Black Gold: Clearing the smoke on American coal
If I were to mention the words “black gold” you might picture oil (Thank you, Beverly Hillbillies). But the original black gold was coal and it is the title of …
climate change
New and forthcoming environmental books (September 2025)
I’m pleased the share the latest batch of fiction and nonfiction books with environmental themes… Footprint: Four Itineraries By Radhika Subramaniam The book takes the footprint for a walk—to the …
New and forthcoming environmental books (August 2025)
There is a maxim that “nothing happens in publishing in the summer.” Apparently, that maxim doesn’t apply to environmental literature — as we’ve seen a wide range of impressive books …
Book Review: Little Great Island
A Novel, by Kate Woodworth Sibylline Press, 2025 Reviewed by JoeAnn Hart Our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest… the trees commingle their …
Novel Ecologies, Nature Remade and the Illusions of Tech
by Allison Carruth The University of Chicago Press, 2025 Reviewed by JoeAnn Hart Think of clouds. Light, airy, floating around in our atmosphere. Therefore, the words “cloud computing” make it …
The best environmental books we’ve read in 2024
We published 30 book reviews this year and read many more. And out of all the books we’ve read, here are a handful of our favorites. You’ll find a mix …
New and forthcoming environmental books (December 2024)
This is the last “what’s new” post of 2024. Plenty of new books to check out! Happy reading — and happy new year! Crimes Against Nature: New Stories of Environmental …
Book Review: Arroyo Circle
Guest book review by Gene Helfman. In Arroyo Circle, JoeAnn Hart deftly weaves a tale with multiple threads. As the story develops, the different characters become incorporated into the fabric through …
Book Review: Honeymoons in Temporary Locations
What will a post-climate-disaster America look like? In Ashley Shelby’s short story collection, Honeymoons in Temporary Locations, the results range from devastating to absurd to all-too-plausible. This trifecta is what makes Shelby’s …
Book Review: The Burning Earth, A History
Reading non-fiction books about climate change has, over the years, come to feel like a form of masochism. Rarely do I come away feeling optimistic about the future of this …
North Woods, a novel by Daniel Mason
Random House, 2023 “Shivers of lust passed through his elytra as he found her scent grow stronger,” and there we are, in the head of an Elm Bark beetle, one …