What would summer be without great books to read, new movies to watch and even podcasts to explore? We’re happy to share these recommendations from JCAN NYC members.
Ace Leveen
Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson’s new book, Climate Wayfinding, includes stories, poems, playlists and art to help heal ourselves and the planet. Ace also suggests A Matter of Degrees, a podcast co-hosted by Drs. Wilkinson and Leah Stokes, who tell stories about the powerful forces behind climate change–and the tools we have to fix it.
Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know is a dystopian novel that takes place in England in 2119, a time after climate change and nuclear disasters have reshaped the planet. “It is about a number of things: love, the past but also a very imaginative nod toward our world 100 years from now.”
Bob Schloss
Time and Water, a poignant documentary directed by Academy Award nominee Sara Dosa. It follows Icelandic writer and poet Andri Snær Magnason as he meditates on the rapid disappearance of Iceland's glaciers. Following its theatrical run, the film is set to air on the National Geographic channel and stream on Disney +.
Ben Orlove
Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel about Our Changing Planet, by Kate Marvel (a climate scientist). Chapter titles are wonder, anger, guilt, fear, grief, surprise, pride, hope, love.
Michelle Friedman
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer - a lyrical plea for respect and mutuality between people and the natural world. The author, a Native American herself as well as a plant biologist, presents a series of beautiful essays that braid Western biology and Indigenous traditions with the overall theme that nature is a gift to be appreciated rather than an opportunity to exploit.
Hope Jahren’s Lab Girl is a wonderful memoir by a geobiologist who shares childhood and adult stories of how she came to love and explore the natural world, her life as a woman scientist and wonderful observations about biological facts.
The Overstory by Richard Powers - an absorbing novel that connects the lives of 9 seeming strangers who share a deep concern for trees and environmental activism.
Wendy Seligson
Divine Corners by Michelle Friedman, outgoing JCAN NYC Steering Committee member - In her newly published memoir, Michelle weaves together hair-raising stories of her parents’ wartime survival with vivid memories of life on the farm in Divine Corners, a remote, wooded Borscht Belt hamlet. Her unflinching yet loving inquiry explores Jewish identity, resilience, and what makes one person break while another survives. In the woods surrounding the farm, one sees the roots of Michelle’s love of the natural environment.