Book Review: PESTS by Bethany Brookshire
In Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains, Bethany Brookshire takes a look at myriad animals whom many humans consider pests, from squirrels to cats to elephants, and offers insights into …
Nonfiction
Book Review: The Nutmeg’s Curse
When the U.S. Army set out to eliminate Native Americans, they first “eradicated the web of life that sustained them,” most notably by slaughtering all the buffalo that they depended on, then depleting the land itself with herds of imported cattle. “The genocide of the Amerindian peoples was the beginning of the modern world for Europe – bringing vast wealth to those countries.”
Book Review: An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
Guest book review by Gene Helfman. Put simply, reading An Immense World will change how you perceive the world. It certainly has altered my perception. I have decades of experience …
Book Review: The Devil’s Element: A Hell of a Mess We’ve Gotten Ourselves Into
While reading The Devil’s Element: Phosphorous and a World Out of Balance by Dan Egan I happened to come across this article in The New York Times about a growing …
Book Review: Frankenstein was a Vegetarian
Never had the proverb You are what you eat came to mind so often as I was reading Frankenstein was a Vegetarian by Michael Owen Jones. The book encompasses a …
Book Review: JUSTICE FOR ANIMALS by Martha C. Nussbaum
As with so many books about the plight of animals in today’s world, Martha C. Nussbaum’s Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility needs to be read most of all by …
Stay Cool: Why Dark Comedy Matters in the Fight Against Climate Change, by Aaron Sachs
(NYU Press— April 4th, 2023) Reviewed by JoeAnn Hart Q: How do you know when you’re in a room with environmentalists? A: Oh, they’ll let you know. Like feminists in …
New and forthcoming environmental books
Here are a few recent books that came across our desks and inboxes… Afterglow: Climate Fiction for Future AncestorsEdited by Grist Afterglow is a stunning collection of original short stories in …
Book Review: Sixty Harvests Left: Regenerating our planet and ourselves
I’ve long believed that the Dust Bowl years were the result of rampant over-farming and generally awful land management. And while this is true, what I didn’t realize until I …
The best environmental books we’ve read in 2022
Philosopher Albert Camus summed it up best when he wrote: “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” The books we’ve highlighted below include a number …
2022 Year in Review: Most popular books and posts
When I look at visitor stats for the past year, EcoLit Books has seen a steady increase in the number of daily visitors. We now average just over 200 unique …