Books to Become an Intersectional Environmentalist
I’m back with even MORE eco and activism-focused book recommendations. This is part 4, so check out parts 1-3 here or just browse my entire list on my website.
Some of these may make you scratch your head…why would an environmentalist recommend this book? Because of intersectionality. Another excellent read that we covered in part 1 was The Intersectional Environmentalist. This book shows you why it’s so important to care about all of these interconnected issues as an environmentalist. From incarceration to tyrannical governments to capitalism, it all impacts the planet and the people who live on it. I hope that these books help you see why we should care about all of these connected issues.
Want to read these books? I highly recommend first checking them out at your local library, physically or digitally through Hoopla or Libby. Want to own the books for yourself? Check out ThriftBooks to get your copy secondhand or buy from the author directly to support them. If you buy through this indie bookstore, I get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting me so that I can keep this work free for you!
And if you want to read WITH me, join the Eco Book Club! For as little as $1 a month on Patreon or YouTube Memberships, we have discussions and calls via Discord every month to chat about our books. See you over there!
Let’s chat books!
Just Mercy
By Brian Stevenson
I dubbed this my best book of 2025 immediately upon completion…I finished it in January. And, tell you what, that remained true. Not only is this book extremely influential and thought-provoking, but it’s also incredibly well-written. Brian, a lawyer, takes us through his career from a high school student who does a sort of job shadow with a lawyer for folks on death row through his own journey as a death row lawyer. I never knew much about death row and its prisoners until this book.
Brian also sheds light on an ever-present issue in the US: systemic racism. His own story intertwines with that of one of his clients and how they were not just falsely convicted but then sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. We see the truth about how poverty impacts people of color more, how the public is more likely to believe a white person’s lie than a black person’s truth, and many more injustices
This book will make you a prison abolitionist or at least someone who cares deeply about “fixing” our prison system. You will see how unjust the entire system is and how it doesn’t actually help anyone.
Breathing Fire
Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California's Wildfires
By Jaime Lowe
This book shows us the other side of the prison system. Instead of hearing from lawyers, we hear from incarcerated people themselves. In particular, female inmates who help fight California’s Wildfires year in and year out. The catch? They do not retain their certifications when they get released, and their prison record prevents them from working for Cal Fire and other firefighting agencies despite years of experience for little-to-no pay.
This book has direct ties to climate change, as much of the world continues to battle year after year of “the worst fire season on record.” How do we fight these fires? With civilian firefighters as well as incarcerated folks.
The stories of several of these women are eye-opening, moving, and make you want to change the prison system while also fighting for the planet so we can slow these fires.
The End of Reality
By Jonathan Taplin
Ever wonder how we got here? Into this digital age, where just a few white men own our biggest means of communication? This book will tell you how.
Subtitled "How Four Billionaires are Selling Out Our Future,” The End of Reality shows the true colors of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Mark Andreesen, and Peter Thiel. Two of these names you may not have even heard of. I sure didn’t until reading this book. Now these four people are all that come to mind when I think of politics and money.
From buying our politicians to polluting our planet and hoarding wealth, this book will make you hate the ultra-wealthy if you don’t already. It will make you question every dollar you spend and every moment you spend on their social media sites.
Another similar book is Owned, by Eoin Higgins which I also highly recommend!
Ishmael
By Daniel Quinn
A work of fiction, yes, but it sure does tackle modern problems in a way that will get you thinking. Our main character finds himself as a student of a talking, sentient gorilla. Stay with me. This all-knowing gorilla teaches our main character, and therefore us, about two ways of living. They essentially boil down to what they call the “takers” and “leavers.” The takers take resources, are selfish, and are destroying the world. The leavers use only what they need, conserve resources, and plan for the future of their descendants.
While some of the writing was a little boring to me (I struggle with older books, not gonna lie), I still enjoyed the thoughts that this had me thinking. I think this could be a good book for a variety of ages or for those who have never read an eco book before. I think fiction can be easier to digest than often-dense non-fiction.
On Tyranny
By Timothy D. Snyder
Short and to the point, this book covers 20 lessons from the 20th Century about politics…namely, tyranny and fascism. It’s digestible and can be read in one sitting if you really want. Not only does it give these 20 lessons, but our author also gives us action items and things to look out for for each point he makes.
