Beyond Fact: Our Living Planet

Third Tuesday of each month, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
Capitol Hill Library
10723 S.W. Capitol Hwy.
503.988.5385

Pick up a copy of the book at the Capitol Hill Library after you register.

The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan: A fascinating account of four everyday plants and their coevolution with human society. Using the histories of apples, tulips, potatoes and cannabis to illustrate the complex, reciprocal relationship between humans and the natural world, Pollan shows how these species have successfully exploited human desires to flourish.
Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth by Richard Fortey: From its origins on the still-forming planet to the recent emergence of Homo sapiens — one of the world's leading paleontologists offers an absorbing account of how and why life on earth developed as it did.
Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation by Olivia Judson: Through copiously researched data, biologist and journalist Judson explains animal mating habits and evolutionary biology in a tongue-in-cheek advice column format providing reams of fascinating factoids, such as the nauseating dining habits of tropical cockroaches during copulation and the pregnancies of the male seahorse and his cousin, the pipefish.
The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner: Research done in the last 20 years on the Galapagos Islands finches proves Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, demonstrating that it is neither rare nor slow, but can be watched by the hour. Winner of the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.