This week's Friday Five, inspired by the 50th anniversary celebration of Earth Day was near impossible to narrow down. So while this list is nowhere near complete, you can read on confident there's not a bad pick in the bunch.

David Sibley was scheduled to join us at Stamford Museum and Nature Center this week and while we're disappointed to not be with him in person to celebrate the release of his newest book, What It's Like to be a Bird, we're taking solace in this truly magnificent volume filled with gorgeous illustrations and graphics. Sibley's book provides a deeper understanding of what backyard birds are doing and why. This is the perfect addition to the home not only for bird lovers but also would make a lovely reference book for any homeschool library. The nesting cycle of a robin would be a wonderful lesson to begin with.

A novel of note, this one from pen of Barbara Kingsolver (sidenote: another perfect read for this time if you are one wading into the world of grow-your-own-food: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle), Flight Behavior. Kingsolver is a master storyteller and it shows in this 2012 novel that centers on a young woman in Appalachia who is witness to the arrival of 15 million monarch butterflies that have veered off course due to climate change.

Booklist notes that fans of Rick Moody, Jennifer Egan, and Lauren Groff will be more than happy to settle in with CJ Hauser's 2019 novel, Family of Origin, a revered work of climate fiction. Kevin Wilson and Karen Russell fans will feel at home as well. The story begins with the death of a biologist and focuses on his two children who return home to their tiny island childhood home and engage with their father's colleagues who are on the hunt for a rare sea duck they believe prove that evolution is in reverse and humanity is on its way out. Family secrets, evolutionary questions, and what we are willing to forgive are all tackled within.

My Wild Garden by the bestselling Israeli novelist Meir Shalev is, simply put, beautiful. To hold this volume in your hands is a gift. Illustrations of a year in the garden are accompanied by reflections of gratitude for our time on Earth and all it has to offer when we live in harmony with the beings who share this precious resource with us. Curiosity, humor, and literary wisdom abound; a perfect gift for a friend, mother, father, or ecologically-minded graduate.

And finally, for those interested in a way forward, The Future We Choose. Yuval Harai, author of Sapiens and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century says: "This is one of the most inspiring books I have ever read. The book takes a hard look at the frightening realities of climate change, but concludes that humanity can still deal with this threat.

Moreover, the book presents the existential challenge of climate change as a unique opportunity to build a more just world and to make ourselves better people. Most importantly, the book adopts a very practical approach, and suggests 10 concrete actions that each of us can take in order to create a better future for all the residents of planet earth."

Interested in what ended up on the cutting room floor? No less worthy, here are some additional picks for those eager for more: Earth In Her Hands (profiles of 75 women rocking the garden world); Salvage the Bones (Jesmyn Ward's National Book Award winning novel about the impact Hurricane Katrina has on a poverty-stricken family in rural Mississippi), The Overstory (didn't think you had the time to dive into this Pulitzer Prize-winning tome about? Now you do!); Crazy For Birds (swoon-worthy illustrations) and Underland (Robert Mcfarlane at his best - a meticulously researched, labor of love, nonfiction work about the relationship between humans and landscape). FINALLY (I promise): Late Migra tions : A Natural History of Love and Loss. It deserves a sentence of its own because it's that good, perhaps my favorite read of 2019. Don't know Margaret Renkel? She's the writer we need, right now.