by Gary Snyder

Gary Snyder is an American poet, environmental activist,  and writer who was a part of the San Francisco Renaissance of the 1960s.  He is often referred to as the “poet laureate of Deep Ecology”.  Snyder has published about two dozen books in both poetry and prose form.

The Practice of the Wild was published in 1990 during a time of increasing technological speeds, and decreasing human attention spans. It may take the reader some time to adjust to Snyder’s calming style of writing. It took me several pages before I began to focus more clearly, understand the author’s rhythm, and begin to listen to his message of the meaningfulness of wildness, freedom, and a true connection with the land.

This book is a series of essays that have connections with each other but really do stand on their own. Each essay is a meditation and contemplation on the way modern Americans live, how we can still listen to and talk to the land, and why living with grace is an inherent part of being human.

Join us to discuss this book at our next Nature’s Narratives Book Discussion Group on Wednesday, March 13^th at 5:30 in the Wister Center.

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By Elizabeth Barlow Rogers

Elizabeth Barlow Rogers’ collection of famous garden writers excerpts is both a pleasure to read and a solid education in the history of garden writing. Barlow selected over 40 authors, some of whom are primarily gardeners (such as Penelope Hobhouse and Gertrude Jekyll) and others who  are authors who sometimes delve into the garden (Edith Wharton and Michael Pollan). Excerpts from these authors most famous works are interspersed with their personal histories and how they came to the garden to write.

Barlow also includes her own relationships with these authors as both a reader and the president of the Foundation for Landscape Studies. Her in-depth understanding of garden design and history over the 19th and 20th centuries allows the casual reader to learn design styles over two centuries of gardening through the selected words of some of the worlds most respected gardeners.

I can think of no better way to spend a cold January afternoon than being transported to some of the world’s great gardens, through the words of their creators.

Join us to discuss this book at our next Nature’s Narratives Book Discussion Group on Wednesday, January 9 at 5:30 in the Wister Center.

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By Tom Standage

Did you know that democracy was invented over a glass of wine? Or that brandy was once called the “water of life”? Or that distilled drinks helped the early settlers of America establish themselves as rulers of the New World? According to Tom Standage, the “flow of history” of human civilization can be told through the stories of a few important beverages: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca Cola.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good cup of coffee. But I will never be able to look at these beverage the same way again after reading this book. Standage presents coffee as the catalyst for such ideas as the stock exchange and the French Revolution.

This book explores what it has meant to be human over thousands of years. From the Age of Reason to the Era of Globalization, drinks have played a central role in changing the way people live.

Join us to discuss this book at our next Nature’s Narratives Book Discussion Group on Wednesday, January 30 at 5:30 in the Wister Center. Coffee and Tea will be served.

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By Stephen Budiansky

I was a vegetarian for a decade or so. And then I started reading about farmers; farmers who worked from sun-up to sun-down feeding, caring for, and seeing to the needs of their animals. Farmers who were confronted everyday with the circle of life. Farmers who had long ago accepted the truth that to be alive, something else, be it plant or animal, must stop living. So when I read Budiansky’s The Covenant of the Wild, I felt that I had finally found an author who was able to articulate all of the things I had been feeling about our complex relationships with animals.

Did humans domesticate animals to make us feel better and to have companionship? Did we domesticate them to mistreat, abuse, and use them as a food source? Here’s the question that Budiansky poses: did humans domesticate anything or anyone at all? What if the art of domestication was actually an evolutionary strategy that living things have developed purely for the success of the species? What if animals figured out that to align themselves with human beings’ lives might be their best shot at success? I know my house cats have a delightful life of napping and bird watching (and domesticated cats as a whole reproduce prolifically) while I toil away every day to make enough money to feed them.

Henry David Thoreau may have said it best himself in his most famous book, Walden, “I am wont to think that men are not so much the keepers of herds as herds are the keepers of men, the former are so much the freer.”

Budiansky puts not just the relationships between people and animals into a new perspective, but our whole notion of what “nature” is and what our role in this whole game of life is and perhaps should be.

Join us to discuss this book and at our next Nature’s Narratives Book Discussion Group on Wednesday, November 14th at 5:30 in the Wister Center.

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By William Alexander

I started reading this book when I was looking for more information on vegetable gardening and sustainable backyards. The title caught my eye as I was struggling with my own attempts to grow my own food and save money while doing it. While this book turned out to be more entertaining than informative, I did learn some things about gardening in clay soil, dealing with garden pests, and the painful reality of a newbie’s attempt to grow apples organically. It also inspired me to calculate the cost per vegetable in my own vegetable patch. Have you ever done this? It’s quite an interesting exercise.

Join us to discuss this book and the challenges and joys of vegetable gardening at our next Nature’s Narratives Book Discussion Group on Wednesday, October 10^th at 5:30 in the Wister Center.

