Are you an SEJ member who's authored, co-authored or edited a non-fiction or fiction environmental book (published in 2017) you'd like included on this page? Documentaries are also welcome. 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 image of the book cover (optional)
5. Internet link to more information (optional)

Find links to members' books published in other years here.

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Non-Fiction

 

"Beastly Brains: Exploring How Animals Think, Talk, and Feel"

By Nancy F. Castaldo

In "Beastly Brains," Castaldo delves into the minds of animals and explores animal empathy, communication, tool use and social societies through interviews and historical anecdotes. Young readers will think differently about the animals on this planet — maybe it’s their world and we’re just living in it! Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017. ISBN: 978-0544633353. Visit Nancy at nancycastaldo.com, on Twitter at @NCastaldoAuthor or on Instagram at @naturespeak. More info.

 

 

"The Natural Burial Cemetery Guide"

By Ann Hoffner

You may have heard of a death care alternative called "green burial." "The Natural Burial Cemetery Guide" describes the burial grounds that offer it.​ Now for the first time, you can locate and choose the type of cemetery you want for yourself and your loved ones.​ Dead bodies not hermetically sealed from the earth recycle their nutrients into the soil and help build new life. When disposed of without formaldehyde-based embalming or environmentally unfriendly concrete burial vaults, in a shroud or biodegradable casket, they can be used to protect or reclaim forest or meadow. Cemeteries don't need pesticides and heavy equipment for landscaping; graves can be hidden in the natural setting or marked with just engraved fieldstone memorials.​ ​ ​The book won the 2017 Green Book Festival Wild Card award. It can be purchased in PDF as a complete guide or in one of four regions, Northeast, South, Midwest or West. Green Burial Naturally, 2017. ISBN: 978-0-9895946-0-8. More information.

 

 

"A New Form of Beauty: Glen Canyon Beyond Climate Change"

By Peter Goin and Peter Friederici

In Glen Canyon waters rose, inundating petroglyphs and creating Lake Powell. Now the Colorado River basin is experiencing the longest dry spell in modern history — one that shows alarming signs of becoming the new normal. In "A New Form of Beauty" photographer Peter Goin and writer Peter Friederici tackle science from the viewpoint of art, creating a lyrical exploration in words and photographs, setting Glen Canyon and Lake Powell as the quintessential example of the challenges of perceiving place in a new era of radical change. Through evocative photography and extensive reporting, the two document their visits to the canyon country over a span of many years. By motorboat and kayak, they have ventured into remote corners of the once-huge reservoir to pursue profound questions: What is this place? How do we see it? What will it become? University of Arizona Press, 2017. ISBN: 978-0816531929. More information.

 

 

"Razor Clams: Buried Treasure of the Pacific Northwest"

By David Berger

In this lively history and celebration of the Pacific razor clam, David Berger shares with us his love affair with the glossy, gold-colored Siliqua patula and gets into the nitty-gritty of how to dig, clean, and cook them using his favorite recipes. In the course of his investigation, Berger brings to light the long history of razor clamming as a subsistence, commercial, and recreational activity, its ecological significance, and shows the ways it has helped shape both the identity and the psyche of the Pacific Northwest. Chapters include Native American shellfishing rights and the Boldt decision, surf zone biology, history of the “clam gun” and emergence of new harmful algal blooms (HABs). University of Washington Press, 2017. ISBN 9780295741420 (hardcover; ebook same number ending in 37). More info: 2-minute animated book trailer or on UW Press site.

 

 

"The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth's Newest Age"

By David Biello

In "The Unnatural World," David Biello explores how people have profoundly, pervasively and permanently altered the planet and introduces the reader to a band of pioneering, perhaps unusually optimistic individuals working to save the best home humanity will ever have. These unlikely heroes include a scientist experimenting with farming the ocean to combat climate change, a pigeon-obsessive bent on resurrecting an extinct species and a government functionary in China working to clean up his industrial city. This book is a clear-eyed but hopeful guide to a future Earth in which we choose to remake the world to create a better environment in which people thrive alongside a profusion of plants, animals and all the other life that marks this unique spot in all the universe. Scribner, 2016 (Hardcover); 2017 (Paperback). ISBN: 978-1-4767-4391-2. More information.