JULY
In the second part of our summer reading recommendations, we’re taking a comedic look at humankind’s death drive with a novel by Deb Olin Unferth, following the intergenerational impacts of nature restoration in a hopeful novella by Rebecca Campbell, learning to avert the insect apocalypse with Dave Goulson, and restoring our gardens with Mary Reynolds, plus a beautifully illustrated book on trees for children. Enjoy!
July 2026
Fiction
Earth 7 by Deb Olin Unferth
“Earth had gotten the best the universe had to offer, in all categories, and the achievement had nearly killed her.” Enter Unferth’s teenage protagonist Dylan Stein. Most of America has been reduced to a desert wasteland, yet Dylan longs to leave her home community of Sea Garden, a “luxury pod” on the ocean floor. Finally, at the “fully terraformed resort” of Vacationland, she meets and falls in love with Melanie – a girl so engineered that she can pass as a robot – and together they decide to create a genetic database as an “Earth backup” from which to rebuild the Earth. While Unferth writes elegiacally about humankind’s death drive, the wild energy of her comedy transcends the grief of humankind’s predicament, and raises a thousand smiles. And boy, do we need them.
The Antidote by Karen Russell
Despite its historical setting – the Dust Bowl of the 1930s – Karen Russell’s engrossing, hallucinatory drama of a Nebraska town in the throes of ecological breakdown feels achingly timely. At its heart is the question of memory and its suppression: of injustices that are deliberately forgotten only to rise again, of false memories handed solemnly down through generations, and of the vertiginous cost of allowing one view of history to prevail. Told from the point of view of a mystical “Prairie Witch” and her teenage acolyte, a repressed and lonely farmer, and a Black photographer tasked with documenting what remains of rural life, the story charts one small community’s battle to survive in a landscape it has destroyed, and with its own unstoppable demons.
Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell
Campbell’s brilliant cli-fi novella weaves an intergenerational story of human resilience against the backdrop of ongoing ecological collapse. Rooted in the dire consequences of unchecked colonial capitalism, the story juxtaposes grief and loss alongside survival and regeneration. A professor rescues books from the flooded and collapsing McPherson Library. A man plants fireweed on the hillside of his depopulated Vancouver Island suburb. An aspiring luthier poaches the last ancient Sitka spruce to make a violin for a child prodigy. Campbell’s astonishing vision pulls the echoing effects of small acts and intimate moments through this interconnected story of how a west coast community survives the ravages of climate change.
A gentle and thought-provoking narrative that lingers long after the last page.
NON FICTION
Silent Earth by Dave Goulson
Goulson is passionate about insects. One of his earliest memories is finding a stripey yellow and black caterpillar feeding on weeds at the edge of the school playground. His passion turned into a career, and in Silent Earth, Goulson draws on a lifetime of study and the latest ground-breaking research. He reveals the shocking decline of insect populations with eye-watering statistics – ‘41% of insect species threatened with extinction’ – and details the potentially catastrophic consequences of their demise.
This thoughtful and enjoyable book is part love letter to the insect world, part elegy, part rousing manifesto for a greener planet, and while we may feel helpless in the face of ecological breakdown, Goulson shows us how we can all take simple steps to encourage insects and counter their destruction.
We Are The ARK by Mary Reynolds
We Are The ARK is a call to transform gardens, public spaces, and land stewardship into “arks” that restore biodiversity and ecosystems through “Acts of Restorative Kindness”. Reynolds, a former landscape designer turned ecological activist, argues that every patch of land can become a sanctuary for native wildlife by embracing wildness, reducing human interference, and allowing natural processes to flourish.
The book blends inspiration with practical advice, offering step-by-step guidance on creating wildlife-friendly spaces, from exposing soil to let native seed banks regenerate to planting native species and avoiding pesticide
We Are the ARK is a manifesto for restorative kindness toward nature, encouraging readers to see their gardens and communities as part of a global effort to heal the planet.
We Are Eating The Earth: The race to fix our food system and save our climate by Michael Grunwald
Humanity has cleared a land mass the size of Asia plus Europe to grow food, and our food system generates about a third of our carbon emissions. We need to slow our relentless expansion of farmland into nature. In We Are Eating The Earth, Grunwald points out that we are making it worse by embracing solutions that sound sustainable but make it even harder to grow more food with less land. He also tells the stories of scientists and entrepreneurs pursuing better solutions; from a tough jungle crop called pongamia to genetically-edited cattle embryos, from Impossible Whoppers to a non-polluting pesticide that uses the technology behind the COVID vaccines to constipate beetles to death.
Grunwald builds his narrative around a food and land expert named Tim Searchinger, chronicling Searchinger’s uphill battles against bad science and bad politics, both driven by the overwhelming influence of agricultural interests. He proposes a different path that could save our planet for future generations—through better policy, technology, and behaviour, and with a new land ethic that recognises that every acre matters.
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
Tree Full of Wonder by Anna Smithers
This delightful children’s book introduces young readers to the magnificence and importance of trees. Through lyrical prose and gorgeous illustrations, Tree Full of Wonder explores the many ways that trees enrich our lives—providing shade, food, homes for wildlife, and even helping to combat climate change. Blending wonder with practical knowledge, children will appreciate trees not just as background elements of nature, but as vital, living beings that sustain ecosystems. It’s a gentle yet powerful reminder of the interconnectedness of all life and a call to protect these natural treasures.
Perfect for bedtime stories or independent exploration. Suitable for ages 3-8.
Poem of the Month
Midsummer, Tobago
Derek Walcott
Broad sun-stoned beaches.
White heat.
A green river.
A bridge,
scorched yellow palms
from the summer-sleeping house
drowsing through August.
Days I have held,
days I have lost,
days that outgrow, like daughters,
my harbouring arms.
(copyright Derek Walcott)
Contact our Librarian if you would like themed book lists to support teaching about climate change.
We’re always looking for ideas for books to add to our growing collection of literature on the climate and nature crisis. If would like to share ideas, please get in touch! Contact mattroselibrary@gmail.com.