http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/2 ...

It's about how all of us, NGOs, netrooters, and grassroots activists of every stripe are working successfully if slowly against entrenched power to remake the world.  

The Orion Grassroots Network: 1,200+ grassroots groups working for conservation & more

There are, of course, many good new books out there, and I recommend them and in turn receive recommendations.  But my favorite book of all, in any field, is "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold.  It was first published in 1949, but it has staying power and universality like nothing else.    It is also extremely uplifting, but sober, and beautifully, incandescently, but simply written.  

It is on my reading list for all seasons.

David
Sustainability For Life

Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun!

I'm glad monatanaebiker mentioned it  so I could second the motion. But it's not really a pick-me-up book. It shows that humans will continue to make the same stupid mistakes over and over and over and over again... until the Earth is a dry lifeless rock.

Hey... but until now they've never had Jared Diamond's clear analysis of how humans might avoid destroying themselves. Maybe his ideas will reach the upper leadership and make a difference.

Anyway... COLLAPSE should be required reading for all high school students and, again, for all college students. Every citizen should know at least this much history. And every single recipient of a higher degree could learn something valuable from this book.

This is my first book, and I'm in the pre-publication stage. I'm trying to get feedback so I can polish it before taking it to a real publisher. At the moment it's self-published and is available at Amazon for 12 bucks. But you can read a 29 page paper containing the core content for free at Thwink.org.

If you really want to read the book and are running a tight budget so you can afford that eco-vacation to Costa Rica, contact me, twist my arm a little with why you want to read it, say you heard about it at Grist, and ask for a free copy. I'm a pushover, at least until I run out of copies. But please at least read the first two chapters first.

Here's why you might like this book:

1. It's short, at only 144 pages. You can finish it before the summer is even half over.

2. It goes against conventional wisdom. If you want a book that sets your reading list apart from all the others, try this one. Rather than tedious descriptions and inspiration about what to do, it analyzes the sustainability problem, finds the root cause of inability to solve the problem, and pinpoints the high leverage points that offer a possible path to a solution. The way it does this is just as radical as the way Limits to Growth did it in 1972.

3. Despite its occasional technical content, it's written in language for the layman, and is certified to be 100% jargon free. No seals were harmed in writing this book.

4. If you want the ultimate uplift, try chapter 9, The Tantalizing Potential of a Permanent Race to the Top. You will be singing "We can do it, because now we have a way," all the way home.  Or at least I was, as I wrote it.

Jack