowned ultra-marathoner Scott Jurek set out to break the speed record for the Appalachian Trail. Running 50 miles a day for days on end is no small feat. Jurek shares the story of a pursuit harder than any he'd faced before and the community of family, friends, and strangers that supported him on his quest. North was just released on April 9.

Some Stories: Lessons from the Edge of Business and Sport, by Yvon Chouinard

In his third book, Some Stories, Patagonia's founder continues to expand on the theme that has defined him and his company. Chouinard has spent a life putting his utmost into combining work and play to change the world and sharing his pursuit as an ethos for the rest of us to follow. His book will be released in hardcover on April 23 and is currently available for pre-order.

Craving more?

If you are looking for more great outdoor reads, look no further than The Outdoor Woman's Reading List, a collection of over 120 great titles to choose from.