My favorite part is that he really hammers home the importance of individual action. When we all do small things, it turns into collective action, which can make waves and can truly resist authoritarianism. As we fall deeper into tyranny around the globe, this book is ultra-important.
We cannot fight for the planet under tyranny. We need a government that actually cares about its people and not just the top 1% and themselves. If you want to start reading about politics, this short book is a great place to start.
Rooted
By Lyanda Lynn Haupt
Let’s dial it back, shall we? Lots of heavy books in this iteration, but Rooted is light and wholesome. This was an Eco Book Club read that we really enjoyed! Lyanda takes us through forests, mountains, and even simply our own backyards and city parks. She makes you think about the hustle and bustle of Western culture and helps you to slow down your body and your mind. This book will literally make you want to touch grass!
It’s wholesome, warm and cozy, and adventurous. It reads a little like a memoir but also like a self-help book. Our collective biggest gripe with the book is the lack of sources. I wasn’t too sciencey, but still, she should’ve cited her sources when she did bring up science and research.
I still think about this book often. It makes me literally slow down and smell the flowers on walks. It makes me stop and listen to the birds. I hope you enjoy it, too!
How to Resist Amazon and Why
By Danny Caine
Written by an indie bookstore owner, Danny takes us into the world of book selling and how Amazon is trying to monopolize books. Written with firsthand experience as well as full of studies and other facts, if you haven’t broken up with Amazon yet, you sure will after this book.
Not only is Amazon putting small book retailers out of business, but they also lobby the government to do evil things, bust unions, and show an obvious lack of concern for worker health and safety.
This book is short and to the point. You can also learn about my personal thoughts on shopping small here and get the gist of why Amazon is so evil in this video.
Utopia for Realists
By Rutger Bregman
What does the future look like? Well, we can better imagine it with this book. Maybe we only work 4 days a week or only work 6 hours a day. Maybe we don’t have TVs in every single room, and we have free community spaces where we can hang out in. Perhaps we have free healthcare, have stopped overconsuming, and share resources with one another. If this sounds good to you, Utopia for Realists will help you imagine this future.
Bregman shows us what this future may look like, but also shows how many of the world’s countries nearly got to this utopian future in the past, but these ideas were shut down by politicians and lobbyists.
Looking for hope? This book will provide that.
One Day, Everyone Will have been Against This
By Omar El Akkad
Ever wonder what Germans thought of the Holocaust while it was actively happening? Take a look around, and you’ll get a good sense of it now. From the genocide in Palestine to ICE raids on our own streets, you can see how your fellow citizens are reacting in real time to atrocities like these. We all went through history class saying we would never let something like the holocaust happen, but these things happen all the time all around the world. Because it is only through hindsight that the majority of people can recognize them for what they are. No, not everyone, but the title explains it best: only in the future will everyone say that they were against this.
It’s hard to condemn atrocities in real time when it’s not popular to do so. It’s much easier to hop on the bandwagon and condemn them in the future when it becomes the mainstream thing to do.
Condemn these atrocities now. And read this short yet moving book on this topic.
The Shock Doctrine
By Naomi Klein
This goes down as another fav of 2025 and another of the most influential books I’ve ever read. I don’t look at a single global event now without thinking of this book. What’s even more shocking is that it was written 17 years ago (yeah…that’s 2009…) and yet it’s still extremely applicable, and honestly, it’s just gotten worse since.
Prominent author and activist Naomi Klein helps us understand why people in power do horrible things. If you shock a group of people enough, you will shock them into submission. You can take their land, enslave them, take their money, and much more. From war to forced starvation to not sending in government aid post natural disaster (like hurricane Katrina, for example), this will open your eyes to how awful many individuals and governments are throughout the world.
I will talk about this next book in part 5, but it deserves a recommendation now: Reign of Terror. This book dives into the War on Terror (a current hyperfixation of mine) and how the US government used Shock Doctrine principles to take over and abuse many Middle Eastern countries.
I just cannot capture how good either of these books is. Please read them for yourselves!
Those are my recs for today. Again, check out parts 1-3 and join the Eco Book Club if you feel so inclined. And don’t forget to support your local library!
As always, remember that your small actions make a big difference in the long run :)
Emma
