InspireSeattle - Book Club

InspireSeattle - Books Read

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About Book Club

The InspireSeattle book club is always seeking new regarding key political issues of these times. We meet every 4 to 6 weeks on a Sunday evening for 2 hours to discuss our latest book. The meeting place rotates among the homes of our membership, located from West Seattle to Mountlake Terrace. Carpooling is encouraged and is generally available.

Each book club concludes with a discussion of which book the majority of attendees would prefer to read next. You can take a look at a list of books previously suggested by InspireSeattle members or make your own suggestion at the book club or online.

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Click here to see a list of books previously read by the InspireSeattle book club.

View a list of books suggested for future book clubs, or

Submit an idea for a book to read:

Click here to read reviews of books by book club members

What we're reading for our next gathering,
Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 6pm

Birding to Change the World: A Memoir
by Trish O'Kane

In this uplifting memoir, a professor and activist shares what birds can teach us about life, social change, and protecting the environment.

Trish O'Kane is an accidental ornithologist. In her nearly two decades writing about justice as an investigative journalist, she'd never paid attention to nature. But then Hurricane Katrina destroyed her New Orleans home, sending her into an emotional tailspin.

Enter a scrappy cast of feathered characters - first a cardinal, urban parrots, and sparrows, then a catbird, owls, a bittern, and a woodcock - that cheered her up and showed her a new path. Inspired, O'Kane moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to pursue an environmental studies PhD. There she became a full-on bird obsessive - logging hours in a stunningly biodiverse urban park, filling field notebooks with bird doings and dramas, and teaching ornithology to college students and middle-school kids.

When Warner Park - her daily birdwatching haven - was threatened with development, O'Kane and her neighbors mustered a mighty murmuration of nature lovers, young and old, to save the birds' homes. Through their efforts, she learned that once you get outside and look around, you're likely to fall in love with a furred or feathered creature - and find a flock of your own.

In Birding to Change the World, O'Kane details the astonishing science of bird life, from migration and parenting to the territorial defense strategies that influenced her own activism. A warm and compelling weave of science and social engagement, this is the story of an improbably band of bird lovers who saved their park. And it is a blueprint for muscular citizenship, powered by joy.

Planning ahead?
After the meeting described above, we will be discussing The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger