5 Best Books … About Nature or the Environment

Cassandra at Indie Reader Houston hosts 5 Best Books, a weekly meme that asks participants to list what they consider the 5 best books on a given topic.

This week’s topic is 5 Best Books … About Nature or the Environment.
 

I could easily choose more than five books on this topic. I’m a gardener, nature lover and bird watcher so I read a lot of non-fiction about the environment plus I enjoy books where nature plays a role. In honor of Earth Day I chose to go with four books about the planet and one novel that I just finished where nature and birds were an integral part of the plot and richly woven into the story.
 

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
by Barbara Kingsolver

Part memoir and part commentary on the American food industry, the book chronicled the family’s journey though one year of eating only foods that could be obtained regionally. They planted and harvested their own crops, canned and stored food for the winter and raised poultry on their farm. For obvious reasons this lifestyle is not for everyone, but reading about their experience makes you think about where your food comes from, how commercial farming affects the planet and what little things we can each do that will make a big difference.
 

The World Without Us
by Alan Weisman

What would happen if, overnight, humans disappeared from the planet? The books describes what happens after 5 minutes, an hour, a day, a year, five years, 10 years, 100 years. Absolutely fascinating speculation of how the earth would heal itself once there are no longer people to pollute the planet and destroy habitats. As real examples, there are areas of the planet that have, for various reasons, remained untouched for a number of years and show evidence of the earth healing. There is also a television series based on this book called After People. Using CGI they demonstrate visually what will happen to current day structures in hundreds of years. One of my all time favorites.
 

The Story of Stuff
by Annie Leonard

The Story of Stuff is aimed at Americans and our consumer society. It is a wealth of information and knowledge on the hidden costs of consumerism and what we can do to make it better. This is a good reference book with lots of eye-opening facts about how stuff is made, shipped and ultimately disposed of when we are done with it. After reading The Story of Stuff, it’s difficult to look at ‘stuff’ the same way again.The author presents the facts without being preachy and writes in a humorous and engaging style. Ultimately we have to ask ourselves, does buying more and more stuff make us happier?
 

Earth: A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race
by Jon Stewart

Aliens have finally discovered Earth long after the human race has gone extinct. Instead of finding humans, they find a deserted planet and a book left for them by Jon Stewart and The Daily Show crew. While not one of my all time favorite books, it was a funny, irreverent, and often sarcastic look at the earth after humans had ceased to exist. It is both humorous and serious and does make you think about what someone from another planet might think of us and our often bad habits.
 

The Bird Sisters
by Rebecca Rasmussen

My list would not be complete without including the most recent novel I read and greatly enjoyed with a nature setting, The Bird Sisters. The story takes place in rural Spring Green, Wisconsin. The picturesque scenes of nature and vivid descriptions made the town come to life. Birds play a prominent role in the book and I love birds. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking story about two sisters looking back on a pivotal year in their lives.