BOOKS.

GLOBAL EYE-OPENER

"Back in [Beijing], I stepped off the bus into a grimy dusk. Beneath my feet, whorls of coal dust spiraled across the sidewalk like black snow flurries," writes Mark Hertsgaard during his six-year global excursion in Earth Odyssey. From Zhenbing, a Chinese guide who thinks pollution is a fair trade-off for more food and a warmer shack, to Chelyabinsk, the "cancer capital" of the former Soviet Union, Hertsgaard paints a vivid portrait of the Earth in crisis, and attempts to answer the ultimate questions of human survival, using the rough-hewn paints of indigenous tribes, "corporatist screeds" and impoverished realists. Available in bookstores for $26 (hardback) from Broadway Books.

--Tracey C. Rembert

WILDERNESS WALKABOUT 

Master tracker Paul Rezendes has been, at various times in his colorful career, the leader of two outlaw motorcycle gangs and a yoga teacher with his own ashram. But it's as a wilderness guide and nature writer that Rezendes will have the most impact. Rezendes' first book was a how-to about finding wildlife in the woods, but The Wild Within: Adventures in Nature and Animal Teachings (Tarcher/Putnam, $24.95) is a beautifully-written philosophical autobiography, full of meaningful natural encounters. Rezendes, who made his first forays into the woods as soon as he could walk, tracks a bobcat into its lair, wrestles a bear, and eats lunch as a moose sleeps nearby. He provides remarkable insights into animal behavior, bringing to vivid life the creatures we can still see fleetingly in our last wild places.

--J.M.

BABY STEPS

Wondering how you can possibly bring a new baby into a world of environmental havoc? Mothers and Others tells you in its Guide to Natural Baby Care (John Wiley & Sons, $16.95). Prospective parents are taught the most potent toxins and contaminants to avoid and how to do so from the nursery to the car to the front yard. The pages, packed with statistics and anecdotes, offer well-researched advice for childcare that is both green and affordable. And in Natural Baby Care (Storey Books, $15.95), Colleen Dodt guides mothers from pregnancy to preschool, sharing homeopathic techniques and remedies for along the way. Dodt emphasizes the role of aromatherapy and herbs, and fills the book with recipes, from massage oils to baby foods to balms. In case you're tempted to do some research of your own, both books include a thorough list of resources from product companies, to professional organizations and help lines.

--J.B.