Arrived back in the Tropic of Kansas yesterday after a week away in the Andes. Strange how getting back into one’s own country is (and has been since 9/11) the most fear-inducing part of the trip.

“I know you’ve been promised a history of everything before, only to read an account of rice, or salt, or gunpowder, or cod…. But carbon dioxide is the real deal.” —Bill McKibben (@billmckibben.bsky.social) https://go.nybooks.com/3MWDwkO

Read what @christopherbrown.bsky.social has to say and then keep going and read all the recommendations. It's an amazing collections of books and ideas and other things this year.

Christopher Brown writes about his reading and viewing in 2025. " The worst new science fiction story I read this year was the widely-covered Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, a neoliberal manifesto of techno-progressive futurism..." aqueductpress.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...

Scenes from an unplanned layover—a morning nature walk in a Miami airport business park

Not a bad haul for Xmas...I shall not be wanting for good reading material for at least a month or two. Maybe three. We'll see how it goes. #booksky #richardpowers #charlesdickens @christopherbrown.bsky.social @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social @jsnr.bsky.social #reading #clairetomalin #robmillerwriting

So long as most of it takes place in a hedge, go for it.

And a story from August of this year. I'll be in the DF in January; I'd like to try and make a visit out there. www.archpaper.com/2025/08/lake...

One wonders if they will keep it as a period thriller about the hunter who tried to take out an unnamed German dictator of the 1930s and missed, or if they will update it for a similar 21st century figure:

Amazing pictorial about the rewilding of Lake Texcoco, from decades of draining for a planned airport to the restoration of extensive migratory bird habitat:

An especially good episode:

Field Notes from November in the East Austin edgelands, with frisky deer, late bloomers, cold moons, riverine fog, and the passing of a legend: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/spirits-of...

"Wilderness isn’t pristine and doesn’t exist somewhere ‘out there’ away and distinct from humans; it is a force that is perpetually integrating, adapting, and thriving." Chaney Hill reviews A NATURAL HISTORY OF EMPTY LOTS by Christopher Brown. @timberpress.bsky.social

For today’s #LayoverLibrary, I’m reading ‘A Natural History of Empty Lots’ by @christopherbrown.bsky.social. The book follows the author’s exploration of Austin’s urban wilds and advocates for their preservation in the face of irresponsible development.

Waiting for take-out and reading the paper here in the Tropic of Kansas: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Wednesday evening I'll be teaching an online class for @writersleaguetexas.bsky.social on nature writing in the 21st century—as both genre in its own right and essential element for writers in any genre. It should be a lot of fun—details & sign-up here: writersleague.org/calendar/wri...

A beautiful Sunday morning read by @christopherbrown.bsky.social full of rain and fog fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/an-ofrenda...

A walk in the forgotten wetland under the overpass, a father-daughter outing to an active shooter event, plus rain lilies, film photos, and a kitchen counter moth promising a Roger Dean dream, in this week's Halloween x Todos Santos Field Notes: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/an-ofrenda...

Got some film back

Ambient kingfisher saying thank you for the rain 🌦️🙏

enjoyed this (esp lengthy discursion on the American way of dealing with leaves), as i always do when i read Chris

Hard to beat “seeking the hand-blistered zen of the rake.” Always an enjoyable read.

Went to a great @litquake.org program w/ Josh Jackson & his new book THE ENDURING WILD www.forgottenlandsproject.com/the-book. A clear-eyed take on the beauty & degradation of public lands. It pairs well with @christopherbrown.bsky.social ‘s work on urban wildlands, to my mind. Rays of light & hope.

Some Field Notes from the beginning of autumn in Texas, with leaf blower wars, cryptids, river clean-ups, and the politics of yard work: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/blow-force...

I found this a really illuminating thread on what demonstrations do and why they matter.

For his Texas Highways debut, @christopherbrown.bsky.social encounters spectral forces in Marfa. texashighways.com/culture/comi...

“...the only rest stop in America that promises an experience of the paranormal along with a place to pee.”

