UW Sustainability Courses

BOOKS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE

Several classes have contributed their recommendations to this collection of books. Each of these books in some way has left a lasting impression on a student that has come before you. I urge you to look through this list, and if you find something that intrigues you, click on the picture of the book. You will be taken to Amazon.com's site, and if you order through this link, a share of the purchase price will come back to Tom, and we will decide as a class where to donate that money.

Jump to: Non-Fiction | Fiction

If you can be tempted into buying a book, then having a portion of your purchase price go to an organization dedicated to some facet of sustainability is an easy way to make a small difference. Enjoy the following list, and feel free to send in additional recommendations, along with a short description of why you are recommending the book.

NON-FICTION
	The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World - Abram, David Winner of the Lannan Award for non-fiction, this pivotal and paradigm-shifting book is a necessary read for anyone concerned with ecology. Abram’s interdisciplinary work draws from philosophy (including a challenging romp through ecological philosophy), ecology, the Oral Tradition, Indigenous studies, Language and Linguistics, Literature, and Human Development. His premise is that our written language and our cultural disposition have distanced us from engaged and reciprocal relationship with the living earth. Abram, a magician and philosopher in addition to a writer, is a long-time bioregionalism, and he developed the MAGIC committee work that so infused many continental congresses with a greater sense of the more-than-human world in which we dwell. This book is both extremely poetic and extremely scholarly, making it a dense, rich and long read. The titles alone are provocative: “The Ecology of Magic,” “Philosophy on the Way to Ecology,” “The Flesh of Language,” “Animism and the Alphabet,” “In the Landscape of Language,” “Time, Space, and the Eclipse of the Earth,” and “The Forgetting and Remembering of the Air.” This book can help us broaden our ability to perceive the world on a sensory and intellectual level that cannot help to ripple out into everything from our gardening to our writing to our meeting facilitation. Most of all, this book calls for us to re-learn how to trust our senses. “Only as we come close to our senses, and begin to trust, once again, the nuanced intelligence of our sensing bodies, do we begin to notice and respond to the subtle logos of the land” (268).
	Last Chance to See - Adams, Douglas and Carwardine, Mark Very funny and moving...The glimpses of rare fauna seem to have enlarged Adams' thinking, enlivened his world; and so might the animals do for us all, if we were to help them live.
	Looking Forward: Participatory Economics in the Twenty First Century - Albert, Michael and Robin Hahnel ~...”The authors propose a communitarian alternative based on self-management, dispersed decision-making, and coordination of production with consumption. Their system exploits new information technologies and assumes a boundless cooperative spirit among participants…” -Michael Stevenson, Harvard Business School (overview)
	Moving Forward: Program for a Participatory Economy - Albert, Michael ~”Laying out strategy & vision for his "participatory economics," Albert argues that we must change the way we view work & wages and restructure our workplaces so that everyone can become involved in controlling their working lives.”
	Rules for Radicals - Alinsky, Saul Alinksy’s theory and practice of political activism involved catalyzing communities to find the power within them to make and sustain change. He saw organizers as being largely facilitators (often invisible to people outside the organization) of change who help mentor leaders and develop consciousness. With this no-ego, no-bullshit approach to activism, and with the comprehensive thinking that went into Alinsky’s protocols for poor, working and middle class organizing campaigns, this book is a classic in how to change the world, one group, one event, one issue at a time.
	The Reasons for Seasons: The Great Cosmic Megagalactic Trip Without Moving from Your Chair - Allison, Linda This unusual guide features hundreds of exercises to awaken the senses through closer observation of seasonal shifts. The book itself is more circular in structure (like the seasons) than chronological, and a person can open it to any place to find how to do anything from make spore prints to build a kissing bough. Drawing on a multi-cultural and historic perspective, this book is a gem when it comes to helping kids and adults better understand constellations, apple grafting, the architecture of features and much more.
	Ecologies of the Heart: Emotion, Belief, and the Environment - Anderson, E.N. Okay, this is a wild book which promotes the premise that all ecological change and restoration must come from an ethics born of love, yet this wild book does a nice job in showing how humans process information, and how such processing gives us ecological choices to pursue. The author, a cultural ecologist, proposes that we can shift our actions only through shifting our emotions, and he especially makes his argument by looking deeply at tribal beliefs and actions.
	Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model - Anderson, Ray ~”With passion and pride, Ray Anderson, Founder, Chairman and CEO of one of the world's largest interior furnishings companies, recounts his awakening to the importance of environmental issues and outlines the steps his petroleum-dependent company, Atlanta-based Interface, Inc., is taking in its quest to become a sustainable enterprise -- one that will never have to take another drop of oil from the Earth. Thought-provoking and thoughtful.”
	Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks at a Pessimist's World - AtKisson, Alan ~This story deals with the notion that predicting the future, such as predicting an environmental problem, can lead to action that prevents the problem, thus disproving the predictor. In addition to this there is an interesting section on the author's opinions on solutions for the planet.
	Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah - Bach, Richard ~Richard Bach takes to the air to discover the ageless truths that give our souls wings: that people don't need airplanes to soar...that even the darkest clouds have meaning once we lift ourselves above them... and that messiahs can be found in the unlikeliest places--like hay fields, one-traffic-light midwestern towns, and most of all, deep within ourselves.
	The Poetics of Space - Bachelard, Gaston One of the most important books written on both poetics and how our imagination intersects with symbols and places, this marvelous collection of essays looks at such things as the house; drawers, chests and wardrobes; nests; shells; corners; miniature; and even “The Dialectics of Outside and Inside” and “The Phenomenology of Roundness.” Bachelard’s aim here is to show that the places we dream of, imagine, write about and dwell in tell us volumes about how we “….integrate…the thoughts, memories and reams of mankind” (6).
	The Essential Whole Earth Catalogue - Baldwin, J., ed. Few books are as fun as this oversized guide with all kinds of nuggets of information, charts, maps, reviews, instructions, dialogues and provocative essays and reviews. The focus on tools to make a decent life in balance with the natural world runs through all the quirky and profound entries. This is the kind of book best found in an obscure used bookstore or by other tilts of chance.
	Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World - Barber, Benjamin ~A look at the negative side of Globalization, a nice way to keep your mind well-rounded and not too “rose-colored”.
	Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism - Beder, Sharon ~Lots of great research...a little freaky...about corporate influence in the media and its effect on activist/environmental coverage.
	Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature - Benyus, Janine M. ~ The book cleverly reveals how Nature can provide the innovative solutions we as a society seek as we strive for sustainability. With over 3.8 billion years of research and at least 30 million case studies, Nature probably has the answer we are looking for. Every roadblock presented to me is now countered with the following question: "What would Nature do if she had to tackle the same problem?" If we can learn to look towards Nature as model, measure, and mentor, we might just stand a chance.
	Ways of Seeing - Berger, John ~” This book has the potential to completely re-shift your understanding of art. It is about art philosophy, but much more than that, how we understand the nature of art, and how it relates to our cultures and societies. It is a book designed for the general reader, without a large art background, but also appreciable by the artist and the professional art critic.”
	Reenchantment of the World - Berman, Moris ~Already mentioned in class, the first-half of the book is a historical survey on why modernistic thinking has effectively "dis"-enchanted our lives, with the second half devoted to solutions.
	The Dream of the Earth - Berry, Thomas Berry’s pivotal book on becoming native to our place explores our place in the earth community, how to better use our creative energy toward a new story of our life here, and especially how we can draw on spiritual and religious traditions (particularly Christianity) along the way. One of the more intriguing angles here is Berry’s assertion that we’ve been autistic when it comes to relating to the earth. Much of this book also reads like a prose-bound poem: …Soon the late summer moon will give a light sheen to the landscape. Something of a dream experience. Perhaps on occasion we participate in the Original dream of the earth. Perhaps there are times when this primordial design Becomes visible, as in a palimpsest, when we remove the later imposition. The Dream of the earth. Where else can we go for the guidance needed for the task That is before us. (223)
	The Great Work: Our Way Into the Future - Berry, Thomas This gorgeous, wise and important reflection on the great work before us to make the future we envision is full of deep insight, far-reaching connections, and both clear-eyed vision and hard won inspiration. As Berry concludes, We are now experiencing a moment of significance far beyond what any of us can imagine. What can be said is that the foundation of a new historical period, the Ecozoic Era, have been established in every realm of human affairs. The mythic vision has been set into place. The distorted dream of an industrial technological paradise is being replaced by the more viable dream of a mutually enhancing human presence within an every-renewing organic-based Earth community. The dream drives the action. In the larger cultural context the dream becomes he myth that both guides and drives the action. (201) This book unpacks that vast statement, looking at fields varied at economics, literature, mythology, culture, energy, spirituality, and then into all societal institutions that we need to transform with vision and action.
	Recollected Essays 1965-1980 - Berry, Wendell While all of Berry’s essay collections are vital and informative, this collection brings together important investigations of wilderness and culture. Some of the key essays are “The Body and Earth,” in which Berry calls for embodied work and life; “The Unforeseen Wilderness,” which questions our cultural assumption of control over nature; and “The Making of a Marginal Farm,” on living close to the land, day by day.Berry is astonishingly clear and direct with an eye toward poetic awareness of the land.
	The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture - Berry, Wendell “This book is about culture in the deep, ripe sense: A nurturing habitat,” writes Gary Snyder, and he couldn’t be more right. This is an astonishing collection of essays, focused primarily on how the ecological crisis in agriculture is a cultural crisis. Along with sounding the alarm, Berry is plenty inspiring, writing that “….the care of the earth is our most ancient and most worthy and, after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it, and to foster its renewal, is our only legitimate hope” (14).
	Going to Ground: Simple Life on a Georgia Pond - Blackmarr, Amy This simple and clear collection of small essays and vignettes about learning a place well is refreshing and quietly illuminating. While it’s not the most startling or life-changing ecological memoir I’ve read, I found that its lyricism and deft focus make it worth reading and reflecting on in relation to other well-studied and well-loved places.
	Mother Earth: Though the Eyes of Women Photographers and Writers - Boice, Judith, ed. Divided in Mineral, Plant, Animal and Human Realms, with a final section on “Oneness,” this imagination combination of image and words features the likes of Leslie Marmom Silko, Alice Walter, Annie Iberio, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Annie Dilliard, Brenda Tharp, Diane Ackerman, Ntozake Shange, Dolores LaChappele and many other women photographers and writers. The book reads like a journey composed of fencepost moments, and particularly intriguing is the appendix, “The Passion to See: About the Photographers” in which each photographer speaks of her process and passion for the earth.
	Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth - Brown, Lester R. ~”Eco-economic theory calls for harmony between our economy and natural resources. Our current, untenable, profit-focused economic model depletes forests, oil, farmland, topsoil, water, atmosphere and species beyond a sustainable level....The goal, presented here in convincing detail, is to design a profitable economy that accurately reflects the social cost of abuse of resources. Brown suggests shifting "taxes from income to environmentally destructive activities, such as carbon emissions...”
	Perfection of the Morning - Butala, Sharon This powerful memoir unfolds what it is for Butala to make a life on the wide open prairies of Canada after years of urban living. But more than the story it tells, this memoir takes close-ups and wide-angled views of the land and sky in precise and profound ways. In doing so, Butala shows what she learns about being human and how she learns it.
	The Hidden Connections: A Science for Sustainable Living - Capra, Fritjof This visionary investigation of systematic understandings of life on many levels – written by the author of The Tao of Physics and drawing strongly on new physics – looks at human social structures from a bioregional and biological point of view. Capra particularly discusses how the global economic structure is one a collision course with the planet, and he does a good job of looking at power dynamics all around.
	The Hidden Connections: Integrating The Biological, Cognitive, And Social Dimensions Of Life Into A Science Of Sustainability - Capra, Fritjof ~An amazing account on how social organization is mirrored from biological organization; how structure in nature influences our lives as organisms in a society.
