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.