Articles by Mary Woodbury

On Ocean Boulevard, Mary Alice Monroe

Like the sea turtles that come ashore annually on these windswept islands, three generations of the Rutledge family experience a season of return, rebirth, and growth. Part of the Beach House series. Goodreads Reviews Back to Goodreads

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Dry, Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

When the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, one teen is forced to make life and death decisions for her family in this harrowing story of survival. The drought—or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it—has been going on for a while now. Everyone’s lives have become an endless list of […]

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The Golden Rule, Amanda Craig

Earnest economic expositions and detours on “the national quarrel” over leaving the EU, along with marriage’s financial disadvantages for women and the damage done to the Cornish landscape by climate change, sit side-by-side with what Hannah refers to self-consciously as “the murder plot”. –The Guardian Goodreads Reviews Back to Goodreads

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Tales of Two Planets, John Freeman

Though not a book of just fiction, editor John Freeman compiled poetry, short fiction, and essays from some of the world’s best creative voices on the subject of climate change and inequality. Galvanized by his conversations with writers and activists around the world, Freeman engaged with some of today’s most […]

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The End of the World is Bigger than Love, Davina Bell

A sumptuously written novel of love and grief; of sisterly affection and the ultimate sacrifice; of technological progress and climate catastrophe; of an enigmatic bear and a talking whale—The End of the World Is Bigger than Love is unlike anything you’ve read before. Goodreads Reviews Back to Goodreads

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Indie Corner – Esther T. Jones

Back to the Indie Corner series Our first Indie Corner welcomes Esther T. Jones, who has been writing stories in her head since she was five. She loves wandering the wilds of rural America–where she’s dreamed up many a story. When not writing, Jones can be found gardening, playing flute […]

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Indie Corner – Announcement

Inspired by Ursula K Le Guin’s speech at the 2014 National Book Awards, I’m happy to announce that Dragonfly.eco will be hosting a new Indie Corner, which will freely promote well-written and engaging ecologically oriented novels and short stories that have been self-published or published through small independent presses. Ursula’s […]

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The Deep Blue Between, Ayesha Harruna Attah

Twin sisters Hassana and Husseina’s home is in ruins after a brutal raid. But this is not the end but the beginning of their story, one that will take them to unfamiliar cities and cultures, where they will forge new families, ward off dangers and truly begin to know themselves. […]

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Blaze Island, Catherine Bush

Climate change is both an external and internal phenomenon in Catherine Bush’s brilliant new novel, Blaze Island. Set on an island off the coast of Newfoundland, its cast of characters includes a renegade climate scientist and his young daughter Miranda. They are self-made castaways who can’t get far enough away […]

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The Heartless Series, Sarah Lahey

What will the world look like in thirty years’ time? How will humanity survive the oncoming effects of climate change? Set in the near future and inspired by the world around us, Gravity Is Heartless is a romantic adventure that imagines a world on the cusp of climate catastrophe. #1: […]

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Seasonal Series, Ali Smith

Echoing Keats’s famous ode, the book is punctuated by placid country scenes of grain being harvested, birds flying south, days growing shorter and nights longer and colder. So familiar is this picture of autumnal transformation that readers are easily lulled into a false sense of comfort. But it slowly becomes […]

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Limbo: A Novel about Jamaica, Esther Figueroa

Flora Smith, Jamaican scientist and head of tiny NGO Environment Now, dedicates her life to getting Jamaicans to care about the natural environment. At the opening of Limbo, Flora is confronted by the nagging reality of not having enough money to keep her organization afloat. When sand is stolen from […]

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Backyard Wildlife – Planting Trees

Back to Series A lot of stuff has happened since last month. Between May and June, the black flies have come out in big numbers. Crickets began to sing at night–a sound that I love and which I grew up with but never heard during my years on the west […]

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Waste Tide, Chen Qiufan

Click here to return to the series In June, we travel to a fictional place in China called Silicon Isle, based on the real town of Guiyu, in the Chaoyang district of Guangdong province. Author Chen Qiufan takes us there with his novel Waste Tide. I am grateful to Chen […]

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Six Spellmakers of Dorabji Street, Shabnam Minwalla

With Nivi Mallik’s arrival at Cosy Castle, the rules start to change. The bimbli trees become the hang-out spot for two giggly girls and the driveway is a permanent cricket pitch for the boys. But the happy times are soon ended by the ‘dragon’ and the ‘crone’, who gang up […]

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