The Nature Handbook, by Ernest Williams Jr., the Leonard C. Ferguson Professor of Biology, is a Book-of-the-Month Club non-fiction selection of the month.
The Book-of-the-Month Club's promotional materials say "All naturalists—from birders to gardeners, hikers to environmentalists, wildflower enthusiasts to butterfliers—will fall in love with this great nature book. It's guaranteed to stimulate your powers of observation while packed with fascinating information. The Nature Handbook is a comprehensive, user-friendly tool for deepening your appreciation and understanding of natural wonders."
The Nature Handbook (Oxford University Press) has a field guide format but is a guide to explain patterns and observations in nature, not to identify species, Williams explains. More than 500 color photos show 227 patterns and the book offers concise, scientifically current explanations for the reasons behind these patterns.
The book also includes references to nearly 1,000 sources, most of which are from the scientific literature. Williams himself took about 350 of the book's photos.