100% TRUE STORY!

Face-to-Face with the Chupacabra by Chris Brown aka @christopherbrown.bsky.social / I was there texashighways.com/culture/comi...

About that time we went looking for ghost lights and found a different kind of specter—fun piece to get to write for Texas Highways: texashighways.com/culture/comi...

Returning these library books today, great couple of weeks of reading just completed @christopherbrown.bsky.social @kashana.blacksky.app @elongreen.bsky.social

Great stuff! But a bird never flew on one wing. 🙂Another wonderful interview with Chris... for the Sustainability Agenda with sound by Cat Byrne, Clapton edgelands (i), gathered in the Lea Valley, Clapton, London, during November 2024. www.thesustainabilityagenda.com/podcast/epis...

Here's the conversation we had about A Natural History of Empty Lots when it was first released: plutopia.io/christopher-...

The paperback edition of A Natural History of Empty Lots is out today from Timber Press @hachetteus.bsky.social! Thanks to all the readers who have picked up the hardcover and ebook over the past year (or listened to the audiobook) and spread the word 🙏📖💚

Two books, How To Love A Forest by @howtoloveaforest.bsky.social and A Natural History of Empty Lots by @christopherbrown.bsky.social, examine our place and responsibility in a changing world. Here’s my review of the two of them: transfer-orbit.ghost.io/forests-tree...

Coming to Tachyon 30th Anniversary shindig this Sun Oct 5 12-5 #SanFrancisco Public Library main branch? You can hobnob with most of the staff & authors Peter S. Beagle, @joerlansdale.bsky.social, @samtasticbooks.com, and others! FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC! buff.ly/6Wbvy1u #sfpl #tachyon30

Very much liked this book —

Austin folks: please join us Tuesday night at Alienated Majesty Books for the paperback release of A Natural History of Empty Lots (and a month-long celebration of this amazing bookstore's second birthday): alienatedmajestybooks.com/events/34023...

Excellent and insightful piece here from @christopherbrown.bsky.social on nature and nativism. Homelands and Hybrids fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/homelands-...

Grateful to the editors of @nplusonemag.com for the clarity and force of this editorial. www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...

Next week! Paperback launch with a short documentary screening + a wide-ranging conversation about the path to a greener and more just furniture. Hope to see some Austin friends there—RSVP and details at the link: alienatedmajestybooks.com/events/34023...

buttondown.com/perfectsente... this week in sentences: crows, exhausting, teeny-weeny, Star Wars, rhythm of, personal weather, surface, idol factory, Algol, sweet bigotries, slightly more, navy blue, Nero, demons, needs to shout, dance, chlorinated, fire, percolation

“Last week researchers at UT-Austin announced the discovery of a new bird – a hybrid of two species of jay... [which] historically had no overlapping range. Global heating has changed that, and now the green jay... and the blue jay... have found each other...”

Field Notes from September in the so-called "Homeland," with epic moons, coral vine, killer bees, Instagram propaganda, and new species appearing in the suburban edges of Texas: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/homelands-...

Got summoned home to help this bird get out of our living room, where it had inadvertently flown through an open door. Yellow warbler, I think?

I put off reading this because I was on a weeklong wildfire assignment (one that was slightly more depressing and frustrating than usual) and it was great to come home to another funny & inspiring & thought-provoking Field Note, a great recharge, thanks.

Fun afternoon readings by @williamledbetter.bsky.social, Matthew Bey, @christopherbrown.bsky.social, and @markfinn.bsky.social, between my panels

When the armadillos are out foraging before sundown, it’s a sign cooler temps have arrived in Texas

Suggestion: Tune in today (Wed September 10) to watch the online encounter between Robert Smithson’s only two remaining eartworks: Spiral Jetty (1970) in Utah and Broken Circle/Spial Hill in Emmen, the Netherlands landartlives.nl/en/smithson

Who among us hasn’t been there? Tho in my case it was accidentally sending a sheriff’s dept a photo of the Point Pleasant Mothman statue instead of my dad’s retirement information.