The Whispers of Rock
Anjana Khatwa Bridge Street Press (2025)
In 1902, on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent, a group of women reported that water was boiling in the crater of the La Soufrière volcano, accompanied by booming sounds and shaking, but they were ignored by the colonial authorities. The subsequent eruption killed 1,680 islanders. This is one of many global examples of the public’s appreciation of nature in Earth scientist Anjana Khatwa’s enticing book. “Awakening yourself to the whispers of rock”, she says, “can transform the way you connect with and understand the world”.
Lo—TEK Water
Julia Watson Taschen (2025)
Water is “not a resource to be extracted or managed, but a living relative, a system of memory, intelligence, and reciprocity”, says landscape designer Julia Watson. This view underlies the Lo—TEK movement that she spearheads, which draws on Indigenous philosophy that water is a regenerative substance. Her pioneering, lavishly illustrated book contains contributions from many communities, from Bangladesh’s floating farms to China’s dike-pond systems and Micronesia’s traps to catch fish using tide flows.
Surviving the Twenty-First Century
Noam Chomsky & José Mujica Verso (2025)
In 2017 and 2022, filmmaker Saúl Alvídrez recorded conversations between linguist Noam Chomsky and political activist José Mujica, former president of Uruguay. Their discussions range from the risks of climate change to neo-fascism and the wisdom of nature, and make up this brief, thought-provoking book. Despite mutual admiration, the two do disagree at times. For example, Chomsky says that automation will “free people to undertake truly creative and satisfying work”, but Mujica says that “robots work only for their masters!”
Warhead
Nicholas Wright St. Martin’s Press (2025)
