Book Club
Our Backyard Book Club reads nonfiction books related to your home, from the land right outside your door to the planet itself. Check out past issues of newsletters or subscribe below.
Reading List
2025
JANUARY
The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot
Robert MacFarlane
Newsletter: “January: It’s Almost Over”
FEBRUARY
The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love
Kristin Kimball
Newsletter: “‘For Tea’ & Farm Dreams”
MARCH
The Backyard Bird Chronicles
Amy Tan
Newsletter: “The Chippy Times”
APRIL
The Milkweed Lands
Written by Eric Lee-Mäder and illustrated by Beverly Duncan
Newsletter: “The Magic of Milkweed… and Rabbits?”
MAY
You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World
Edited by Ada Limón
Newsletter: “Poetry & Parrots”
JUNE
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
Ed Yong
Newsletter: “The Bat & the Black Ghost Knife”
JULY
Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark
Leigh Ann Henion
Newsletter: “A Prescription for Darkness”
AUGUST
Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry
Austin Frerick
paired with
Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food
Wendell Berry
SEPTEMBER
Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life
Ferris Jabr
OCTOBER
Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, Ourselves
Nicola Twilley
paired with
Extra! Extra! Eat All About It! Recipes and Culinary Curiosities from Historic Wisconsin Newspapers
Jane Conway and Randi Julia Ramsden
NOVEMBER
Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive
Eliot Stein
DECEMBER
The Lost Spells
Written by Robert Macfarlane and illustrated by Jackie Morris
2024
APRIL
The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife
Nancy Lawson
Newsletters: “Amateur Bird Detective” and “Plastic & Prairie Dogs”
MAY
A Precautionary Tale: How One Small Town Banned Pesticides, Preserved Its Food Heritage, and Inspired a Movement
Philip Ackerman-Leist
Newsletter: “Hope & Wonder”
JUNE
Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet
George Monbiot
Newsletter: “A Summer Stroll”
JULY
The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light
Paul Bogard
Newsletter: “The Pleasure of Nightfall”
AUGUST
Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell
Written by Syd Montgomery and illustrated by Matt Patterson
Newsletter: “Off Like a Herd of Turtles”
SEPTEMBER
Two Trees Make a Forest: In Search of My Family’s Past Among Taiwan’s Mountains and Coasts
Jessica J. Lee
Newsletter: “Finding Home”
OCTOBER
Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet
Will Hunt
Newsletter: “Underground & Skybound”
NOVEMBER
Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet
Ben Goldfarb
Newsletter: “On the Road”
DECEMBER
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Newsletter: “The Gift of the Moment”
2026
JANUARY
Kuleana: A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai’i
Sara Kehaulani Goo
FEBRUARY
Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival
Bernd Heinrich
MARCH
A Billion Butterflies: A Life in Climate and Chaos Theory
Jagadish Shukla
APRIL
Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie
Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty