Ash and Pia’s move from Brooklyn to the bucolic hills of Vermont was supposed to be a fresh start—a picturesque farmhouse, mindful lifestyle, maybe even children. But just three months in, news breaks of a devastating superstorm expected in the coming months. Fear of the impending disaster divides their tight-knit […]
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Heat and Light, Jennifer Haigh
To drill or not to drill? Prison guard Rich Devlin leases his mineral rights to finance his dream of farming. He doesn’t count on the truck traffic and nonstop noise, his brother’s skepticism or the paranoia of his wife, Shelby, who insists the water smells strange and is poisoning their […]
Read MoreA Cast of Falcons, Steve Burrows
In the case of bird-loving Dominic Jejeune – formerly of Canada, now of Norfolk, Britain – it’s to more birding. There’s murder in this book, but it’s really about the illicit trade in birds of prey. Burrows introduces Jejeune’s brother, who is on the run from a felony charge; Jejeune’s […]
Read MoreZero K, Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo’s seductive, spectacularly observed and brilliant new novel weighs the darkness of the world—terrorism, floods, fires, famine, plague—against the beauty and humanity of everyday life; love, awe, “the intimate touch of earth and sun.” -Goodreads. See reviews at the Telegraph, The Guardian, and The Scotsman. His latest novel, Zero […]
Read MoreThe Marshlanders Series, Annis Pratt
The Marshlanders is about the conflict between self-sustaining communities and their enemies, who are determined to drain their wetlands for agricultural development. Clare and William are adopted by marsh dwellers and coastal farmers after William’s father, a pharmacist, has been murdered and Clare has barely escaped with her life from […]
Read MoreThe Turtle of Oman, Naomi Shihab Nye
Aref Al-Amri does not want to leave Oman. He does not want to leave his elementary school, his friends, or his beloved grandfather, Siddi. He does not want to live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his parents will go to graduate school. His mother is desperate for him to pack […]
Read MoreGarapaima: A Monster Fish Novel, Mark Spitzer
A twenty-foot-long, mutated monster-fish is loose in Phantom Loon Lake, Ontario, thanks to a top secret government conspiracy to design a Freak Species of Mass Destruction! Crabby old angler Jack Nadler is thrown together with a whacko cast of cartoony characters, including the most grizzly professor to ever wrestle alligators, […]
Read MoreThe Fracking War, Michael J. Fitzgerald
It was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, not economic data, that turned the page on slavery. It was The Grapes of Wrath, not demographic reports, that opened a nation’s eyes to Dust Bowl dislocation. Out of that tradition comes Michael J. Fitzgerald’s The Fracking War. Here, within a smoldering crucible of social […]
Read MoreJEACs Series, Amelia Lionheart
I had a lovely chat this evening with Amelia Lionheart, author of the children’s JEACS series. We will be interviewing her in June for our Women Working in Nature and the Arts series. She has written a series of books involving the Patel characters, who travel to different places in […]
Read MoreThe Summer’s End, Mary Alice Monroe
In the powerful and heartwarming conclusion to her bestselling Lowcountry Summer trilogy, New York Times author Mary Alice Monroe brings her readers back to the charm and sultry beauty of Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, to reveal how the pull of family bonds and true love is as strong and steady […]
Read MoreThe Wolf Border, Sarah Hall
Exploring the fundamental nature of wilderness and wildness, The Wolf Border illuminates both our animal nature and humanity: sex, love, conflict, and the desire to find answers to the question of our existence–the emotions, desires, and needs that rule our lives. Read a review at the New Statesman. Goodreads Reviews […]
Read MorePescador’s Wake, Katherine Johnson
In this gripping debut novel‚ Katherine Johnson evokes the danger and heartbreak of lives at the mercy of the sea‚ and weaves a breathtaking story of love‚ loss and hope. Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads
Read MoreDeep River Burning, Donelle Dreese
Denver Oakley’s home town of Adena, Pennsylvania has become a world on fire. The abandoned coal mines underneath the town are a blazing inferno, the escaping smoke and gases killing vegetation and making residents sick. Denver, who recently lost her parents, feels adrift and alone. She sells the family home, […]
Read MoreHoot, Carl Hiaasen
The story takes place in Coconut Cove, Florida, where new arrival Roy makes a bad enemy, two oddball friends, and joins an effort to stop construction of a pancake house which would destroy a colony of burrowing owls who live on the site. The book won a Newberry Honor award […]
Read MoreThe Waterkeeper’s Daughter, Joan Mauch
Twenty-one year old Annie Whitaker is over the moon: She and Nate, her college sweetheart, have just gotten engaged and she’s driving home to give her parents the news. Not only that, but she’s spending the summer as an intern with her dad, Lake Okeechobee’s waterkeeper. Life just doesn’t get […]
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