Join our vibrant group of nature enthusiasts for lively discussions of American environmental literature.  The book talks are led by Benjamin Goluboff, professor of English at Lake Forest College and expert on American literature. Insightful and informative discussions cover the historical context, impact and influence of several important cornerstones of the environmental literature movement.

Four Wednesdays per year, 7:30 - 9:00 PM

Brushwood. $15 per person per session or $10 FRW members

Sign up for the entire series: $45 per person or $30 FRW members 

Copies of books chosen for Ryerson Reads will be specially set aside and available at the Deerfield Public Library, located at 920 Waukegan Road.

September 19, 2012

1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus  

by Charles Mann 

From Tenochtitlan in Mexico to Cahokia in southern Illinois, environmental historian Charles Mann surveys the Americas as Columbus discovered them, dispelling the myth that the New World discovered by Europeans was a pristine landscape untouched by human artifice.

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November 14, 2012

Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth

by William Bryant Logan

Soil Science for Poets, Dirt, brings together history and literature, ecology and horticulture in this portrait of the soil matrices that sustain life on our planet.

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January 16, 2013

All the Strange Hours: The Excavation of a Life 

by Loren Eiseley

The autobiography of one of the twentieth century's greatest interpreters of the natural world. Loren Eiseley, anthropologist and paleontologist, tells the story of life beset by mysteries and miracles.

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March 13, 2013

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created 

by Charles Mann

Mann's subject in this sequel to 1491 is the Columbian Exchange, the exchange of plants, animals, microbes, and technologies that resulted from contact between Europeans and the New World. This is the story of a globalization event whose consequences are still unfolding.

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