Book Club
Our Book Club
by Dave Whitehead
Our book club holds rather informal meetings without bothersome rules – like you’ve got to read the book before the meeting. We like it that way. Some manage to fly through every word. Some fake it. While I would not like to disparage the quality of our members nor the books we’ve tried, I think perhaps our best gifts to each other is shared experience in the wonder of this fantastic world in which we are blessed to live.
Topics have been varied, from Chris Gudgeon’s, Consider the Fish which points out that Canada’s history was just as determined by fish as it was by beaver or white pine to Silver Don Cameron’s; Living Beaches; that underlines the uncontrollable nature of shorelines.
We normally meet on a Sunday afternoon, once a month. Books, that are suggested by anyone, are agreed upon a few months ahead so as to share books and give time for a leisurely perusal. So far, numbers have permitted us to meet in houses with delicious snacks at the close. If others discover how fun and friendly we are we may need to reconsider where to meet but we’re nothing if not adaptable.
Here is a list of Books We Have Read
| No. | Title | Author | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| 219 | Northern Tales: Traditional Stories of Eskimo and Indian Peoples | Howard Norman (editor) | 2026 |
| 218 | Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived | Ralph Helper | 2026 |
| 217 | Vanished Beyond the Map: The Mystery of Lost Explorer Hubert Darrell | Adam Shoalts | 2026 |
| 216 | What A Plant Knows : A Field Guide to the Senses (Updated and Expanded Edition 2017) | Daniel Chamovitz | 2025 |
| 215 | A Short Philosophy of Birds (Aug. 2025) | Dubois & Rousseau | 2025 |
| 214 | Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness | Edward Abbey | 2025 |
| 213 | Strange Harvest: Giving and Taking from the Natural World | Edward Posnett | 2025 |
| 212 | Signs of Life: Field Notes from the Frontlines of Extinction | Sarah Cox | 2025 |
| 211 | The Last Guide: A Story of Fish and Love | Ron Corbett | 2025 |
| 210 | What A Fish Knows: The Inner Lives Of Our Underwater Cousins | Jonathan Balcombe | 2025 |
| 209 | Message In A Bottle: Ocean Dispatches in the Age of Plastic | Holly Hogan | 2025 |
| 208 | The Blue Bear: A True Story of Friendship and Discovery in the Alaskan Wild | Lynn Schooler | 2025 |
| 207 | My Summer of Glorious Freedom: John Muir Saunters Around Southern Ontario in the Summer of 1864 | Robert Burcher | 2024 |
| 206 | Ishmael | Daniel Quinn | 2024 |
| 205 | Gator Country: Deception, Danger and Alligators in the Everglades | Rebecca Renner | 2024 |
| 204 | BIg Meg: The Story of the Largest and Most Mysterious Predator that Ever Lived | Tim & Emma Flannery | 2024 |
| 203 | The Rise and Reign of Mammals: A New History From The Shadow Of The Dinosaurs To Us | Steve Brusatt | 2024 |
| 202 | What An Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds | Jennifer Ackerman | 2024 |
| 201 | The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move | Sonia Shah | 2024 |
| 200 | Where The Falcon Flies: A 3,400 Kilometre Odyssey From My Doorstep To The Arctic | Adam Shoalts | 2024 |
| 199 | Circling the Midnight Sun: Culture and Change in the Invisible Arctic | James Raffan | 2024 |
| 198 | Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World | John Vaillant | 2023 |
| 197 | Ice Walker: A Polar Bear’s Journey Through the Fragile Arctic | James Raffan | 2023 |
| 196 | Super Navigators: Exploring the Wonders of How Animals Find Their Way | David Barrie | 2023 |
| 195 | The Good, Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood | Sy Montgomery | 2023 |
| 194 | Bicycling With Butterflies: My 10,201-Mile Journey Following the Monarch Migration | Sara Dykman | 2023 |
| 193 | The Hummingbird’s Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings | Sy Montgomery | 2023 |
| 192 | One Drum: Stories and Ceremonies for a Planet | Richard Wagamese | 2023 |
| 191 | Swamplands: Tundra Beavers, Quaking Bogs, and the Improbable World of Peat | Edward Struzik | 2023 |
