Engl 3050 Literature and the Environment, Spring 2025
[ Policies ] [ Calendar ] [ Online Readings ]
Online
Readings
last update: January 10, 2025
Notes:
- Here are various texts and sites that may interest students in this class. Some but not all of these are assigned readings. For specific, week-by-week reading assignments, see "Calendar," above.
I. Reviews of Books We're Reading for Class
The Age of Deer
- "From endangered to cuddly to ‘pests’: What ‘The Age of Deer’ says about the human mind." [Review of The Age of Deer, by Howsare.] By Lorraine Berry. The Los Angeles Times, Dec. 27, 2023. www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2023-12-27/from-endangered-to-cuddly-to-pests-what-the-age-of-deer-says-about-the-human-mind. (Click here for a cached version.)
- "Deer: Friend or foe? How about both? ‘The Age of Deer,’ by Erika Howsare, is a brilliant exploration of the complex ties between humans and deer." Review by Michael Sims. The Washington Post, January 4, 2024. www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/01/04/age-deer-howsare-book-review/. (Click here for a cached version.)
Under a White Sky
- "Electrified Rivers and Other Attempts to Save the Environment" [review of Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert]. By Jennifer Szalai. The New York Times, February 10, 2021.
www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/books/review-under-white-sky-elizabeth-kolbert.html. (Click here for a cached version.)
- "Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert review – the path to catastrophe: A damning survey, drawing on skilful and subtle reporting, that tracks the spiralling absurdity of human attempts to control nature with technology." By Ben Ehrenreich. The Guardian, March 26, 2021.
Flight Behavior
- "Book World: Barbara Kingsolver’s novel approach in ‘Flight Behavior’." By Ron Charles. The Washington Post, October 30, 2012.
- "The Butterfly Effect: ‘Flight Behavior,’ by Barbara Kingsolver." By Dominique Browning. The New York Times, Sunday Book Review, November 9, 2012.
www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/books/review/flight-behavior-by-barbara-kingsolver.html. (Click here for a cached version.)
Serena
- "Couple Creates an Empire by Felling Trees and Anyone in Their Way" [review of Serena]. By Janet Maslin, The New York Times, October 5, 2008. www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/books/06masl.html. (Click here for a cached version.)
- "Review -- Serena by Ron Rash: Jay Parini is impressed by a bloodthirsty tale of greed and the ruthless pursuit of power." The Guardian [Manchester, UK], October 9, 2009. www.theguardian.com/books/2009/oct/10/serena-ron-rash-review
American Earth selections
- "Fighting Deforestation and Capitalism: How a Woman’s Refusal to Leave a Tree Helped Preserve the Redwoods" [review of The Legacy of Luna, by Julia Butterfly Hill, 2000]. By Amanda Nicholson. Written for Engl 3050 Lit & Environment, Spring 2015.
- "The Heroes of This Novel Are Centuries Old and 300 Feet Tall" [review of The Overstory by Richard Powers]. By Barbara Kingsolver. New York Times Book Review, April 9, 2018. (Click here for a cached version.)
- "The Homer of the Ants" [review of Anthill: A Novel, by E. O. Wilson]. By Margaret Atwood. The New York Review of Books 57, 6 (April 8, 2010). www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/apr/08/the-homer-of-the-ants/
- "The Man Who Thinks Trees Talk to Each Other" [review of The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben]. The Guardian [Manchester UK], September 12, 2016. www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/12/peter-wohlleben-man-who-believes-trees-talk-to-each-other
- "Mother Nature as a Hothouse Flower." [Review of Bill McKibben's The End of Nature.] By David Graber. The Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1989. articles.latimes.com/1989-10-22/books/bk-726_1_bill-mckibben
- "The Sky is Melting" [review of Bill McKibben's The End of Nature]. By Nicholas Wade. The New York Times, October 8, 1989. www.nytimes.com/1989/10/08/books/the-sky-is-melting.html
II. In the News
- "As a Climate Scientist, I Knew It Was Time to Leave Los Angeles." By Peter Kalmus. The New York Times, January 10, 2025. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/opinion/la-fires-los-angeles-wildfires.html
- "They came to Asheville looking for a 'climate haven.' Then came Hurricane Helene." By Julia Simon. National Public Radio, October 9, 2024.