	The Web of Life: A New Understanding of Living Systems - Capra, Fritjof ~”Capra looks at the life sciences through the lens of systems theory, and thus provides a very good introduction to systems theory for those (like me) who are novices. He also gives an account of life, from its earliest origins on up to the beginnings of human consciousness, working with the ideas of the main developers of systems theory over the past several decades.”
	Rachel Carson ~THE voice of nature- arguably THE woman who started the environmental movement. A brilliant poetic writer and advocate for sustainability.
	Reconnecting with Nature: Finding Wellness Through Restoring Your Bond with the Earth - Cohen, Michael J. Cohen’s talent for discussing complicated issues in innovative ways and then devising creative exercises and approaches is applied to health and healing here. This very embodied book advocates listening both to our bodies and the natural world, and writing new chapters in our health and life.
	How Nature Works: Regenerating Kinship with Planet Earth - Cohen, Michael J. This fairly unknown volume is simply one of the best guides we have found for environmental education. Part One: Touch the Earth includes amazing exercises and discussions to help people familiarize themselves with their home environment. Part Two: The Civilization of Nature explores ways of seeing ourselves and our part in nature from other angles. The exercises especially are amazingly innovative, and the discussion questions always provocative such as “From your own life, find examples of misusing a physical map and having your internal map mislead you” (214). Plus, this book has great charts, maps, illustrations and thinking throughout it, making it a gem for anyone doing environmental education for any population.
	We All Live Downstream: A Guide to Waste Treatment That Stops Water Pollution - Costner, Pat with Holly Gettings and Glenna Booth This is an excellent collection of writings about the effects of and possibilities for reforming our current disposal system for waste water. With examples of the political campaign against a water sewage plant for Eureka Springs and lots of information on low-flush and no-flush, and composting toilet option, it’s considered by many the best source on waste water disposal.
	The New Economy of Nature: The Quest to Make Conservation Profitable - Daily, Gretchen and Ellison, Katherine ~ A book about internalizing externalities and how this is very profitable and efficient as well as environmentally sustainable. She uses Costa Rica, the New York water system and many other real-world examples of how this system could work.
	Places of the Soul: Architecture and Environmental Design as a Healing Art - Day, Christopher ~”This is a very satisfying, powerful look at how the architectural environment makes an impact health, thought, and especially spirit. Mr. Day's writing is beautiful, drawing the reader through ideas of space, light, structure, environment, location and intention. Reading it was both inspiring and informative. An elegant book about an important subject.”
	Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic - De Graaf, John and David Wann, Thomas H. Naylor, Scott Simon, David Horsey (Illustrator) ~ …“It's a well-worn cliché that money can't buy happiness, but this book will strike a chord with anyone who realizes that more time is more valuable than toys, and that our relentless quest for the latest stuff is breeding sick individuals and sick societies. Affluenza is, in fact, a clarion call for those interested in being part of the solution.” --S. Ketchum --
	Collapse - Diamond, Jared ~Viking Books, 592 pgs., 2005 Diamond's newest book tries to distill a unified theory about why societies fail or succeed. He identifies five factors that contribute to collapse: climate change, hostile neighbors, trade partners (that is, alternative sources of essential goods), environmental problems, and, finally, a society's response to its environmental problems. The first four may or may not prove significant in each society's demise, Diamond claims, but the fifth always does. The salient point, of course, is that a society's response to environmental problems is completely within its control, which is not always true of the other factors. In other words, as his subtitle puts it, a society can "choose to fail.". Diamond then identifies the 12 environmental problems that are portents of doom: destruction of natural habitats (mainly through deforestation); reduction of wild foods; loss of biodiversity; erosion of soil; depletion of natural resources; pollution of freshwater; maximizing of natural photosynthetic resources; introduction by humans of toxins and alien species; artificially induced climate change; and, finally, overpopulation and its impact. Diamond's goal in historicizing our understanding of the relationship between a society's development and its environment is to prove that the two impulses are not antithetical. Much as Guns, Germs, and Steel was crafted in part as a response to the dominant environmental discourse in the United States today, which holds that environmental concerns are secondary to economic and security concerns. Rather, Diamond argues, environmental concerns are at least equal in importance, and inextricably linked, to all other aspects of a society's success. His examples imply that, when it comes to the environment, a stitch in time means more than saving nine -- it's the difference between keeping and losing your shirt.
	Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - Diamond, Jared ~Jared Diamond is the man who, for the better part of the late 1990s, somehow made the phrase "east-west axis of orientation" the most talked-about kind of orientation there was -- freshman, sexual, or otherwise. His 1997 Pulitzer Prize-winning book began with a simple question -- "Why did Pizarro conquer the Incas and not the other way around?" -- and then managed to tell, over the course of only 400-odd pages, the history of why humanity has turned out the way it has. For most readers (and there were millions), Guns was their first exposure to theories of geographic determinism. To broadly simplify, Diamond's book posited that human populations on continents with a primarily east-west orientation benefited from a more consistent climate and therefore developed more quickly than those living on continents with a north-south orientation. It had the kind of paradigm-shifting impact that happens with a book only once every few years, and it turned Diamond -- a professor of geography at UCLA -- into something of a rock star.
	Pilgrim at Tinker Creek - Dilliard, Annie While over 30 years old, this book still sings in brilliant observation and daring perception as to the luminosity and constant motion of the natural world. It’s a joy to read with writing always startling and surprising without ever getting sentimental.
	The Souls of Black Folk - Du Bois, W.E.B. ~”With a dash of the Victorian and Enlightenment influences that peppered his impassioned yet formal prose, the book's largely autobiographical chapters take the reader through the momentous and moody maze of Afro-American life after the Emancipation Proclamation: from poverty, the neoslavery of the sharecropper, illiteracy, miseducation, and lynching, to the heights of humanity reached by the spiritual "sorrow songs" that birthed gospel and the blues”
	A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Eggers, Dave ~Just read it and then you'll know why you should
	The Poisoning of Michigan (Out of Print) - Egginton, Joyce ~This is a frightening book about a catastrophe in Michigan when dairy cows were accidentally fed poly-brominated biphenyls that were made in the same chemical plant as the cattle feed and the government inaction and cover-up that followed.
