by Wangari Maathai – $15.00

Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and founding member of The Green Belt Movement in Africa, has written a book about the connections between spirituality and the earth. She uses many religions and parables to give the reader a compact history of this relationship. She gives special attention to the role that trees have traditionally played in religious ceremonies.

The author makes the point that spirituality and activism make a great team and much must be done to save our planet Earth from being greedily ravished for profit. Maathai asks her readers to work together, using self-empowerment, to develop peace, spirituality and activism.

She also sees the following as goals for all peoples: (a) commitment to service; (b) responding to the call to serve; and (c) gratitude and respect.

By Diana Beresford-Kroeger – $32.50

The first sentence of the introduction draws the reader in to the author’s world:

‘The landscape of my youth was an Irish one. The fields were filled with the brilliant chrome yellow of furze.’

Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a botanist and medical biochemist, which means she is an expert in the medicinal, nutritional and environmental properties of trees.

‘The Global Forest’ is a beautifully written collection of essays about a variety of the scientific facts, folklore, and environmental importance of trees and forests. Reading this book provides a gentle and compelling opportunity to learn about trees and their connection to the interconnected lives of people and the planet.

Each chapter is complete and lovely in its own right and yet the words, which dance across the pages, leave the reader hungering for more information.

For example, the chapter on Hedgerows describes them as living continuations of the forest. Hedgerows are seen, especially in Europe, wherever there is agriculture and they act as corridors of life and boundaries for farmers’ fields. One can’t read this chapter and not want to sit beside a hedgerow and stare at the life that teams within it.

In the chapter on the medicinal products and uses of trees, Beresford-Kroeger gives information about how these properties have been and are being used to support mankind. One interesting example of this is the chemical ‘ergotamine’ and its use today in the treatment of migraines.

Each chapter, no matter how specific or scientific, always seems to underscore that forests are also places of quiet refuge for all living things.

Beresford-Kroeger also writes about Gaia and the complex web of all living things. She shows how all countries and nations benefit from forests, and cautions the reader about the ongoing rape of Mother Nature. She laments that there seems to be no end to greed and no meaningful or sytemic beginning to sustainable management of the planets resource bases.

Putting aside her concerns and pessimism, Beresford-Kroeger ends with an uplifting paragraph about how today’s children are being taught better modes of planetary management.

By Margaret Atwood – $22.00

This latest novel from Margaret Atwood is brilliant, is a solemn praise of human hope, and a serious look at our capacity for self-destruction.

The great imaginary power of Atwood’s fiction allows the reader to suspend disbelief and to believe that anything is possible, including a great eco-apocalyptic situation that includes violence, obscenity, comedy, endurance, love and hymns…From ‘God’s Gardeners Hymnbook’.

Adam One, the kindly leader of god’s gardeners, had long predicted a natural disaster that will alter Earth, as we know it. Now it has occurred, erasing most human life.

Two women are spared: Ren, a young trapeze artist locked inside a high end sex club and one of god’s gardeners, Toby, who is barricaded inside a luxurious spa, The Noo-You Spa.

The year of the flood tells Toby and Ren’s stories during the years prior to their meeting again.

Atwood puts her finger on the pulse of the future as she takes her readers through the fascinating lives of Adam one and his beleaguered followers as they regroup. Ren and Toby emerge into an altered world where nothing, including the animal life, is predictable.

Through her skillful writing and descriptions, Atwood enables readers to see, hear and smell the old and new worlds of her intriguing characters. This book is hard to put down because the reader cares about these complex characters and wonders how their bizarre interconnections will unfold.

A highly recommended book for all Atwood fans and those who are interested in how our world as we know it could be transformed.

The next book club meeting is November 8th. The book will be “The Global Forest” by Diana Beresford-Kroeger. All are Welcome!