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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 may also meet in person at the Lindeman Center (2660 Fawn Lake Dr. NE, East Bethel). 

Upcoming book club meetings

  • January 28, 2026 - Sea Of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie by Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty (who will join in our book club discussion!)
  • February 25, 2026 - Shelter And Storm: At Home in the Driftless by Tamara Dean
  • March 25, 2026 - Tigers Between Empires by Jonathan C. Slaght

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

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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
  74. Sharks Don't Sink, Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist by Jasmine Graham
  75. The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life by Zoe Schlanger
  76. Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard by Douglas W. Tallamy
  77. Fuzz: When Nature Breaks The Law by Mary Roach
  78. Air-Borne, The Hidden History Of The Life We Breathe, by Carl Zimmer
  79. Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test:  How Behavior Evolves and Why It Matters, by UMN Ecology professor Marlene Zuk
  80. The Forest For The Trees: How Humans Shaped The North Woods by Jeff Forester
  81. The Long-Shadowed Forest by Helen Hoover