Off the Shelf

There’s no time like fall to curl up with a good book and a steaming mug of cocoa (fair trade, of course). So head to the environment section of your favourite local bookstore for these five new titles. Whether you’re in the mood for eco-advice delivered with flair or a probing look at the cost of our consumer culture, we bet you won’t leave without a copy (or two or three!).

1) The War in the Country

By Thomas Pawlick, Greystone Books (September)

Journalist Thomas Pawlick knows rural life well. A former editor at both Harrowsmith and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Ceres Magazine, he’s also been a famer, off and on, for decades. He has seen, first-hand, the tragic transformation of our traditional family farms and the corruption of our food system. Here, Pawlick chronicles how global forces—from rapacious mining developments to factory farming to poor tax policy—are affecting the countryside for the worse in his own eastern Ontario backyard. A lament for an agricultural nation—and a passionate call to arms.

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2) Ecoholic Home

By Adria Vasil, Vintage Canada (October)

From NOW magazine columnist and a leading voice in eco-friendly living comes a new book on greening your home. In its examination of sustainable alternatives to conventional home products—cleaning, cooking, decorating, heating and cooling, gardening and more—it leaves no sheet unturned! Downright chatty and unabashedly practical, the book includes product ratings, advice on how to spot greenwashing and an endless number of great resources. Vasil proves again that sustainable living can be the hipper, smarter and often cheaper choice. Destined for the bookshelf of every Canadian home.

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3) The Price of a Bargain

By Gordon Laird, McClelland & Stewart (October)

The year has already brought readers Free by Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson and Cheap by Atlantic Monthly contributing editor Ellen Ruppel Shell, both of which explored the consequences of our low-cost culture. This new book by Calgary-based investigative journalist Laird builds on the dialogue, chronicling the global rise of the discount and the cost it is exacting. Laird’s diagnosis is grim (low wages and labour abuses; widespread economic and environmental crises) and his prognosis is undetermined. Will high prices save us? Do we have the capacity for change? Yes or no, the journey is fascinating.

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4) Trauma Farm

By Brian Brett, Greystone Books (September)

Part memoir and part natural history of the author’s farm on Salt Spring Island, B.C., Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Natural Life is a colourful portrait of the peculiar magic in the everyday labours of rural living. Brett writes of his experiences on the farm with affection and curiosity, and his poetic and deeply personal stories follow his journey toward understanding the contradictions inherent in farm life—which he finds at once fundamentally resilient yet earnestly fragile.

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5) Now or Never

By Tim Flannery, Harper Collins Canada (September)

If you’re like me, you can’t get enough of the writing of this Aussie scientist (and author of international best-seller The Weather Makers), who also happens to be Chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council. His writings on climate change are urgent and science-based yet fundamentally human. In this new essay, Now or Never: Why We Need to Act Now to Achieve A Sustainable Future, Flannery walks us through the scope of the globe’s environmental challenges then explores possible solutions. He rounds this off with contributions from leading environmental thinkers, including Canada’s Alanna Mitchell (Sea Sick), and a closing dialogue that will leave you hopeful.

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