QEW’s Favorite Books
We asked QEW members to share their favorite books. Happy reading!
Books to Read for These Times:
Climate: A New Story by Charles Eisenstein. “How changing the ‘climate’ of our thinking and rhetoric can influence how we deal with physical climate change.”
The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. “About empathy/race/environmental justice/pandemics/social change, and a vision of the Seed (almost Quaker, but not quite).” – David Millar, Montreal (QC Canada) Monthly Meeting
Project Drawdown by Paul Hawken. “It is the most amazing resource for anyone interested in climate change.” – Liz Robinson, Central Philadelphia (PA) Monthly Meeting
Climate Church, Climate World by Jim Antal. “This book should appeal to all faith communities and has questions for group discussion.” – Jeff Gabbard, Fairfield (IN) Friends Meeting
Katherine Fisher, Beacon Hill (MA) Friends Meeting, also shares that “The Parents’ Guide to Climate Revolution: 100 Ways to Build a Fossil-Free Future, Raise Empowered Kids, and Still Get a Good Night’s Sleep by Mary DeMocker has really helped me.”
Transformational Earthcare Books:
Renewable by Eileen Flanagan
The Great Work by Thomas Berry. “He frames Earthcare within the context of an unfolding universe; he speaks of both the need for intimacy and the biggest transition that our living world is facing in millions of years. He paints a breathtakingly big and very compelling picture of the work we face.” – Pamela Haines, Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting
Population Bomb by Paul Ehrlich. “He gave the sermon at Stanford University Memorial Church in 1965 when I was a beginning graduate student. It gave me a lifetime concern for human over-population on Earth” – Judy Lumb, Atlanta (GA) Friends
Sunset Western Garden Book. “This book showed me that I could care for the earth in a very hands-on way. I first saw it as a child in the ’50s. We can all put our hands in the soil and care for and improve the soil, plants, and whole local eco-system” – Catya de Neergaard, Berkeley (CA) Friends Meeting
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. “Its emphasis on reciprocity. Never thought of that before reading this. She writes beautifully, and is a botanist, and Haudenosaunee.” – Sylvia Mangalam, Halifax (NS Canada) Monthly Meeting. Shelley Tanenbaum agrees, “Kimmerer spoke in words what is in my heart.”
The Transition Handbook. “It gave me the tools to engage others so that I wasn’t doing things on my own, but in my community.” – Carol Barta, Manhattan (KS) Monthly Meeting
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey, and Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams. “All three are examples of people loving deeply and seeing clearly the place where they live. I believe that developing a sense of place and recognizing, feeling, the human-earth connections is essential for the future of our planet. All three books awakened in me the search for how to live a deep ecology life.” – Ruah Swennerfelt, Middlebury (VT) Friends Meeting.