	The Solace of Open Spaces - Ehrlich, Gretel This Western view (from Wyoming horizons) of Ehrlich’s relationship to the land in the aftermath of a broken heart shines with truth. Her perceptions of places and people enlarge how we might see the world.
	The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future - Eisler, Riane This critical book investigates spiritual development over the last six thousand years, looking at how patriarchal religious traditions took hold, and how these traditions separate us from the earth and from each other. There are ample ramifications in this work not just for spirituality but for education, ecology, and day to day living.
	Life on a Little-Known Planet - Evans, Howard Ensign This is an amazing and fabulous book in all ways, and everyone should read it! Where else can you read “The Intellectual and Emotional World of the Cockroach” or “Parasitic Wasps, and How They Made Peyton Place Possible”? The writing is superb, the insight is profound, and the details are mind-blowing. This stimulating account of insect life shows us our planet from a point-of-view often well hidden from us, and the ramifications tell us volumes about the more-than-human life around us. As Evans concludes, “The earth is a good place to live. We shall appreciate it more and more as we explore the moon and the planets. If man shall ever have another home, it is presently unimaginable. We had better learn to respect the little-known planet beneath our feet” (293) after he shows us what – in its infinity – there is to respect.
	Original Blessing - Fox, Matthew ~Though this book would be considered " Christian theology", but it cannot be pigeonholed. In it, Fox describes where Christian doctrine has taken a wrong turn (mainly with Augustine), and why Christians would do well to focus not on the fall of man and our separation from God, but the gift of redemption for both humans and the rest the earth. Christianity in a way you have probably never heard it before. Highly recommended.
	Man's Search For Meaning - Frankl, Viktor E. ~An extremely inspiring book. “Starting with a firsthand account of the holocaust, and finishing with a psychoanalytical approach to the suffering which took place there, Frankl shows us his ability to objectively analyze and draw conclusions from his own experiences. His story is not one of bitterness, as one might expect, but one of survival, of deep meaning and optimism. He looks back to his holocaust experience with the eye of one truly at peace with himself and his life..."
	The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization - Friedman, Thomas ~It's an intelligent, insightful, systems-view of what's happening to our world following the Cold War. Friedman (a foreign affairs correspondent for the New York Times; you've probably seen him on TV news shows) doesn't succumb to the simplistic down-with-the-WTO or the free-markets-are everything points of view.”
	Commodify Your Dissent: Salvos from the Baffler - Frank, Thomas and Matt Weiland ~ “This collection of essays provides a gutsy, incisive, and energetic critique of American consumer culture that surpasses and even ridicules the limp, flaccid, self-referential verbiage that academics try to pass off as a "radical", and "critical" examination of culture and power... the authors demonstrate how corporate America has commercialized the concept of revolution and employed it along marketing and production guidelines that are-guess what-conformist and conservative...”
	The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming - Fukuoka, Masanobu (1978) ~This was the first book that I read that laid out the possibility of a production system (farming in this case, but it applies more broadly) designed to work with nature rather than by imposing our abstract ideas upon natural systems.
	The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference - Gladwell, Malcom ~”The premise of this facile piece of pop sociology has built-in appeal: little changes can have big effects; when small numbers of people start behaving differently, that behavior can ripple outward until a critical mass or "tipping point" is reached, changing the world. Gladwell's thesis that ideas, products, messages and behaviors "spread just like viruses do" remains a metaphor as he follows the growth of "word-of-mouth epidemics" triggered with the help of three pivotal types..."
	The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement - Goldratt, Eliyahu M. and Jeff Cox ~”The Goal is about the ongoing struggle of a manufacturing plant manger Alex Rogo as he searches for a way to save his plant from being closed. With the leadership of an old high school physics professor Jonah, he develops a strategy to make his factory run more effectively and become more profitable. The theory of constraints is honestly a simple theory which is usually the most effective and most often overlooked..."
	Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her - Griffin, Susan This is a landmark book in so many ways. Its structure, pastiching fairy tale, personal experience, scholarly analysis and deep reflection, challenges traditional patriarchal ways of presenting information. The book is also divided into two sections, very much in line with the Old Testament and New Testament of the bible, but obviously with a very different intention. Griffin also uses mythology and story to show how the same forces that divide women from their own power also divide humans from the land. As Judith Plant writes, “The book is designed to stir this roaring as it traces Western civilization’s history, showing how woman and nature have been regarded by patriarch – as existing for the use of and abuse by the self-interested.”
	Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Systems of Humans and Nature - Gunderson, Lance H. (Editor), C. S. Holling (Editor) ~”Earth scientists and economists from the four hemispheres embarked on a three-year project to identify how economic growth and human development depend on joint attributes of ecosystems and institutions; and to seek ways to identify, monitor, and maintain those attributes, or restore them if eroded. They used the ecological notion of resilience and its corollary precepts in social science.."
	Being Peace - Hanh, Thich Nhat ~…a deep breath of cool air
	Land Circle: Writings Collected from the Land - Hasselstrom, Linda Hasselstrom’s close viewing of the land and sky; her way of capturing – with lucidity and concision – human, plant and animal behavior; and her extraordinary ways of writing of the ordinary (such as digging a ditch) make this book a treasure. It’s also useful in seeing many ways to write about our relationship to place, including through dialogue and poetry.
	The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability - Hawken, Paul ~”Hawken argues that business goals should be redefined to embrace such fuzzy categories as whether the work is aesthetically pleasing and the employees are having fun; this applies to corporate giants and mom-and-pop operations alike. He proposes a culture of business in which the real world, the natural world, is allowed to flourish as well, and in which the planet's needs are addressed”.
