Between travel management plans and legislative reports, ICL staff have spent hours reading on the job lately. We decided to lighten things up and ask what staff are enjoying reading in their free time. From non-fiction conservation reads, to fictional fantasy worlds, we’ve rounded up quite the list of recommendations!
Rachel Brinkley, Community Engagement Associate
I am reading Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Coming from a ‘hard science’ background, this book has provided new perspectives to the natural world and the value that we assign (or don’t) to things and other organisms. I highly recommend giving this one a read!
John Robison, Public Lands Director
The following books are stacked by my bedside. They are a mix of stories about landscapes I am actively working to conserve, novel approaches for finding collaborative solutions, and inspirational tales that remind me why wild places and wild rivers make my heart beat fast.
Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb
Showdown in the Big Quiet: Land, Myth, and the Government in the American West by Dr. John Bieter
How to Have Impossible Conversations, A Very Practical Guide by Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay
The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fights for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy by Anand Gridharadas
Roger River Reprieve by Paul Hoobyar
The River Why by David James Duncan.
Kayla Gleason, Development Assistant
I just received my copy of Ijeoma Oluo’s book, Be A Revolution (the first book I’ve ever pre-ordered!) and I’m really looking forward to it after reading her first two books. Also, one of the people featured in Oluo’s book is Alice Wong, author of The Year of the Tiger, a recent favorite of mine. It is a creative approach to the memoir and tells a story of cultivating community and fighting for disability justice. Check your library or local bookstore for anything these two authors have published. They are both bold yet vulnerable storytellers who believe that a more just and equitable future is possible and they’re willing to dedicate their time and emotional energy to helping us get there.
Libby Tobey, Legislative Fellow
I loved Hawaiki Rising. It’s an incredible true story about a team that reconstructs one of the ancient voyaging canoes used by Polynesian explorers. The canoe project is, in part, an effort to revitalize the ancestral Polynesian art of navigating by stars, wind, and water, but it also plays a central role in what’s come to be known as the “Hawaiian Renaissance.” The book brings together some incredible personal storylines, a wild adventure, and a remarkable revival of ancestral ways of life and Indigenous culture.

Brad Smith, Conservation Director
I highly recommend Journey of the Bitterroot Grizzly Bear by Steve Nadeau. This book provides valuable insights into how Idaho’s policies toward grizzlies evolved in the late 1990s, ultimately leading to the suspension of a plan to reintroduce grizzlies to central Idaho. Additionally, the book features a captivating historical fiction narrative about a grizzly bear’s journey from the Selkirks to the Bitterroots, adding an engaging layer to the reading experience. Given that the Fish and Wildlife Service is currently revisiting the plan to reintroduce grizzlies to the Bitterroots, this book is particularly timely and informative.
Erin Pardi, Office Manager
The book I am reading now is Ribbons of Scarlet, A Novel of the French Revolution’s Women. It is a collection of short stories about the leading role in which women fought to bring about some of its most important triumphs and inspiring changes. It’s the “best of times…worst of times” era, which marked one of the earliest appearances of women demanding expanded rights like the right to vote. Their thinking was shockingly modern on issues as diverse as gender equality, racial equality, judicial reform, and the distribution of society’s wealth. I recommend this book not just for the history, but for the richness in the way it is written.
Sarah Plane, Community Engagement Assistant
The book I am reading is Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us by Alexandra Morton. As a linguist, I have always been interested in animal communication, often more than human communication, and seeing as how I have been hopelessly obsessed with Orca since I was a child, this book practically jumped off the shelf at me. Alexandra Morton, one of my personal heroes, tells us of her journey from working at a marine park to pioneering research in Orca communication and echolocation as the first person to use a hydrophone with this species. She not only captures your heart but also weaves an incredible narrative of the harmonious relationship between species (Orca and Salmon) and the less harmonious relationship between humans and nature.

Courtney Hamilton, Donor Relations Specialist
I’m a fiction lady. I like to step into the shoes of a vast array of characters in order to develop empathy for other perspectives and learn about parts of history and the downstream effects of policy in a way that a textbook would never teach. Some of my favorites in the past year have been The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson, Trust by Hernan Diaz, Horse by Geraldine Brooks, Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, and The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig. There’s a line in The Whistling Season where the narrator wakes up thinking he’s lost his hearing because the world is so quiet, but really it just snowed overnight and he’s living in a world before our homes were ticking and beeping with technology. I think of that line every time I’m out in the open after a fresh snow and the world is just silent. Those moments are hard to come by these days.

Jonathan Oppenheimer, Government Relations Director
I am really enjoying a book by an Idaho author about a consequential, but largely unknown Idahoan who left a mark on Idaho. Idaho’s Wilderness Visionary: Harry Shellworth by Richard Holm tells the intriguing story of Harry Shellworth who was, almost single-handedly, responsible for the designation of the Idaho Primitive Area in 1930. The Idaho Primitive Area became the Central Idaho Wilderness, and is now known as the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Richard Holm also shares Harry Shellworth’s role as a “land man” for the Boise-Payette Lumber Company (known later as Boise-Cascade), in the construction of many fire lookouts across Idaho, the establishment of the Southern Idaho Timber Protective Association, which remains in existence today as one of only two private firefighting organizations in Idaho, and his leadership of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Idaho, which was seen as one of the most successful state CCC programs in the nation. Harry Shellworth was ahead of his time, and Holm’s tale of this historic Idahoan should cement his legacy as an early conservation advocate who left an enduring mark on Idaho’s wild heart.
Jennifer Ekstrom, North Idaho Director
The next book I plan to read is The World for Sale, which exposes the handful of powerful people who control the exploitation of our natural resources. One corporation that rises to the top of bad actors is Glencore, the same one that is set to take over the coal mines that are polluting the Kootenai River in Idaho. According to Foreign Policy Magazine, “If you have the slightest interest in how the modern world was made, by whom, at what price, and at what profit, this is the book for you.”
Karissa Huntsman, North Idaho Community Engagement Specialist
I am currently reading two books! ICL started a Conservation Book Club this year, and in March we will discuss “The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis.” The authors begin by laying out two scenarios; one where we achieve net zero emissions by 2050, and one where we do not. They then share practical solutions for addressing climate change. I find this book to be very digestible and empowering to the reader.
The other book I’m reading is “The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration” (do you sense a theme here?). While I’m only a few chapters into it, I like how the author shares personal stories of people and communities who have already faced displacement due to climate disasters. It is a fascinating human-centered approach that makes climate change feel like a more tangible topic. I recommend both of these books if you’re looking for a good climate read!
We hope you have found a new book or two to add to your reading list! If you are interested in reading along with other conservationists, consider joining our book club which meets every other month. Register here to join our March 27th meeting. Happy reading!