These are some books that are fun to read and talk about! If you read them too, we’d sure like it if you came back here to talk with us about the ideas and questions that they raise.
Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature
by Jon Young, Ellen Haas, and Evan McGown
Eight Directions Towards Wild Knowledge
From the crew at the Wilderness Awareness School, this book is designed to help mentors, so it’s a guide for those who guide others towards a deeper connection to nature. It’s full of games, activities, resources, and stories that will expand your awareness and multiply your joy. We steal a lot of stuff from it.
Arboretum America
by Diana Beresford-Kroeger
Basically, nobody loves trees more than Diana. This is a source of much rare and wonderful knowledge about the major tree families of this continent, with everything from medicine, to history, to cultivation advice. Her idea of the bioplan is a form of permaculture based on natural forest communities, but is guided and cultivated by humans for their nourishment and health. Towards a tree-centric worldview!
Global Forest
by Diana Beresford-Kroeger
This is a series of stories inspired by the old Celtic storytelling traditions, where each one explores one aspect of the deeply interconnected and various forest communities worldwide, which Diana calls the Global Forest. Excellent for bedtime stories.
Trees of the Carolinian Forest
by Gerry Waldron
This book is a stunningly complete and definitive guide to the native tree species of the carolinian forest. Gerry’s really into the idea of restoration, and so he provides information about how each tree species can be useful for that goal. The book also has some interesting essays about restoration and the various niches and communities that exist in the carolinian. Although he doesn’t give cedar trees the respect they deserve, this is a kickass book.
People of the Pines
by Geoffrey York and Loreen Pindera
Subtitled “The Warriors and Legacy of Oka”, this book offers a thorough description of the resistance to the destruction of the sacred pine forest by the Mohawk people of Kanesatake and their warrior allies from throughout the Mohawk nation.
Wild and Free: Food in Toronto
This is a lil zine published (as far as we can tell) anonymously by some wonderful person in Toronto. It is an extremely beautiful and detailed guide to some of the most common, delicious, and medicinally useful weeds that push up from the Toronto streets. There’s no contact info in it, but maybe look for it on zinelibrary.info, or drop us a line and we can try and hook you up with a copy.
The Last Stand
by Peter Kelly and Douglas Larson
The last remaining old growth forest in southern ontario can be found along the niagara escarpment, untouched thanks to vertical precarity of the limestone cliffs. This book is a beautiful tribute to the few twisted, ancient white cedars that have stood over this land for more than a thousand years. Also a great guide to the escarpment cliff-face ecosystem.
Into the Forest
by Jean Hegland
In this novel, two sisters live in their family cabin out in the woods as industrial civilization collapses beyond the trees. It happens slowly, and slowly they become more isolated and self-reliant, learning to depend on the land and on eachother. How good this book is, we can hardly even say.
Days of War, Nights of Love
Classic Crimethinc from back in the day. This is a book about living uncompromisingly, daringly, with hearts full of love and rage and curiosity. It is an empassioned callout to no longer wait for the better world, but to go out and create it with our bodies, hearts and minds. Contains some dangerously practical advice for doing so. If you have never read this book, go to crimethinc.com and do so.
500 Years of Indigenous Resistance Comic Book
by Gord Hill
There are a lot of myths about the colonization of north america, and one of the big ones is that the native peoples just sort of got hopelessly overwhelmed or just dissapeared somehow. Well, this book explodes that idea. From the very first incursion by aggressive european settlers, Indigenous Peoples across this landmass have been actively fighting back to defend their communities and land. Now in a comic book!
The Fifth Sacred Thing
by Starhawk
A glowing vision of spiritual, eco-utopia exists alongside a starkly dystopic remnant of this current culture. What happens when they collide? And what would the governance of a non-hierarchical, land-based culture look like anyway?
Get Into the Forest Again
This is a zine by a friend of ours about his experiences with keeping a sit-spot for a year. He is a very wise and knowledgeable person who put a lot of his learning at our disposal. This short zine is a fine introduction to a simple yet profound technique for deepening yer connection to the land. Say hi to him at squirrelhandys @ yahoo.ca
Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson
The success and popularity of this book is probably a result of the perfect blend of storytelling, discussion, and stark messages of doom. Rachel Carson was one of the first to bravely dismiss ‘authority’ and ask the question of whether a civilization waging relentless war of life has lost the right to call themselves civilized at all. Do you know the entwined history of the Elm and the songbird? We suggest falling in love with chapters 7&8.
Knowing the Land is Resistance 