Book Club

Book Club promotes the Arboretum’s mission through reading and discussing titles including nonfiction, fiction, essays, biographies, and poetry, with a focus on horticulture, history, natural history, science, ecology, and environmental issues.

Book Club meets every other month in the Visitor’s Center and all Arboretum members are welcome to attend.

Participation in Book Club is a perk of membership.

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Upcoming Meetings

Book Club

September 15 @ 2:45 pm - 3:45 pm

Book Club

November 17 @ 2:45 pm - 3:45 pm

Book Club Luncheon

December 15 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Book Club

January 19, 2027 @ 2:45 pm - 3:45 pm

Mission of Book Club

Members of Adkins Arboretum’s Book Club deepen their understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of the Chesapeake Bay region’s native landscapes, including indigenous flora and wildlife, by selecting and discussing relevant literature of the region, the country, and the world.

20 Years of Book Club

Adkins Arboretum’s Book Club was founded in 2004. The following is a complete list of books read by the Club since its inception.

2004

  • Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
  • Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
  • Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

  • Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
  • Coming Out of the Woods by Wallace Kaufman
  • Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
  • North with the Spring by Edwin Way Teale
  • Stirring the Mud by Barbara Hurd
  • Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett
    Diversity of Life by E.O. Wilson
  • Encounters with the Archdruid by John McPhee
  • How to Grow Wildflowers & Wild Shrubs & Trees in Your Own Garden by Hal Bruce

  • Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
  • Bay Country by Tom Horton
  • Plants, People, Culture by Michael Balick and Paul Cox
  • Underground by Yvonne Baskin
  • Book of Bees by Sue Hubbell
  • Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
  • Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
  • Suburban Safari by Hannah Holmes
  • Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

  • Winter World by Bernd Heinrich
  • Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
  • Gaia’s Garden: a Guide to
  • Home-scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway
  • Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
  • Teaching the Trees by Joan Maloof
  • Cloudspotters Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney
  • Second Nature, by Michael Pollan
  • Song of the Meadowlark: Exploring Values for a Sustainable Future by James Eggert
  • A Forest Journey, Role of Wood in the Development of Civilization by John Perlin
    Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray
  • There’s a Hair in My Dirt by Gary Larson

  • Old Herbaceous by Reginald Arkell
  • Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver
  • Gathering Moss by Robin Wald Kimmerer
  • Bringing Nature Home by Douglas Tallamy
  • Crickets and Katydids, Concerts and Solos by Vincent Dethier
  • Letters from Eden by Julie Zickefoose
  • American Chestnut by Susan Frienkel
  • John and William Bartram’s America edited by Helen Gere Cruickshank
  • Teaming with Microbes by Jeff Lowenfels & Wayne Lewis
  • The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant

  • Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
  • The Wild Trees by Richard Preston
  • Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose
  • Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard
  • In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
  • The Forgotten Pollinators by Stephen L. Buchmann and Gary Paul Nabhan
  • The Meadow by James Galvin
  • 1491 by Charles Mann
  • The Naturalist by E.O. Wilson

  • What Are People For? by Wendell Berry
  • Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman
  • Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct & Science by Carol Yoon
  • The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession by Andrea Wulf
  • The Invisible Garden by Dorothy Sucher
  • Fireflies, Honey, Silk by Gilbert Waldbauer
  • Summer World: A Season of Bounty by Bernd Heinrich
  • In Hovering Flight by Joyce Hinnefeld
  • Rosalie Edge, Hawk of Mercy: The Activist Who Saved Nature from the Conservationists by Dyana Furmansky
  • Footprints Across the South: Bartram’s Trail Revisited by James Kautz

  • The End of Over-Eating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David Kessler
  • Broadsides from the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs by Sue Hubbell
  • The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food and Love by Christin Kimball
  • In the Company of Crows and Ravens by John Marzluff, Tony Angell and Paul Ehrlich
  • Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the America Nation by Andrea Wulf
  • Ant Hill: A Novel by E.O. Wilson
  • Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England by William Cronon
  • The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
  • Weeds: In Defense of Nature’s Most Unloved Plants by Richard Mabey
  • Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology by Lawrence Weschler

  • People of the Mist: A Novel of North America’s Forgotten Past by Kathleen O. Gear and W. M. Gear
  • The Moon by Whale Light: And Other Adventures Among Bats, Penguins, Crocodilians, and Whales by Diane Ackerman
  • Among the Ancients: Adventures in Eastern Old Growth Forests by Joan Maloof
  • Story of Charlotte’s Web: EB White’s Eccentric Life in Nature & Birth of an American Classic by Michael Sims
  • Nesting Season by Bernd Heinrich
  • Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens by Andrea Wulf
  • Nabokov’s Blues: The Scientific Odyssey of a Literary Genius by Kate Johnson and Steve Coates
  • 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles Mann
  • Folks, this Ain’t Normal: A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World by Joel Salatin
  • Essential Earthman: Henry Mitchell on Gardening by Henry Mitchell

  • State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
  • Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild by Craig Childs
  • Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
  • The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature by David George Haskell
  • Horseshoe Crabs & Velvet Worms by Richard Fortey
  • What the Robin Knows by Jon Young
  • American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation by Eric Rutkow
  • Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmstead by Justin Martin
  • Darwin, Portrait of a Genius Paul Johnson
  • My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

 

