Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

Book Summary and Reviews of Close to Home by Thor Hanson

Close to Home by Thor Hanson

Close to Home

The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door

by Thor Hanson

  • Publishes:
  • Mar 18, 2025, 304 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

An award-winning natural-history writer opens the door to the nature that thrives in our yards, gardens, and parks.

We all live on nature's doorstep, but we often overlook it. From backyards to local parks, the natural places we see the most may well be the ones we know the least.  

In Close to Home, biologist Thor Hanson shows how retraining our eyes reveals hidden wonders just waiting to be discovered. In Kansas City, migrating monarch butterflies flock to the local zoo. In the Pacific Northwest, fierce yellowjackets placidly sip honeydew, unseen in the treetops. In New England, a lawn gone slightly wild hosts a naturalist's life's work. And in the soil beneath our feet, remedies for everything from breast cancer to the stench of skunks lie waiting for someone's searching shovel.   

Close to Home is a hands-on natural history for any local patch of Earth. It shows that we each can contribute to science and improve the health of our planet. And even more, it proves that the wonders of nature don't lie in some far-off land: they await us, close to home. 

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Thor Hanson has done it again! In this surprising, upbeat, and exciting book, we learn that not only everyday wonders, but actual scientific discovery awaits us Close To Home. The perfect mix of science and story, told by a master of both. I loved it!" ―Sy Montgomery, author of Soul of an Octopus

"Thor Hanson's Close to Home, written with classic Hanson prose and enthusiasm, is as addictive as it is entertaining. Hanson teaches the value of looking high and low, near and far, at the fascinating natural systems we have never noticed right in our yards. And, very much to my liking, he tells us how to enhance those systems with minor tweaks to our landscapes. Thor Hanson has forced me to use the dreaded cliche: I couldn't put it down!" ―Doug Tallamy, author of Nature's Best Hope

"Thor Hanson's Close to Home invites us to step into the ordinary and discover the extraordinary. From natural science experiments to the search for new species, Hanson reminds us that awe and wonder are as close as our own backyard. With Hanson as our guide, a walk around the block becomes an opportunity to explore, to conserve, to ask questions, and to broaden our horizons." ―Amy Stewart, author of The Drunken Botanist

This information about Close to Home was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Information

Thor Hanson is a conservation biologist, Guggenheim fellow, and author of award-winning books including Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid, Buzz, Feathers, and The Triumph of Seeds. He lives with his wife and son on an island in Washington State.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more science, health and the environment...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Our Evenings
    Our Evenings
    by Alan Hollinghurst
    Alan Hollinghurst's novel Our Evenings is the fictional autobiography of Dave Win, a British ...
  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...
  • Book Jacket: Linguaphile
    Linguaphile
    by Julie Sedivy
    From an infant's first attempts to connect with the world around them to the final words shared with...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

Life is the garment we continually alter, but which never seems to fit.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.