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The Book List

Best boss...chosen by Elizabeth Kolbert

Elizabeth Kolbert’s new book,Under a While Sky,explores climate engineering and other bids to address humanity’s impact on nature.Below,the Pulitzer winning author of The Sixth Extinction recommends several other books.

Encounters with the Archdruid by John McPhee (1971)

McPhee’s vivid portrait of David Brower,the California mountaineer considered by many to be the “father” of the modern environmental movement,is a classic.It in the process poses one of the central questions of our time:Can a developed,technological society coexist with nature,or are the two contradictory?

Spillover:Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen (2012)

For understanding how our behavior towards animals,both domesticated and wild,made the pandemics—inevitable,there’s no better guide.

The Alchemy of Us:How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another by Ainissa Ramirez (2020)

Ramirez,a materials scientist,argues that with our technologies we have transformed not just the world around us but also ourselves.It’s a fascinating idea,and Ramirez makes it come alive through the stories of inventors,some well-known,others underappreciated.

A Friend of the Earth by T.C.Boyle (2000)

Fiction about ecological disaster tends to be written in a tragic key.Boyle,by contrast,favors the darkly comic.In this novel,set in 2025,an aging environmentalist is caring for a pop star’s Noah’s Ark-like animal shelter when a real flood arrives.

1.What do these books have in common?

A.They are all collections of short stories.

B.They are all about people and the planet.

C.They all focus on the effects of animals.

D.They all introduce the most influential people.

2.What kind of book is A Friend of the Earth?

A.A science fiction.    B.A tragedy.

C.A mystery novel.    D.A comedy.

3.Whose book tells about the improper treatment of animals?

A.Elizabeth Kolbert.   B.John McPhee.

C.David Quammen.   D.Ainissa Ramirez.