| 190 | Woman Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay | Merilyn Simonds | 2022 |
| 189 | Field Notes From An Unintentional Birder: A Memoir | Julia Zarankin | 2022 |
| 188 | Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World | Tyson Yunkaporta | 2022 |
| 187 | The Whisper on the Night Wind: The True History of a Wilderness Legend | Adam Shoalts | 2022 |
| 186 | Finding The Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest | Suzanne Simard | 2022 |
| 185 | The Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans | Marzluff & Angell | 2022 |
| 184 | Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants | Robin Wall Kimmerer | 2022 |
| 183 | The Breath of a Whale: The Science and Spirit of Pacific Ocean Giants | Leigh Calvez | 2021 |
| 182 | Beyond the Trees: A Journey Alone Across Canada’s Arctic | Adam Shoalts | 2021 |
| 181 | Into The Planet: My Life As A Cave Diver | Jill Heinerth | 2021 |
| 180 | The Hidden World of the Fox | Adele Brand | 2021 |
| 179 | Various Gerald Durrell books | Gerald Durrell | 2020 |
| 178 | The Man Who Planted Trees: A Story of Lost Groves, the Science of Trees, and a Plan to Save the Planet | Jim Robbins | 2020 |
| 177 | Unsheltered | Barbara Kingsolver | 2019 |
| 175 | The Global Forest: Forty Ways Trees Can Save Us | Diana Beresford-Kroeger | 2019 |
| 174 | Tamed: Ten Species That Changed Our World | Dr. Alice Roberts | 2019 |
| 173 | Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver | Mary Oliver | 2019 |
| 172 | Smitten by Giraffe: My Life As A Citizen Scientist | Anne Innis Dagg | 2019 |
| 171 | Last of the Curlews | Fred Bodsworth | 2019 |
| 170 | The End of the End of the Earth: Essays | Jonathan Franzen | 2019 |
| 169 | The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology | Simon Winchester | 2018 |
| 168 | The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century | Kirk Wallace Johnson | 2018 |
| 167 | The Naming of the Shrew: A Curious History of Latin Names | John Wright | 2018 |
| 166 | The Secret Wisdom of Nature: Trees, Animals, and the Extraordinary Balance of All Living Things | Peter Wohlleben | 2018 |
| 165 | The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the World of Consciousness | Sy Montgomery | 2018 |
| 164 | The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World | Steve Brusatte | 2018 |
| 163 | Half Earth: One Planet’s Fight for Life | E. O. Wilson | 2018 |
| 162 | Deep Country: Five Years in the Welsh Hills | Neil Ansell | 2018 |
| 161 | The Last Neanderthal | Claire Cameron | 2018 |
| 160 | Twenty-Eight Elephants: And Other Everyday Miracles | Jacquie Gauthier | 2018 |
| 159 | The Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West | Nate Blakeslee | 2018 |
| 158 | The Inner Life of Animals: Love, Grief, and Compassion: Surprising Observations of a Hidden world | Peter Wohlleben | 2018 |
| 157 | Woolly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive One of History’s Most Iconic Extinct Creatures | Ben Mezrich | 2018 |
| 156 | The Ghost Orchard: The Hidden History of the Apple in North America | Helen Humphreys | 2017 |
| 155 | A Shimmer of Hummingbirds: A Birder Murder Mystery | Steve Burrows | 2017 |
| 154 | The Right to be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet | Sheila Watt-Cloutier | 2017 |
| 153 | The World Without Us | Alan Weisman | 2017 |
| 152 | Wild Things, Wild Places: Adventurous Tales of Wildlife and Conservation on Planet Earth | Jane Alexander | 2017 |
| 151 | A Short History of Nearly Everything | Bill Bryson | 2017 |
| 150 | Letters to my Grandchildren | David Suzuki | 2017 |
| 149 | The Optimistic Environmentalist: Progressing Toward a Greener Future | David R. Boyd | 2017 |
| 148 | Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are | Frans De Waal | 2017 |
| 147 | The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World | Peter Wohlleben | 2017 |
| 146 | Big Miracle (Freeing the Whales): How the Media Created the World’s Greatest Non-Event | Tom Rose | 2017 |
