A Recap of Important Reads from the Past Year to Build Your Reading List
Looking to refresh your reading list with books that inform, inspire, and challenge the way we think about our planet? From climate policy and clean energy to nature-driven storytelling, 2025 offers a powerful lineup of sustainability reads that balance urgency with hope.
Here are ten standout books shaping the sustainability conversation this year—plus a few bonus picks worth adding to your shelf.
1. The Joyful Environmentalist — Isabel Losada
This lively and optimistic book is a refreshing antidote to climate fatigue. Blending memoir with practical action, Losada shows how joy, humour, and persistence can be powerful tools for environmental change. A reminder that sustainability work doesn’t have to feel heavy to be effective.
2. Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie — Dave Hage & Josephine Marcotty
An ecological history of North America’s prairies, this book traces how landscapes have been shaped—and reshaped—by human decisions. It offers valuable lessons about resilience, restoration, and what’s possible when nature is given a chance to recover.
3. Carbon: The Book of Life — Paul Hawken
Hawken reframes carbon not simply as a climate villain, but as a foundational element of life itself. This big-picture exploration deepens our understanding of climate systems and challenges us to think more holistically about solutions.
4. Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization — Bill McKibben
McKibben’s 2025 call to action focuses on accelerating the solar transition and rethinking how quickly meaningful change can happen. Urgent yet hopeful, this book is especially relevant for anyone working in clean energy or climate advocacy.
5. A Barrister for the Earth — Monica Feria-Tinta
Can the law protect the planet itself? Feria-Tinta explores groundbreaking legal efforts to recognize Earth as a living entity with rights—offering a provocative and inspiring look at how justice systems might evolve to meet the climate crisis.
6. Abundance — Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
While not strictly an environmental book, Abundance is essential reading for sustainability thinkers. It focuses on systems change, exploring how policy, governance, and investment could unlock abundant clean energy and large-scale climate solutions.
7. Wild Dark Shore — Charlotte McConaghy
A beautifully written climate fiction novel set in a rugged natural environment, this story blends emotional depth with ecological themes. It’s a reminder of how fiction can help us feel the stakes of environmental loss—and connection.
8. Birch and Jay — Allister Thompson
This literary novel weaves human relationships with the natural world, exploring themes of belonging, care, and interconnectedness. A quieter but deeply resonant read for those who appreciate nature-centered storytelling.
9. Life on a Little-Known Planet: Dispatches from a Changing World — Elizabeth Kolbert
Though not brand new, this book remains a highly recommended 2025 read. Kolbert’s clear, authoritative reporting examines how species and ecosystems are responding to a rapidly changing climate, grounding big concepts in real-world observation.
10. The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It — Genevieve Guenther
A must-read for communicators, activists, and policy professionals, this book unpacks how language shapes climate narratives—and how we can counter misinformation with clarity and purpose.
📚 Bonus Picks & Genre Highlights
Climate Fiction & Narrative
- Arborescence — Rhett Davis
A cli-fi novel with philosophical depth, exploring humanity’s relationship with nature and time. - The Ministry for the Future — Kim Stanley Robinson
Still widely recommended in book clubs and sustainability circles for its hopeful, systems-level vision of climate action.
Context & Classic Reads
These aren’t 2025 releases, but they continue to deepen understanding and spark conversation:
- The Uninhabitable Earth — David Wallace-Wells
A sobering look at climate risk that continues to influence public discourse. - Drawdown — Paul Hawken
A solutions-focused classic that remains a go-to reference for practical climate action.
Whether you’re looking for policy insight, hopeful storytelling, or practical frameworks for change, these books offer meaningful ways to engage with sustainability—one page at a time.
