Bad Naturalist
One Woman's Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop
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Narrated by:
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Kimberly Farr
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By:
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Paula Whyman
About this listen
In this awe-inspiring memoir, a woman attempts to restore land in the Blue Ridge Mountains, facing her own limitations while getting to know a breathtaking corner of the natural world.
When empty nester Paula Whyman climbs to a peak in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, her plans for a backyard ecology project quickly morph into a massive endeavor. In Bad Naturalist, Whyman struggles with conflicting advice from experts, an influx of invasive species, delayed plans, and the occasional rattlesnake—but none of it dampens her irrepressible passion for protecting the land.
Bad Naturalist is woven with Whyman's delightful storytelling as she attempts to coax a beautiful piece of land back into shape. Putting her preconceived notions aside, she forms a deep connection with the earth, reminding us that the quest to tame it is a fool's errand.
©2025 Paula Whyman (P)2025 Timber PressCritic reviews
“With dry humor and an always engaging voice, Paula Whyman takes us on an entertaining and unexpected journey restoring a wild Virginia mountaintop. Bad Naturalist is a master class in ecology, humility, and perseverance, that will have you thinking about mid-life larks, plants, and gardens, in a whole new light.”—Susan Coll, former president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and author of Real Life and Other Fictions
"A brilliant, richly layered exploration of the natural world, Paula Whyman’s gripping tale embeds the reader on a mountaintop, sweeping us through the landscape and her life while braiding memoir, biodiversity, expertise, and doubt, along with inevitable setbacks that she counters with sheer determination. Whyman, a ‘pretty good’ naturalist, is the perfect guide to today’s urgent questions, proposing some unexpected answers and delivering it all in unputdownable prose, with a sense of humor and a joyful spirit."—Jordan Goodman, author of Planting the World: Joseph Banks and His Collectors, an Adventurous History of Botany
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