| 145 | Possums to Porcupines: The Wild Life of an Adirondack Rehabilitator | Nancy Kimball | 2017 |
| 144 | Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds: Notes from a Northwest Year | Lyanda Lynn Haupt | 2016 |
| 143 | Thousand Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound | David Rothenberg | 2016 |
| 142 | Awenda: Voice and Spirit | Tim Tully/Bill Ivy | 2016 |
| 141 | The Horse Boy: A Father’s Quest to Heal His Son | Rupert Isaacson | 2016 |
| 140 | The Singing Wilderness | Sugurd F. Olson | 2016 |
| 139 | Lakeland: Ballad of a Freshwater Country | Allan Casey | 2016 |
| 138 | Once they were Hats: In Search of the Beaver | Frances Backhouse | 2016 |
| 137 | Where do Camels Belong? The Story and Science of Invasive Species | Ken Thompson | 2016 |
| 136 | The Penguin Lessons: What I Learned From A Remarkable Bird | Tom Mitchell | 2016 |
| 135 | Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive | Mark Winston | 2016 |
| 134 | Canoe Country: The Making of Canada | Roy MacGregor | 2015 |
| 133 | Creatures of the Rock: A Veterinarian’s Adventures in Newfoundland | Andrew Peacock | 2015 |
| 132 | A Naturalist Buys an Old Farm | Edwin Way Teale | 2015 |
| 131 | My Fathers Island: A Galapagos Quest | Joanne Angermeyer | 2015 |
| 130 | The Once and Future Great Lakes Country: An Ecological History | John Riley | 2015 |
| 129 | Silent Spring | Rachel Carson | 2015 |
| 128 | H is for Hawk | Helen Macdonald | 2015 |
| 127 | The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating | Elizabeth Tova Bailey | 2015 |
| 126 | A Wolf Called Romeo | Nick Jans | 2015 |
| 125 | A Siege of Bitterns: A Birder Murder Mystery | Steve Burrows | 2015 |
| 124 | This Changes Everything: Capitalism Vs. the Climate | Naomi Klein | 2015 |
| 123 | The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod | Henry Beston | 2015 |
| 122 | Bird Lady: A Lifelong Love Affair with Birds | Elizabeth LeGeyt | 2014 |
| 121 | The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman’s Fight to Save the World’s Most Beautiful bird | Bruce Barcott | 2014 |
| 120 | Birding With Yeats: A Mother’s Memoir | Lynn Thomson | 2014 |
| 119 | Midnight to the North: The Inuit Woman Who Saved the Polaris Expedition | Sheila Nickerson | 2014 |
| 118 | The Wild Duck Chase: Inside the Strange and Wonderful World of the Federal Duck Stamp Contest | Martin J. Smith | 2014 |
| 117 | Various books by Farley Mowat | Farley Mowat | 2014 |
| 116 | Mother Nature is Trying to Kill You: A Lively Tour Through the Dark Side of the Natural World | Dan Riskin | 2014 |
| 115 | A Guide to the Birds of East Africa | Nicholas Drayson | 2014 |
| 114 | The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be | J.B. Mackinnon | 2013 |
| 113 | Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea and Human Life | George Monbiot | 2013 |
| 112 | Conversations with an Eagle: The Story of a Remarkable Relationship | Brenda Cox | 2013 |
| 111 | The Natural History of Canadian Mammals | Donna Naughton | 2013 |
| 110 | Fifty Plants that changed the Course of History | Bill Laws | 2013 |
| 109 | Memoirs of a Praying Mantis: A Collection of Poetry | Bianca Lakoseljac | 2013 |
| 108 | In a Sunburned Country | Bill Bryson | 2013 |
| 107 | Two Billion Trees and Counting: The Legacy of Edmund Zavitz | John Bacher | 2013 |
| 106 | Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon’s Army and Other Diabolical Insects | Amy Stewart | 2013 |
| 105 | Arctic Doctor | Moody/Van Embden | |
| 104 | Swallows and Amazons | Arthur Ransome | |
| 103 | Birds of Georgian Bay: Sharing the Joy of Birding | Bob Whittam | |
| 102 | Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays | Candace Savage | |
| 101 | Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle | Thor Hanson | |
| 100 | The Legacy: An Elder’s Vision For Our Sustainable Future | David Suzuki | |
| 99 | Where Rivers Run: A 6,000 Mile Exploration of Canada by Canoe | Gary & Joanie McGuffin | |
| 98 | Fraser's Penguins: A Journey to the Future in Antarctica | Fen Montaigne | |
| 97 | Bird Watcher: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson | Elizabeth Rosenthal | |
| 96 | The City Farmer: Adventures in Urban Food Growing | Lorraine Johnson | |
| 95 | A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail | Bill Bryson | |
| 94 | Darwin's Notebook: The Life, Times and Discoveries of Charles Robert Darwin | Jonathan Clements | |
| 93 | Falling for Snow: A Naturalist’s Journey into the World of Winter | James Bastedo | |
| 92 | Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations | David R. Montgomery | |
| 91 | The Intimate Ape: Orangutans and the Secret Life of a Vanishing species | Shawn Thompson | |
| 90 | The Best Laid Plans | Terry Fallis | |
| 89 | Born to Bark: My Adventures with an Irrepressible and Unforgettable Dog | Stanly Coren | |
| 88 | Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival | Bernd Heinrich | |
| 87 | Summer World: A Season of Bounty | Bernd Heinrich | |
| 86 | To Whom the Wilderness Speaks | Louise de Kiriline Lawrence | |
| 85 | On the Edge of the Wild | Audrey Tournay | |
| 84 | The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age | Richard Louv | |
| 83 | Planet without Apes | Craig B. Stanford | |
| 82 | Taking on Water: How One Water Expert Challenged Her Inner Hypocrite, Reduced Her Water Footprint (Without Sacrificing a Toasty Shower), and Found Nirvana | Wendy J. Pabich | |
| 81 | Eating Aliens: One Man's Adventures Hunting Invasive Animal Species | Jackson Landers | |
| 80 | This Crazy Time: Living Our Environmental Challenge | Tzeporah Berman | |
| 79 | Birdsong: A Natural History | Don Stap | |
| 78 | The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A True Story of Resilience and Recovery | Andrew Westoll | |
| 77 | The Hidden Life of Deer: Lessons From The Natural World | Elizabeth Marshall Thomas | |
| 76 | The Snow Geese | William Fiennes | |
| 75 | Chasing Kangaroos: A Continent, a Scientist, and a Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Creature | Tim Flannery | |
| 74 | The Only Kayak: A Journey into the Heart Of Alaska | Kim Heacox | |
| 73 | The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance And Survival | John Vaillant | |
| 72 | Following the Last Wild Wolves | Ian McAlister | |
| 71 | Eels: An Exploration from New Zealand to the Sargasso of the World’s Most Mysterious Fish | James Prosek | |
| 70 | The Incomparable Honeybee and the Economics of Pollination | Dr. Reese Halter | |
| 69 | The Bird Detective: Investigating the Secret Lives of Birds | Bridget Stutchbury | |
| 68 | Into the Heart of Borneo | Redmond O'Hanlon | |
| 67 | Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals | Temple Grandin | |
| 66 | The Daily Coyote: A Story of Love, Survival and Trust in the Wilds of Wyoming | Shreve Stockton | |
| 65 | Four Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly | Sue Halpern | |
| 64 | Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Change | Al Gore | |
| 63 | Hope for Animals and their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued From the Brink | Jane Goodall | |
| 62 | Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are | Frans De Waal | |
| 61 | The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession | Mark Obmascik | |
| 60 | Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds | Trevor Herriot | |
| 59 | Otherwise | Farley Mowat | |
| 58 | Snakebit: Confessions of a Herpetologist | Leslie Anthony | |
| 57 | Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant | Daniel Tammet | |
| 56 | The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry | Bryan Sykes | |
| 55 | Stalking the Wild Amaranth: Gardening in the Age of Extinction | Janet Marinelli | |
| 54 | Supernature: The Natural History of the Supernatural | Lyall Watson | |
| 53 | Bees: Nature’s Little Wonders | Candace Savage | |
| 52 | King Solomon's Ring | Konrad Lorenz | |
| 51 | Cry of the Kalahari | Mark/Delia Owens | |
| 50 | Stalking the Wild Asparagus | Euell Gibbons | |
