Photo by Rachael Warriner
For Book Groups
Common Ground uses stories to help readers understand how the climate crisis has the potential to bring human beings into a greater sense of connection to each other and the Earth that sustains us. It will appeal to nonfiction readers who like big ideas brought to life by interesting people, from the author to the activists she meets across the United States and India.
If you’d like Eileen to visit your book group via Zoom, please reach out through her Contact page.
Discussion Questions
- Based on the title, what did you expect Common Ground to be about? Were you surprised by anything about the book’s themes?
- How does the author’s perspective change through the travels she describes?
- What voices did you hear in Common Ground that you haven’t heard before? Did any influence your own thinking?
- The people the author interviewed vary in the ways they talk about the role of race in environmental and climate issues. What approaches resonate most with you, and why?
- Does the book’s spiritual language resonate with you? If not, is there another way to talk about our interconnection that does?
- What signs of ecological or climate crisis are you experiencing in your own region? How are people in your region responding?
- Which aspect of the Great Turning do you feel most drawn to? Stopping the harm, building less-destructive systems, or facilitating a shift in consciousness?
- What have you been taught about your own potential to make change? Did this book affect your beliefs about that?
- How do the lessons in Common Ground relate to other social issues that you care about?
- What is something you learned from Common Ground that you want others to know?