Eco-Book Club & Hike

In The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, Jane Goodall and Doug Abrams explore one of the most sought-after and least understood elements of human nature: hope. Told through stories from a remarkable career and fascinating research, The Book of Hope touches on vital questions including: How do we stay hopeful when everything seems hopeless? How do we cultivate hope in our children? Filled with engaging dialogue and pictures from Jane’s storied career, The Book of Hope is a deeply personal conversation with one of the most beloved figures in today’s world.

There is still hope, and this book will help guide us to it.

Strata: Stories from Deep Time, by Laura Poppick, tells the stories of our planet’s history, as written in strata―ages-old remnants of ancient seafloors, desert dunes, and riverbeds striping landscapes around the world. Poppick decodes strata to lead us on a journey through four global transformations that made our lives on Earth possible: the first accumulations of oxygen in the atmosphere; the deep freezes of “Snowball Earth”; the rise of mud on land and accompanying proliferation of plants; and the dinosaurs’ reign on a hothouse planetStrata allows us to observe how the planet has responded to past periods of environmental upheaval, and shows how Earth’s ancient narratives could hold lessons for our present and future.

In February, we will be meeting at the Muller Field Station to discuss Romp! A Journey Through the Natural History of Otters and Why They Matter, by Heide Island. In this informative and entertaining book, animal behaviorist Heide Island takes readers on an odyssey through otterdom, focusing on a family, or “romp,” of river otters that live near her home in Puget Sound, Washington, while also weaving in research about otters around the globe. Tracking an otter nicknamed Patches and her three pups, Island observes as they hunt, play, and try to survive the various dangers in their environment, as well as the threats imposed by humans. We can learn crucial lessons about nature and our relationship with it by studying otters’ adaptability, diversity, and personality

In March, we will discuss The Common Uncommon: A Forest Journey, by Bernd Heinrich. Heinrich’s narrative illuminates the complete experience of his seasonal life—with the ups and downs of not just the leaves and snow, but also the problems, solutions, and frustrations of unblinking immersion in nature. He observes the “common uncommon” of spiders, ants, chestnut trees, porcupines, owls, and mice as his story branches out into Being, Becoming, Interbeing, Remembering, and Returning. The Common Uncommon is a narrative of small surprises in nature, some delightful and some devastating due to climate change – all seen through the sharp eye of a world–renowned naturalist.

The Way Home: Tales from a Life Without Technology, by Mark Boyle follows the author on an honest and lyrical account of a remarkable life without modern technology. Boyle explores the hard won joys of building a home with his bare hands, learning to make fire, collecting water from the spring, foraging and fishing. With no running water, car, electricity, phone, washing machine, light bulbs or internet, Boyle finds a life governed by the rhythms of the sun and seasons, where life and death dance in a primal landscape of blood, wood, muck, water, and fire – much the same as humans have lived for most of our time on earth. Revisiting such a way of living brings a deep insight into what it means to be human at a time when the boundaries between man and machine are blurring.