| 49 | When the Wild Comes Leaping Up: Personal Encounters with Nature | Edited by David Suzuki | |
| 48 | Choosing Wildness: My Life Among the Ospreys | Claude Arbour | |
| 47 | Various Farley Mowat books | Farley Mowat | |
| 46 | Being Caribou: Five Months on Foot with an Arctic Herd | Karsten Heuer | |
| 45 | The Last Island: A Naturalist Sojourn on Triangle Island | Alison Watt | |
| 44 | Lady Grayl: Owl With a Mission | Robert W. Nero | |
| 43 | The Octopus & the Orangutan: New Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence and Ingenuity | Eugene Linden | |
| 42 | Up North: A Guide to Ontario’s Wilderness from Blackflies to the Northern Lights | Doug Bennet/Tim Tiner | |
| 41 | The 100 Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating | Alison Smith/J.B. MacKinnon | |
| 40 | Silence of the Songbirds: How We are Losing the World’s Songbirds and What We Can Do to Save Them | Bridget Stutchbury | |
| 39 | An Enchantment of Birds: Memoirs from a Birder’s Life | Richard Cannings | |
| 38 | Garden of the Gods | Gerald Durrell | |
| 37 | The Curious Naturalist: Nature’s Everyday Mysteries | Sy Montgomery | |
| 36 | The Lightning Bird: The Story of One Man’s Journey Into Africa’s Past | Lyall Watson | |
| 35 | Why Don't Penguins Feet Freeze: And 101 Other Questions | New Scientist | |
| 34 | Living Beaches: Life, Death and Politics where the Land Meets the Sea | Silver Don Cameron | |
| 33 | A Dune Adrift: The Strange Origin and Curious History of Sable Island | Marq De Villers | |
| 32 | Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest | Rudy Wiebe | |
| 31 | The Future of Life | E.O. Wilson | |
| 30 | The Curve of Time: The Classic Memoir of a Woman and Her Children Who Explored the Coastal Waters of the Pacific Northwest | M. Wylie Blanchet | |
| 29 | Private Lives of Garden Birds: How to Understand the Everyday Behaviour of Birds in Your Backyard | Calvin Simonds | |
| 28 | The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed | John Valliant | |
| 27 | Bringing Back the Dodo: Lessons in Natural and Unnatural History | Wayne Grady | |
| 26 | Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion | Alan Burdick | |
| 25 | Books & Islands in Ojibwe Country | Louise Erdrich | |
| 24 | Crows: Encounters with the Wiseguys of the Avian World | Candace Savage | |
| 23 | The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill: A Love Story…With Wings | Mark Bittner | |
| 22 | The Horses in My Life | Monty Roberts | |
| 21 | Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behaviour | Temple Grandin | |
| 20 | Tree: A Life Story | David Suzuki & Wayne Grady | |
| 19 | Curious by Nature: One Woman’s Exploration of the Natural World | Candace Savage | |
| 18 | Wolf Willow | Wallace Stegner | |
| 17 | Walden or Life in the Woods | H. D. Thoreau | |
| 16 | For the Birds: Nature Notes from a Woodland Studio | Linda Johns | |
| 15 | Gift from the Sea | Anne Morrow Lindbergh | |
| 14 | The Hidden Life of Dogs | Elizabeth Marshall Thomas | |
| 13 | The Tribe of Tiger: Cats and their Culture | Elizabeth Marshall Thomas | |
| 12 | Consider the Fish: Fishing for Canada from Campbell River to Petty Harbour | Chris Gudgeon | |
| 11 | The Snow Leopard | Peter Matthiessen | |
| 10 | Study of John James Audubon - various books | Various Authors | |
| 9 | Small Wonder | Barbara Kingsolver | |
| 8 | The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre | J. Henry Fabre | |
| 7 | Wolf Country: Eleven Years of Tracking the Algonquin Wolves | John/Mary Theberge | |
| 6 | The Lost World of the Kalahari | Laurens Van Der Post | |
| 5 | Testament to the Bushmen | Van Der Post/Taylor | |
| 4 | My First Summer in the Sierra | John Muir | |
| 3 | A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: The Life of William Dampier, Explorer, Naturalist, and Buccaneer | Diana/Michael Preston | |
| 2 | Mar: A Glimpse into the Natural Life of a Bird | Louise de Kiriline Lawrence | |
| 1 | My Family and Other Animals | Gerald Durrell | |
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