Hood's travel memoir is a lyrical journey to places of great natural beauty and biological importance. As a poet and a scientist, she uses the language of both to recapture our human connection to nature. Her stories of tropical rain forests, deserts and prairies reveal the vulnerability of natural places and the consequences of unsustainable exploitation and urbanization. These essays are an act of conservation, to preserve places encountered and cared about, as part of our biological and historical heritage. This inspiring and informative work will be valuable for those interested in nature or travel memoirs, creative writing, ethnographic writing, and for all who are concerned with our broader sense of place in the global environment.