April 22nd is Earth Day. Like sinning six days a week and praying on the seventh for forgiveness while promising to do better (or try to do better), we set aside Earth Day to acknowledge the wonder of the beautiful planet that sustains us, pray for its wellbeing and promise to show more reverence for it the remaining days of the year.

One day of prayer and promise can be quickly forgotten in a year full of distractions. Fortunately, there are many excellent books – non-fiction, novels and poetry — to inspire us and remind us of the daily devotion the earth deserves. One of my favorite ecologically-minded books is Echoes of Earth. Watch my 2013 video webcast interview with author Sue Baugh to see why. Then check out these other worthwhile books:

Non-Fiction
Silent Spring – Rachel Carson
An Inconvenient Truth – Al Gore
Hot, Flat and Crowded – Thomas L. Friedman
Moral Ground – Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson (editors)

Fiction
Ecotopia – Ernest Callenbach
Prodigal Summer – Barbara Kingsolver
The Shell Collector – Anthony Doerr
The Road – Cormac McCarthy

For Children
The Lorax – Dr. Seuss
Dear Children of the Earth – Schim Schimmel
The Great Paper Caper – Oliver Jeffers

Poetry
The Walk – Friedrich von Schiller
The Triumph of Life – Percy Bysshe Shelley
A Forest Hymn – William Cullen Bryant
Song at Sunset – Walt Whitman

Don’t forget to recycle your books by sharing them.