The award-winning Fathoms: The World in the Whale, by Rebecca Giggs, was the book club’s big read in February. Everyone was glad they read the book. It was incredibly informative and phenomenally well-researched but difficult emotionally. Giggs pulls no punches. Her descriptions of whales and their history left many of us in awe of these amazing creatures, and in pain as we recognized and grappled with the havoc wrought on whale populations by human activity over the last 150 years.

The Groundwork Erie environmental book club’s first entry of 2026 was Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness (2015). A nonfiction bestseller and National Book Award finalist, this book was an engaging account of Montgomery’s introduction to and engagement with several octopuses, primarily at the New England Aquarium in Boston, MA, and with the staff and volunteers whose lives intertwined with those of the octopuses. As the book’s title intimates, Montgomery approaches the octopuses she meets as individuals …

While Richard Powers’ 2018 novel Overstory was written around trees and life on land, his 2024 novel Playground turns readers’ attention toward life Earth’s grand oceans. Considering that oceans cover approximately 71% of Earth’s surface, we humans ought to attend more carefully to its health and inhabitants, and Playground certainly encourages us to do so. At the same time, the novel also asks readers to consider the role of AI in society and challenges readers to consider the ethics of decisions that affect ocean life.