Come on in and feed your mind
THE WEATHER MAKERS
a book by Tim Flannery
If you read only one book on global warming, make it The Weather Makers. Tim Flannery, an Australian scientist and explorer, has crafted a concise, eminently readable overview of climate science while passionately and persuasively arguing for immediate action. "In the years to come this issue will dwarf all the others combined," he writes. "It will become the only issue." --Pat Joseph
Let's Talk: Discuss this selection with your friends and neighbors.
COYOTE
a book by Catherine Reid
Resettling in Berkshire, Massachusetts, after years away, Catherine Reid intertwines her own story with that of another misunderstood outsider: the eastern coyotes returning to New England. Drawn to an animal other people often shun and fear, she finds in the coyote a powerful reminder of a wildness that tract homes and interstates can't completely tame.
LOST MOUNTAIN
a book by Erik Reece
The scale of eastern coal mining can be difficult to comprehend: one billion tons extracted annually and hundreds of thousands of acres of Appalachia razed along the way. Kentucky native Erik Reece brings home its horrific impacts by telling the story of one densely wooded mountain that is transformed into a barren plateau in the course of a single year.
AMERICAN GREEN
a book by Ted Steinberg
The center of a $10.4 billion business and often a symbol of respectability, suburban lawns are rich in meaning but ecologically impoverished. Ted Steinberg leavens his discussion of their dangerous repercussions--bird-killing pesticides, Valdez-level amounts of gasoline spilled each year, even mower injuries--with tales of lawn-loving Americans who opt for perfect turf before furniture and will use a shotgun to defend their right to mow.
FIELDS OF PLENTY
a book by Michael Ableman
For the first time in 20 years, Michael Ableman left his fields at the height of growing season to see how other small-scale, sustainable farmers work theirs. The quirky people he met treat the land gently but are "militant about flavor." Their fine attunement to the earth allows them to grow heirloom tomatoes in the shadow of an urban housing project or supply a local restaurant with a lively menu in the dead of a Wisconsin winter; it also yields the tempting recipes that accompany each chapter.