We live in a brilliantly wonderful natural world that never ceases to engage and surpass our imagination. Thanks to the dedication of countless authors, photographers, researchers, publishers, and many more, we can read of its delights while neatly sidestepping its perils (moose in a book ✓, moose in front of you ✗). 

Atlas Obscura: Wild Life: an Explorer's Guide to the World's Living Wonders by Cara Giaimo and Joshua Foer

An over-the-top, dazzling collection of the world's most fascinating, most unusual, and least-understood natural wonders. It's more than a field guide — it's an adventure. Featuring over 500 extraordinary plants, animals, and natural phenomena with illustrations and photos on every page, first-person interviews, and engaging infographics, the book takes readers around the globe, with stops in every continent--from Arctic deserts to lush jungles, to the deepest fathoms of the ocean, and into the heart of our densest cities.

Bizarre Botanicals: How to Grow String-of-Hearts, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Panda Ginger, and Other Weird and Wonderful Plants by Larry Mellichamp and Paula Gross

Gardeners love tulips, lilies, and pansies, the common but beautiful plants found in the average garden. But there are realms in the plant world far beyond these familiar favorites. In Bizarre Botanicals, plant experts Larry Mellichamp and Paula Gross take readers on a curious botanical journey of weirdly wonderful plants that can be grown at home. Bizarre Botanicals features over 75 astonishing plants with extraordinary abilities, from pyrotechnic spores that burst into flame when ignited to flowers that lure insects to their deaths. Each plant profile includes essential care and cultivation information. A difficulty scale alerts gardeners to how easy (or difficult) it is to grow the plant at home.

Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees by Thor Hanson 

From honeybees and bumbles to lesser-known diggers, miners, leafcutters, and masons, bees have long been central to our harvests, our mythologies, and our very existence. They've given us sweetness and light, the beauty of flowers, and as much as a third of the foodstuffs we eat. And, alarmingly, they are at risk of disappearing. As informative and enchanting as the waggle dance of a honeybee, Buzz shows us why all bees are wonders to celebrate and protect.

National Geographic Rarely Seen: Photographs of the Extraordinary Compiled by Susan Tyler Hitchcock

In this dazzling book of visual wonders, National Geographic reveals a world very few will have the chance to see for themselves. Shot by some of the world's finest photographers, Rarely Seen features striking images of places, events, natural phenomena, and manmade heirlooms seldom seen by human eyes. It's all here: 30,000-year-old cave art sealed from the public; animals that are among the last of their species on Earth; volcanic lightning; giant crystals that have grown to more than 50 tons; the engraving inside Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch.

Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven

When Raven finished her PhD in biology, she built a tiny cottage on an isolated plot of land in Montana. Emotionally as well as physically isolated, she viewed the house as a way station, a temporary rest stop while she filled out applications for a real job, taught remotely, and led field classes in nearby Yellowstone National Park. When she realized that a mangy-looking fox was showing up on her property every afternoon at 4:15 p.m, Raven brought out her camping chair, sat as close to him as she dared, and began reading to him from The Little Prince. From the fox, she learned the single most important thing about loneliness: we are never alone when we are connected to the natural world.

 So Simple a Beginning: How Four Physical Principles Shape Our Living World by Raghuveer Parthasarathy 

The living world is a realm of dazzling variety, yet a shared set of physical principles shapes the forms and behaviors of every creature in it. So Simple a Beginning shows how the emerging new science of biophysics is transforming our understanding of life on Earth and enabling potentially lifesaving but controversial technologies such as gene editing, artificial organ growth, and ecosystem engineering. Raghuveer Parthasarathy explains how four basic principles-self-assembly, regulatory circuits, predictable randomness, and scaling-shape the machinery of life on scales ranging from microscopic molecules to gigantic elephants. He describes how biophysics is helping to unlock the secrets of a host of natural phenomena, such as how your limbs know to form at the proper places, and why humans need lungs but ants do not.

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

A visually stunning journey into the diversity and wonders of forests. Through rich language that highlights the interconnectedness of forest ecosystems, the book offers fascinating insights into the fungal communication highway known as the "wood wide web," the difficult life lessons learned in tree school, the hardworking natural cleanup crews that recycle dying trees, and much more. Beautiful images provide the perfect complement to Wohlleben's words, with striking close-ups of bark and seeds, panoramas of vast expanses of green, and a unique look at what is believed to be the planet's oldest tree.

Spectacle: Rare and Astonishing Photographs by Mark Thiessen

An exquisite photo collection showcasing awe-inducing moments from around the world, including the aurora borealis, cities made of neon lights, a great wildebeest migration, a contortionist on display--and more. In life, there are certain sights that are as beautiful as they are unforgettable — from a majestic supercell to the secrets of a deep-blue ice cave to the world's largest library. These fascinating spectacles shock us with their diversity, complexity, and epic scale, bringing us the miraculous beauty of our planet. Featuring more than 200 color images, including acclaimed photography from the National Geographic Image Collection, this volume presents a dazzling array of natural and manmade wonders, unusual phenomena, and amusing curiosities.

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*Please note: the books featured on display change on the 1st of each month. This collection is available on display through March 31, 2026.