Looking for a great book to add to your summer reading list? We asked our newsletter subscribers for their top picks. Here are recommendations from six JCAN NYC stalwarts: Michelle Friedman, Ace Levine, Rachel Landsberg, Lori Robinson, Wendy Seligson, and Jessi Thompson
Michelle Friedman calls To the End of the Land by the prominent Israeli author David Grossman “a beautiful if heartbreaking book about Israel, parenthood and missed opportunities.”
Rachel Landsberg suggests Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Rachel notes that the chapter on gratitude had particular resonance for her as a Jew with our rich tradition of expressing gratitude in both our everyday lives as well as on holidays and during life-cycle events.
Ace Levine offers three recommendations:
In Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet, the great and gentle teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, z"l, along with Sister True Dedication, offers comfort and motivation for our climate work.
A number of rabbis and educators active on climate have written short essays on the work ahead of us in The Sacred Earth: Jewish Perspectives on Our Planet.
In The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson imagines concrete actions that can help stop the climate crisis or at least begin mitigating what we have wrought.
Lori Robinson touts Nature’s Best Hope by Douglas Tallamy, for its insights into how an urban space can support nature.
Wendy Seligson recommends Dave Robert’s newsletter and podcast Volts, which tracks on-the-ground scalable solutions. Wendy notes that it’s a great way to quickly get a sense of the interesting work people are doing on decarbonization.
Jessi Thompson applauds Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit, which she found especially relevant to our work as activists. Solnit talks about hope being an active choice, not a blind state of optimism. Jessi also loved The Overstory by Richard Powers, which speaks to the interconnectedness of all life. She writes, “The way Powers evokes the beauty and profundity of the natural world is just gorgeous.”