By: Allison Penner

How Not to Die 

By: Dr. Michael Greger

There is no way for me to write this list without including this book! It’s focused on nutrition and is structured by first going through many chronic diseases and causes of deaths and then focuses on the foods to consume in the second half. My favourite part of Dr. Greger’s writing is its dedication to being fact based through its incredible amount of citations to peer-reviewed studies and articles that fill over 100 pages! The book continues to serve as a roadmap for how I plan what I eat each day for optimal nutrition.

Raising a rare girl : a memoir

By: Heather Lanier

I picked this up right in the days before I was scheduled to move which turned out to be a terrible idea as I could not put it down! It follows the journey of a mom raising a daughter who has a very rare genetic condition. The book doesn’t touch on anything directly related to agriculture, but it gives us a reminder that we need an agricultural system that serves everyone. This means meeting the needs of people who fall outside of the norm even when it poses unique challenges and difficulties. I found this book to be deeply thought provoking and meaningful.

Billion Dollar Burger: Inside Big Tech's Race for the Future of Food

By: Chase Purdy

This is a recently released book on the clean meat sector. It’s written by a journalist and it helps provide a really analytical perspective on the industry. For example, it talks about fetal bovine serum which is a really big issue to the industry moving forward. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in what the clean meat industry currently looks like as well as the reasoning behind the invention.

The sacred hoop : recovering the feminine in American Indian traditions

By: Paula Gunn Allen

This book highlights how women have largely been written out of Indigenous histories and traditions due to colonization. I really appreciated how good this book was about getting me to evaluate my own biases and perspectives. For example, she discusses how much of what we know about Indigenous life is through a settler perspective (the one we prioritize remembering). As that was an incredibly patriarchal society, we only learn about their traditions by people with those biases. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve read it yet I continue to think about the lessons it provides on a daily basis.

The year-round solar greenhouse : how to design and build a net-zero energy greenhouse

By: Lindsey Schiller

This was a really wonderful and fun read. I really liked that the book focuses on uniquely designing greenhouses to fit the different climates and needs of the individual. This is demonstrated through its discussion of different materials and building modifications and gives case studies throughout. It even included a Canadian-based example that made it work through closing the greenhouse in winter. I would really recommend this book for anyone interested in greenhouse construction.