Ecology book club
Are you interested in our impact on planet earth? The web of life? Climate change? Nature? Ecology? If so, this book club is the place for you! Join us as we continue our journey of lifelong learning! The Ecology Book Club is run by Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteers and meets online each month on Zoom. We generally meet on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. on Zoom. Register for Zoom link.
If prompted, the password is Cedar123. A few times a year, they also meet in person at the Lindeman Center (2660 Fawn Lake Dr. NE, East Bethel).
Upcoming book club meetings
- December 4, 2024 (NOTE DATE CHANGE to account for Nov/Dec holidays) - Sharks Don't Sink, Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist, by Jasmine Graham
- January 22, 2025 - The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life, by Zoe Schlanger
- February 26, 2025 - Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard, by Douglas W. Tallamy
Book selections
Books are selected by the club members, and no scientific expertise or background is necessary to participate. You don't even need to have finished the book!
Submit a book suggestion
Book club origins
The Ecology Book Club was originally developed as a capstone project for a group of Cedar Creek Master Naturalists in 2017. Since then, it has grown into a lively group that meets monthly to discuss and dissect books related to environmental issues. Fiction, non-fiction, heavy, light — we read it all!
Past books
1. For Love of Lakes, Darby Nelson
2. Silent Spring, Rachel Carson
3. The World Without Us, Alan Weisman
4. Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
5. The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben
6. Half Earth, Edward O. Wilson
7. The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert
8. Conservation On The Northern Plains, (Essays) Various authors
9. The Rambunctious Garden, Emma Marris
10. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, Dan Egan
11. Last Child In the Woods, Richard Louv
12. The Nature Fix, Florence Williams
13. A Love Affair With Birds, Sue Leaf
14. Climate; A New Story, Charles Eisenstein
15. A Naturalist At Large, Bernd Heinrich
16. The Moth Snowstorm, Michael McCarthy
17. Bringing Home Nature, Douglas W. Tallamy
18. The Wizard and the Prophet, Charles C. Mann
19. Deep Woods, Wild Waters, Douglas Wood
20. The New Wild, Fred Pearce
21. Listening Point, Sigurd Olson
22. Our Native Bees, Page Embry
23. Mama's Last Hug, Frans De Waal
24. The Secret Wisdom of Nature, Peter Wohlleben
25. Vulture, Kate Fallon
26. The Overstory, Richard Powers
27. Wild and Rare, Adam Regn Arvidson
28. Wild Trees, Richard Preston
29. Rising, Elizabeth Rush
30. A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold
31. The Big Marsh, Cheri Register
32. Tales Of a Shaman's Apprentice, Mark Plotkin
33. The Life of Newton Horace Winchell, Sue Leaf
34. Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake
35. Life In the Treetops, Margaret D. Lowman
36. The Amazon, Mark Plotkin
37. Gathering Moss, Robin Wall Kimmerer
38. The Myth of Human Supremacy, Derrick Jensen
39. Beyond Words, Carl Safina
40. Wolf Island, L. David Mech
41. Underland, Robert McFarlane
42. Origins; How the Earth Shaped Human History, Lewis Dartnell
43. The Nature of Oaks, Douglas W. Tallamy
44. Life's Edge, Carl Zimmer
45. This Is Your Mind On Plants, Michael Pollan
46. The Language of Butterflies, Wendy Williams
47. Owls of the Eastern Ice, Jonathan Slaght
48. The Book of Hope, Jane Goodall
49. The Marsh Builders, Sharon Levy
50. Finding the Mother Tree, Suzanne Simard
51. The Insect Crisis, Oliver Millman
52. Upstream, Mary Oliver
53. A World Without Soil, Jo Handelsman
54. Bright Green Future, Swartz & Cohen
55. Endless Forms, Seirian Suummer
56. Critters, Creeks, Neighbors and Woods, Carol Urness
57. South Pole Station ,Ashley Shelby
58. The Forest Unseen, David George Haskell
59. An Immense World, Ed Yong
60. The Wild Life Of Our Bodies, Rob Dunn
61. Summer World, Bernd Heinrich
62. Whole Brain Living, Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.
63. The Secret Life Of Bats, Merlin Tuttle
64. The Journeys Of Trees, Zach St. George
65. The Power Of Trees, Peter Wohlleben
66. When The Sahara Was Green, Martin Williams
67. The Sloth Lemur's Song, Alison Richard
68. Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping The Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb
69. Platypus Matters: The Extraordinary Story of Australian Mammals by Jack Ashby
70. Impermanence: Life & Loss on Superior’s South Shore by Sue Leaf
71. Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell by Sy Montgomery and Matt Patterson
72. Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature's Secrets to Longevity by Nicklas Brendborg
73. The Monarch Migration by Monica Maeckle