As the new year begins, many of us reflect on the past year and begin to set goals for the upcoming year. If you’re an avid reader like me or have set a resolution to become one this year, here are three books with themes related to sustainability, our environment, and climate change that I’ve read in the past couple years and would classify as ‘must reads’:
Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Braiding Sweetgrass is a collection of essays focused on indigenous ecology and land stewardship. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a Potawatomi professor whose scientific career has focused on mosses. The book’s blend of western science and indigenous teachings challenges traditional thinking and presents a stronger way to interact with our natural environment. Wall Kimmerer also includes many personal anecdotes around growing plants and tending to the land that I found made this read more accessible. The most novel theme discussed for me was the act of reciprocity when interacting with our environment. Western interactions with land typically prioritize maximizing yields without considering what we can offer back in return, which leaves the land becoming – and us feeling – barren. The essays/chapters generally flow together but are also independent enough that you can put the book down and come back to it without being lost, which I enjoy when I read non-fiction.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
We Are the Weather, by Jonathon Safran Foer
We Are the Weather is another piece of non-fiction that discusses sustainable living, though the focus of this book is our diet. Specifically, the ways that adopting a vegetarian or vegan diet is better for our bodies, the planet and obviously animals. This fact wasn’t new information to me when I started reading the book, yet I still consumed a lot of animal products. What I most appreciated in this book was how Safran Foer explained the discrepancy between accepting practices as being beneficial and actually adopting them into our lifestyle. His honesty around his own struggles with implementing a vegetarian diet made this read more relatable and pushed me to reckon with changes I may, or may not, be able to make personally. The book discusses different strategies for implementing a more sustainable diet while scientifically explaining the numerous benefits to our bodies, our climate, and animals. This combination directly influenced how I think about my diet and motivated me to make concrete changes.
Greenwood, by Michael Christie
To round out this list of recommendations, I wanted to include one piece of fiction with environmental themes interwoven into the story. Greenwood is a story of family legacy and how personal choices affect both future generations and our planet. The story starts in 2034 in an old growth forest off the coast of British Columbia and meanders in time through different generations, gradually revealing answers and connecting various characters. Christie weaves nature throughout the entirety of the novel as characters unveil personal ties to the marvelous old growth forest, which symbolizes both the growth and scarring that characters endure. This was a story of greed and generosity, resilience and vulnerability, and ultimately, how small actions we take can have incredibly large impacts.
Clik here to view.
These are just some of the ‘sustainability/nature’ themed books I’ve enjoyed, and others I would recommend or on my ‘to read’ list include Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, Nature’s Best Hope by Doug Tallamy, What the Robin Knows by Jon Young and Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie. If you live in the Region of Waterloo and any of these caught your eye, be sure to check our local libraries or support a small, local bookstore, like Old Goat Books, Words Worth Books, KW Bookstore, or A Second Look Books and More. If you want to add these books to your ‘to read’ list or like tracking what you’re reading online, check out The StoryGraph, a website/app that provides stats on what you’re reading, personalized book recommendations, and a ‘Friends’ page to see what your friends are reading.