GARNA Book Club

Deepen Your Connection Through Eco-Lit Discussions

Joining an earth-centered book club lets you explore environmental issues through diverse voices, fostering a deeper connection to nature and inspiring action through thought-provoking discussions.

Examining topics like road ecology, walking as a mindful practice, climate change, water management, and the wisdom of trees will broaden your perspective and empower you to be a better steward of the planet.

2024 Book Club Reads

Oct - Dec A Place Unmade by Carla Seyler. Meeting Dec 4, with the discussion led by the author! 6pm. Location likely at the Valley View School House!

July - Sept - Fireweather by John Vaillant Meeting September 9. 6pm at Elevation Beer

April - June - Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science, by Jessica Hernandez Meeting July 15th at Howard General

Jan – Mar – Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb

2023 Book Club Reads

In 2023 we hosted a “Year to Walk” with the Salida Walking Club

A Walking Life: Reclaiming Our Health and Our Freedom One Step at a Time by Antonia Malchik

52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time by Annabel Streets

WALK – Slow Down, Wake Up and Connect at 1-3 Miles Per Hour by Jonathon Stalls.

Prior Year's Books

2022

Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert
Where the Water Goes by David Owen
Trees and Other Witnesses by Kathy Taylor

2021

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

2019

September 3 – River Notes: The Dance of
Herons by Barry Lopez.
August 6 – Desert Notes:
Reflections in a Raven’s Eye by Barry Lopez. .
Tuesday, July 2 – The Nature Fix, by Florence Williams.
*Author Florence Williams will speak at GARNA’s Nurturing Nature Gala on July 7, taking place at the Barn at Sunset Ranch in Buena Vista.
Tuesday, June 4 – The Overstory, by Richard Powers.

2018

July 3 – Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change, by George Marshall.
June 5 – The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth’s History by David Beerling.
May 1 – Farmacology: Total Health from the Ground Up by Daphne Miller.
April 3 – Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben.
March 6 – The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan.
February 6 – Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect That Shaped the American Frontier, by Jeffrey A. Lockwood.
January 9 – Wildness: Relations of People and Place, edited by Gavin Van Horn and John Hausdoerffer.

2017

December – Arctic Dreams, By Barry Lopez.
November – The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben.
October – A Hole in the Wind: A Climate Scientist’s Bicycle Journey Across the United States, by David Goodrich.
September – The Soul of an Octopus; A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery.
August – The Thing with Feathers by Noah Strycker.
July – The Planet in a Pebble, by Jan Zalasiewicz.
June – Grass, Soil, Hope by Courtney White with a forward by Michael Pollan.
May – Half Earth by E.O. Wilson.
April – The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild by Lyanda Lynn Haupt.
March – Rising From the Plains, by John McPhee.
February – Mother Nature is Trying to Kill You: A Lively Tour Through the Dark Side of the Natural World, by Dan Riskin Ph.D.
January – All the Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner and the American West, by David Gessner.

2016

January – The Animal Dialogues, by Craig Childs
February – The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water, by Charles Fishman
March – The End of Plenty: The Race to Feed a Crowded World, by Joel K. Bourne, Jr.
April – The One Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming by Masanobu Fukuoka.
May – House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest, by Craig Childs
June – The New Wild by Fred Pearce
July – Song of the Alpine, by Joyce Gelhorn
August – Marking the Sparrow’s Fall: The Making of the American West, fifteen essays by Wallace Stegner
September – The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman
October – Underground: How Creatures of Mud and Dirt Shape our World by Yvonne Baskin
November – The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and its Peoples, by Tim Flannery
December – The Log from the Sea of Cortez, by John Steinbeck

2015

February – Silent Spring by Rachel Carlson
March – Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants, by Jane Goodall
April – The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
May – The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins
June – Anthill, by E. O. Wilson
July – The Invisible History of the Human Race, by Christine Kenneally
August – Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment and the Human Prospect, by David W. Orr
September – Cities in the Wilderness: A New Vision of Land Use in America , by Bruce Babbitt
October – Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Phillip Connors
November – Sweetness and Light: The Mysterious History of the Honeybee, by Hattie Ellis
December – Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival, by Bernd Heinrich

2014

June – Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins
July – A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold
August – Moby Duck, by Donovan Hohn
September – Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier, by Edward Glaeser
October – Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Release 2.0 by Thomas L. Friedman (November 2009)
November – Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose–Doing Business by Respecting the Earth by Ray Anderson
December – Desert Wife by Hilda Faunce