To visit another page, just click here to go to the Green Bookshelf. If you’d like to suggest a book, scroll down to the form at the bottom of the page. In case you missed it, the recent Stratford Herald write-up is found in the 9th October 2025 edition, p, 10, at this link (password required).
Book ideas: *Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 2021 (resisting the attention economy); *Petru Popescu, Amazon Beaming, 1991 (Amazonian exploration); *Brian Aldiss, Hothouse, 1961 (science fiction); *Rob Dunn, Never Home Alone, 2018 (home ecology!); *Partha Dasgupta, Natural Capital, 2025 (more than economics); *Rupert Read, Liam Kavanagh & Rosie Bell (Eds.) The Climate Majority Project, 2024 (adaptation / resilience / activism).
Stratford Green Book Talks Coming Up
August 2026
Monday 10th at 1pm, feel free to bring your lunch!
Book: Suzanne Simard, When the Forest Breathes: Renewal and Resilience in the Natural World (Allen Lane, 2026).
Venue: Net Zero Stratford Hub, Stratford Upon Avon.
July 2026
Tuesday 14th at 1pm, feel free to bring your lunch!
Book: Rebecca Nesbit. Tickets for the Ark: From Wasps to Whales, How Do We Choose What to Save? (Profile Books 2022).
Venue: Net Zero Stratford Hub, Stratford Upon Avon.
Chosen by Tony B.
Stratford Green Book Talks Looking Back
June 2026: Great Big Green Week
Monday 15 Jun at 1pm, feel free to bring your lunch!
Book: Adrienne Buller. The Value of a Whale: On the Illusions of Green Capitalism. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2022).
Venue: Net Zero Stratford Hub, Stratford Upon Avon.
Chosen by Stephen.
May 2026
Monday 11 May at 1pm.
Book: Rupert Read, Liam Kavanagh and Rosie Bell. The Climate Majority Project. (London Publishing Partnership ,2023).
Venue: Net Zero Stratford Hub, Stratford Upon Avon.
Chosen by Jools.
March 2026
Monday 23rd at 3pm
Book: Patrick Grant. Less: Stop Buying So Much Rubbish. How Having Fewer, Better Things can make us Happier. (William Collins, 2025).
Venue: Net Zero Stratford Hub, Stratford Upon Avon.
Chosen by Hannah.
February 2026
Monday 16th at 3pm
Book: Brian Aldiss. Hothouse. (London: Penguin, 1961, 2008).
Venue: Net Zero Stratford Hub, Stratford Upon Avon.
Collectively chosen from the Green Book Shelf ideas list……
January 2026
Monday 19th at 3pm
Book: Robin Wall-Kimmerer. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (London: Penguin, 2021).
Venue: Net Zero Stratford Hub, Stratford Upon Avon.
Chosen by Janet Palmer, SCA.
Stuart Austin (macro photographer) brought along a selection of photographs. Janet accompanied her book talk with mosses from her back garden, which we explored with hand lenses (10X magnification).
December 2025
Monday 22 December at 2pm.
Book: Michael J. Hathaway. What a Mushroom Lives for: Matsutake and the Worlds they Make (Princeton University Press, 2022).
Venue: – Net Zero Hub Stratford
The book was collectively agreed on in November’s Green Book Talk , see below.
Note: UNFCCC COP 30 ran from 10 to 21 November 2025.
November
Monday 24th at 11am
Book: Jason Hickel, Less is More . London: Penguin, 2022.
Book selected by Stephen Norrie, Stratford Climate Action.
Venue : Net Zero Hub, Meer Street, Stratford Upon Avon
Carbon Literacy Action Day (CLAD): Thursday 13 November 2025.
Date: Monday 27th at 11am.
Celebrating Green Libraries Week, 27~31 October 2025.
Venue: Stratford Library
Book: Elif Shafak, There Are Rivers in the Sky (Penguin, 2024).
July 2025
James Arbib and Tony Seba, Stellar.: a World Beyond Limits and how to Get There. (London: Tony Seba & James Arbib, 2025).
Stratford Climate Action’s Stephen Norrie discussed the above book, which he read (along with a several others) in search of a coherent narrative around climate transitions.
Venue: Net Zero Stratford Hub
Great Big Green Week: 7~14 June 2025
Christopher Hart with Jonathan Thomson, Hedgelands: a Wild Wander Around Britain’s Greatest Habitat (London: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2024).
Wellesbourne Library.
David R. Montgomery, Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life (New York: W.W.Norton, 2018).
Also discussed: Isabella Tree, Rewilding; George Monbiot: Regenesis.
Shipston Library.
Wallace J. Nichols, Blue Mind (New York, Little Brown, 2024).
Stratford Upon Avon Library.
Presented by Mary Manandhar, Founder-Convener of River Hope.
April 2025
Adam Greenfield, Lifehouse (London: Verso, 2024, ebook).
Net Zero Guest Speaker David Mond delivered an excellent talk about the Lifehouse concept in Stratford Upon Avon’s Library in April 2025.
Please be in touch via the form below if you would be interested in a repeat.
March 2025
Robin Wall-Kimmerer – The Service Berry,
If you think of Economics as the dismal science, ServiceBerry might be a refreshing surprise for you. If inclined to read further, see: Jason Hickel, Less is More (London: Penguin, 2022, ebook). Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Thank Like a 21st Century Economist (London: Random House, 2017, ebook).
Chosen and presented by Janet Palmer, Stratford Climate Action.
February 2025
David Goulson, Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse (London: Jonathan Cape, 2021).
January 2025
Oliver Milman, The Insect Crisis: Our Fragile Dependence on the Planet’s Smallest Creatures (London: Atlantic Books, (Atlantic Books 2022).
December 2024
Mark Cocker, Crow Country
Green Libraries Week, 7~13 October 2024
October 2024
John Vaillant, Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World (London: Sceptre, 2023).
Chosen and presented by Janet Palmer, Stratford Climate Action.
Stratford Upon Avon Library.
October 2024
Richard Powers, The Overstory (London: Vintage, 2018).
Stratford Upon Avon Library
October 2024
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass : Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (London: Penguin Books, 2020).
Stratford Upon Avon Library
October 2024
Brett Christophers, The Price is Wrong : Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet (London: Verso, 2024).
Chosen and presented by Stephen Norrie, Stratford Climate Action.
Stratford Upon Avon Library
Stratford Upon Avon’s Green Book Talks are supported by Stratford Climate Action (SCA) and Net Zero Stratford; and hosted in Stratford Upon Avon Library and Stratford NZ Hub. They are friendly, relaxed gatherings where the main aims are to enjoy books on ‘green’ and related topics, to wrestle with climate and nature transitions, and to be inspired by good ideas and good writing. No need to read the book. Just turn up. Conversations round the table are always fun, interesting and informative.
If you’d like to suggest a book for the Green Book Shelf, please feel free to do so on the form below. Thank you!
