Blue Planet Book Club

Dive into a new book and learn more about the underwater world! The Blue Planet Book Club meets every other month, either virtually or in-person, to discuss a book related to diving and exploration, marine conservation, the ocean and its inhabitants, and any related topics.

All are welcome to join! Have a recommendation? We'd love to hear it!

Email us to find out when the next meeting is.

Check out our past picks, no library card needed!

January 2022: "The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea” by Callum Roberts.

"Who can forget the sense of wonder with which they discovered the creatures of the deep? In this vibrant hymn to the sea, Callum Roberts—one of the world’s foremost conservation biologists—leads readers on a fascinating tour of mankind’s relationship to the sea, from the earliest traces of water on earth to the oceans as we know them today. In the process, Roberts looks at how the taming of the oceans has shaped human civilization and affected marine life."

February 2022: "Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone" by Juli Berwald 

"Gracefully blending personal memoir with crystal-clear distillations of science, Spineless is the story of how Juli learned to navigate and ultimately embrace her ambition, her curiosity, and her passion for the natural world. She discovers that jellyfish science is more than just a quest for answers. It’s a call to realize our collective responsibility for the planet we share."

March 2022: "Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver" by diving legend Jill Heinerth.

"Renowned cave diver Jill Heinerth gives a firsthand account of her explorations of the hidden depths of our oceans and the sunken caves inside our planet. She shares the split-second decisions that determine whether a diver makes it back to safety and the prejudices that prevent women from pursuing careers underwater. Heinerth also appreciates the beauty beyond the danger of cave diving and writes at length about working with biologists discovering new species, physicists tracking climate change, and hydrogeologists examining our finite freshwater reserves. Her story takes readers deep into inner space, where fear must be reconciled and a mission’s success balances between knowing one’s limits and pushing the envelope of human endurance."

April 2022: "All We Can Save" by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson.

"ALL WE CAN SAVE illuminates the expertise and insights of dozens of diverse women leading on climate in the United States—scientists, journalists, farmers, lawyers, teachers, activists, innovators, wonks, and designers, across generations, geographies and race—and aims to advance a more representative, nuanced and solution-oriented public conversation on the climate crisis. These women offer a spectrum of ideas and insights for how we can rapidly, radically reshape society. Intermixing essays with poetry and art, this book is both a balm and a guide for knowing and holding what has been done to the world, while bolstering our resolve never to give up on one another or our collective future. Curated by two climate leaders, the book is a collection and celebration of visionaries who are leading us on a path toward all we can save."

May 2022: "The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World" by Patrik Svensson.

"Remarkably little is known about the European eel, Anguilla anguilla. Even today, in an age of advanced science, no one has ever seen eels mating or giving birth, and we still don’t understand what drives them, after living for decades in freshwater, to swim great distances back to the ocean at the end of their lives. They remain a mystery. Drawing on a breadth of research about eels in literature, history, and modern marine biology, as well as his own experience fishing for eels with his father, Patrik Svensson crafts a mesmerizing portrait of an unusual, utterly misunderstood, and completely captivating animal. Blending memoir and nature writing at its best, Svensson’s journey to understand the eel becomes an exploration of the human condition that delves into overarching issues about our roots and destiny, both as humans and as animals, and, ultimately, how to handle the biggest question of all: death. The result is a gripping and slippery narrative that will surprise and enchant."

June 2022: "Below the Edge of Darkness: Exploring Light and Life in the Sea" by Edith Widder.

"Below the Edge of Darkness takes readers deep into our planet's oceans as Widder pursues her questions about one of the most important and widely used forms of communication in nature. In the process, she reveals hidden worlds and a dazzling menagerie of behaviors and animals, from microbes to leviathans, many never before seen or, like the legendary giant squid, never before filmed in their deep-sea lairs. Alongside Widder, we experience life-and-death equipment malfunctions and witness breakthroughs in technology and understanding, all set against a growing awareness of the deteriorating health of our largest and least understood ecosystem. A thrilling adventure story as well as a scientific revelation, Below the Edge of Darkness reckons with the complicated and sometimes dangerous realities of exploration. Widder shows us how when we push our boundaries and expand our worlds, discovery and wonder follow. These are the ultimate keys to the ocean's salvation—and thus to our future on this planet."

July 2022: "Why Sharks Matter: A Deep Dive with the World's Most Misunderstood Predator" by David Shiffman.

