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 […]
Read MoreCultural/Regional
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 […]
Read MoreA 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 […]
Read MoreDance 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 […]
Read MoreThe 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 […]
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 MoreMengele 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 […]
Read MoreNatural 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, […]
Read MoreCity 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 […]
Read MoreThe 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
Read MoreLa Loca de Gandoca, Anacristina Rossi
Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads
Read MoreThe 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 […]
Read MoreStormteller, 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
Read MoreAgam, Various Authors
Thanks very much to Red Constantino, from the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities–publisher of the new book Agam: Filipino Narratives on Uncertainty and Climate Change–for permissions to excerpt the cover and other information about the book, and for providing assistance in finding out more about this amazing title. Blockquotes […]
Read MorePolly and the One and Only World, Don Bredes
Thanks to author Don Bredes for joining our community discussion group and letting us know about his upcoming YA climate novel. Don Bredes’s new young adult (YA) fantasy is called “Polly and the One and Only World.” Don’s first novel, “Hard Feelings,” was an American Library Association Best Book for […]
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