Run by women and for women, WEN’s Green Reads groups select and discuss books (and at times other media) covering a range of environmental and leadership development topics. Members currently host book clubs in the East Bay, San Francisco, on the Peninsula, and in the South Bay. During COVID, we are combining all the clubs into one SF Bay Area Green Reads club.
What We’re Reading…
Watch this space for updates
San Francisco:
- The Ends of the World: Supervolcanoes, Lethal Oceans, and the Search for Past Apocalypses by Peter Bannen
- Climate One video Will Climate Matter in the Election?
- Joe Biden’s Environmental Plan
- A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal
by Kate Aronoff et al - This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
by Naomi Klein - Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson - Freedom
by Jonathan Franzen - As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, From Colonization to Standing Rock
by Dina Gilio-Whitaker - The Water Knife
by Paolo Bacigalupi - Men Explain Things to Me
by Rebecca Solnit - Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
by Yvon Chouinard - The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City (Process Self-Reliance Series)
by Kelly Coyne, Erik Knutzen - Never Out of Season
by Rob Dunn - Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman: Conservation Heroes of the American Heartland
by Miriam Horn of Environmental Defense Fund - The New Wild: Why Invasive Species Will Be Nature’s Salvation
by Fred Pearce - Designing Your Life: Build a Life that Works for You
by William Burnett, Dave Evans - The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World
by Andrea Wulf - Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
by Paul Hawken (Editor) - The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World
by Peter Wohlleben - Plastic: A Toxic Love Story
by Susan Freinkel - Lab Girl
by Hope Jahren - The Soul of the Octopus
by Sy Montgomery - Desert Solitaire
by Edward Abbey - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
by Barbara Kingsolver - Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It
by Robert Glennon - Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges
by Amy Cuddy
- What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City
by Mona Hanna-Attisha
East Bay:
- All We Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis
Edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson - Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains
by Kerri Arsenault - The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks
by Terry Tempest Williams - Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors
by Carolyn Finney - Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter
by Ben Goldfarb - The Overstory
by Richard Powers - Active Hope: How To Face the Mess We’re In Without Going Crazy
by Joanna Macy, Chris Johnstone - Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
by Robin Wall Kimmerer - Replenish: The Virtuous Cycle of Water and Prosperity
by Sandra Postel - The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
by Richard Rothstein - Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming edited by Paul Hawken
- The Uninhabitable Earth
by David Wallace-Wells - Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman: Conservation Heroes of the American Heartland
by Miriam Horn - A Sand County Almanac
by Aldo Leopold - Saving Wild: Inspiration from 50 Leading Conservationists
by Lori Robinson - The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness
by Sy Montgomery - Who Moved My Cheese?
by Spencer Johnson - Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do
by Wallace J. Nichols - The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy, America’s Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism
by Robert Righter - Big Magic
by Elizabeth Gilbert - Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges
by Amy Cuddy - Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout
by Philip Connors - The Third Plate
by Dan Barber - The Art of Asking
by Amanda Palmer - Over-Dressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion
by Elizabeth Cline
- Detroit City Is the Place to Be
by Mark Binelli - This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
by Naomi Klein
- Farm City
by Novella Carpenter
- Wild Ones
by Jon Mooallem
- Cooked
by Michael Pollan
- The Sixth Extinction
by Elizabeth Kolbert
- The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild
by Lawrence Anthony - Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism
by Elizabeth Becker - Lean In
by Sheryl Sandberg - The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
by William Kamkwamba - But Will the Planet Notice? How Smart Economics Can Save the World
by Gernot Wagner - Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate
by Rose George - Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal
by Mary Roach - The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World’s Great Drinks
by Amy Stewart - The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines
by Michael E. Mann - Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History
by Florence Williams. - Song for the Blue Ocean: Encounters Along the World’s Coasts and Beneath the Seas
by Carl Safina - The End of Country: Dispatches from the Frack Zone
