Turning to Stone

Winner of the 2025 John Burroughs Medal for Natural History Writing

“Marcia Bjornerud masterfully weaves together the story of her own life and that of the Earth’s long, often tumultuous history. Turning to Stone is a beautiful book–at once intimate and sweeping, informative and moving.” –Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White Sky

“A paean to the beauty and complexity of the rocks beneath our feet…In the manner of works of scientific memoir by E.O. Wilson and Oliver Sacks, Turning to Stone is an affecting account of early youth as a crucible of discovery.” –Wall Street Journal

“Turning to Stone will find audiences well beyond geology.” –Science

“Marcia Bjornerud’s wise and sweeping book shows us how learning to situate our human selves within the expanded time scales of deep geology is paramount to forging a more ethical, sustainable way of living in partnership with the earth.” –Orion

“Bjornerud makes the case for challenging the barrier between the organic and inorganic, for seeing the slow but ever-shifting rocks of Earth’s crust as part of the planet’s ecology, just as much as plants and beasts.” –The Spectator

“Bjornerud’s interwoven and wholehearted passions for rocks, her work, her science, her family, and her home are all as enduring as stone.” –American Scientist

“Having extracted profound insight from the substance she has dedicated her life to, Bjornerud demonstrates how the scientific can ascend to the philosophical. Hers is a remarkably human take on the geological world.” –New Statesman

“Bjornerud celebrates stone as a way of anchoring ourselves in our planetary inheritance, inseparable from our cosmic origins yet intimate and alive.” –The Marginalian

“Bjornerud’s eloquent storytelling, complete with tantalizing geologic controversies, entices readers to turn the page – and learn complex science concepts along the way.” –Science News

“Readers might find that they came to this book for the geology but stay for the autobiography.” –Winnipeg Free Press

“This lyrical, wise book will change your relationship to the living Earth. Marcia Bjornerud offers a nuanced celebration of the languages of stone, from the subtle whispers of sand grains to the delightfully complex inner lives of mountains disclosed by eroding outcrops. Her careful attention not only reveals unexpected stories of stone, but teaches us what it means to be boundlessly curious and caring about our world and one another.” –David George Haskell, author of Sounds Wild and Broken

“Marcia Bjornerud has done it again! With flowing grace, technical mastery, and poetic insight, she takes us on a geological odyssey across the vastness of deep time and to the literal ends of the Earth. Turning to Stone interweaves the profound testimony of ancient rocks–granite, basalt, sandstone, and flint–with her inspiring personal journey from curious youth to avid student, from struggling junior faculty member to master field geologist and revered educator. In the process, we share in the eventful, poignant life journey of a gifted scientist who has gained the expertise and nurtured the passion to share astonishing stories of Earth in a unique and timeless book.” –Robert Hazen, author of The Story of Earth

“Turning to Stone is a love letter to the foundations of our planet. It invites us to understand Earth’s creativity, its rituals and idiosyncrasies.” –Sierra Magazine

Marcia Bjornerud is a professor of Environmental Studies and Geosciences at Lawrence University, and is the author of Reading the Rocks, Timefulness, and Geopedia.