Revolutionary Power: An Activist's Guide to the Energy Transition (2021) by Shalanda Baker, is a playbook for the energy transformation intended to arm those made most vulnerable by our current energy system with the tools they need to remake the system in the service of their humanity.
Flight Behavior (2013) by Barbara Kingsolver details global warming impacts told via the story of a colony of butterflies and a young woman who have both deviated from their optimal flight paths.
Ishmael (1992) by Daniel Quinn focuses on a paradigm of analyzing history in a very different way than is portrayed in American popular culture. Humankind must work together and in harmony with each other and nature to survive.
Parable of the Sower (1993) is writted by the queen of Afrofuturism and environmental storytelling, Octavia E. Butler. This book takes place sometime in the 2020s when the world has fallen to social and political chaos as well as environmental destruction from war.
Ceremony (1977) by Leslie Marmon Silko is a fictional novel centered upon the oral traditions and ceremonial practices of the Navajo and Pueblo people. Through a reconnection with culture, the earth, and community, the main character begins to heal from decades of harm inflicted by Western culture.
The Overstory (2018) by Richard Powers tells the story of numerous people and their special experiences with trees and how that affects their lives. For some the experience is uplifting and environmentally progressive, for others it is a challenge.
Queen Sugar (2014) by Natalie Baszile follows Charley Bordelon, a young black widow and mother of an 11 year old son, Micha, who unexpectedly inherits an 800 acre sugarcane farm from her estranged father. Charley and her son relocate from L.A. to Louisiana to take care of the family farm. Charley faces issues like property rights, navigating and relearning her family land, as well as financial restraints.
Prodigal Summer (2000) by Barbara Kingsolver tells the story of a single summer in the Southern Appalachians. Three separate but deeply connected stories of powerful women weave together along with Kingsolver's incredibly beautiful, often erotic descriptions of nature.
Gun Island (2019) by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of a world on the brink, that is also a story of hope, of a man whose faith in the world and the future is restored by two remarkable women.
The Inland Sea (2021) by Madeleine Watts is a novel charged with insight into our age of climate anxiety that asks what refuge and comfort looks like in a constant state of emergency.
The End of the Ocean (2021) by Maja Lunde tells an evocative tale of the search for love and connection. This novel is a moving father-daughter story of survival and a clarion call for climate action.
Where the Crawdads Sing (2018) by Delia Owens follows Kya, the "Marsh girl" who has lived all her life in the coastal marshes of North Carolina, on the outskirts of polite society. When Chase Andrews is found dead, she is the prime suspect.
The Fifth Sacred Thing(1993) by Starhawk shares a vision of a future where a community has created a utopian-like society with no hunger and no poverty, with richly diverse cultures, incredible quality of life, and prolific gardens. Their beautiful city is contrasted by the city to the south, one still plagued by patriarchy, authoritarianism, violence, and oppression, when the two worlds collide.