Since my first round of review were nicely received, I decided to keep going and give people the benefit of all the time I have had to read so many new and wonderful books. This bibliography concentrates on books on the literature related to the environment, including but not limited to: climate change, sustainability, history, biological resources, animal behavior, and other personal growth and development resources. As the green business profession is rapidly changing, we as professionals should take a global view of how inter-related the world is. These are not all bestsellers, but most of these books should be readily available in your local library as that is where I found them.
Dunne, Pete. Prairie Spring: A Journey Into the Heart of a Season. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2009. 274 p.
I must have a secret desire to be a field biologist, but I will make do with reading other people’s accounts. Pete Dunne is a fairly engaging writer and interesting naturalist. Although birds are not my big interest, he writes about the array of wildlife in the plains region that is probably often neglected as a point of interest. I would have liked to see more of his wife’s wonderful photographs of their four month journey, but perhaps she will publish her own photo-essay of that trip. This book dovetails nicely on the Marshall book “The Power of Four” as they visit the site of the Little Big Horn Battle.
Robbins, Mike. Be Yourself Everyone Else is Already Taken: Transform Your Life With the Power of Authenticity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2009. 238 p.
Many of Robbins concepts are basic to the motivational realm. Why is it so important to be yourself? Why do we need to acknowledge our dark side? As Roosevelt so aptly put it, “All we need to fear, is fear itself.” In fact, Robbins has many inspiring quotes that get right to the heart of the issue. And he gives a great reading list of similar books, so very well known already like “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” by Deepak Chopra. These concepts seem so simple and obvious, but most of us need reminding when we fall into the trap and rhythm of everyday living. Robbins tells us why it is so hard in this society to be authentic and how the Five Principles can set you free. As another famous philosopher once said:
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness….Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832
Avery, Tom. To the End of the Earth: Our Epic Journey to the North Pole and the Legend of Peary and Henson. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 2009. 321 p.
More crazy modern day explorers - and so young too! Tom Avery and four others, including one woman, set out to confirm that Robert Peary actually could have reached the North Pole in 1909 with his specialty dog sleds. Avery constructs two of the same type of sled and sets out from Cape Columbia to hit the Pole in 37 days. This may be the last time an expedition team can make the trek given the loss of ice pack due to global warming. Avery is a good raconteur as well as a unique adventurer.
Hawken, Paul. The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability. New York: Harper Collins. 1993. 250 p.
Although first published in 1993, this book has never been so relevant as it is today. “As the therapist wisely counsels: honesty does not harm, dishonesty always does.” Today’s deteriorating culture, environment, and economy are the fruits of decades of corporate dishonesty, a dishonesty that we have created, sanctioned, and supported. We could mourn for all the lost time of the last 16 years since this book was written, or we can realize that at last we have finally started down the road to looking into the mirror and to stop the lying to ourselves that everything will be OK if we just keep on the way we always have.
Fox, Caleb. Zadayi Red. New York: Tom Doherty Associates LLC. 2009. 352 p.
A very fast read of a fantastical world set in pre-historical Native American (Cherokee) life when animal spirit guides communicate with humans, but humans can no longer talk to animals and plants as they once could. Maybe there was a time before humans felt the right to destroy all animals and plants that we all lived in harmony and spoke to one another. A beautifully written story that could easily be made into a motion picture, that is rampant with wonderful shift-changer creatures, and many noble and ignoble humans.
Rushkoff, Douglas. Life, Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back. 2009. New York: Random House. 274 p.
Who doesn’t dislike or hate corporations right now in this miserable economy? But did you know that the money we have been using for centuries has not always been the only currency? And right now places like Japan and the Great Barrington, Massachusetts in the Berkshires are using local money such as Fureai Kippu and Berkshares. Fureai Kippu was developed in the 1995 recession that rocked Japan, but it was so successful that it is still used today. As Rushkoff so clearly says, “Like a new form of life, the corporate culture fights for dominance against the humans who created it. Like a cancer, it is willing to bring down its host organism for the sake of growth.” This goal of corporations is what is killing us and Rushkoff has a few suggestions in the last chapter as to how to take our lives back, although he admits he does not have all the answers. Besides local or complementary currencies, Rushkoff promotes the new barter system employed in many areas to revitalize poor communities such as the South Bronx. And the Middle Ages were not the bad times that some people really has been led to believe, in fact the times before the plague hit were the most prosperous for workers and small businesses until the monarchy decided to seize authority over the issuance of money, which led to corruption by Philip IV and the debasement of the currency. This in turn centralized wealth, made the workers poor, which eventually led to the plague. There is the old saying that, “Those who do not remember history, are doomed to repeat it.”
Thorson, Robert M. Beyond Walden: The Hidden History of America’s Kettle Lakes and Ponds. 2009. New York: Walker & Company. 308 p.
While this is a pretty specific book about kettle ponds and lakes (formed at the glacial fringe), Thorson makes a case for how these lakes, once home to the Native Americans such as the Ojibwe, became loved and tortured to become seriously damaged from pollution. The front end of the story goes into excruciating detail of the geology of how these lakes were formed, but since limnology is such a wide-ranging science the author then goes into the social and commercial history of these types of lakes. Not long ago families grew up around lakes like this, but now that young people suffer from “nature deficit disorder” due to technology, there is understandably a lack of interest in these lakes. Thorson presents some recommendations at the book’s end on how we can reclaim and restore these gems. Lakes may be the last water resort hold out when the ocean shores are inundated from sea level rise.
Janet Palma, AICP
Principal: J. Palma & Associates – March 2009 to present
Treasurer: AEP San Francisco Bay Chapter – 2008 to present
Tags: Bibliography, Books