	Growing a Business - Hawken, Paul ~For anyone who believes that success can be measured by the good you achieve, an inspiration for those who want to make a change from the inside out—for those people out there with so much passion they don’t know what to do with themselves!
	Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution - Hawken, Paul and Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins ~Gives real-world examples of companies and ideas that really work and shows that there are feasible things that we can do to make a positive change in the way business works. A MUST read for everyone—this book will change the way you look at EVERYTHING! …very provocative and inspiring!
	The Universe in a Nutshell - Hawking, Stephen ~”Yes, it's difficult reading, but it's worth it. Hawking is one of the great geniuses of our time, a man whose life has been devoted to thinking in the abstract about the universe. With his help, and pictures--lots of pictures--we can seek to understand a bit more of the cosmos.” --Therese Littleton
	Nature and the Marketplace: Capturing the Value of the Ecosystem - Heal, Geoffrey ~ This book lays out a variety of market-based (partial) solutions to our environmental problems. For example: Redrawing organizational boundaries by combining timber companies with water providers so that the timber companies can benefit from one of the other ecosystem services they provide beyond lumber. This would internalize their externalities without needing a market to make it happen.
	Lean Transformation: How to Change Your Business into a Lean Enterprise - Henderson, Bruce A. et al ~How can managers create value for customers by eliminating waste in routine operations in plants, engineering, purchasing, distribution, and retail? This book does a great job of fully addressing the “closed feedback loop” idea—sustainability at its best, ZERO WASTE!
	The Politics of the Solar Age: Alternatives in Economics - Henderson, Hazel This wild and effective activist in solar energy’s manifesto brings together solar and alternative energy theory with activism savvy. The writing is lively and encourages us to develop collations to move toward positive change.
	Earth Odyssey: Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future - Hertsgaard, Mark ~This book details the author's trip to different countries and the environmental problems that he witnesses. It is a fascinating book that also highlights some real problems in environmental thinking, such as in China.
	Birth of the Chaordic Age - Hock, Dee W. ~“Dee Hock is the man who first conceived of a global system for the electronic exchange of value, becoming the founder and CEO of VISA International. He looks critically at today's environment of command-and-control institutions and sees organizations that are falling apart, failing to achieve their own purposes let alone addressing the diversity and complexity of society as a whole. The solution, Hock claims, lies in transforming our notion of organization...”
	Tomorrow's Energy: Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and the Prospects for a Cleaner Planet - Hoffmann, Peter ~An in-depth look at the Hydrogen Economy—a great reference.
	The Woman Who Watches Over the World: A Native Memoir - Hogan, Linda This quilted (small vignettes that fit together) memoir tells the story of Hogan and of her people, looking at the harshness of life on the reservation as well as individual losses and challenges, tribal histories, generational stories, and much more. Her deft and poetic melding of the personal, political, social, tribal and western infuse this book with a kind of integrity and wisdom only born of deep experience, reflection and art. She writes, “We are, in part, the body of earth. It might be that this place of ours is alive and radiant with the dreams of human kind as well as the power of, the motion of, air on a feathered wing as the eagles remembered flights when the wind blew” (206). Also see Hogan’s superb book, Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World.
	The Planetary Bargain: CSR Matters - Hopkins, Michael This book reviews corporate social responsibility (CSR) work and suggests a cooperative CSR strategy which creates prosperity for both corporations and the people they serve. It addresses these issues by arguing that it is good for business and essential for future prosperity and stability. It presents the case for a worldwide agreement, or "planetary bargain", between private and public sectors and discusses the implications of such an idea. The book also contains case studies of international companies who have adopted socially responsible programs and analyzes research in this area of the past two decades.
	Collaborative Spunk: The Feisty Guide for Reviving People and Our Planet - Hudgens, A. Gayle ~ This book is in two sections, the first is a review of The Natural Step and the science behind it and the second half is about Gayle's idea for a "Coach Five Project" where people coach others to modify their behavior.
	Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America - Huffington, Arianna ~With a (merciful) humorous undertone, Arianna splays the doors wide open on the greed, apathy, and corruption in the business world. There is a lot of research and also a lot of anger at the condition of our government and its relation to corporate America. A real eye-opener.
	The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property - Hyde, Lewis Few books are as important to read today as this one. Hyde’s journey through culture and ecology looks specifically at how living in a market-economy-based culture (where the more you have, the more you have) versus living in a gift-based culture (where wealth is measured by what you give to your community). Hyde’s understanding of gift-based cultures, coupled with his astute reading of mythology (particularly through cultural folktales), make so much of what he writes provocative and challenging. His writing style itself is a gift: clear, precise, and insightful in ways that most readers will long remember long after finishing the book. Overall, this little gem of a book helps challenge our underlying cultural assumptions at the base of so much environmental degradation. Hyde also calls on us to develop a sustainable cultural aesthetic, and he shows us how to do this through our daily exchanges with one another.
	Meeting the Expectations of the Land: Essays in Sustainable Agriculture and Stewardship - Jackson, Wes, Wendell Berry and Bruce Coleman, eds. This anthology includes essays such as “The Importance of Traditional Framing Practices for a Sustainable Modern Agriculture” by Gene Logsdon; “Thinking Like a River” by Donald Worster; “Energy and Agriculture” by Amory B. Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins, and Marty Bender; “The Sustainable Garden” by Dana Jackson (co-founder of The Land Institute); “Sunshine Agriculture and Land Trusts” by Jennie Gerard and Sharon Johnson; “The Practice of Stewardship” by John Todd; and “Good, Wild, Sacred,” one of Gary Snyder’s finest essays. This clear-eyed, strongly researched and well-written collection speaks to how we can live in concert with our life places and those places’ role in feeding us.
