You are warmly invited to RPA's Nature Book Club, with Rama Hamarneh, PhD. The book club provides a space to discuss books related to nature, together as a community!
One evening a month, we will meet on Zoom to discuss a book we have read, and the work's relationship to nature. We will explore multiple aspects of nature in literature - represented through multiple genres and authors from around the globe.
Next Meeting:
Tuesday, March 28 at 7pm on Zoom
The Zoom link for each meeting will be sent out to the book club email list a few days before the meeting. The book club is free to attend, and all are welcome.
For March 2023, we'll read The Food Explorer by Daniel Stone. In the nineteenth century, American meals were about subsistence, not enjoyment. But as a new century approached, appetites broadened, and David Fairchild, a young botanist with an insatiable lust to explore and experience the world, set out in search of foods that would enrich the American farmer and enchant the American eater.
Kale from Croatia, mangoes from India, and hops from Bavaria. Peaches from China, avocados from Chile, and pomegranates from Malta. Fairchild's finds weren't just limited to food: From Egypt he sent back a variety of cotton that revolutionized an industry, and via Japan he introduced the cherry blossom tree, forever brightening America's capital. Along the way, he was arrested, caught diseases, and bargained with island tribes. But his culinary ambition came during a formative era, and through him, America transformed into the most diverse food system ever created.
This book is available through the Upper Hudson Library System, at Market Block Books, and through other book sellers.
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Previous Nature Book Club selections:
Forest Walking by Peter Wohlleben and Jane Billinghurst
All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot
The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild by Thomas Seeley
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
The Brilliant Abyss by Helen Scales
Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson
The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity and the Natural World Alison H. Deming and Lauret Savoy, eds.
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl by Jonathan C. Slaght
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Around the World in 80 Trees by Jonathan Drori
"For me, nature has always provided inspiration for both writing and reading."
- Nature Book Club Leader Rama Hamarneh, PhD.
Rama is a published writer with a PhD in Comparative Literature. She works as a staff adviser at RPI, is on the community committee for Poesten Kill Bends Preserve in Troy, and a member of the RPA Board of Directors.
Questions about the Nature Book Club? Contact Dan at dan@rensselaerplateau.org.