Book Recommendations

The following titles are books we believe worth having on your bookshelf as you become more environmentally engaged. More books will be added in the coming months.

Eco Bible: An Ecological Commentary on Genesis and Exodus: Volume 1: An Ecological Commentary on Genesis and Exodus

by Yonatan Neril, Leo Dee

Vegan Revolution: Saving our world, Revitalising Judaism

by Richard Schwartz

Trees, Earth and Torah: A Ti B’Shvat Anthology

Edited by Ari Elon, Naomi Mara Hyman and Arthur Waskow, JPS 1999

A rich volume drawing on writers and activists from around the Jewish world and across the denominations, including serious scholarship on textual sources, trees and the Land of Israel and practical ideas for celebration.

Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth

Edited by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, The Golden Sufi Center, 2013

Deeply moving insights and essays drawing on spiritual traditions and wisdom from many faiths and cultures, including contributions from pioneer environmentalists Thomas Berry and Satish Kumar and with an important quote from Albert Einstein. These profound reflections on the scared sadly lack a Jewish contribution. Something to amend in the next edition?

How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything.

Mike Berners-Lee, Profile Books, first published 2010, many subsequent editions

Essential, and chastening, reading, this book does exactly what it says – analyses the carbon cost of everything from an apple to a carpet to a car.

Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible

Ellen F. Davis, Cambridge University Press, 2009

This scholarly yet highly readable book describes the deep connection between the generations of the Bible and the land on which they lived. Drawing on Judaism’s earliest it shows how our attitude to the environment is at once moral and spiritual, as well as economic and ecological.

Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm

Isabella Tree, Picador, 2018

A must read for anyone who cares about reforesting, rebirding and land restoration, the book chronicles the return to nature of a Sussex farm and the astonishing results for plant and animal life. It has already been an inspiration to many now travelling a similar path.

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