The Blandy Book Club meets virtually from 1-2 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of the month, and is open to all. Join us to discuss books about the natural world. Participants should obtain their own copy of the book and read prior to the meeting. Please contact the Director of Scientific Engagement for information about how to participate in the virtual meetings.
2021 Reading Schedule:
| January | American Wasteland by Jonathan Bloom |
| February | Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast by Mike Tidwell |
| March | Listening to a Continent Sing by Donald Kroodsma |
| April | Yellowstone Has Teeth: A Memoir of Living in Yellowstone by Marjane Ambler |
| May | Nature's Best Hope by Doug Tallamy |
| June | The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature by Drew Lanham |
| July | American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains by Dan Flores |
| August | Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer |
| September | The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson |
| October | The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life by David Quammen |
Books Previously Read:
2014
Animal Vegetable Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver (May)
A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold (June)
Eaarth, Bill McKibben (July)
The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan (August)
The Outermost House, Henry Beston (September)
The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan (October)
2015
Anthill, E. O. Wilson (January)
Rosalie Edge: Hawk of Mercy, Dyana Furmansky (February)
The Golden Spruce, John Valliant (March)
Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey (April)
Moonbird, Phillip Hoose (May)
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America, Timothy Egan (June)
Moby Duck, Donovan Hohn (July)
Noah’s Garden, Sara Stein (August)
The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert (September)
The Moon by Whale Light, Diane Ackerman (October)
2016
The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes (January)
Wesley the Owl, Stacey O’Brien (February)
Hollows, Peepers and Highlanders, George Constanz (March)
The End of Night, Paul Bogard (April)
Buzz in the Meadow, Dave Goulson (May)
Diary of a Citizen Scientist, Sharman Apt Russell (June)
Silent Spring, Rachel Carson (July)
Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert (August)
The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh, Kathryn Aalto (September)
The Immense Journey, Loren Eiseley (October)
2017
Book of your choice by E.O. Wilson (January)
Walden, Henry David Thoreau (February)
The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring, Richard Preston (March)
Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver (April)
The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohllenben (May)
The Living Great Lakes: Searching for the Heart of the Inland Seas, Jerry Dennis (June)
Life’s Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable, Paul Falkowski (July)
The Beekeeper’s Lament, Hannah Nordhaus (August)
Pawpaw: In Search of America’s Forgotten Fruit, Andrew Moore (September)
The Glass Universe, Dava Sobel (October)
2018
The Invention of Nature, Andrea Wulf (January)
The Voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin (February)
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Wisdom of Plants, Robin Kimmerer (March)
Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson, Linda Lear (editor) (April)
A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson (May)
The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, Florence Williams (June)
Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies that will Improve and/or Ruin Everything, Kelly and Zach Weinersmith (July)
The Great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet, Henry Fountain (August)
Nature’s Compass: The Mystery of Animal Migration, James and Carol Grant Gould (September)
Coyote America: Natural and Supernatural History, Dan Flores
2019
Animals Make Us Human, Temple Grandin (January)
The Genius of Birds, Jennifer Ackerman (February)
The Great Brain Debate: Nature vs. Nurture, John Dowling (March)
The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, Robert Hazen (April)
Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers, Ben Goldfarb (May)
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, David Quammen (June)
Who We Are and How We Got Here, David Reich (July)
The Meaning of Human Existence, E. O. Wilson (August)
The Periodic Table, Primo Levi (September)
Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island, Earl Swift (October)
2020
1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus, Charles Mann (January)
The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-trotting Botanist Who Transformed What Americans Eat, Daniel Stone (February)
Founding Gardeners, Andrea Wulf (September)
Cry of the Kalahari, Mark & Delia Owens (October)