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Nature Book Club

• Wednesday, May 27, 2026, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

Clinton County Cornell Cooperative Extension is proud to partner with Point au Roche State Park to host their Nature Book Club!

Love nature and curious about the world around you? Join our fun, friendly book club where we dive into exciting non-fiction books all about the natural world! Whether it’s wildlife, botany, ecosystems, or the science behind it all, we’ll explore fascinating topics and share our thoughts over great conversation.
Grab a book, bring your love for nature, and come hang out with us! We meet the last Wednesday of every other month in person at our office, or virtually via Zoom. To receive the link and passcode for this meeting or to access this club via StoryGraph, reach out to Tia Legge at vrl29@cornell.edu or at (518) 561-7450.

Book for This Meeting:

Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper

"Wondrous . . . captivating.”—Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of An Immense World

Christian Cooper is a self-described “Blerd” (Black nerd), an avid comics fan and expert birder who devotes every spring to gazing upon the migratory birds that stop to rest in Central Park, just a subway ride away from where he lives in New York City. While in the park one morning in May 2020, Cooper was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was ten years old when what might have been a routine encounter with a dog walker exploded age-old racial tensions. Cooper’s viral video of the incident would send shock waves through the nation.

In Better Living Through Birding, Cooper tells the story of his extraordinary life leading up to the now-infamous incident in Central Park and shows how a life spent looking up at the birds prepared him, in the most uncanny of ways, to be a gay, Black man in America today. From sharpened senses that work just as well at a protest as in a park to what a bird like the Common Grackle can teach us about self-acceptance, Better Living Through Birding exults in the pleasures of a life lived in pursuit of the natural world and invites you to discover them yourself.

Equal parts memoir, travelogue, and primer on the art of birding, this is Cooper’s story of learning to claim and defend space for himself and others like him, from his days at Marvel Comics introducing the first gay storylines to vivid and life-changing birding expeditions through Africa, Australia, the Americas, and the Himalayas. Better Living Through Birding recounts Cooper’s journey through the wonderful world of birds and what they can teach us about life, if only we would look and listen.

Find us on the Bookclubs app at https://bookclubs.com/plattsburgh-nature-book-clu...

Book for Next Meeting:

A Walk In the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko

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Find Us On These Apps:

Bookclubs | Goodreads | StoryGraph ( By Invite)

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Meetings are held at 10:00am the last Wednesday of the month every other month at Cornell Cooperative Extension Clinton County, but are hybrid and can be attended via zoom. They land in January, March, May, July, September, and November. Voting for the next book is chosen at this meeting. In partnership with Point au Roche State Park, contact Kristin Collins at kristin.collins@parks.ny.gov or at (518) 563-0369 for questions pertaining to the park. 

Fee

$0.00

Register

Reach out to vrl29@cornell.edu for the link!

Location

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Clinton County
6064 State Route 22
Plattsburgh , NY 12901

Last updated April 9, 2026