In "Why Sharks Matter," marine conservation biologist Dr. David Shiffman explains why it's crucial that we overcome our misconceptions and rise above cinematic jump scares to embrace sharks as the imperiled and elegant ocean guardians they really are. Sharing his own fascinating experiences working with sharks, Shiffman tells us:

• Why healthy shark populations are a must for supporting ocean ecosystems—and the coastal economies that depend on them
• Why we're in danger of losing many shark species forever
• What scientists, conservationists, and readers can do to help save these iconic predators
• Why so much of what you've heard about sharks and how to save them is wrong

Exploring the core tenets of shark conservation science and policy, Shiffman synthesizes decades of scientific research and policymaking, weaving it into a narrative full of humor and adventure. Touching on everything from Shark Week to shark fin soup, overfishing to marine sanctuaries, Shiffman reveals why sharks are in trouble, why we should care, and how we can save them. Perfect for shark enthusiasts, Why Sharks Matter is an approachable, informative guide to the world of shark conservation and the passionate, fascinating, brilliant people who work to understand and protect our oceans. This fun read will have you looking at sharks with a fresh perspective and an understanding that the survival of sharks is crucial to the survival of another apex predator—ourselves. 

August 2022: "Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do" by Wallace J. Nichols.

Why are we drawn to the ocean each summer? Why does being near water set our minds and bodies at ease? In "Blue Mind," Wallace J. Nichols revolutionizes how we think about these questions, revealing the remarkable truth about the benefits of being in, on, under, or simply near water. Combining cutting-edge neuroscience with compelling personal stories from top athletes, leading scientists, military veterans, and gifted artists, he shows how proximity to water can improve performance, increase calm, diminish anxiety, and increase professional success. Blue Mind" not only illustrates the crucial importance of our connection to water-it provides a paradigm-shifting "blueprint" for a better life on this Blue Marble we call home.

September 2022: “The Sea Around Us” by Rachel Carson. 

Published in 1951, "The Sea Around Us" is one of the most remarkably successful books ever written about the natural world. Rachel Carson's rare ability to combine scientific insight with moving, poetic prose catapulted her book to the top of best-seller lists and earned multiple awards.!

October 2022: "Deep Fathom" by James Rollins.

"Ex-Navy SEAL Jack Kirkland surfaces from an aborted underwater salvage mission to find Earth burning. Solar flares have triggered a series of gargantuan natural disasters. Earthquakes and hellfire rock the globe. Air Force One has vanished from the skies with America's president on board. Now, with the United States on the narrow brink of a nuclear apocalypse, Kirkland must pilot his oceangoing exploration ship, Deep Fathom, on a desperate mission miles below the ocean's surface. There, devastating secrets await him--and a power an ancient civilization could not contain that has been cast out into modern day, where it will forever alter a world that's already racing toward its own destruction."

November 2022: "Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness" by Peter Godfrey-Smith. 

"Although mammals and birds are widely regarded as the smartest creatures on earth, it has lately become clear that a very distant branch of the tree of life has also sprouted higher intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. In captivity, octopuses have been known to identify individual human keepers, raid neighboring tanks for food, turn off lightbulbs by spouting jets of water, plug drains, and make daring escapes. How is it that a creature with such gifts evolved through an evolutionary lineage so radically distant from our own? What does it mean that evolution built minds not once but at least twice? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter?"

January 2023: "Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II" by Robert Kurson. 

This is a riveting true adventure in which two divers risk everything to solve a great historical mystery–and make history themselves.

February 2023: "And the Ocean Was Our Sky" by Patrick Ness.

With the lush, atmospheric art of Rovina Cai woven in throughout, this ocean tale asks harrowing questions about power, loyalty, obsession, and the monsters we make of others. 

March 2023:  "Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals" by Alexis Pauline Gumbs.

Undrowned is a book-length meditation for social movements and our whole species based on the subversive and transformative guidance of marine mammals. Our aquatic cousins are queer, fierce, protective of each other, complex, shaped by conflict, and struggling to survive the extractive and militarized conditions our species has imposed on the ocean. Gumbs employs a brilliant mix of poetic sensibility and naturalist observation to show what they might teach us, producing not a specific agenda but an unfolding space for wondering and questioning. From the relationship between the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale and Gumbs’s Shinnecock and enslaved ancestors to the ways echolocation changes our understandings of “vision” and visionary action, this is a masterful use of metaphor and natural models in the service of social justice.

April 2023: "The Ministry for the Future" by Kim Stanley Robinson.

The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us. Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of the year, this extraordinary novel from visionary science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson will change the way you think about the climate crisis. 

