Five Books to Start Reading on Earth Day
By Jacob P. Torres
Any day is a good day to start a new book, but if you’re looking for something appropriate to start on Earth Day, here are five recommendations you might enjoy.
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The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin |
| For everything else in this book that is utterly and mind-bendingly magnificent, from the characters to the magic to excellently built world, Jemisin’s first book in her Broken Earth series is also a story of surviving ecological disasters and tangentially why the moon is important to all life on Earth. If you haven’t already read this book you may have been living under a rock. 5 out of 5 Cups of Tea. |
| The Terror by Dan Simmons |  |
| If you’re looking for a different kind of chilling, I’d recommend Simmons’ The Terror. Simmons takes the real-life disappearance of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in their attempt to find a Northwest passage in the mid-1800s and rewrites it as a gripping horror novel as the survivors of the expedition have to fight to survive each other, mythic monsters, and the harsh, unforgiving terrain of the arctic circle. Be warned that while the setting is frigid, the book itself is a real slow burn. 4 out of 5 Cups of Tea. |
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Clade by James Bradley |
| Clade is a look at how quickly everything can get out of control, how climate change isn’t just one day oceans will be a lot higher but it’s hundreds of connected smaller disasters that quickly turn everything to ruin. The personal drama that takes the center of this story feels genuine and raw. The ecological tragedies in the background, a hauntingly realistic picture of what could come. 4 out of 5 Cups of Tea. |
| Seveneves by Neal Stephenson |  |
| Stephenson creates a very different picture of what would happen if the moon went away. Hint: absolutely nothing good. While the science fiction and the character drama demands most of your attention, Stephenson does an excellent job of illustrating just how complicated, and damn near impossible to live anywhere but earth it would be for humans. 4.5 out of 5 Cups of Tea. |
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The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart |
| I realized that an underlying theme to these was “oh, look, the earth is proper fucked,” and thought I should put a nice, uplifting non-fiction book on this list. Stewart’s book covers the plants and processes that make the alcohols and additives we use for drinks. Her love of both booze and botany shines through in this book and the stories about how the plants became the key ingredients to the drinks we love will remind you of the importance of biodiversity and exploring the natural world. 5 out of 5 Cups of Tea. |
lowteabooks.com 
April 22, 2018 at 9:14 pm
Ahhhhh I HAVE BEEN LIVING UNDER A ROCK! Haha. The Fifth Season has been on my list forever and I just haven’t opened it yet. I NEED TO!
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April 23, 2018 at 7:44 pm
Acknowledging your rock hat is the first step. But give those books a shot! They’re absolutely worth it.
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