	The Sunflower Forest: Ecological Restoration and the New Communion with Nature - Jordan, III, William R. This essential book is pivotal in understanding the ramifications and possibilities available to us through a new understanding of restoration. As Stephanie Mills writes of this Jordan’s thinking here, “An argument so brilliant that it’s a work of art, The Sunflower Forest envisions evolution, ecosystems, and human action as integral, dynamic, and harmonious.” Jordan, the director of the New Academy for Nature and Culture, has extensive experience in restoration and the theory behind the practice, but it’s his understanding of community and communion that bring his experience and practice to new levels here.
	Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture - Kimbrell, Andrew ~”"We ... find ourselves in the midst of a historic battle over two very different visions of the future of food in the 21st century. A grassroots public movement for organic, ecological, and humane food is now challenging the decades-long hegemony of the corporate, industrial model." With 58 essays and more than 250 photographs, Kimbrell, director of the Center for Food Safety, aims to provide "a timely treasure trove of ammunition" for that movement...”
	Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life - Kingsolver, Barbara, Steven L Hopp and Camille Kingsolver Kingsolver is probably best known for her wonderful fiction, but this book chronicles her family’s commitment to become a ‘locavore’ for one year, only eating local and in-season produce. They moved from Tucson back to Appalachia where the climate allowed them to grow much of their own food, raise chickens, bake bread from local grains, and frequent the farmers market. The first chapters are worth reading for their statistics about our industrialized food system: The average item in our grocery stores has traveled farther than most of us go on vacation —hey, that doesn’t seem fair! 400 gallons of oil per year per person is used for agriculture, approx. 17% of our energy use. ¼ is for synthetic fertilizer. If every citizen ate 1 meal a week that was local and organic, we could save 1.1 million barrels of oil a week. The rest of the book is a mouthwatering delight. There are short passages written by Camille, their teenager. They include wonderful recipes (also available on www.AnimalVegetableMiracle.com), including a cookie that conceals zucchini and weekly meal plans. The funniest chapters are near the end when we learn whether their turkeys—which have had most of their instinct to breed bred out of them—figure out how to ‘get it on’ and whether they are able to hatch a brood successfully.
	What We Learned in the Rainforest: Business Lessons from Nature - Kiuchi, Tachi and Bill Shireman ~”What We Learned in the Rainforest teaches that nature isn’t just a source of resources for business —it is a powerful model for superior business performance in the emerging economy. The authors show that the old model of business—the machine model that pitted business against nature—is growing obsolete. In the emerging economy, businesses excel when they emulate what they once sought to conquer. They maximize performance as they become like nature...”
	The Natural Laws of Business: How to Harness the Power of Evolution, Physics, and Economics to Achieve Business Success - Koch, Richard ~"We have no other sources of power than those provided by the universe, our own brains and instinct included," he writes. "We need to understand the natural laws, whether these control tiny particles, huge planets, or our own behavior." With that in mind, Koch agilely takes us on a tour through scientific concepts such as natural selection, genetics, relativity, quantum mechanics, and chaos theory...
	When Corporations Rule the World -Korten, David Explains how economic globalization has concentrated the power to govern in global corporations and financial markets and detached them from accountability to the human interest. It documents the devastating human and environmental consequences of the successful efforts of these corporations to reconstruct values and institutions everywhere on the planet to serve their own narrow ends. It also reveals why and how millions of people are acting to reclaim their political and economic power from these elitist forces and presents a policy agenda for restoring democracy and rooting economic power in people and communities.
	Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet - Lappé, Frances Moore and Anna ~” If you want to understand the root causes of poverty and hunger (e.g., why sending food surpluses never solve the problem) and what we need to do to ensure food security, you will find Lappé's latest book an interesting read. She and her daughter bounce around the planet, sharing success stories from places like Bangladesh, India, France and Wisconsin. The book also has a number of yummy vegetarian recipes.”
	The Sustainable Company: How to create lasting value through social and environmental performance - Laszlo, Chris As a manager you have a responsibility to deliver financial returns to your shareholders: how can you balance this obligation with your responsibilities to society and the environment? The Sustainable Company articulates an innovative approach to meeting this challenge in a language familiar to business. The key is to create value for investors as well as society and the environment in an integrated bottom line. The Sustainable Company is the solutions manual for the 21st century manager. - Amazon.com
	The Corporate Responsibility Code Book - Leipzige, Deborah Help companies select, develop and implement social and environmental codes of conduct. It demonstrates how the world's leading companies are implementing global codes of conduct, including the United Nation's Global Compact, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, Social Accountability 8000 (SA 8000) and Accountability 1000 (AA 1000). The codes in this book cover a wide range of issues, including human rights, labor rights, environmental management, corruption, and corporate governance. The book also includes how-to (or process) codes focusing on reporting, stakeholder engagement and assurance.
	A Sand County Almanac - Leopold, Aldo This is the premier book on nature writing in terms of its historical precedent and its impact on generations of nature writers. First published in 1949, this book by one of the world’s great naturalists includes essays divided into three parts. “A Sand County Almanac” focuses on Leopold’s observations at his weekend refuge in rural farm. The second part, “The Quality of Landscape,” explores how he found his concern for the land over many decades, including a strong emphasis on what conservation is and could be. “A Taste for the Country,” the third part, is full of aware reflections of being outside and learning from the earth. As Leopold concludes, “Recreational development is a job not of building roads into lovely country, but of building receptivity into the still unlovely human mind.”
	PrairyErth: An Epic History of the Tallgrass Country - Least-Heat Moon, William This deep narrative and cognitive mapping of Chase County, Kansas – the heart of the Flint Hills and the tallgrass prairie – is an exquisite quilting together of portraits of individuals and places, history and geology, time and space. Least-Heat Moon spent six years researching what he called a “participatory history,” and his careful listening and detailed study of history shines through his excellent writing. Written on the tail end of his acclaim over Blue Highways, PrairyErth traces Least-Heat Moon’s connection (through family) to the Flint Hills while also striving for a balance view of what this land is and who lives here. This book is also a brilliant example of bioregional autoethnography.