May 2023: "World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments" by award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil.

A mesmerizing work of meditations on nature. Each chapter captures a moment, each centered around a different natural phenomenon and charts the reverberations of the lived experience it evokes, be it family, identity or the notion of belonging. 

June 2023: “The Brilliant Abyss” by  Helen Scales.

A golden era of deep-sea discovery is underway as revolutionary studies rewrite the very notion of life on Earth and the rules of what is possible. In the process, the abyss is being revealed as perhaps the most amazing part of our planet, its topography even more varied and extreme than its landmass counterpart. Teeming with unsuspected life, an extraordinary, interconnected ecosystem deep below the waves has a huge effect on our daily lives, influencing climate and weather systems, with the potential for much more--good or bad, depending on how it is exploited. Currently, the fantastic creatures that live in the deep--many of them incandescent in a world without light--and its formations capture and trap vast quantities of carbon that would otherwise poison our atmosphere, and novel bacteria as yet undiscovered hold the promise of potent new medicines. Yet the deep also holds huge mineral riches lusted after by nations and corporations; mining them could ultimately devastate the planet, compounded by the deepening impacts of ubiquitous pollutants and rampant overfishing. Eloquently and passionately, the author of Spirals in Time and Eye of the Shoal brings to life the majesty and mystery of an alien realm that nonetheless sustains us, while urgently making clear the price we could pay if it is further disrupted. The Brilliant Abyss is at once a revelation and a clarion call to preserve this vast unseen world.

July 2023: "What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins" by Jonathan Balcombe.

Although there are more than thirty thousand species of fish, we rarely consider how individual fishes think, feel, and behave. Balcombe upends our assumptions about fishes, portraying them not as unfeeling, dead-eyed feeding machines but as sentient, aware, social, and even Machiavellian―in other words, much like us. Teeming with insights and exciting discoveries, "What a Fish Knows" offers a thoughtful appraisal of our relationships with fishes and inspires us to take a more enlightened view of the planet’s increasingly imperiled marine life. 

August 2023:  "The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World" by Jeff Goodell.

What if Atlantis wasn't a myth, but an early precursor to a new age of great flooding? Across the globe, scientists and civilians alike are noticing rapidly rising sea levels and higher and higher tides pushing more water directly into the places we live, from our most vibrant, historic cities to our last remaining traditional coastal villages. With each crack in the great ice sheets of the Arctic and Antarctica, and each tick upwards of Earth's thermometer, we are moving closer to the brink of broad disaster. "The Water Will Come" is the definitive account of the coming water, why and how this will happen, and what it will all mean. As he travels across twelve countries and reports from the front lines, acclaimed journalist Jeff Goodell employs fact, science, and first-person, on-the-ground journalism to show vivid scenes from what is already becoming a water world.

September 2023: "The Girl of the Sea of Cortez: A Novel" by Peter Benchley.

On an island in the Gulf of California, an intrepid young woman named Paloma carries a special legacy from her father—a deep understanding of the sea and a sixth sense about the need to protect it. Every day, Paloma paddles her tiny boat into the ocean and anchors over a seamount—a submerged volcanic peak sixty feet underwater that is clustered with spectacular sea animals and a wondrous web of marine life. It is there that an astonishing event takes place, when on one of her dives Paloma is shadowed by a manta ray—an animal so large it blocks the sun. She develops an extraordinary relationship with this luminous, gentle creature, but instinctively knows its existence is a secret she must fiercely protect. Benchley’s novel paints a poignant picture of humanity’s precarious relationship with the ocean, which unfolds alongside a heartrending story of familial bonds, often revealing that the ignorance of man is far more dangerous than the sea. Full of beauty, danger, and adventure, "The Girl of the Sea of Cortez" is triumphant—a novel to fall in love with.

October 2023: "Pressure" by Brian Keene.

Off the coast of tropical Mauritius, an ecological catastrophe with global implications is occurring. The ocean's floor is collapsing at a rapid rate. World-champion free diver and marine biologist Carrie Anderson joins a scientific expedition determined to discover the cause - and how to stop it. But what they uncover is even more horrific. Deep beneath the surface, something is awake. Something hungry. Something...cold. Now, the pressure builds as Carrie and her colleagues must contend with the murderous operatives of a corrupt corporation, an unnatural disaster that grows bigger by the day, and a monstrous predator that may spell the extinction of all mankind. 

November 2023: “Of Time And Turtles Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell” by Sy Montgomery.

