Cultural/Regional

The Risen, Ron Rash

During our conversation on the eve of Rash’s trip to France for an Eco-Literature convention, where the theme was “Enchantment,” he tells me that “One thing that’s important for me in my work is to remind people that there is a natural world. It’s very easy to think we are […]

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Jesus and Magdalene, João Cerqueira

Thanks to João Cerqueira for information about his novel Jesus and Magdalene, published by Line by Lion Publications in July 2016. It is available for order at Amazon. The novel won the silver medal at the 2015 Latino Book Awards with the original title A segunda vinda de Cristo à […]

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I Will Send Rain, Rae Meadows

A book about Oklahoma in the 1930s demands a spare, harsh style to match the landscape. “I Will Send Rain” obliges with a grim portrait of a family weathering the Dust Bowl as naggingly evocative as grit in your mouth. The New York Times, “The Shortlist / Eco-Fiction” Annie Bell […]

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Surfacing, Margaret Atwood

Though this is an older book, we have plenty of early literature to add to dragonfly.eco, and I was reminded of this novel when reading an article in the India Tribune. Surfacing is a work permeated with an aura of suspense, complex with layered meanings, and written in brilliant, diamond-sharp […]

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A Pale View of Hills, Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel is one of my favorites: the tale of Etsuko, a Japanese woman living in the English countryside, unraveling the suicide of her eldest daughter. Woven throughout is another tale, set in a suburb of Nagasaki several years after the end of World War II: Etsuko, then […]

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Dance of the Coyote, Bill Hotchkiss

Discover Dance of the Coyote Back to the new Discover feature I became enamored of Bill Hotchkiss accidentally. I was looking for a good book once, roaming the eerily silent aisles of the Undergrad Library at Purdue University (the library was in a basement, and hardly anyone ever was there!)–when […]

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The World Without Us, Mireille Juchau

The World Without Us is a beautifully told story of secrets and survival, family and community, loss and renewal. -Goodreads Part of Juchau’s success emerges from the delicacy of her evocations of the natural world. Another part arises from her wry observations of the way people behave and interact. But […]

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The 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 […]

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Mengele Zoo, Gert Nygårdshaug

Fattiggutten Mino er født i regnskogen. Han er sommerfuglfanger og elsker jungelens mangfold av liv. Samtidig som Mino samler sommerfugler, ser han at jungelen ødelegges av multinasjonale selskaper. En dag rammer katastrofen også hans landsby, og Mino er plutselig i sentrum av de store regnskogenes tragedie. Etter dette forvandles Mino […]

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Natural Histories: Stories, Guadalupe Nettel

Translated by J.T. Lichtenstein. Siamese fighting fish, cockroaches, cats, a snake, and a strange fungus all serve here as mirrors that reflect the unconfessable aspects of human nature buried within us. The traits and fates of these animals illuminate such deeply natural, human experiences as the cruelty born of cohabitation, […]

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City of the Beasts, Isabel Allende

Fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold is about to join his fearless grandmother on the trip of a lifetime. An International Geographic expedition is headed to the dangerous, remote wilds of South America, on a mission to document the legendary Yeti of the Amazon known as the Beast. But there are many secrets […]

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The River Between, Ngugi wa thiong’o

Christian missionaries attempt to outlaw the female circumcision ritual and in the process create a terrible rift between the two Kikuyu communities on either side of the river. Goodreads Reviews Back to Goodreads

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The Shark Rider, Ellen Prager

After thwarting the dastardly plans of JP Rickerton, Tristan Hunt is having trouble keeping his newfound talents a secret. And if undercover spies and a mysterious illness threatening to expose the secrets of camp weren’t enough, reports of dying fish and disappearing sponge in the Caribbean call Tristan and his […]

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Stormteller, David Thorpe

This bewitching drama for young adults set in the very near future entwines Celtic myth and climate-changed destinies to answer the fundamental question: can we escape our apparent fate? If our lives are governed by forces outside our control, where can we find hope? Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads

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