Obsession is becoming a really prevalent theme on this “best of” list as we come to Noah Strycker’s second appearance. The year that we briefly touched on earlier, where Strycker managed to spot 6,042 species of birds in one year, smashing the record for most in a year, is told from start to finish in this book. It shows the great lengths and often suffering that Noah Strycker went to see more than half of the bird species on earth in one year, all the while traveling through war torn places, natural disasters, witnessing mass habitat destruction, and more perils.