Wild Sonoma: Exploring Nature in Wine Country

by Charles Hood, Lynn Horowitz (With), Jeanne Wirka (With)

An all-access guide to the abundant natural splendor of Sonoma County.

Wild Sonoma celebrates the spectacular and resilient natural landscapes of Sonoma County, which along with its neighboring counties is one of the world’s premier winegrowing regions. Our exploration launches with an entertaining primer on ecology basics, including the impact of fire, before a fun fact–filled survey of sixty-two of the area’s iconic and commonly encountered species—from vivacious acorn woodpeckers to disease-neutralizing Western fence lizards. It caps off with a tour of six sites to experience Sonoma’s diverse natural beauty, with a special emphasis on access. Written by Wild LA author Charles Hood, introduced by renowned naturalist Jane Goodall, and illustrated by John Muir Laws, Wild Sonoma offers residents and tourists from eight to eighty a sense of wonder and cause for hope.

Genres: Nature

327 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 13, 2022

About the author

Charles Hood has studied birds and natural history from the Amazon to Tibet, and he has seen more than five thousand species of birds in the wild. A widely published poet, he has received numerous fellowships and writing awards, and his most recent artist-in-residence positions were with the National Science Foundation in Antarctica and with Playa Arts in Oregon. He has also been a visiting professor in England, Mexico, and Papua New Guinea and a research fellow with the Center for Art and Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art. Currently, he is a teacher of writing and photography at Antelope Valley College in the Mojave Desert. - Author bio @ Heyday Books

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay but not as awesome as I was hoping. A lot of it was species descriptions, but the author chose many species that happened to also live on the east coast and thus weren't all that exciting to me. I did read it on my e-ink kindle, though, so I don't think I got the full beauty of the photos, which might have made up for other flaws.