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

June Not Fiction Book Discussion

“The best arguments in the world won't change a person's mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.” Richard Powers, The Overstory

In The Overstory: A Novel by Richard Powers, a paradigm-shifting story of activism and resistance, nine people who know how to listen are brought together by five trees to protest the destruction of our forests.

At the beginning of the book, a woman sits in a park: "A chorus of living wood sings to the woman: If your mind were only a slightly greener thing, we'd drown you in meaning. The pine she leans against says: Listen. There's something you need to hear." Powers brings to life Robin Wall Kimmerer's vision of a communal, reciprocal relationship between people and plants. It is a work of fiction imagined with the help of many works of nonfiction and containing within it a fictional nonfiction work. In a By the Book interview with The New York Times (March 28, 2019), Powers says he has "a large bookshelf devoted to trees and their allies." Powers' research for the novel literally changed his life, leading him to Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains, where he now lives. 

What do you think? Has The Overstory changed your perspective on your place in the natural world and your responsibility to it?

We hope you will join the discussion:

When? Tuesday, June 1, 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 May's selection . . .

 If you enjoyed Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, then you might also like these books suggested by our discussion group members:

• The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry by Wendell Berry
• The New Wilderness: A Novel by Diane Cook
• The Signature of All Things: A Novel by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
• Prodigal Summer: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver
• A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
• The Overstory: A Novel by Richard Powers
• Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
• Language of Landscape by Anne Whiston Spirn