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Mary Oliver is one of the most celebrated poets of our time. Her decades of poetry are gathered together beautifully in her New and Selected Poems Volumes 1 and 2. Oliver’s poetry touches on the most beautiful parts of life: the natural world, the shortness and sweetness of existence, love and loss, and of course, pets. Oliver is considered a very “accessible” poet because of her straightforward language. Many of her poems act as natural history guides to particular species and places, with of course beautiful language that will touch the reader’s heart as well as their mind.

Join us for our discussion of Oliver and her fabulous poetry at our next Nature’s Narratives Book Discussion group, Monday, February 13 at 5:30 pm, in the Scott Horticultural Library.

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Wendell Berry is a farmer, poet, and visionary whose book The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture, written in the late 1970’s, is now an American classic. Berry addresses many issues that he perceives as cultural dysfunction in modern times, from human and soil health problems to the destruction of local economies, and ties them back to the industrial revolution of farming and the creation of agribusiness. He comments on almost all aspects of modern life, and predicted much of what came to pass in the last 30 years since the original publication of this book. It is impossible to read this book and to not think about how life might be different if we all lived closer to our local farmer, to our food, and to our earth.

Many of his viewpoints are controversial, and will make an excellent discussion at our next Nature’s Narratives Book Discussion group. Please join us tomorrow, Wednesday, January 11 at 5:30 pm, in the Scott Horticultural Library for what is sure to be an interesting discussion on agribusiness and its relationship to the problems that plague modern life.

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by Sue Hubbell

For those of us that have made the time and space in our lives for regular observations of nature, this book asks the same questions that we do and is is organized into a series of seasonal reflections on nature from a single woman who is a beekeeper in the Ozarks. Hubbell shares with the reader her trials and tribulations of such a life, from finding out what is wrong with a sick beehive to getting along with her community members who have a decidedly different background from hers.

Prior to becoming a beekeeper in the Ozarks, Hubbell was married and was a librarian at Brown University. What brought her to the Ozarks to start beekeeping, and what keeps her there alone, is a personal story she shares with readers as though they are her close friends.

This book is an education in natural history revolving around interesting flora and fauna and a window into the incredible world of the Ozarks. Ultimately, what makes this book so enjoyable is the authors’ willingness to share her personal fears, thoughts, anxieties, and questions about nature and the world around her; and the reader’s realization that so many of us are asking the exact same questions.

I encourage you to read this book and join us in a group discussion. We will be discussing this book at Nature’s Narratives Book Discussion Group on December 12, 2011 at 5:30 pm. Please register to join us for the discussion and check out the other must-reads as part of this group!

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by Hugh Raffles

I make it a point to read Orion’s book of the year each year. It’s one of my favorite magazines and their book selection is unparalleled. So when Insectopedia was named the winner of the 2011 Orion Book Award, I raced out to the bookstore to sink my teeth into it.

The format was unexpected; it actually is an encyclopedia about insects! But rather that the usual A-Z describing insect lifecycles and  reproductive habits, this encyclopedia dives into the complicated and entertaining relationship that people and insects have had with each other over time. Stories range from malaria victims in the Amazon to an artist who is fascinated with deformed and mutated bugs.

The titles of each of the topics are arranged alphabetically, and so, in theory, one could feel free to skip boring sections, and go back and forth as they choose among the topics. However, I appreciated reading the book in the order in which it was presented, and rarely found myself bored at all. For a 386 page book about bugs, that’s really saying something.

I encourage you to read this book and join us in a group discussion. We will be discussing this book at Nature’s Narratives Book Discussion Group on November 9, 2011 at 5:30 pm. Please register to join us for the discussion and check out the other must-reads as part of this group!

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There is a common theme in nature and environmental writing concerning the lack of connection that humans feel towards other living creatures and nature. This disconnect, many environmentalists argue, is the reason for ever increasing environmental destruction. But does this disconnection actually exist? Where did it come from? And is it a relatively new phenomenon?

David Abram argues that is much more than air conditioning, office cubicles, and too much traffic that has contributed to the lack of awareness of the rest of the living world that is so prevalent in modern people’s lives in the Western world.  Through a complex web of philosophical arguments, stories of personal spiritual encounters, and the history of human language, Abram traces the advent of the phonetic alphabet as a major factor in the process of human alienation with the rest of the natural world.

This book broke my mind open and has brought me new insight into what it means to be alive and to be human. It has spurred so many conversations in my life, on topics ranging from what wildness is, to how we use spoken and unspoken language to influence the world around us.

I encourage you to read this book and join us in a group discussion. This book will be discussed at Nature’s Narratives Book Discussion Group on October 10 from 5:30 to 6:30 pm. Please register to join us for the discussion and check out the other must-reads as part of this group!

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