The JT Book Critters have had six engaging books discussions so far this year between October and March.
OCTOBER: Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, by SuzanneSimard (2021, Knopf).
NOVEMBER: The Archipelago of Hope: Wisdom and Resilience from the Edge of Climate Change, by Gleb Raygorodetsky (2017, Pegasus).
DECEMBER: Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl, by Jonathan C. Slaght (2020, Picador).
JANUARY: Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change our Minds & Shape our Futures, by Merlin Sheldrake (2020, Random House).
FEBRUARY: The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams (2021, Celadon).
MARCH: No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process, by Colin Beavan (2009, Picador).
Our selections are an eclectic mix, targeting the overlapping genres of science, nature, and environment. We try to: balance author gender; target books that help us take action; and include at least one classic and one fiction title per year. Our choices emerge from group nominations and brief group discussions followed by a choice by the co-coordinators, Kristine and me. Each month is a challenge because for every pick we make, there are several close contenders that didn’t quite make the cut.
All of our books this year are award winners of some kind or another. Links to each give you publisher’s descriptions, award citations, reviews, videos, and blogs galore, so there’s no need for me to review them here. What I share below is one thought per book that piqued our group discussions.
Finding the Mother Tree helped us see our forests less as a collection of trees than a community with lots of plant communication going on in the soil. The Archipelago of Hope was a fascinating global survey of indigenous communities doing their best to cope with climate change, and sharing their good ideas more broadly. We were taken with the seeming arrogance and insensitivity of non-indigenous cultures to understand each situation. Owls of the Eastern Ice was an engaging adventure to find, tag, and study the fish owl (Bubo blakistoni) in the wilds of the Russian Pacific province of Primorye. We were enthralled by the author’s interest in remote Russian culture and determination to do field work under arduous conditions.
Entangled Life helped untangle my ignorance about fungi, a response shared by other JT Book Critters. The Book of Hope gave us four reasons to be hopeful: the resilience of nature, the power of young people, the indomitable human spirit, and the amazing human intellect. No Impact Man was an inspiring and hilarious case study of the author’s experiment of sustainable living in New York City.
Reading these books was pleasure enough. Being able to share them with other JT readers more than doubles the delight. And above all this is the community we are building and now sharing.
Please join the JT Book Critters for the Earth Day Nature Readings at Knowlton Hill Preserve on April 22 (register and learn more here), and the upcoming JT All Read coming up in the fall.
The pronoun references (I, me) refer to Robert Thorson, co-coordinator of JT Book Critters.