When the post-holiday sales begin and the throng of holiday guests starts to dissipate, it’s time for that prized end-of-year passtime: sitting on the sofa by the fire with a stack of tantalizing books. This year was a good one for books about the environment, and Amazon.com’s editors’ picks can show you some of what you might have missed.

In the Top 10 list for Outdoors and Nature [1], you’ll find Alan Burdick’s Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion, a gorgeously written journey through the world of invasive species. There’s also Tim Gallagher’s The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, the story of the amazing discovery of the bird many thought was extinct. And Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed by John Vaillant, which chronicles the circumstances surrounding the toppling of a massive and beloved tree in British Columbia.

For more titles to add to your growing stack, try the Science picks [2], which include unsurprising selections like Jared Diamond’s Collapse, but also lesser-known books from 2005 like the fascinating-sounding Infrastructure: A Guide to the Industrial Landscape by Brian Hayes. The book, illustrated with photographs, takes readers on a tour of man-made scenery from cell phone towers to power stations.

Image credit: Amazon.com [3]