Lyons Press

Krakauer's collection of adventure essays — climbing the Eiger, ice fishing in Alaska, descending into the Carlsbad Caverns — established the voice that would carry Into Thin Air and Into the Wild. The essay on the Stikine ice cap is as good as anything he's written.

Harriet Tuckey's biography of Griffith Pugh, the physiologist whose research on oxygen, hydration, and altitude acclimatization made the 1953 Everest expedition possible. The scientist behind the summit — overlooked for decades, finally given his due.

Doug Peacock's second bear book — more focused than Grizzly Years on the biology and politics of grizzly conservation. Peacock has spent more time with wild grizzlies than almost anyone alive, and his authority is absolute.

Le Anne Schreiber's memoir of leaving New York to live alone in rural upstate. A quiet book about solitude, observation, and what happens when you stop moving. The landscape is the Catskills; the subject is attention.

The science and politics of grizzly conservation, distilled from decades of fieldwork and advocacy. Peacock and Louisa Willcox make the case that the bear's fate and ours are inseparable.

Seven prisoners escaped a Soviet labor camp in Siberia and walked 4,000 miles to India. Through the Gobi Desert, over the Himalaya, on foot. The authenticity has been questioned. The story is extraordinary regardless.