www.npr.org/2024/10/09/nx-s1-5137024/climate-haven-hurricane-helene-asheville
III. Miscellaneous Notable Nonfiction
- "The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance." By Robin Wall Kimmerer. Emergence Magazine, October 26, 2022. emergencemagazine.org/essay/the-serviceberry/
- "Birding While Black: J. Drew Lanham on race, belonging, and a love of nature" (excerpt from The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature). By J. Drew Lanham. Literary Hub, September 22, 2016. lithub.com/birding-while-black/
- "9 Rules for the Black Birdwatcher." By J. Drew Lanham. Orion Magazine, October 2013. orionmagazine.org/article/9-rules-for-the-black-birdwatcher/
- "What Do We Do About John James Audubon? The founding father of American birding soared on the wings of white privilege. The birding community and organizations that bear his name must grapple with this racist legacy to create a more just, inclusive world." By J. Drew Lanham. Audubon Magazine, Spring 2021. www.audubon.org/magazine/spring-2021/what-do-we-do-about-john-james-audubon
- "The Insect Apocalypse is Here." By Brooke Jarvis. The New York Times Magazine, November 27, 2018. (Click here for a cached version.)
- "Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change." By Nathaniel Rich. Photographs and Videos by George Steinmetz. The New York Times Magazine, August 1, 2018.
IV. Various Articles Related to Course Texts
- "Monarch butterflies' migration patterns are changing. Scientists want you to help." By Sofi Gratas. Weekend Edition Saturday, National Public Radio, January 6, 2024. Runtime: 2 minutes. www.npr.org/2024/01/06/1223287067/monarch-butterflies-migration-patterns-are-changing-scientists-want-you-to-help
- "Meddling With Monarchs." By Margaret Renkl. The New York Times, October 5, 2017. www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/opinion/monarch-butterfly-migration-extinction.html. (Click here for a cached version.)
- "Visiting Our Past: Logging dangers filled our hills." By Rob Neufeld. Asheville Citizen-Times, May 10, 2020. faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/readings/logging_smokies.pdf
- "Carolina Panthers." By Dan Lazar, Director of Education, Western North Carolina Nature. 2010. www.wildwnc.org/education/naturalists-notes/carolina-panthers
- "Global Warming and Flowering Times in Thoreau's Concord: A Community Perspective." By Abraham J. Miller-Rushing and Richard B. Primack. Ecology 89, 2 (February 2008): p332-341. www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/07-0068.1
- Julia Butterfly Hill profile on NBC Dateline News Magazine, Feb 14, 1999 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFRdy7o3DPE&feature=related
- "Margaret Atwood: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, 50 years on." By Margaret Atwood. The Guardian [Manchester, England], Friday, December 7, 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/dec/07/why-rachel-carson-is-a-saint
- "Serena: The Story Behind the Book" [Ron Rash's comments on how he wrote the book, posted at the site of his literary agent; no date]. http://www.rusoffagency.com/authors/rash_r/serenat/behind_serena.htm
- "Wendell Berry pulling his personal papers from UK: Writer protesting coal's influence." By Cheryl Truman. The Lexington Herald Leader, June 23, 2010. www.kentucky.com/2010/06/23/1319383/wendell-berry-pulling-his-personal.html
V. Authors Online
- Horace Kephart: Revealing an Enigma. Hunter Library Special Collections and the Mountain Heritage Center, Western Carolina University. www.wcu.edu/library/digitalcoll/kephart/
- "John Muir Writings" at Yosemite Online, an unofficial Yosemite website. www.yosemite.ca.us/john_muir_writings/
- "The John Muir Exhibit," at sierraclub.org. vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/default.aspx
- The Canons of the Colorado (first paper: Down the Green River), by John Wesley Powell, Scribner's Monthly 9, 3 (January 1875): 293-311
- The Canons of the Colorado (second paper), by John Wesley Powell, Scribner's Monthly 9, 4 (February 1875): 394-409