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History and Heritage Month Reading Lists

Further suggestions and readings from the library!

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

"It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how."      --Publisher

Cabin: Off-the-grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman

"Wit's End isn't just a state of mind. It's an address, for a run-down off-the-grid cabin, 120 shabby square feet of fixer-upper Patrick Hutchison purchased on a whim in the mossy woods of the Cascade Mountains in Washington state. To say Hutchison didn't know what he was getting into is no more an exaggeration than to say he's a man with nearly zero carpentry skills. Well, used to be. You can learn a lot over 7 years or renovations. CABIN is the story of those renovations, but it's also a love story; of a place, of possibilities, and of the process of renovation, of seeing what could be instead of what is."      --Publisher

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

"Nausicaä, a gentle but strong-willed, young princess, has an empathic bond with the giant insects that evolved as a result of the ecosystem's destruction, as well as other animals. Growing up in the Valley of the Wind, she learned to read the soul of the wind and navigates the skies in her glider. Nausicaä and her allies struggle to create peace between empires battling over the last of the world's precious natural resources." --Publisher

Migrations

"A dark past. An impossible journey. The will to survive. How far you would you go for love? Franny Stone is determined to go to the end of the earth, following the last of the Arctic terns on what may be their final migration to Antarctica. As animal populations plummet and commercial fishing faces prohibition, Franny talks her way onto one of the few remaining boats heading south. But as she and the eccentric crew travel further from shore and safety, the dark secrets of Franny's life begin to unspool." --Publisher
 

The State of Fire: Why California Burns

"How do we live with fire? What makes fire essential to a healthy and biodiverse Golden State, and how do we benefit from its teachings? ...Kaufmann presents fire as a force of regeneration rather than apocalypse. He considers the long history of ecological burns, the varied ways fire behaves across the state, and the lessons we can learn from California’s largest fires of recent decades."         --Publisher

Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources

"Tending the Wild is an examination of the extensive knowledge Native Americans brought to bear in managing California's natural resources and the imprint this management left on the state's landscape. M. Kat Anderson presents a wealth of information gleaned from biological research and historical literature, as well as interviews with California Indians who describe the Old Ways of relating to nature they learned from their parents and grandparents and still practice today." --Publisher

 

From the Popular Reading Room

 

 

Fiction

Nonfiction

Science Fiction/Dystopian

Graphic Novels

 

Environmental Law and Academia