In four interrelated parts, The Tangled Lands is an evocative and epic story of resistance and heroic sacrifice in the twisted remains surrounding the last great city of Khaim. Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell have created a fantasy for our times about a decadent and rotting empire facing environmental collapse […]
Read MoreBooks
Clovis, Jack Clinton
Clinton’s novel is an artful literary response to the unutterable and largely ignored decline of our collective natural wealth. Clinton mixes a sardonic misanthropy of our own current environmental course with jubilation, and the joy of love, the celebration of the human condition, and the intense passion of being immersed […]
Read MoreThe Devil’s Highway, Gregory Norminton
An ancient route links Britain’s deep past and far future in an ecologically aware tale spanning thousands of years –The Guardian Spanning centuries, and combining elements of historical and speculative fiction with the narrative drive of pure thriller, this is a breathtakingly original novel that challenges our dearly held assumptions […]
Read MoreSwansong, Kerry Andrew
Swansong, her [Kerry’s] debut novel, is set in the Scottish Highlands, where a London student flees after a disastrous night out…I had to spook myself out sometimes – I would sit in the dark and try to put myself into Polly’s position. And then I read things like Evie Wyld’s […]
Read MoreHummingbird Salamander, Jeff VanderMeer
From the author of Annihilation, a brilliant speculative thriller of dark conspiracy, endangered species, and the possible end of all things. Security consultant “Jane Smith” receives an envelope with a key to a storage unit that holds a taxidermied hummingbird and clues leading her to a taxidermied salamander. Silvina, the […]
Read MoreThe Overstory, Richard Powers
A hearing-and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another. These and five other strangers, each summoned in different ways by trees, are brought together in a last and violent stand to save the continent’s few remaining acres of virgin forest. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, […]
Read MoreThe Great Alone, Kristin Hannah
Like a curved, upturned palm, Alaska beckons with her beauty, her majesty, and her prolific grandeur…The awe-inspiring allure gestures first until the ruggedness of her backbone sets in. -Goodreads Goodreads Review Back to GoodReads
Read MoreCirce, Madeline Miller
Threatened, Zeus banishes her [Circe] to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus. Goodreads […]
Read MoreThe Merry Spinster, Mallory Ortberg
Unfalteringly faithful to its beloved source material, The Merry Spinster also illuminates the unsuspected, and frequently, alarming emotional complexities at play in the stories we tell ourselves, and each other, as we tuck ourselves in for the night. Goodreads Review Back to GoodReads
Read MoreHappiness, Aminatta Forna
In this delicate yet powerful novel of loves lost and new, of past griefs and of the hidden side of a multicultural metropolis, Aminatta Forna asks us to consider the values of the society we live in, our co-existence with one another and all living creatures – and the true […]
Read MoreThe Tiger and the Acrobat, Susanna Tamaro
This captivating story of a brave young tiger who refuses to give up on her dreams is a celebration of the power of nature and the beauty of innocence, and is a testament to the courage it takes to be true to ourselves. –Amazon.ca Goodreads Review Back to GoodReads
Read MoreTarry this Night, Kristyn Dunnion
This vividly imagined dystopian novel, set in the near future, unfolds over the course of a few days. –The Star In this unsettling modern Lilith tale, spirited women resist their violent, racist culture and, in so doing, become outlaws. Goodreads Review Back to GoodReads
Read MoreMuir Woods or Bust, Ian Woollen
Muir Woods deftly threads modern environmental anxieties and gaming sensibilities into a story inspired by nature advocate John Muir, and binds them together with humor, playfulness, and a great, great deal of heart. –BooksPersonally.com As the 21st century lurches forward, weather weirdness abounds, begetting the rise of a new psychiatric […]
Read MoreHeart Spring Mountain, Robin MacArthur
This week the author is reaping praise upon the release of “Heart Spring Mountain,” which tackles global warming — as well as heroin addiction and women’s struggles — at the most local level. “The resulting narrative is nuanced, poetic, and evocative,” Publishers Weekly said in a starred review. “MacArthur empathetically […]
Read MoreThe Genius Plague, David Walton
Sure, some say fungi will save the world, but how about a story where they hijack our brains instead? In this highly original eco-thriller, an escaped Amazonian fungus starts doing exactly that. –Earther.com What if the pandemic you thought would kill you made you more intelligent instead? In the Amazon […]
Read More