Winter is long gone in the northern hemisphere and springtime is here. Flowers are blooming and the promise of vernal rejuvenation has us excited to return to the elements and connect with nature once again. From Earth Day to spring break, Women’s History Month and more, there seems to be no shortage of celebrations for the “greenest” time of year.
Here at Shareable, we’re welcoming the warmer weather and brighter skies with a bountiful spring reading list. In this roundup, you’ll find a range of titles from environmental fiction to urban homesteading and more.
What’s on your spring reading list? See any must-reads that we missed? Let us know at info@shareable.net. Happy spring and happy reading!
Philanthrocapitalism and the Erosion of Democracy: A Global Citizens Report on the Corporate Control of Technology, Health, and Agriculture – Vandana Shiva
As the world’s billionaire class reaps record profits and global inequalities further divide nations and communities, this anthology compiled by renown activist Dr. Vandana Shiva pulls back the curtain on how ruthless capitalistic exploitation branded as philanthropic altruism forges a direct path to global destruction.
Philanthrocapitalism and the Erosion of Democracy calls to account problematic initiatives that serve to corrode the integrity of democratic institutions, often under a banner of future-oriented innovation. This book lays bare the destructive power of overly capitalistic systems that enable mass human suffering and environmental catastrophe via the entanglement of private investment and public policy.
A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis – Vanessa Nakate
Leading climate justice activist Vanessa Nakate brings her fierce, fearless spirit, new perspective, and superstar bona fides to the biggest issue of our time. In A Bigger Picture, her first book, she shares her story as a young Ugandan woman who sees that her community bears disproportionate consequences to the climate crisis. At the same time, she sees that activists from African nations and the global south are not being heard in the same way as activists from white nations are heard. Inspired by Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, in 2019 Nakate became Uganda’s first Fridays for Future protestor, awakening to her personal power and summoning within herself a commanding political voice.
Nakate’s mere presence has revealed rampant inequalities within the climate justice movement. In January 2020, while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as one of five international delegates, including Thunberg, Nakate’s image was cropped out of a photo by the Associated Press. The photo featured the four other activists, who were all white. It highlighted the call Nakate has been making all along: for both environmental and social justice on behalf of those who have been omitted from the climate discussion and who are now demanding to be heard.
Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy – Anthony M. Annett
As inequality skyrockets, economists and politicians alike demand a new economic paradigm to promote the common good. In Cathonomics, Anthony M. Annett draws on economics, Catholic social thought, philosophy, climate science, and psychology to show how readers of all faiths and backgrounds can work together to create a more just economy.
Advocating for the Environment: How to Gather Your Power and Take Action – Susan B. Inches
What can any one of us ordinary citizens really do about climate change? A lot!
Advocating for the Environment is based on a vision where all life is respected, revered, and nurtured. The shifts we need to achieve our vision of climate justice are profound—from how we do business to how we educate, govern, and care—for all people and life on the planet.
Written by environmental policy expert Susan B. Inches, Advocating for the Environment is an easy-to-understand, empowering guide to help you take action and enact environmental change.
Sacred Civics: Building Seven Generation Cities – Jayne Engle, Julian Agyeman and Tanya Chung-Tiam-Fook
Sacred Civics argues that societal transformation requires that spirituality and sacred values are essential to reimagining patterns of how we live, organize and govern ourselves, determine and distribute wealth, inhabit and design cities, and construct relationships with others and with nature.
The book brings together transdisciplinary and global academics, professionals, and activists from a range of backgrounds to question assumptions that are fused deep into the code of how societies operate, and to draw on extraordinary wisdom from ancient Indigenous traditions; to social and political movements like Black Lives Matter, the commons, and wellbeing economies; to technologies for participatory futures where people collaborate to reimagine and change culture.
The Seed Keeper – Diane Wilson
Wilson is an acclaimed author and former Executive Director for the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, a national coalition of tribes and organizations working to create sovereign food systems for Native people.
Her fiction book The Seed Keeper is a haunting novel that spans several generations in time. The story follows Rosalie Iron Wing and her Dakhóta family’s struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most.
The Right to Be Cold: One Woman’s Fight to Protect the Arctic and Save the Planet from Climate Change – Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Referenced in our March feature story, The Right to Be Cold is the human story of life on the front lines of climate change, told by a woman who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most influential Indigenous environmental, cultural, and human rights advocates in the world. Raised by a single mother and grandmother in the small community of Kuujjuaq, Quebec, Watt-Cloutier describes life in the traditional ice-based hunting culture of an Inuit community and reveals how Indigenous life, human rights, and the threat of climate change are inextricably linked. Colonialism intervened in this world and in her life in often violent ways, and she traces her path from Nunavik to Nova Scotia (where she was sent at the age of ten to live with a family that was not her own); to a residential school in Churchill, Manitoba; and back to her hometown to work as an interpreter and student counselor.
The Right to Be Cold is at once the intimate coming-of-age story of a remarkable woman, a deeply informed look at the life and culture of an Indigenous community reeling from a colonial history and now threatened by climate change, and a stirring account of an activist’s powerful efforts to safeguard Inuit culture, the Arctic, and the planet.
The Modern Homestead Garden: Growing Self-sufficiency in Any Size Backyard – Gary Pilarchik
No spring reading list could be complete without a gardening guide. Modern homesteading is a lifestyle focused on living lightly on the land and increasing self-sufficiency. It doesn’t matter whether “home” is 50 acres in the country, a suburban corner lot, or an apartment in the city; all you need is a desire to reduce your footprint on the earth and live a more sustainable life. To be a modern homesteader, you don’t have to live off-grid and you don’t have to give up contemporary conveniences.
From laying out the planting beds, nurturing the soil, and starting seeds, straight through to cooking and preserving the harvest, Gary Pilarchik serves as an accessible guide, no matter how large or how small your homestead is. With the guidance found in Modern Homestead Garden, you’ll move at your own pace, learn, share, and enjoy the journey as you slowly transform your home into an edible landscape.
Note: Affiliate links have been used in this post. If you purchase any of the books on our spring reading list using the above links, you’ll be directly supporting our work and mission. Thank you!
