Reading list for inspiration, for insight, for fun!

Just a quick note as I start the spring term about a few books I've been reading. People often ask me, "What are you reading?" Well, here ya go!

Some of these are texts, others are just for fun, and some are challenges to see the world in a whole new way:

Last Child in the Woods by R. Louv (2008)- Puzzled by why your kids won't go outside and play? Louv explains it!

Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Post-Modern World by David Orr (1992) Orr can get preachy and be a bit of a downer at times, but he can also be divinely inspiring, clinging to hope for a better future!

Ecological Education in Action: On Weaving Education, Culture, and the Environment, edited by Smith and Williams (1999)- real stories about educators making a difference around the world. Wanna know what Portland State University is doing to engage students in a new worldview? Check out chapter 8.

Ecological Literacy: Educating our Children for a Sustainable World, a great collection of essays edited by Stone and Barlow (2005)

Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, volume 12 (2007)

Gaviotas- A Village to Reinvent the World by Alan Weisman (1998), an inspiring story of an ecovillage in Eastern Colombia's llano region and how they set out to change the world.

Tangled Routes- Women, Work, and Globalization on the Tomato Trail by Deborah Brandt (2008), an ethnographic look at the impacts of globalization and industrial food production on poor workers in Mexico, the US, and Canada. This puts a real face to the workers who are making individual steps toward creating a more sustainable approach to food production.

and just for fun and inspiration:

Tales of a Female Nomad - Living at Large in the World by Rita Golden Gelman (2001)

The Hidden Reality- Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene (2011)

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog by Professor Chad Orzel (2009)

Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillian (1988).