All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson

In a time when climate anxiety can lead to both overwhelm and isolation, the brilliance of this book about climate change is that it’s meant to be read in community and to empower that community to act—with hope, inclusivity, and courage. I recently read and facilitated a discussion of All We Can Save with a group of about 25 people in southern Maine, and while the words of the dozens of female activists, scientists, writers, poets, policymakers, and artists who contributed to the book were plenty potent and powerful (though, to be expected, we connected to some essays more than others), the real magic came right where, I believe, it was intended: in the real-time, local community conversations it inspired and in a group of people learning from and listening to one another. It was the pairing of words, and the people showing up to read them together, that ultimately made it possible for this group of concerned citizens to take (at first tentative) steps from a palpable sense of hopelessness and helplessness, toward hope and a sense of possibility. After we finished the book, a cohort from the group opted to move forward together, not as a book club, but as fellow community members committed to addressing climate change in their home place. It’s no easy feat for a book to truly motivate or mobilize people. This one, it seems, is able to do both.

Recommended by Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder