St. Olaf Virtual Book Club

Join the St. Olaf Virtual Book Club for a Discussion of An Immense World by Ed Yong!

Founded and led by alumni in the DC/Baltimore area, this book club is open to all St. Olaf graduates and friends of the college. Whether you’re a lifelong reader or just love discussing great books, we’d love to have you join us!

An Immense World

In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth’s magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and even humans who wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile’s scaly face is as sensitive as a lover’s fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries that remain unsolved.

Funny, rigorous, and suffused with the joy of discovery, An Immense World takes us on what Marcel Proust called “the only true voyage . . . not to visit strange lands, but to possess other eyes.”

WINNER OF THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON AWARD

Zoom meeting details will be provided via email after registration.

Questions: Michele Foss ’97

Please note that the Alumni-Led St. Olaf Virtual Book Club is a volunteer initiative founded by DC/Baltimore area alumni. The gatherings are designed to be casual and social, with conversations flowing organically from the attendees. This book club operates independently, and its book selections are not chosen by St. Olaf College.