	Becoming Lean: Inside Stories of U.S. Manufacturers - Liker, Jeffrey K. ~”The lean revolution is here. And while you may understand that this revolution is a profound shift away from the traditions of mass production, the concept still causes many people to scratch their head and ask, "what exactly is lean manufacturing?" Lean is much more than techniques. It is a way of thinking-a whole-systems approach that creates a culture in which everyone in the organization continuously improves their process and production..."
	The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World - Lomborg, Bjorn ~ This book has spawned a great deal of controversy because it flies in the face of the numerous "doomsday" books that have been written about the state of the environment. A great “view-from-other-side” type book, a way to cover all angles of an argument and really make you think about your opinions, beliefs, and arguments.
	Artic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape - Lopez, Barry This important memoir and travel journey, telling of Lopez’s immersion in various communities and expeditions in the Artic, also is an enthnographic, historical and scientific view of our coldest climates. Lopez writes beautifully of the North, showing us – by example – how to co-exist with each other and this climate.
	Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth - Lovelock, James Also: The Ages of Gaia These classic philosophical, biological and ecological books unpack the Gaia Hypothesis, the realization of the atmosphere as a product and protector that shows us that the Earth is one organism. Lovelock’s first book focuses on the central evidence for the Gaia Hypothesis, and his more recent one looks at the ramification of being one big organism, especially in a time of environmental crisis.
	Soft Energy Paths: Toward a Durable Peace - Lovins, Amory B. This oldie is still a goodie with lots of good thinking and clear analysis of sustainable energy theory and practices by the guru of solar energy (along with his wife, Hunter Lovins). Written in a clear, discerning matter with lots of strong (and well-credited) research and studies, Lovins makes many good arguments for pursuing sustainable energy sources.
	Economics As If the Earth Really Mattered - Lowry, Susan Meeker Meeker’s hands-on guide to socially responsible investing emphasizes ethics and community viability. There’s ample material here even if it’s almost 20 years old.
	Ethics for a Small Planet: New Horizons on Population, Consumption, and Ecology (Suny Series in Religious Studies) - Maguire, Daniel C., and Larry L. Rasmussen This book offers an original and realistic assessment of the crisis caused by the combined impact of overpopulation, overconsumption, and economic and political injustice. It summons religious scholarship into urgent dialogue with the other disciplines and with the world's policymakers. - excerpt from backcover
	The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X. ~I think we all know why this is an important work to remember and grow in strength and humility.
	Four Arguments For the Elimination of Television - Mander, Jerry This classic book, a radical critique of television, still holds strong ground and is worth taking a look at, especially in light of environmental education for children and adults.
	Credit Card Nation: The Consequences of America's Addiction to Credit - Manning, Robert D. ~”A sociology professor whose specialty is the effect of credit card debt on college students, Manning expands his focus here to encompass social attitudes toward all types of debt. Suggesting that debt leads not only to financial ruin but also to moral and social degradation.”
	The Communist Manifesto - Marx, Karl ~An important text that will hold relevance throughout time...
	Talking to the Moon: Wildlife Adventures on the Plains and Prairies of Osage Country - Mathews, John Joseph Mathews, an astonishing writer and scientist, wrote this and several other essential books for seeing the earth through the lenses of the culture and rituals of the Osage. His descriptions of the land, his understanding white and Osage cultures, and his careful and attentive observation make for refreshing clarity and meaning. This book mainly looks at the phases of the moon, according to the Osage, which include the Light-of-Day- Returns moon, the Just-Doing-That moon, the Deer-Hiding Moon and even the Little-Flower-Killer moon. By reading of these phases, we can come into an alternative – and much closer to the land reading – of the seasons.
	Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things - McDonough, William and Michael Braungart ~ This book is absolutely FABULOUS! They offer five steps to becoming eco-effective: 1) Get free of known culprits (e.g., lead, mercury, cadmium) 2) Follow informed personal preferences 3) screen everything going into the product and create an X-list of banned substances, a Gray-list of ones you'd like to phase out, and a P-list of ones you would prefer to use 4) Start focusing how to be all good, so that everything becomes a biological or technical nutrient 5) Reinvent.
	The Monticello Dialogues - McDonough, William Interviews with William McDonough available as MP3s to download or stream.
	The End of Nature - McKibben, Bill This pivotal book looks at how destruction of the natural world is tied to our daily acts and consumption habits. Yet McKibben is also optimistic about the return of nature through community initiative (and these days McKibben is leading the charge of such initiative, including walks across the Northeast to raise awareness).
	The Field-The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe - McTaggart, Lynne ~Very much like the scientists she interviews, The Field author Lynne McTaggart finds herself in unexpected territory when, as an investigative reporter, she begins studying the science behind such alternative healing disciplines as homeopathy and acupuncture. Intrigued with the disciplines’ consistent use of such terms as “energy fields,” “energy healing,” “energy meridians,” and “subtle energies,” she wonders if there really is any “hard science” behind these references. Bottom line, this is a book about all our lives and the outrageous proof of how we are intertwined. Indeed, that is the main drive behind the work of all the remarkable men and women she writes about: showing that “the self” of every individual has “a field of influence on the world and vice versa,” and that we are all connected. By the end, it is clear there is good, hard-nosed science to support that consciousness is a global phenomenon, which, at its most basic, is coherent light. She writes, “When you get down far enough into the quantum world, there may be no distinction between the mental and the physical…. There might not be two intangible worlds. There might be only one – The Field and the ability of matter to organize itself coherently.”
	Designing the Green Economy - Milani, Brian ~"Designing the Green Economy explores realistically, and in detail, the world's enormous potential for human and ecological regeneration. It also explains why this potential has been suppressed or distorted by industrial institutions thus creating economic crisis, growing inequality, and environmental destruction. The first half of the book looks at the challenge ecological change has represented to capitalism, as well as capitalism's repressive response..."
	Epicurean Simplicity - Mills, Stephanie ~”Common usage equates epicurean with gourmet, so Mills' title may seem like an oxymoron, but Epicurus' philosophy actually focuses on simple pleasures, on savoring life as found in nature, and on practicing prudence and frugality…Mills tells provocative stories about gardening, bicycling, threatened amphibians and butterflies, invasive species, what happens to wildlife when lakefronts are developed, and why she doesn't own a television or computer..."
