Welcome to the first-ever edition of our eclectic and erratic book club reading list. Below are a few intriguing new titles that have recently caught our eyes by assorted UBC faculty.
Got a recommendation? Send it our way via email to: usi [dot] communications [at] ubc [dot] ca
Finding the Mother Tree by Professor of Forest Ecology Suzanne Simard: Trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complex, interdependent circle of life and forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities with communal lives not that different from our own.
Rivers Run Through Us: A Natural and Human History of Great Rivers of North America by Professor of Zoology Eric Taylor: An exploration of the natural and human history of ten great rivers of North America and how they have impacted the human experience for millennia.
Raccoon by Professor of Critical Indigenous Studies and English Daniel Heath Justice: Masked bandits of the night, raiders of farm crops and rubbish bins, raccoons are notorious for their indifference to human property and propriety, yet they are also admired for their intelligence, dexterity and determination.
Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century by Associate Professor Matthew Soules, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture: From the cavernous underground “iceberg” homes of the superrich in London to Paris’s owned-but-empty “zombie” housing to the ultra-thin luxury “pencil towers” sprouting in Manhattan, the book demonstrates how investment imperatives shape what and how we build on a global scale.
The Resistance Dilemma Place-Based Movements and the Climate Crisis, by Professor George Hoberg, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs: How organized resistance to new fossil fuel infrastructure became a political force and how this might affect the transition to renewable energy.
