IRISES BOOK CLUB
Inspiring reads in science, Environment, and sustainability
Welcome to TWIG's brand new book club! We are pleased to offer this book club to current TWIG members. The Iris is the Tennessee State Flower, and a fitting acronym for what we hope to read together!
What's so different about our book club? Each meeting we will meet and discuss what we've read AND we will pair a service activity to go along with each book to support a local non-profit or sustainability initiative in Tennessee! This activity will occur on the weekend after we meet.
Meetings are every other month with a rotating location. The book club is led by Renee Barker and Leah Sherry, and input from members is always appreciated.
Let's hear your feedback about our meetings and the next book club pick!
Currently Reading
Geobiologist Hope Jahren has spent her life studying trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Lab Girl is her revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also a celebration of the lifelong curiosity, humility, and passion that drive every scientist. In these pages, Hope takes us back to her Minnesota childhood, where she spent hours in unfettered play in her father’s college laboratory. She tells us how she found a sanctuary in science, learning to perform lab work “with both the heart and the hands.” She introduces us to Bill, her brilliant, eccentric lab manager. And she extends the mantle of scientist to each one of her readers, inviting us to join her in observing and protecting our environment. Warm, luminous, compulsively readable, Lab Girl vividly demonstrates the mountains that we can move when love and work come together.
National Bestseller
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography
A New York Times Notable Book
Winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Film Prize for Excellence in Science Books
Finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
One of the Best Books of the Year: The Washington Post, TIME.com, NPR, Slate, Entertainment Weekly, Newsday, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Kirkus Reviews
next MEETING details
Details coming soon!
Looking back...
September 2018
Book: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Service Activity: National Public Lands Day at Old Stone Fort State Park
November 2018
Book: Reason for Hope by Jane Goodall
Service Activity: Pet Community Center in East Nashville
January 2019
Book: The Lamentations of Zeno by Ilija Trojanow
Service Activity: Warner Parks Winter Birding: cleaning and citizen science bird count
March 2019
Book: Garbology by Edward Humes
Service Activity: Pickup for a Pint with Turnip Green Creative Reuse and Jackalope Brewery
June 2019
Book: Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker
Service Activity: Helping at Glencliff High School Garden, a teaching and learning hub for volunteers, students, and community partners! The garden serves as a vibrant resource for students and volunteers to grow gardening skills, learn about healthy eating choices and gain an understanding of food access in our community, as well as create an effective learning environment for students at Glencliff.
August 2019
Book: The Fate of Food by Amanda Little
Service Activity: Assisting with meal prep tasks at The Nashville Food Project's commercial kitchen. Their mission is bringing people together to grow, cook and share nourishing food, with the goals of cultivating community and alleviating hunger in our city.
October 2019
Book: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Service Activity: Unfortunately the service event was canceled due to weather
March 2020
Book: Women Who Run With The Wolves
Service Activity: Weed Wrangle with The Nashville Zoo!
April 2020
Book: Inconspicuous Consumption
Service Activity: iNaturalist and Flowering Dogwoods Cloned Plant Project
June 2020
Book: Untamed: The Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland Island
Service Activity: Check out Wild Cumberland, and email us for their specific asks for volunteers!
September 2020
Book: Black Faces, White Spaces; Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors
Service Activity: Outreach to a company of your choice to sign the Outdoor CEO pledge, and volunteer opportunity with Trap Garden fresh veggie delivery
