The environment is one of our precious treasures that we need to ensure we take care of properly. We need to understand as much as we can about the environment and related issues and learn ways to keep the environment healthy. Individual actions make a difference. One way for us to learn is to read books that teach us about the environment and examine ways of handling environmental problems and ways to avoid problems. Thus, the Riderwood Environmental Book Group was formed.
Meetings
The group meets on the 3rd Friday of each month in the Lakeside Commons Card Room (next to the Pub waiting area) from 1:00 to 2:00. If you haven’t had time to finish the book being discussed, do come anyway, because there is always something to learn from the discussion.
Anne Riley is the group leader. If you have any questions or comments, send an email to Anne at envbooks@riderwoodlife.com. Her contact information is also in MyErickson and in the Resident Directory available at the front desks.
Group Book List
To view the list in a new window as a file to print, click here.
2026
January 16: Andrea Wulf’s “The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World” (2015)
February 20: Aldo Leopold’s “A Sand Country Almanac” (Originally published 1949)
March 20: Erika Howsare’s “The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship with Our Wild
Neighbors” (2024)
April 17: Hannah Ritchie’s “Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet” (2024)
2025
January 17: Gloria Dickie’s “Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future”
February 21: Zoë Schlanger’s “The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth”
March 21: Jake Bittle’s “The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration”
April 18: Stephen Moss’s “Ten Birds that Changed the World”
May 16: Vince Beiser’s “The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization”
June 20: Sy Montgomery’s “The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness”
July 18: Edward Humes’ “Total Garbage. How We Can Fix Our Waste and Heal Our World”
August 15: Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “The Serviceberry”
September 19, John Marzluff’s “Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans”
October 17, David George Haskell’s “The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature”
November 21, Dan Flores’s “Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America”
December 19, Susan Casey’s “The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean”
2024
January 19: Ben Rawlence’s “The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth”
February 16: Patrik Svensson’s “The Book of Eels”
March 15: Jeff Goodell’s “The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet”
April 26 (postponed one week because of Earth Day celebrations April 19): Jennifer Ackerman’s “What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds”
May 17: Douglas W. Tallamy’s “The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees”
June 21: Ben Goldfarb’s “Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet”
July 19: (choose one to read) Leila Philip’s “Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America” or Ben Goldfarb’s “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter”
August 16: Stephen Porder’s “Elemental: How Five Elements Changed Earth’s Past and Will Shape Our Future”
September 20: Merlin Sheldrake’s “Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures”
October 18: David Attenborough’s “A Life on Our Planet”
November 15: Rachel Carson’s “The Sea Around Us”
December 20: Tim Flannery’s “The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth”
2023
January 20: Ed Young’s “An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us”
February 17: Nathaniel Rich’s “Losing Earth”
March 17: Kenn Kaufman’s “A Season on the Wind: Inside the World of Spring Migration”
April 28: Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”
May 19: Wohlleben & Billinghurst’s “The Secret Wisdom of Nature”
June 16: Douglas W. Tallamy’s “Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Backyard”
July 21: Peter Wohlleben’s “The Inner Life of Animals: Love, Grief, and Compassion: Surprising Observations of a Hidden World”
August 18: Hope Jahren’s “The Story of More”
September 15: Michael Shellenberger’s “Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us”
October 20: Dan Egan’s “The Devil’s Element. Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance”
November 17: Douglas W. Tallamy’s “Bringing Nature Home, Updated and Expanded: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants”
December 15: Jeff Goodell’s “The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World”
2022
January 21: Michael Mann’s “The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet”
February 18: Charles C. Mann’s “The Wizard and the Prophet” (to be continued)
March 18: Charles C. Mann’s “The Wizard and the Prophet”
April 15: Michael Bloomberg and Carl Hope’s “Climate of Hope: How Cities, Business, and Citizens Can Save the Planet”
May 20: Elizabeth Kilbert’s “Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future”
June 17: Jane Goodall’s “The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide fo Trying Times”
July 15: David Wallace’s “The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming”
August 19: Meeting Postponed: Attendees Vacationing!
September 16: Elizabeth Kolbert’s “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History”
October 21: Yuai Noah Harari’s “Sapiens” (Chapters 1-10)
November 18: Yuai Noah Harari’s “Sapiens” (Starting with Chapter 11)
December 15: Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac’s “The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimist’s Guide to the Climate Crisis”
2021
October 8: Suzanne Simard’s “Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest”
November 19: Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants”
December 17: Bill Gates’s “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster”
Bibliography
Anne Riley has created a bibliography of environmental books that can be seen here.