Readalikes: If you liked September's selection . . .

If you enjoyed Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs, then you might also enjoy these books and film recommended by our discussion group members:

• The Moon by Whale Light: And Other Adventures Among Bats, Penguins, Crocodilians, and Whales by Diane Ackerman
• The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization by Vince Beiser
• The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey
• Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
• The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery
• A Whale for the Killing by Farley Mowat
• The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World by Patrik Svensson
• The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant
• My Octopus Teacher documentary by Craig Foster

September Not Fiction Book Discussion

"There is a kind of hauntedness in wild animals today: a spectre related to environmental change ... Our fear is that the unseen spirits that move in them are ours."

From the vastness of the stars we turn to the depth of the oceans and their largest inhabitants with the poetically written and deeply reported Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs, winner of the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction and the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and shortlisted for the Stella Prize. How do whales experience environmental change? Has our connection to these animals been transformed by technology? What future awaits us, and them? Fathoms blends natural history, philosophy, and science to explore these questions. 

Giggs writes about how people feel toward animals in a time of ecological crisis and technological change. What do you think? Why do we seek out encounters with other animals? What are our obligations to other animals? 

We hope you will join the discussion:

When and Where?

Tuesday, September 7, at 6:30 p.m. virtually on CCPL's Zoom server. Here is a link to register for the September meeting: 

Hi there, 

You are invited to a Zoom meeting. 

When: Sep 7, 2021 06:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) 

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYqceisqjkvGdQlXPa0Wx5dyNGMbiuz9u5K 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Readalikes: If you liked August's selection . . .

If you enjoyed The Human Cosmos: Civilization and the Stars by Jo Marchant, then you might also like these books, radio shows, television shows, and documentaries recommended by our discussion group members:

Books

Nightfall by Isaac Asimov

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe by Brian Greene

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan

Cosmos and Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan

Radio shows

StarTalk Radio hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson

TV shows and documentaries

StarTalk television series hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage television series written and produced by Carl Sagan

One Strange Rock television series hosted by Will Smith

Overview short documentary directed by Guy Reid

August Not Fiction Book Discussion

With The Human Cosmos: Civilization and the Stars by Jo Marchant, we turn our attention from the underland to the heavens. Marchant's interest is broader than mathematical astronomy. She is interested in a cosmology that is human-centered, that "describe[s] the broad philosophical and spiritual endeavor to make sense of existence, to ask who we are, where we are, and why we're here." She tells twelve stories that show how people have seen the heavens over time, from prehistoric times to the virtual future, myth to science, with the goal of encouraging us to once again look up with awe and feel connected to the universe.

What do you think? Is it possible to reintegrate subjective meaning into our scientific understanding of the cosmos? What would that look like?

We hope you will join the discussion:

When? Tuesday, August 3, at 6:30 p.m.

Where? We will meet virtually on CCPL's Zoom server. Here is a link to register for the August meeting:

Hi there, 

You are invited to a Zoom meeting. 

When: Aug 3, 2021 06:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) 

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYqceisqjkvGdQlXPa0Wx5dyNGMbiuz9u5K 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Readalikes: If you liked July's selection . . .

If you enjoyed Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane, then you might also enjoy these books recommended by our discussion group members:

• The Findings Trilogy (Findings, Sightlines, and Surfacing) by Kathleen Jamie
• The Human Cosmos: Civilization and the Stars by Jo Marchant
• Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
• The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland by Nan Shepherd

July Not Fiction Book Discussion

The way into the underland is through the riven trunk of an old ash tree. . . . Its crown flourishes skywards into weather. Its long boughs lean low around. Its roots reach far underground. . . . Near the ash's base its trunk splits into a rough rift, just wide enough that a person might slip into the tree's hollow heart--and there drop into the dark space that opens below.

So begins Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane, a smooth yet portentous transition from last month's book, The Overstory by Richard Powers, into a multifaceted exploration of the Earth's underworlds through myth, art and literature, anthropology, and science. Macfarlane notes that "[t]he same three tasks recur across cultures and epochs: to shelter what is precious, to yield what is valuable, and to dispose of what is harmful." It is this "deep time" perspective which gives urgency to his exploration because he asks us to consider, "Are we being good ancestors to the future earth?"

A book discussion member said, "This book has provided me with an entirely new way of thinking about the underground. . . . every step I take on the grass seems like it's a roof to somewhere else and every subway journey hits a bit differently now." What do you think? Has Underland given you a new perspective on our collective fears and loves and the shared responsibility of being good ancestors?

We hope you will join the discussion:

When? Tuesday, July 6, at 6:30 p.m.

Where? We will meet virtually on CCPL's Zoom server. Here is a link to register for the June meeting: 

Hi there, 

You are invited to a Zoom meeting. 

When: Jun 1, 2021 06:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) 

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYqceisqjkvGdQlXPa0Wx5dyNGMbiuz9u5K 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Readalikes: If you enjoyed June's selection . . .

If you enjoyed The Overstory by Richard Powers, then you might also enjoy the following books and films suggested by a variety of readers and reviewers.

In a review for Booklist (March 7, 2018), Donna Seaman lists some classic works of ecofiction, including the following:

• The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
• A Friend of the Earth by T. C. Boyle
• The Living by Annie Dillard
• The Tree-Sitter by Suzanne Matson
• The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman
• The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass
• Barkskins by Annie Proulx
• At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier

In the DC Swarthmore Book Group Blog, Professor Bolton notes two works of nonfiction and two documentaries that he says inspired Powers' novel:

• The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
• The Legacy of Luna by Julia Butterfly Hill
• Intelligent Trees (documentary)
• If a Tree Falls (documentary)

In a By the Book (March 28, 2019) interview with the New York Times, Powers says he read over 120 books about trees and mentions several:

• A Natural History of North American Trees by Donald Culross Peattie, 
• Magnificent Trees of the New York Botanical Garden by Todd A. Forrest
• To Speak for the Trees: My Life's Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest by Diana Beresford-Kroeger

And our discussion group members suggested the following titles:

• Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard, on whom the character of Patricia is based
• The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
• Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty
• Serena and In the Valley by Ron Rash