Are you an SEJ member who's authored, co-authored or edited a non-fiction or fiction environmental book (published in 2010) you'd like included on this page? Please send the following to web content manager Cindy MacDonald:

1. a one-paragraph description
2. name of publisher and year of publication
3. ISBN number
4. .gif or .jpg cover image (optional)
5. Internet link to more information (optional) 

Members' books published in: 2009, 2008, 2007 and earlier.

Advertise your 2009 or 2010 environmental book in the book-review pages of our quarterly newsletter SEJournal. For only $48 for four issues, keep your book title in front of the membership and subscribers for one full year. Download a form to fax or mail (requires free Adobe Reader ®). SEJ members only.

Non-Fiction

The Disappearing Spoon and Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World; From the Periodic Table of the Elements

By Sam Kean

Why did Gandhi hate iodine (I, 53)? Why did the Japanese kill Godzilla with missiles made of cadmium (Cd, 48)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie’s reputation? And why did tellurium (Te, 52) lead to the most bizarre gold rush in history? The Periodic Table is one of our crowning scientific achievements, but it’s also a treasure trove of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The fascinating tales in The Disappearing Spoon follow carbon, neon, silicon, gold, and every single element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, conflict, the arts, medicine, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. Why did a little lithium help cure poet Robert Lowell of his madness? And how did gallium (Ga, 31) become the go-to element for laboratory pranksters? The Disappearing Spoon has the answers, fusing science with the classic lore of invention, investigation, discovery, and alchemy, from the Big Bang through the end of time. Little, Brown, 2010. ISBN-10: 0316051640 ISBN-13: 978-0316051644. More information. Sam Kean's website.

Do One Green Thing: Saving the Earth Through Simple, Everyday Choices

By Mindy Pennybacker

If you can only read and reference one green thing, make it this book: an easily comprehensible, clearly presented source for green living. Everything you need to know is right here at your fingertips. Unlike a lot of other overwhelming green guides on the market, this is green decision-making in bite sized pieces. With chose it/lose it comparisons throughout, now it's simple to figure out it's worth switching to a green detergent, what kind of plastic your sports bottle is made of, or which fish is safest to eat. Rather than spending time trying to figure out how best to go green, use this book and devote that time to making the difference. By Mindy Pennybacker, ex-editor-in-chief of The Green Guide and co-founder of the affiliated website, with foreword by Meryl Streep. This book grew out of Pennybacker's longstanding commitment to answering readers' questions about green living. St. Martin's Griffin/Thomas Dunne Books, 2010. ISBN 978-0-312-55976-2. More information.

Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service

By Mark Pendergrast

Inside the Outbreaks is a history of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, whose shoeleather epidemiologists are the front-line disease detectives of the CDC. The EIS has investigated every disease imaginable, from polio and malaria to AIDS and Ebola. As Lawrence Altman has written in the New York Times: "Since its creation in 1951, the Epidemic Intelligence Service has become a bulwark in the nation's defense system against disease, often acting as the public's emergency room. Its doctors have helped identify Legionnaires' disease, Lyme disease, and toxic shock syndrome from superabsorbent tampons; stop outbreaks of diphtheria and other diseases before they could spread uncontrollably; discover the deadly Ebola and Lassa viruses; and trace paralyzing cases of polio to defective batches of the Salk vaccine. Other E.I.S. investigations have led the Food and Drug Administration to remove potentially lethal products from the market. Indeed, the E.I.S. 'may have saved your life, though you were probably unaware of it,' Mark Pendergrast writes in his new book, Inside the Outbreaks, the first history of the program.” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. ISBN 978-0-15-101120-9. More information.

Fiction

Human Scale

By Kitty Beer

Kitty Beer's new novel, Human Scale, is coming out in April in honor of Earth Day. It's a sequel to What Love Can't Do (2006), the first novel to portray the human consequences of climate change. Boston is mostly under water, seasons have gone haywire, and regional enclaves compete for essential resources. Vita battles to save her daughter from the decrees of the ruling theocracy. At the same time she must confront her husband’s allegiance to authority, and struggle with her attraction to an enigmatic spy. A fully realized, compelling world, conveyed with powerful, lyrical imagery and deep psychological insight. Plain View Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-935514-42-8. More information. Related information.