The best environmental books we’ve read in 2020
Not surprisingly, we’ve been doing quite a bit of reading this year. Here are some of our favorite books. And not all of them were new in 2020. We reviewed …
Book Reviews
Dark Emu: Rethinking Australian history (and our own)
Who were the first humans to bake bread? If you had asked me a few months ago, I would have probably guessed the Egyptians. But what if it was the …
Join Rewilding Our Stories
Our friends Mary Woodbury of Dragonfly.eco and Lovis Geir from Ecofictology have partnered to create a virtual community of writers and readers passionate about environmental literature. The network is hosted …
Maverick: A life among animals, reconsidered
At the opening of the essay collection Maverick, Laura Jean Schneider writes: I’m in the third generation of butchers in my family. As a family, we slaughtered and butchered most …
Building Reuse: Why your old house may be more environmental than you think
I live in an old house. So old that it tilts off to one side and you can feel a winter breeze coming up through the floorboards. When we had …
Book Review: The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals by Becky Mandelbaum
While the title of Becky Mandelbaum’s The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals may indicate this is a novel about animals, it is very much more a human novel. Set primarily …
Book Review: World of Wonders; In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
No one sees nature quite like a poet and Aimee Nezhukumatathil proves that in World of Wonders, her first book of prose. This collection of essays centers around Nezhukumatathil’s lifelong interactions with and observations of the natural world. Born to a Filipina mother and a father from South India, Nezhukumatathil grew up all over the United States due to the demands of her mother’s job as a psychiatrist, and was immersed in landscapes from New York to Arizona. She writes from both the poet’s perspective and as a person of color in a white-privileged world.
New and upcoming book releases
Sadly, we cannot review everything we receive here at EcoLit Books — but I did want to highlight a few new and newly republished works… The Lives and Deaths of …
Book Review: The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-Eun
Eco-tourism has become increasingly popular in recent years, travel intended to help conserve and contribute to remote communities and delicate ecosystems, but…disaster tourism? We’re all familiar with rubbernecking drivers, and …
Book Review: Dark Side of the Ocean
If you are one of those for whom solid scientific information is a balm for environmental anxiety, Dark Side of the Ocean is the book for you. Albert Bates, the author …
Book Review: OYO The Beautiful River
Mark Hamilton’s forthcoming poetry collection, “OYO The Beautiful River,” to be released in print in October of 2020, explores the Ohio River from the vantage point of an individual in …