  • King Solomon’s Ring by Konrad Lorenz
  • The Right Hand Shore by Christopher Tilghman
  • Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life: The Plants and Places that Inspired the Classic Children’s Tales by Marta McDowell
  • A Garden of Marvels: How We Discovered that Flowers Have Sex, Leaves Eat Air, and Other Secrets of Plants by Ruth Kassinger
  • Ginko: The Tree That Time Forget by Peter Crane
  • What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses by Daniel Chamovitz
  • The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
  • Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love by Dava Sobel
  • Good Poems/American Places by Garrison Keillor
  • The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson
  • The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World’s Great Drinks by Amy Stewart

  • Elizabeth’s Field: Historical Fiction, by Barbara Lockhart
  • The Trees in My Forest by Bernd Heinrich
  • Grandma Gatewood’s Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail by Ben Montgomery
  • Tales from the Underground: A Natural History of Subterranean Life by David Wolf
  • Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness by Edward Abbey
  • The Human Age: The World Shaped by Us by Diane Ackerman
  • Basin and Range by John McPhee
  • A Reverence for Wood by Eric Sloane

  • Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do by Wallace Nichols
  • Welcome to Subirdia: Sharing Our Neighborhoods with Wrens, Robins, Woodpeckers, and Other Wildlifeby John Marzluff
  • Elizabeth’s Field: Historical Fiction by Barbara Lockhart
  • The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World by Andrea Wulf
  • New and Selected Poetry, Vol. 2 by Mary Oliver
  • Walking the Appalachian Trail by Larry Luxenberg
  • Emily Dickinson’s Gardens: A Celebration of a Poet and Gardener by Marta McDowell
  • Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • Pawpaw: In Search of America’s Forgotten Fruit by Andrew Moore
  • Cape Cod by Henry David Thoreau
  • Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert

  • The Cracker Barrel by Eric Sloane
  • Seeing Trees: Discovering the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees by Nancy Ross Hugo with photographs by Robert Llewellyn
  • How to Read Water: Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea by Tristan Gooley
  • How Not to Be Eaten: The Insects Fight Back by Gilbert Waldbauer
  • A Buzz in the Meadow: The Natural History of a French Farm by David Goulson
  • The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature’s Great Connectors by David Haskell
  • The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley
  • One Wild Bird at a Time: Portraits of Individual Lives by Bernd Heinrich
  • The End of Nature by Bill McKibben
  • Coming of Age at the End of Nature: A Generation Faces Living on a Changed Planet edited by Julie Dunlap and Susan Cohen

  • Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide for Thriving in the Age of Accelerations by Thomas L. Friedman
  • The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
  • The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife by Nancy Lawson
    Seasons of America Past by Eric Sloane
  • American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee
  • Rivers of the Eastern Shore by Hulbert Footner
  • Charles Darwin: The Naturalist Who Started a Scientific Revolution by Cyril Aydon
  • The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution by David Quammen
  • Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis by Kim Todd
  • Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning) by Dr. Marion Nestle
  • The Lost Words by Robert MacFarlane with illustrations by Jackie Morris

  • Urban Forests: A Natural History of Trees and People in the American Cityscape by Jill Jonnes
  • Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist: How to Have Your Yard and Eat it Too by Michael Judd
  • Nature’s Temples: The Complex World of Old-Growth Forests by Joan Maloof
  • Astoria: Aster and Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
  • Around the World in 80 Trees by Jonathan Drori
  • Nature Wars by Jim Sterba
  • On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor
  • The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in our Time by Jonathan Weiner
  • The Soil Will Save Us by Kristin Ohlson
  • An Island Out of Time: A Memoir of Smith Island in the Chesapeake by Tom Horton
  • Diary of the Early American Boy: Noah Blake, 1805 by Eric Sloane

  • The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life by David W. Quammen
  • Naked Mountain: A Memoir by Marcia Mabee
  • Dark Enough to See the Stars in a Jamestown Sky by Connie Lapallo
  • Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O’Brian
  • The Overstory: A Novel by Richard Powers
  • The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World by Charles C. Mann
  • Teaching the Trees: Lessons from the Forest by Joan Maloof
    The House Without Windows by Barbara N. Follett with illustrations by Jackie Morris

  • Killing Mr. Watson by Peter Mattheissen
  • The Unlikely Through Hiker by Dereck Lugo
  • The Living Great Lakes by Jerry Dennis
  • Weeds by Richard Mabey
  • Slime by Ruth Kassinger
  • The Secrets of Wildflowers by Jack Sanders
  • Dancing with Bees by Brigit Strawbridge Howard
  • Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller
  • Spying on Whales by Nick Pyenson
  • Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert MacFarlane
  • Larvae of the Nearest Stars by Catherine Carter

  • The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson
  • The Wild Trees by Richard Preston
  • Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard
  • A World on the Wing by Scott Weidensaul
  • Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm by Isabella Tree
  • Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
  • Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree: Getting to Know Trees Through the Language of Scent by David Haskell
  • Old Growth: The Best Writing About Trees from Orion Magazine with foreward by Robin Kimmerer
  • One Day at Teton Marsh by Sally Carrighar
  • The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times by Jane Goodall

  • Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez
  • Under the White Sky: The Nature of the Future, by Elizabeth Kolbert
  • The Nature of Oaks by Douglas Tallamy
  • River of the Gods by Candace Millard
  • The Mind of a Bee by Lars Chittka
  • Our Native Bees by Paige Embrey
  • Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid by Thor Hanson
  • Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
  • The Earth Moved by Amy Stewart
  • Hope is the Thing with Feathers by Christopher Cokinos

  • An Immense World by Ed Yong
  • Sounds Wild and Broken by David George Haskell
  • Fen, Bog, and Swamp by Annie Proulx
  • The Journals of Lewis & Clark by Bernard Devoto, Ed.
  • The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough