Earth Day: General Interest
Books to recognize the Earth’s seasons, beauty, living beings, past, and future.
Here are books to recognize the Earth's beauty, darkness, splendor, seasons, living beings, past, and future. From children's picture books to journalistic inquiry and memoir, take in the joys and challenges of living on and living with our planet.
BROWSE:
GENERAL INTEREST
MINNESOTA
SCHOLARLY
FULL COLLECTION
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The Cactus Hunters Desire and Extinction in the Illicit Succulent Trade Jared D. Margulies 2023 Fall
- An exploration of the explosive illegal trade in succulents and the passion that drives it
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Earth, Ice, Bone, Blood Permafrost and Extinction in the Russian Arctic Charlotte Wrigley 2023 Spring
- Exploring one of the greatest potential contributors to climate change—thawing permafrost—and the anxiety of extinction on an increasingly hostile planet
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Big Belching Bog Phyllis Root 2023 Spring
- A quirky romp through the peat bogs of northern Minnesota for young readers
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The Lichen Museum A. Laurie Palmer 2023 Spring
- A radical proposal for how a tiny organism can transform our understanding of human relations
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This Contested Land The Storied Past and Uncertain Future of America’s National Monuments McKenzie Long 2022 Spring
- One woman’s enlightening trek through the natural histories, cultural stories, and present perils of thirteen national monuments, from Maine to Hawaii
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Endlings Fables for the Anthropocene Lydia Pyne 2023 Spring
- Amid the historical decimation of species around the globe, a new way into the language of loss
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Rescue Me On Dogs and Their Humans Margret Grebowicz 2023 Spring
- What exactly is it we want from dogs today?
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On the Wandering Paths Sylvain Tesson 2022 Spring
- A walking journey through France’s vast interior becomes a meditation on both personal recovery and the role of history in the present—more than 425,000 copies sold in France
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Noopiming The Cure for White Ladies Leanne Betasamosake Simpson 2022 Spring
- The new novel from the author of As We Have Always Done, a poetic world-building journey into the power of Anishinaabe life and traditions amid colonialism
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Hudson Bay Bound Two Women, One Dog, Two Thousand Miles to the Arctic Natalie Warren 2022 Spring
- The remarkable eighty-five-day journey of the first two women to canoe the 2,000-mile route from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay
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Animal Revolution Ron Broglio 2022 Spring
- Why our failure to consider the power of animals is to our deep detriment
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The Steger Homestead Kitchen Simple Recipes for an Abundant Life Will Steger and Rita Mae Steger 2021 Fall
- Personal and simple, earthy and warm—recipes and stories from the Steger Wilderness Center in Minnesota’s north woods
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Skiing into the Bright Open My Solo Journey to the South Pole Liv Arnesen 2021 Spring
- The first woman to ski solo to the South Pole tells the story of what it took to get there
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A Private Wilderness The Journals of Sigurd F. Olson Sigurd F. Olson 2021 Spring
- The personal diaries of one of America’s best-loved naturalists, revealing his difficult and inspiring path to finding his voice and becoming a writer
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Begin with a Bee Liza Ketchum, Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Phyllis Root 2021 Spring
- Begin with a Bee and its story of the life of one queen bee, a rusty-patched bumblebee, teaches us not only about bees but also about our own responsibilities in the natural world
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The Perennial Kitchen Simple Recipes for a Healthy Future Beth Dooley 2021 Spring
- Recipes and resources connect thoughtfully grown, gathered, and prepared ingredients to a healthy future—for food, farming, and humankind
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Watershed Attending to Body and Earth in Distress Ranae Lenor Hanson 2021 Spring
- A personal health crisis, stories from environmental refugees, and our climate in danger prompt a meditation on intimate connections between the health of the body and the health of the ecosystem
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An Ecotopian Lexicon Matthew Schneider-Mayerson and Brent Ryan Bellamy, Editors 2019 Fall
- Presents thirty novel terms that do not yet exist in English to envision ways of responding to the environmental challenges of our generation
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Standing with Standing Rock Voices from the #NoDAPL Movement Nick Estes and Jaskiran Dhillon, Editors 2019 Spring
- Dispatches of radical political engagement from people taking a stand against the Dakota Access Pipeline
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The Lost Forest Phyllis Root 2019 Spring
- The story of a forest “lost” by a surveying error—and all the flora and fauna to be found there
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Hush Hush, Forest Mary Casanova 2018 Fall
- Lyrical words and elegant woodcuts capture the quiet beauty of the forest as day fades to night and autumn gives way to the North Woods winter
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Searching for Minnesota’s Native Wildflowers A Guide for Beginners, Botanists, and Everyone in Between Phyllis Root 2018 Spring
- A beautifully illustrated, family-friendly guide to Minnesota’s native wildflowers and how to find them
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The Right to Be Cold One Woman’s Fight to Protect the Arctic and Save the Planet from Climate Change Sheila Watt-Cloutier 2018 Spring
- A “courageous and revelatory memoir” (Naomi Klein) chronicling the life of the leading Indigenous climate change, cultural, and human rights advocate
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Onigamiising Seasons of an Ojibwe Year Linda LeGarde Grover 2017 Fall
- Fifty short essays evoke the four seasons of the year, and of life, for the Ojibwe in northeastern Minnesota
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Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Heather Anne Swanson, Elaine Gan and Nils Bubandt, Editors 2017 Spring
- Can humans and other species continue to inhabit the earth together?
