25 books for summer on sustainability and life on Earth
Discover thought-provoking reads on climate, culture, and the planet – handpicked by Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability faculty.
An informal survey of Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability scholars yielded suggestions for summer reading that may spark curiosity, inspire new ideas, and fuel critical thinking about life on Earth and pathways to sustainability.
Here are 25 books to consider as companions for your summer adventures. Whether you’re ready for magical realism, poetry, political analysis, nonfiction writing about science and nature, or essays on strange and beautiful creatures, there’s a title for you.
Wild Dark Shore: A Novel
By Charlotte McConaghy (2025)
“A can’t-put-it-down book that would be perfect for a summer read. Mystery, family, an ode to nature, gorgeous prose – it has it all,” said Jane Willenbring, associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences. “How often do you read a love story set on an Antarctic island featuring a seed vault threatened by sea level rise?”
Abundance
By Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (2025)
This book explores “how we can move from a liberalism that not only protects and preserves but also builds.” – From the publisher
Steve Davis, professor of Earth system science, called it a “provocative critique of liberal governance and how it is stifling innovation and sustainability.”
The Ocean’s Menagerie: How Earth’s Strangest Creatures Reshape the Rules of Life
By Drew Harvell (2025)
“A tale of biological marvels, a story of a woman’s passionate connection to an adventurous career in science, and a call to arms to protect the world’s most ancient ecosystems.” – From the publisher
Stephen Palumbi, the Jane and Marshall Steel Jr. Professor in Marine Sciences, called it “a great read about a marine biologist’s quest to understand the superpowers of ocean life.”
Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees
By Aimee Nezhukumatathil (2024)
“A lyrical book of short essays about food, offering a banquet of tastes, smells, memories, associations, and marvelous curiosities from nature.” – From the publisher
“It's made up of short vignettes about the author's favorite foods, but they come together as autobiography and social commentary,” said Jonathan Payne, the Dorell William Kirby Professor in Earth and planetary sciences and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs.
The Future: A Novel
By Naomi Alderman (2023)
“This novel combines Silicon Valley billionaire hijinks with prepper/doomer culture and an impending apocalypse to weave a remarkable story about a possible future for humanity,” said James Holland Jones, professor of environmental social sciences. It “will make you rethink the foundations of a good society.”
The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It
By Genevieve Guenther (2024)
“This book is one of the most interesting, comprehensive, and compelling depictions of the fight to address climate change,” said Madalina Vlasceanu, assistant professor of environmental social sciences.
The Children of Katrina
By Alice Fothergill and Lori Peek (2015)
“This year is the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans and the Northern Gulf of Mexico. This was a significant socio-environmental avulsion event for millions including myself. I read this book while doing my PhD focused on coastal environmental change, when I reflected on the fact that I had no clue what happened to my classmates after the storm,” said Elliott White Jr., assistant professor of Earth system science. This book “is a gut wrenching but necessary portrayal of how one’s starting point and resource landscape when a disaster strikes plays a fundamental role in finding a new ‘norm’ (if at all possible).” He added, “It is a must-read to truly understand the magnitude of impact Hurricane Katrina had on individuals beyond the environmental and infrastructural damage it wrought.”
Exit West: A Novel
By Mohsin Hamid (2017)
“Mohsin’s use of magical realism moved me to think simultaneously about the universality of the refugee and human experience. It left me moved yet carried a lightness to it. Plus, parts of it take place in the Bay Area,” said Rishee Jain, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
By Robert M. Sapolsky (2018)
This book “made me realize how human behavior is influenced by internal (evolutionary) and external factors,” said Ettore Biondi, assistant professor of geophysics. “Something to keep in mind as we try to organize as a species to solve the impact of climate change.”
Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Change in the American States
By Leah Cardamore Stokes (2020)
“One of the best analyses of the political landscape preventing climate action,” said Madalina Vlasceanu, assistant professor of environmental social sciences.
California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline
By Rosanna Xia (2023)
“I’d been meaning to read this for years but I was worried the science would be wrong and I’d get upset reading it. But no, it’s fantastic, with interviews with fantastic scientists! It’s thorough, compelling and conveys a deep sense of urgency,” said Jane Willenbring, associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences.
The Deluge: A Novel
By Stephen Markey (2023)
“This novel is as absolutely brutal as it is long. It is the best dramatization I've yet read of the climate polycrisis and what cascading collapse would be like,” said James Holland Jones, professor of environmental social sciences. “In contrast to Kim Stanley Robinson's magnificent Ministry for the Future, Markey focuses on the United States and is eerily prescient about the tactics of hypothetical authoritarian governments. This book is not for the faint of heart, but it has many lessons to teach.”
Truth Demands: A Memoir of Murder, Oil Wars, and the Rise of Climate Justice
By Abby Reyes (2025)
Spanning three decades and three continents, this “profound and haunting memoir” recounts the experiences of the author, a Stanford alum, who is “called to confront the past when she finds herself a recognized victim-survivor in case 001 of Colombia's truth and recognition process” 20 years after her partner’s murder. – From the publisher
Suggested by Noah Diffenbaugh, the Kara J Foundation Professor and Kimmelman Family Senior Fellow.
Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures
By Katherine Rundell (2024)
“A delightful history of endangered species and how we’ve (mis)used them. You’ll laugh and cry on the same page,” said Rob Jackson, the Michelle and Kevin Douglas Provostial Professor.
Down by the Bay: San Francisco’s History Between the Tides
By Matthew Booker (2013)
“This is a wonderful book about the history of the Bay’s tidelands. Written as a Stanford History PhD thesis, it is an excellent blend of scientific aspects of San Francisco Bay's tidal wetlands, especially involving sea-level variations and human habitation,” said Stephen Monismith, the Obayashi Professor in the School of Engineering and professor of oceans. It is “a great example of the type of work that might facilitate connections” between scholars in the humanities and the Doerr School of Sustainability, he added.
The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth
By Zoë Schlanger (2024)
“Schlanger explores the explosion of new research on plant communication and intelligence. A fascinating, informative, and mind-expanding read,” said Richard Nevle, Deputy Director of the Earth Systems Program.
“If you can be thrilled by non-fiction, then this is the book for you. I had unreasonably high expectations given all the acclaim, but it did not disappoint,” said Jane Willenbring, associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences.
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
By Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2012)
“Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan, argues that we need to look beyond robustness and resilience and develop systems that can thrive under chaos and uncertainty, such as black swan events,” said Jef Caers, professor of Earth and planetary sciences. “I believe this concept is highly relevant for sustainability, climate change and building new energy systems, and also how we organize ourselves in academia: a system shown to be too fragile under hostility and adversity. Resilience is not enough. Now more than ever should we aim for antifragility – building our future world beyond conservation, mitigation, and restoration.”
Is a River Alive?
By Robert Macfarlane (2025)
Bing Professor in Environmental Science Rodolfo Dirzo said the author, “who has written about mountains, trails, and the old ways of humans on Earth, now examines a challenging question: What rights should nature have?”
The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions – and How the World Lost Its Mind
By Dan Davies (2025)
“Davies introduces us to the idea of an ‘accountability sink,’ lacunae in organizational systems that effectively remove responsibility for decisions, and gives us a lesson in the largely forgotten field of management cybernetics. He uses this framework to show how large organizations – and whole disciplines such as management science and economics – develop blind spots that can produce catastrophic failure,” said James Holland Jones, professor of environmental social sciences. “Of particular interest is the way that the narrow pursuit of shareholder value has increasingly deprived us of institutions that can create societal good.”
Assembling California
By John McPhee (1993)
“Part of a Pulitzer-Prize-winning series, this classic book weaves together geological science and human history in a vivid portrait of our state,” said Jack Baker, the William Alden Campbell and Martha Campbell Professor, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, and professor of civil and environmental engineering. “While the science has evolved since 1993, it remains a masterfully written page-turner that helped establish the narrative nonfiction approach now common in popular science writing.”
The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light
By Craig Childs (2025)
“Childs explores the wilds of Nevada's Basin and Range in search of what remains of dark skies and nights full of glittering stars. As we accompany him on his journey, we learn about the costs of light pollution to environmental and human health – and what we can do to fix this entirely solvable problem,” said Richard Nevle, Deputy Director of the Earth Systems Program.
Raft
By Ted Kooser (2024)
“A reflection of his desire to write for the everyday reader, these poems welcome us with a style that is clear and accessible yet deeply imagistic and metaphorical.” – From the publisher
“Kooser makes the mundane sublime,” said Rob Jackson, the Michelle and Kevin Douglas Provostial Professor.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
By Daniel Kahneman (2011)
“A book that every person should read to better understand how the human-decision process is biased by our perception of the risk. Something to keep in mind as we assess the risk associated with climate change,” said Ettore Biondi, assistant professor of geophysics.
The Museum of Innocence
By Orhan Pamuk with translation by Maureen Freely (2009)
“It is 1975, a perfect spring in Istanbul. Kemal, scion of one of the city's wealthiest families, is about to become engaged to Sibel, daughter of another prominent family, when he encounters Fusun, a beautiful shopgirl and a distant relation. Thus begins an obsessive but tragic love affair that will transform itself into a compulsive collection of objects – a museum of one man's broken heart – that chronicle Kemal's lovelorn progress and his afflicted heart's reactions.” – From the publisher
Suggested by William Barnett, the Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Business Leadership and professor of environmental social sciences.
Before They Vanish: Saving Nature’s Populations – and Ourselves
By Paul R. Ehrlich, Gerardo Ceballos, Rodolfo Dirzo (2024)
Suggested by Richard Nevle, Deputy Director of the Earth Systems Program, and Rodolfo Dirzo, the Bing Professor in Environmental Science. “We document the massive loss of populations of many species, even in cases where species are not considered endangered by anthropogenic impact,” said Dirzo, one of the book’s co-authors. “This clarification will allow us to appreciate why we are entering into a sixth mass biological extinction.”
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Faculty and scholars associated with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability recommend these 17 books for your summer reading.