by Seamus McGraw - Eco Barons: The New Heroes of Environmentalism (also called “Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet”)
by Edward Humes - Visit Sunny Chernobyl
by Andrew Blackwell - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
by Barbara Kingsolver - Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage
by Heather Rogers - Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment
By Sandra Steingraber
- The Nature Principle
by Richard Louv
Peninsula:
- Trace: Memory, History, Race and the American Landscape by Lauret Savoy
- Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors
by Carolyn Finney - Flight Behavior
by Barbara Kingsolver - Citizen Scientists: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction
by Mary Ellen Hannibal - Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes
by Dana Thomas - Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
by Robin Wall Kimmerer - Being the Change: How to Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution
by Peter Kalmus
- The Great Pivot: Creating Meaningful Work to Build a Sustainable Future
by Justine Burt - Woooly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive One of History’s Most Iconic Extinct Creatures
by Ben Mezrich - What the Eyes Don’t See
by Mona Hanna-Attisha - Black Faces, White Spaces
by Carolyn Finney - Yellowcake
by Ann Cummins - Dawn Again: Tracking the Wisdom of the Wild
by Doniga Markegard - Unbowed: A Memoir
by Wangari Maathai - The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future
by Gretchen Bakke - Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman: Conservation Heroes of the American Heartland
by Miriam Horn of Environmental Defense Fund - The Soul of the Octopus
by Sy Montgomery - The Invention of Nature
by Andrea Wulf
South Bay:
Member Reviews…
But Will the Planet Notice? How Smart Economics Can Save the World
by Gernot Wagner
“This book is a broad introduction to the intercept between economics and the environment for people who have an interest in thinking beyond personal choices to make an impact.”
The End of Country: Dispatches from the Frack Zone
by Seamus McGraw
“This book was fracking good!”
“An eye opening account that leaves you with a hunger to learn more about the toll fracking takes on the lives of locals and landscape around them.”
Eco Barons: The New Heroes of Environmentalism (also called “Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet”)
by Edward Humes
The book club members all enjoyed this book because it included inspirational stories about men and women working to protect or restore the environment. These incredible people gave their time and money and expected nothing in return. This book was more of an uplifting read than our previous books. We highly recommend it.
“A collection of essays documenting the beautiful, old-school, low-tech, places and things that still exist here and there in and around Silicon Valley (and the other high-tech centers of our civilization)…” (low) tech writer
Visit Sunny Chernobyl
by Andrew Blackwell
“This was a really interesting book! It was a different perspective than most environmental books because it showed both the bad and good parts of some very polluted places. I learned a lot!” – A.K.
“Visit Sunny Chernobyl’ presents a new perspective of places we normally choose not to think about. It made me want to plan my next trip!” – S.C.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
“Our members thought this book was inspiring and useful. Many members already grow much of their own food. Recipes in the book inspired one member to make her own homemade mozzarella!”
Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage
by Heather Rogers
“This book was certainly educational, but a bit of a downer. Much of the information in the book was a sad reality on how wasteful our society has become, and how we deal with it.”
Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment
by Sandra Steingraber
“This book was an interesting perspective from a cancer patient and ecologist. Inspiring to some, depressing to others, the book left most feeling vulnerable to the way we are impacted by the altered environment around us. It prompted lively conversation about how we try and protect ourselves through education and trying to make informed decisions but the prevalence of pollutants within our air, water, and land is still intimidating.”
The Nature Principle
by Richard Louv
This book made members aware of the importance of nature in its various forms.
One WEN book club member “really enjoyed reading and discussing the Nature Principle with the WEN book club. In it, the author Richard Louv, provides a framework to think about how the influence of nature has concrete and scientifically proven benefits to our health, intelligence and social structure. Although this concept is intuitive for many of us, it was useful to read about the many scientific studies that have borne this out. Moreover, Louv provides insightful and practical ways in which we can integrate interaction with nature as a part of our healthcare system, government structure and social fabric. The book is full of stories and anecdotes that inspire the reader to go out and find out for themselves the myriad benefits that nature has to offer.”