THE ANNALS OF THE FORMER WORLD is John McPhee's magisterial history of North America's geological past. He voyages across the continent along Interstate 80 in the company of 5 eminent geologists, using the ever-changing topography to tell a deep-time story of how landscapes evolve. Far from a dry recitation of rock strata and fossil data, it is an intensely human, globe-scaled exploration of how our planet and our terrain came to be.