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Creekfinding A True Story Jacqueline Briggs Martin 2017 Spring
- An enchanting picture book about restoring a creek, with all the wildlife it once hosted, in a farm field in Iowa. Ages 4-9.
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Against Purity Living Ethically in Compromised Times Alexis Shotwell 2016 Fall
- Why contamination and compromise might be a starting point for doing something, instead of a reason to give up
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One North Star A Counting Book Phyllis Root 2016 Fall
- Who lives here under one north star?
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If Bees Are Few A Hive of Bee Poems 2016 Spring
- An anthology of 2,500 years of poetry, from Sappho to Sherman Alexie, humming with bees, at a moment when the beloved honey makers and pollinators are in danger of disappearing
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Wake Up, Island Mary Casanova 2016 Spring
- In a picture book for all ages, lyrical language and elegant woodcuts celebrate the waking natural world on a North Woods island
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Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings Mary Siisip Geniusz 2015 Spring
- The first complete resource for the practical use of plants in the Anishinaabe culture and the stories that surround them
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Water and What We Know Following the Roots of a Northern Life Karen Babine 2015 Spring
- Personal essays exploring the link between natural history and memory, landscape and identity, place and meaning
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The Price of Thirst Global Water Inequality and the Coming Chaos Karen Piper 2014 Fall
- Imagine a world where water is only for those who can afford it. We’re already there.
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Goodnight Loon Abe Sauer 2015 Spring
- A charming retelling of a children's classic in a distinctly northwoods voice
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Plant a Pocket of Prairie Phyllis Root 2014 Spring
- An inspiring children’s book about the endangered prairie ecosystem and how we can help restore it
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The Three-Minute Outdoorsman Wild Science from Magnetic Deer to Mumbling Carp Robert M. Zink 2014 Spring
- Curious facts and fascinating insights into nature from scientist outdoorsman Bob Zink
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Hyperobjects Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World Timothy Morton 2013 Fall
- The world as we know it has already come to an end
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Vampyroteuthis Infernalis A Treatise, with a Report by the Institut Scientifique de Recherche Paranaturaliste Vilém Flusser and Louis Bec 2012 Fall
- Pondering the human condition while examining the vampire squid from hell
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Biogea Michel Serres 2012 Fall
- Presents a philosophy that merges the humanities with all creation
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Wilderness Days Sigurd F. Olson 2012 Spring
- A selection of Sigurd F. Olson’s finest writing on the splendor of the great outdoors, hand-picked by the master himself
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Memory of Trees A Daughter’s Story of a Family Farm Gayla Marty 2013 Spring
- An evocative memoir of life on a dairy farm in Minnesota’s St. Croix Valley
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When Species Meet Donna J. Haraway 2007 Fall
- Whom do we touch when we touch a dog? How does this touch shape our multispecies world?
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Great Wolf and the Good Woodsman Helen Hoover 2005 Fall
- A classic story with a message of peace, tolerance, and kindness—illustrated by Betsy Bowen
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A Plague of Frogs Unraveling an Environmental Mystery William Souder 2002 Fall
- An alarming account of the effects of environmental degradation-now in paperback for the first time!