If you have read The Serra is Burning (and chances are, if you are this far into this website, you have), you know that my go-to response to things that I can’t understand or find overwhelming is to research the heck out of them, to read everything I can find on the subject, and to write and write and write, in an effort to find my way out of the fear and confusion I feel.

 

For this story, I dipped my toe in many streams of inquiry, from wildfire management to the science of dysfunctional systems, to memoir writing and travelogues. Some of that research found its way into The Serra Is Burning but much of it did not. So, now, in this column, I intend to offer you an annotated library of everything else. My story still feeds my curiosity; I’m still trying to understand what happened and why, what it means, and what we can do about it. I invite you to join me on that journey. Here’s a partial list of the places we could go in the months ahead. I’ll keep you posted.

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On Extreme Weather Events (especially Wildfires)

• When It All Burns by Jordan Thomas

• Firestorm by Jacob Soboroff

• Ignition by M. R. O’Connor

• The Pyrocene by Stephen J. Pyne

• Fire Weather by John Vaillant

• The Last Fire Season by Manjula Martin

 

Crisis Care and Collapse

• The Weight of Nature by Clayton Page Aldern

• The Sanctuary series by Sandra Bloom

• Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink

 

Cross-Cultural Encounters

• The Portuguese by Barry Hatton

• Collapse by Jared Diamond

 

Mental Health and Healing

• Real Self-Care by Pooja Lakshmi

 

Eco-Fiction

• The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

• American War by Omar El Akkad

 

Climate Change

• Under the Sky We Make by Kimberly Nicholas

• What if We Get it Right? By Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

 

Writing Your Way Home

• 1000 Words by Jami Attenberg

• The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr

• To Show and to Tell  by Phillip Lopate