	In Praise of Nature - Mills, Stephanie, ed. This unusual annotated bibliography is divided into the sections of Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit, and it includes annotations on a great many ecological sources plus small essays on important thinkers, activists, artists and scholars over the years (such as West Jackson, Rachel Carson, John Muir and others). It’s a treasure trove of great sources, and its only limitation is that many good books have come out since this annotated bibliography was released. All in all, this is a fascinating read that can easily expose you to many important sources in a short but illuminating time.
	Whatever Happened to Ecology? - Mills, Stephanie This political and social change memoir is both a story of living, writing and working with an ecological focus, and a critique of societal diminishment of the ecological movement. Written in 1988, this book obviously came out of a time when global warming, the end of peak oil, and the disappearance of honey bees weren’t common knowledge, yet Mills clearly outlines the devastation already unfolding and the need to reclaim our vigilance. This book is also a love story about place and community, and returning to one’s roots.
	Tao Te Ching - Mitchell, Stephen ~An amazing translation of the age-old Taoism text. This ancient work has surprising relevance to our need to slow down our fast-passed world.
	Permaculture: A Practical Guide for a Sustainable Future - Mollison, Bill Mollison’s book, often touted as the bible of permaculture, unpacks the philosophy and practice of growing our food in a whole-systems, sustainable manner. Permaculture combines much of what has been developed, unearthed or rediscovered about sustainable agriculture and organic farming as well as earth-friendly energy generation. As Mollison explains, “Permaculture as a design system contains nothing new. It arranges what was always there in a different way, so that it works to conserve energy or to generate more energy than it consumes. What is novel, and often overlooked, is that any system of total common-sense design for human communities is revolutionary!”
	Stupid White Men ...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation! - Moore, Michael ~A hilarious, yet right on the mark and well-researched critique of the disastrous state of our political system and the “white-man” that runs it.
	The Desert Smells Like Rain - Nabhan, Gary Paul All of Nablan’s nature writing (usually in the form of memoir-esque essays) is superb and vivid with close attention to language and to his subject. An ethnobotanist by trade, Nabhan looks deeply at culture and agriculture.
	Just Enough : Tools for creating success in your work and life - Nash, Laura and Howard Stevenson Defining success, learning how to achieve it and feeling satisfied with the results—all in a world where nothing ever seems to be enough—are the challenges addressed by the authors of this volume. Nash and Stevens, both of the Harvard Business School, believe that "everyone seems to be struggling with the Tantalus effect. This mythological character was punished with an eternal, raging thirst." As they point out, such constant striving means perpetual stress and no contentment. - Amazon.com
	Dancing With the Tiger: Learning Sustainability Step by Natural Step (Conscientious Commerce) - Nattrass, Brian and Mary Altomare ~ “This book is mostly case studies of organizations implementing sustainability using ‘The Natural Step’ framework. This time, they are North American examples (Nike, Starbucks, CH2M Hill and Whistler), which may make them more "real" or palatable to US businesses. Each case study goes into the background of the company, the industry, and about some of the things they did and accomplished.”
	The Natural Step for Business: Wealth, Ecology and the Evolutionary Corporation (Conscientious Commerce) - Nattrass, Brian et al ~”Exceptional book describing the background of the Natural Step process but more importantly provides evidence that companies who embrace sustainability in every aspect will be well rewarded for their efforts.”
	Body and Earth: An Experiential Guide - Olsen, Andrea This hands-on guide leads readers on an embodied, bioregional, expressive arts approach to feeling more alive and finding more of their purpose and place. The exercises are excellent and include writing, guided meditation, drawings, walking, moving, breathing and even doing a place scan. Each day focuses on a theme such as “Breath and Voice,” “Art and the Environment,” “Movement,” “Bones,” “Soil,” “Underlying Patterns: A Bioregional Approach,” and “Perception.” This is a treasure of a book for individual practice and educational settings.
	Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production - Ono, Taiichi and Taiichi Ohno ~”Here's the first information ever published in Japan on the Toyota production system (known as Just-In-Time manufacturing). Here Ohno, who created JIT for Toyota, reveals the origins, daring innovations, and ceaseless evolution of the Toyota system into a full management system. You'll learn how to manage JIT from the man who invented it, and to create a winning JIT environment in your own manufacturing operation”.
	Corporate Renaissance: Business as an Adventure in Human Development - Österberg, RolfI n this radical book on business and work, Swedish businessman Rolf Osterberg argues that businesses have their priorities all wrong. Paradoxically, corporations also -- more than any other institution -- have the potential to act as an agent of change toward a human-oriented world. The author explores how the creativity of its employees -- not capital -- is a company's greatest asset; why employee-owned companies are the model for the future; why hierarchies prevent problem-solving; how profit-taking can doom a company; and why setting goals, without an underlying vision, is destructive. - Amazon.com
	Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis - Parenti, Christian ~In this important book, Parenti surveys the rise of the prison industrial complex from the Nixon through Reagan eras and into the present. Why does the United States currently have one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world, with over 1.8 million Americans living behind bars? Why are only 29 percent of all prisoners violent offenders..?
	Healing the Wounds: The Promise of Ecofeminism - Plant, Judith, ed. This superb anthology of ecofeminist essays – from Susan Griffin to Starhawk and beyond – is a wonderful introduction to ecofeminism. The critiques of the patriarchal paradigm and the call for a new vision inform all the intriguing essays of this collection.
	Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice: An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Rain Forest - Plotkin, Mark I read this in my first environmental science class in high school and I still credit it in large part to my interest in exploring classes like Tim Allen's plants and man. The title really says it all, but tangentially this is a fascinating introduction to really how much we are losing due to the ever increasing influence of western culture and the societal dilution that comes in tow with globalization. Despite the excessive title, the book is well written and flows like no book about science I've read since.
	The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World - Pollan, Michae