Bill Lueders.

• Author: Lueders, Bill
• Position: BOOKS

The two most important books I read in 2019 were written by vital voices in the fight against climate change. Bill Mc-Kibben's Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? (Henry Holt) is a clarion call for humankind to seize its last chance to prevent wholesale catastrophe--from both an angry planet and genetically engineered babies, an emerging threat he weaves into his narrative.

Naomi Klein's On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal (Simon & Schuster), meanwhile, is a collection of essays from the last several years with a powerful opening essay that focuses largely on Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, whose fierce advocacy gives "validation to the raw terror so many of us have been suppressing and compartmentalizing about what it means to be alive amid the sixth great extinction."

McKibben and Klein each envision a future that, while inevitably ravaged by climate change, is oriented toward sound science, sane policy, and a more equitable economy.

What makes us biased against people of other races? Jennifer L. Eberhardt, a psychology professor at Stanford University, has researched that question in courtrooms, boardrooms, and on the streets, while devising solutions. But what makes Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do (Viking) a great book are her personal stories, like being at Target with her five-month-old son and having a little white girl loudly exclaim to her mom, "Guess...