With elegance, journalistic curiosity, and gorgeous artwork by Matt Patterson, this nonfiction narrative relates the dramas and insights gleaned from working in a hospital for injured, sick, and abandoned turtles—and at the same time, investigates the mystery of time itself. (Really, who better than these long-lived, ancient reptiles to help probe what philosophy considers, along with consciousness, the “hard problem” of time?) Lived during the pandemic, when life for many seemed stalled and broken, the stories of courage and patience in these pages testify to the power we all have to mend our shattered world. 

January 2024: "The Blue Machine: How the Ocean Works" by Helen Czerski.

All of Earth’s oceans, from the equator to the poles, are a single engine powered by sunlight, driving huge flows of energy, water, life, and raw materials. In "The Blue Machine," physicist and oceanographer Helen Czerski illustrates the mechanisms behind this defining feature of our planet, voyaging from the depths of the ocean floor to tropical coral reefs, estuaries that feed into shallow coastal seas, and Arctic ice floes. Through stories of history, culture, and animals, she explains how water temperature, salinity, gravity, and the movement of Earth’s tectonic plates all interact in a complex dance, supporting life at the smallest scale―plankton―and the largest―giant sea turtles, whales, humankind. From the ancient Polynesians who navigated the Pacific by reading the waves, to permanent residents of the deep, such as the Greenland shark that can live for hundreds of years, she introduces the messengers, passengers, and voyagers that rely on interlinked systems of vast currents, invisible ocean walls, and underwater waterfalls. Most important, however, Czerski reveals that while the ocean engine has sustained us for thousands of years, today it is faced with urgent threats. By understanding how the ocean works, and its essential role in our global system, we can learn how to protect our blue machine.

February 2024: "Sex in the Sea: Our Intimate Connection with Sex-Changing Fish, Romantic Lobsters, Kinky Squid, and Other Salty Erotica of the Deep" by Marah J. Hardt.

Forget the Kama Sutra. When it comes to inventive sex acts, just look to the sea. There we find the elaborate mating rituals of armored lobsters; giant right whales engaging in a lively threesome whilst holding their breath; full moon sex parties of groupers; daily mating blitzes by blue-headed wrasse and much, much more. "Sex in the Sea" is a journey unlike any other to explore the staggering ways life begets life beneath the waves. It also uniquely connects the timeless topic of sex with the timely issue of sustainable oceans.

March 2024: "The Galapagos: A Natural History" by Henry Nicholls.

In "The Galapagos," science writer Nicholls offers a lively natural and human history of the archipelago, charting its course from deserted wilderness to biological testing ground and global ecotourism hot spot. Describing the island chain's fiery geological origins as well as our species' long history of interaction with the islands, he draws vivid portraits of the life forms found in the Galapagos, capturing its awe-inspiring landscapes, understated flora, and stunning wildlife. Nicholls also reveals the immense challenges facing the islands, which must continually balance conservation and ever encroaching development.

April 2024: "Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures" by Nick Pyenson.

Whales are among the largest, most intelligent, deepest diving species to have ever lived on our planet. They evolved from land-roaming, dog-like creatures into animals that move like fish, breathe like us, can grow to 300,000 pounds, live 200 years and roam entire ocean basins. Whales fill us with terror, awe, and affection--yet we know hardly anything about them, and they only enter our awareness when they die, struck by a ship or stranded in the surf. Why did it take whales over 50 million years to evolve to such big sizes, and how do they eat enough to stay that big? How did their ancestors return from land to the sea? Nick Pyenson's research has given us the answers to some of our biggest questions about whales.

May 2024: "Your Inner Fish: a Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body" by Neil Shubin.

Why do we look the way we do? What does the human hand have in common with the wing of a fly? To better understand the inner workings of our bodies and to trace the origins of many of today's most common diseases, we have to turn to unexpected sources: worms, flies, and even fish. By examining fossils and DNA, Shubin shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our head is organized like that of a long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genome look and function like those of worms and bacteria.

Shubin makes us see ourselves and our world in a completely new light. Your Inner Fish is science writing at its finest-enlightening, accessible, and told with irresistible enthusiasm.

June 2024: "Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship" by Robert Kurson.

Finding and identifying a pirate ship is the hardest thing to do under the sea. But two men—John Chatterton and John Mattera—are willing to risk everything to find the Golden Fleece, the ship of the infamous pirate Joseph Bannister. Soon, however, they realize that cutting-edge technology and a willingness to lose everything aren’t enough to track down Bannister’s ship. They must travel the globe in search of historic documents and accounts of the great pirate’s exploits, face down dangerous rivals, battle the tides of nations and governments and experts. Fast-paced and filled with suspense, fascinating characters, history, and adventure, Pirate Hunters is an unputdownable story that goes deep to discover truths and souls long believed lost.

