This event has passed
Go Green Reads: Virtual Discussion of The Problem with Plastics
Past event
Featured Book
The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It's Too Late
"Plastic pollution has reached crisis proportions, and false solutions abound. But as The Problem with Plastic shows, there are real solutions out there. And, fortunately, there are people like Judith Enck working to enact them." --Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction
A powerful look at plastic's impact on human health and the environment, and how we can fight back by putting people and the planet over plastics
Plastic is everywhere--wrapped around our food, stitched into our clothes, even coursing through our veins. Once a marvel of modern science, plastic has become so inextricably woven into our lives that imagining a world without it can seem impossible. Over the last seventy-five years, plastic has cradled our planet in a synthetic embrace.
The Problem with Plastic critically examines the paradox of this material, first celebrated for its innovations and now recognized for its devastating environmental and public health impacts. With clarity and urgency, the book reveals how plastic pollution contributes to poisoned oceans, polluted air, a warming planet, and overwhelming waste, disproportionately impacting marginalized communities who bear the brunt of petrochemical pollution.
Revealing the alarming extent of microplastics infiltrating both the natural world and the human body, this compelling narrative challenges the illusion that recycling alone will save us. It unpacks the mechanisms of environmental racism and the deceptive greenwashing strategies used by the plastics industry to maintain the status quo.
More than a critique, The Problem with Plastic emphasizes the urgent need for action against plastic's toxic legacy. It highlights powerful stories of frontline resistance in places like Louisiana, Texas, and Appalachia, and equips readers with practical tools--including a "Household Waste Audit" to track and reduce plastic consumption, as well as model policy guides for driving legislative change.
Urgent, eye-opening, and ultimately empowering, The Problem with Plastic reminds us: plastic is a problem--but together, we can be the solution.
About This Event
Go Green Reads: Virtual Discussion of The Problem with Plastics
We are pleased to support Go Green Reads with their virtual discussion of The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It's Too Late by Judith Enck and Adam Mahoney. Plastic in one form or another shows up in virtually every device upon which our modern lives depend. The Problem with Plastic examines the far-reaching effects of plastics production and explores the material's entire life cycle, from its origins as a fossil fuel product to its long-term presence in ecosystems, while examining public health concerns regarding microplastics. The authors also remind us there is no cause to feel hopeless - the same human creativity that invented plastics can find a way to prevent them from harming the planet and the creatures with whom we share it.
The Go Green Reads book discussion group aims to raise environmental awareness, inspire people to take individual and collective action, and create more sustainable, just, and resilient communities.
Featured Author
Judith Enck
Judith Enck is the founder and president of Beyond Plastics, whose goal is eliminating plastic pollution everywhere. In 2009, she was appointed by President Obama to serve as regional administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and served as deputy secretary for the environment in the New York Governor's Office. She is currently a professor at Bennington College, where she teaches classes on plastic pollution. She lives in upstate New York.Adam Mahoney is a climate and environmental reporter who has reported from more than a dozen U.S. states and Palestine, Mexico, Uganda, and Vietnam for newspapers and magazines including The New York Times and The Guardian. The co-author (with Judith Enck and Beyond Plastics) of The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It's Too Late (The New Press), he lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. The co-author (with Judith Enck and Adam Mahoney) of The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It's Too Late (The New Press), Beyond Plastics is a nationwide project based at Bennington College that uses education, advocacy, and grassroots organizing to reduce the production and use of plastic. Visit www.beyondplastics.org
In Conversation With
Adam Mahoney
Adam Mahoney is an environmental justice reporter. His writing has appeared in the New York Times and The Guardian. The co-author (with Judith Enck and Beyond Plastics) of The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It's Too Late ( The New Press ), he lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.
About the Venue
The Book Stall
At The Book Stall, you get great reviews, sage advice/recommendations, and a personalized service for all ages and interests. If You love books, look no further than an indie store!
Visit store pageMore at The Book Stall
The Majesty of Chicago Jazz: A Discussion with Howard Reich
The Book Stall welcomes music journalist Howard Reich for an in-store discussion featuring his new book, The Majesty of Chicago Jazz: Twenty-Five Visionaries Who Define the City's Sound. Author and Chicago native Howard Reich gives readers a front-row seat to the history of Chicago jazz as it roared forth in jazz clubs, concert halls, and festivals. Reich covered Chicago jazz for more than thirty years as the Chicago Tribune’s staff critic, and in this collection, with a musician’s ear and a journalist’s expertise, Reich argues that jazz as an art form is inconceivable without Chicago. The Majesty of Chicago Jazz is captivating for jazz newcomers and aficionados alike—all are guaranteed to learn something surprising here. Howard Reich covered music for the Chicago Tribune for forty-three years and served as the newspaper’s staff jazz critic from 1989 to 2021. Reich is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and the author of six other books, including Let Freedom Swing and Portraits in Jazz. Reich served on the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in Music four times, including the year when Wynton Marsalis’ Blood on the Fields became the first jazz composition to win (1997).
The Piano Teacher of Montparnasse: An Evening with Heather Morris
The Book Stall welcomes bestselling author Heather Morris for her new book, The Piano Teacher of Montparnasse. The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz returns with a masterful new novel that captures the astonishing bravery of ordinary people in extraordinary times. Ms. Morris will be in-conversation with author Renée Rosen. Heather Morris is a native of New Zealand, now residing in Australia. For several years, while working in a large public hospital in Melbourne, she studied and wrote screenplays. In 2003, she was introduced to a gentleman who had "a story worth telling," which formed the basis of her first novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, and its follow-up, Cilka's Journey. Her third novel, Three Sisters, concluded the Tattooist trilogy. One of the twenty-first century's best-selling books, The Tattooist of Auschwitz was made into an acclaimed miniseries in 2024. Heather's books have sold over nineteen million copies worldwide. Our conversation partner Renée Rosen is a USA Today bestselling author. Her novels include Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl, The Social Graces, Park Avenue Summer, Windy City Blues, White Collar Girl, What the Lady Wants and Dollface as well as the young adult novel, Every Crooked Pot.
Draw Near to Me: An Evening with Michelle Brafman
We excited to host Michelle Brafman for her new book, Draw Near to Me. In this highly-anticipated sequel to Swimming with Ghosts, the discovery of a desperately-hidden secret brings a family to the brink of collapse—the exact place where they may ultimately find true healing and forgiveness. She will be in conversation with Rachel Kamin, Director of Lifelong Learning at North Suburban Synagogue Beth El. Michelle Brafman is the author of Washing the Dead, Bertrand Court: Stories, and Swimming with Ghosts, the companion novel to Draw Near to Me. Her work has appeared in Oprah Daily, O Quarterly, Slate, LitHub, Tablet, The Forward, and elsewhere. She teaches fiction writing in the Johns Hopkins University MA in Writing Program and spoken about her work and the creative process at more than 200 venues, including book stores, literary festivals, classrooms, synagogues, and myriad book groups. Learn more at michellebrafman.com.