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, 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, 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.

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