July 2024: "Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells" by Helen Scales.

Members of the phylum Mollusca are among the most ancient animals on the planet. Their shells provide homes for other animals, and across the ages, people have used shells not only as trinkets but also as a form of money, and as powerful symbols of sex and death, prestige and war. Marine biologist Helen Scales weaves the science and natural history of shells into a compelling narrative, revealing their cultural importance and the ways they have been used by humans over the millennia, even as a source of mind-bending drugs. After surviving multiple mass extinctions millions of years ago, mollusks and their shells still face an onslaught of anthropocentric challenges, including climate change and corrosive oceans. But rather than dwelling on all that is lost, Scales emphasizes that seashells offer an accessible way to reconnect people with nature, helping to bridge the gap between ourselves and the living world.

August 2024: "The Island of Sea Women" by Lisa See.

Set on the Korean island of Jeju, the story follows Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls from very different backgrounds, as they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective. Over many decades—through the Japanese colonialism of the 1930s and 1940s, World War II, the Korean War, and the era of cellphones and wet suits for the women divers—Mi-ja and Young-sook develop the closest of bonds. Nevertheless, their differences are impossible to ignore: Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, forever marking her, and Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother’s position leading the divers. After hundreds of dives and years of friendship, forces outside their control will push their relationship to the breaking point. This beautiful, thoughtful novel illuminates a unique and unforgettable culture, one where the women are in charge, engaging in dangerous physical work, and the men take care of the children.

September 2024: "Remarkably Bright Creatures" by Shelby Van Pelt.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova. Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late. Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.

January 2025:  "Playground," by Richard Powers.

Four lives are drawn together on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away. Set in the world’s largest ocean, this awe-filled book explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity.

March 2025: "Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water" by Amorina Kingdon.

For centuries, humans ignored sound in the “silent world” of the ocean, assuming that what we couldn’t perceive, didn’t exist. But we couldn’t have been more wrong. Marine scientists now have the technology to record and study the complex interplay of the myriad sounds in the sea. Finally, we can trace how sounds travel with the currents, bounce from the seafloor and surface, bend with temperature, and even saltiness; how sounds help marine life survive; and how human noise can transform entire marine ecosystems. In Sing Like Fish, award-winning science journalist Amorina Kingdon synthesizes historical discoveries with the latest research in a clear and compelling portrait of this sonic undersea world. From plainfin midshipman fish, whose swim-bladder drumming is loud enough to keep houseboat-dwellers awake, to the syntax of whalesong, from the deafening crackle of snapping shrimp, to underwater earthquakes and volcanoes, sound plays a vital role in feeding, mating, parenting, navigating, and warning - even in animals that we never suspected of acoustic ability.

May 2025: "The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean" by Susan Casey.

For all of human history, the deep ocean has been a source of wonder and terror, an unknown realm. But now, cutting-edge technologies allow us to dive miles beneath the surface, and we are beginning to understand this strange and exotic underworld. Susan Casey takes us on a fascinating journey through the history of deep-sea exploration, from the myths and legends of the ancient world to storied shipwrecks we can now reach on the bottom, to the first intrepid bathysphere pilots, to the scientists who are just beginning to understand the mind-blowing complexity and ecological importance of the quadrillions of creatures who live in realms long thought to be devoid of life. Throughout this journey, she learned how vital the deep is to the future of the planet, and how urgent it is that we understand it in a time of increasing threats from climate change, industrial fishing, pollution, and the mining companies that are also exploring its depths.

July 2025: "The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier" by Ian Urbina.

There are few remaining frontiers on our planet. But perhaps the wildest, and least understood, are the world's oceans: too big to police, and under no clear international authority, these immense regions of treacherous water play host to rampant criminality and exploitation. Traffickers and smugglers, pirates and mercenaries, wreck thieves and repo men, vigilante conservationists and elusive poachers, seabound abortion providers, clandestine oil-dumpers, shackled slaves and cast-adrift stowaways -- drawing on five years of reporting, Ian Urbina introduces us to the inhabitants of this hidden world. Through their stories, he uncovers a globe-spanning network of crime and exploitation that emanates from the fishing, oil and shipping industries, and on which the world's economies rely.